FiddlerBard Fiddle Lessons

EDIT! Ticket sales end 11:59 PM FRIDAY. You know that busy thing? it's biting me hard....sorry about the typo!

Hi everyone! As you might have heard Open Beta is presenting a live concert this coming Saturday, and we're recording our live album during the concert!

What this means is posts here are going to be a little space until prooooobably the Monday following. If you want to support the concert, I'll have links to the tickets below, NOTE! We are NOT selling tickets the day of or at the door. These are pre-order ONLY so you'll want to purchase before 11:59 PM this Friday.

I'll be back to at least every other day here after that, but fiddlers need a little rest after a big concert! The photo (provided to please the algorithm) below is by the always-awesome Melissa and is from one of our recent rehearsals!

Hello to all those following this page! First, thank you VERY much for following my business page!! I really appreciate the support and all. To those that might join in the next few days as I finally sent out invites to people I know: I appreciate y'all taking a moment to check out my business and give it a follow.

If anyone IS interested in lessons, please shoot me a DM. Once again, I am happy to do Zoom lessons for those not local. If you, or the student in mind are neurodiverse we can sit down together and make an accommodation plan to suit you, your schedule, and your brain ^_^.

Cheers all and have a great weekend!

Once again, pic from Open Beta to please the Algorithm Gods!

So! Rosin! What is it? Why do we need it, and what makes each brand and type of rosin different? Rosin, rather literally, is tree sap. It's sap from conifers, collected, purified, and hardened into cakes.

If it was that simple, there'd be only one or two types of rosin, which would be a short post. Each rosin maker uses a different kind of fire, a different temperature and humidity, and different additives to the rosin to control dust and to change the stickiness, smoothness, and tone that the rosin produces when applied to the bow.

But which one to pick? THAT is something that is up to each fiddler. I like stickier rosin for fiddle tunes and smoother rosin with finer dust for ballads. I chose something a little more in the middle between smooth and sticky for rock and more bluesy songs.

Rosin is something that will definitely get discussed and as you develop your own style, your personal preference will come out.

More questions? Please drop them here! I'll answer as best I can ^_^

So, I was going pretty good on a post a day right at the beginning, then Open Beta had a gig, I had literal Cthulhu dreams immediately following and I came into a week where the Day Job is robbing my spoon drawer. So we were going to talk about Rosin next, but I'm going to hit something that's a bit more important. That's self-care.

I'm not talking about taking a bath and brushing your teeth, or eating regularly. I mean, that's important, and you absolutely should be doing all that, taking your meds, drinking water. Now though, there is something beyond that that you need to do.

You need to listen to your body and rest. That one's been hard for me to remember, to realize what I need to do. I forget that with everything that life brings. And that's what I'm going to talk about today, is remembering to rest.

So a lot of teachers, from your elementary school orchestra director right up to the section lead in the community orchestra, will tell you that daily practice is necessary to improve. "If you're not practicing daily, you don't want to improve" is one of the things my own private teacher told me.

That? Is wrong. Do I want you to practice? Abso-bloody-lutely. Do I want you to practice daily? Pffft, no. I can't ask that of someone when I don't do that myself. I mean, if you CAN and you WANT TO, do it! But listen to your body, don't practice on days you hurt, or days when hauling yourself out of bed is exhausting.

Another thing. If you're starting out, it's glamorized to practice to failure. When you blister and bleed and your fingers cramp and your muscles scream. THAT is a way to actually damage yourself.

Start slow and small, ten minutes at a time, a couple of times a day if you're feeling it until THAT is easy, then add five or ten minutes to your practice time. Let the calluses build up, let your muscles build so you don't throw your back and shoulders out of whack.

Be kind to yourself. Let your strength and endurance build. that give you a solid foundation to build on going forward.

What to do before your first lesson part 2!

We've covered instrument rental, and what comes with it in the first part, now to cover the shoulder rest. Now, there are about as many different shoulder rests as there are shapes of people, and each one fits a different set of necks and shoulders. Some are thin pads of leather or cloth, some are tall, shaped padded wood pieces with pressure clamps, and there is every height in between.

The three rental places that I suggested in the last post will help you fit a shoulder rest to your frame. A good rule of thumb is if you have a longer neck, you'll need a 'taller' shoulder rest; taller being the space between the base of the clamps that hold the shoulder rest to the bottom of the violin.

So, now you've your violin, a bow, a case, a cake of rosin, and shoulder rest. Other things that aren't 100% necessary but are good to have; a cleaning cloth and violin polish (a lot of the time there's a care kit package offered that's pretty affordable) and an extra set of strings.

With all of that, you'll be ready for your first lesson! With me at least, you won't need a book or anything for the first lesson or the first couple of lessons. We'll discuss at that first lesson what your goals are and what kind of time you'll be putting into practice. With that, I can make sure to pick the right set of books to start your musical journey.

I've got a bunch of pictures of different shoulder rests below so you can get an idea of what I described above looks like.

So, you want lessons, but don't know what to do after finding a teacher? I've got you covered ^_~

First, you'll need to get a fiddle if you don't have one! For beginners of all ages that are just starting to explore music in general and violin in particular I heavily recommend renting an instrument from Milanos Music, Allegro Music, or (the best choice in my opinion) Andrew's Fine Violins.

All three of them are excellent shops, Andrews just specializes in string instruments, violins in particular. Now because these are all excellent shops, the rental will come with a violin, a bow, a case, and in most cases a cake of passable rosin.

I'll cover rosin in another post as it's its own thing. You'll also need a shoulder rest, which I'll be talking about tomorrow!

Now, to start with you don't need anything fancy, a 'student' violin is perfect for beginners. More questions? I'm happy to answer them, reach out! (once again, pic fo ye olde algorithm gods)

Hello all! I'm taking the big leap here and starting to offer lessons rather officially! Please DM me here and we'll figure out times and places for lessons while I find a more central 'studio'. I'm happy to give Zoom/Teams lessons as well for those not local ^_^ (Yay technology!) We'll discuss the cost per lesson then.

I'm excited to start sharing music with new people!

Picture to bring new roads and to please the algorism gods ^_^

(All photos unless otherwise specified are by Melissa Wold McCollum, whom I will tag as soon as I get this thing completed and posted!)