Learning the violin -- ah... fiddle

[Mark Wybierala]

This is something kinda cool for a laugh but I'm having fun. I do setups and repairs on an awful lot of elementary school and high school violins. I can't play a decent note. The shop I work in does a few violin lessons and it hurts my ears. Not so much because of the beginner making terrible noises but rather the material that they are asked to play which is anything but inspiring. I'd like to be able to get music out of the violins that pass over my bench but I'm not gonna start by going through the mind numbing exercises. I have no desire to become a violinist.
I found a great website for mandolin lessons - Mandolessons.com. I'm just following along on some of the Scottish and Irish tunes using a violin that I put together from scrap parts. Its a hoot.
Honestly, if violin teachers included a bit of simple fun fiddle music into their lesson plans I think we'd end up with more kids staying with the instrument.

[Brian Evans]

Where I live fiddle music is about all they teach, we live in the heart of fiddle country - Nova Scotia!

[John Clifford]

Where I live fiddle music is about all they teach, we live in the heart of fiddle country - Nova Scotia!

I heard some truly awesome fiddling at the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou last time I was there. Good food too. The original Cajun country.

[Clay Schaeffer]

" but I'm not gonna start by going through the mind numbing exercises. I have no desire to become a violinist."

They may help you become a fiddler. I used to fool around with fiddles and the one thing that sticks in my mind is that they always sounded better to the student playing them than they did to the other people that had to hear it.

[Mark Wybierala]

I will at some point have a bit of review by a violin teacher to point me into better control and technique with the bow. This seems to require a technique of discipline with the right hand sort of having a mind of its own -- but this is really fun for now.

[Brian Evans]

One thing you could do is learn how to play the tunes and read on mandolin. Very similar size and form factor, has frets (big help to start), same tuning, and only one hand to fuss over presuming your picking hand is ok on it's own. Then you can try to transfer the tunes and fingerings to the fiddle.

Yep, Mabou is just up the road from me, and home of the Rankin family.

[Peter Wilcox]

I will at some point have a bit of review by a violin teacher to point me into better control and technique with the bow. This seems to require a technique of discipline with the right hand sort of having a mind of its own -- but this is really fun for now.

My niece is a concert violinist. When I told her I didn't understand why the instrument is fingered with the non-dominant hand, and bowed with the dominant, she said that bowing technique is much more important than fingering. That probably also explains why her bow cost $8000.

[Clay Schaeffer]

"One thing you could do is learn how to play the tunes and read on mandolin. "

One down side to that is learning sloppy fingering because the mandolin is fretted and doesn't require you to hit an exact spot.