Mel Bay’s Fiddle Sessions has published the third and final installment of my article “Chords: What To Play When You Don’t Know What To Play.” In this series I lay out how to figure out which chords to play, how to play them, and what to do for different types of music. What Do I [...]
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I got this message in my email today. Who wants to get paid to do children’s theater in Bellingham? —– Auditions for “Goodnight Moon” a musical by Chad Henry (“Angry Housewives”, “The Hoboken Chicken Emergency”, “Pinocchio”) will be: Sat., Feb. 11th 10:30-12:00 with callbacks 12:00-1:00 Bellingham Theatre Guild Runs May 5th-May 13th at the Firehouse [...]
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Do you pay attention to the direction your bow is traveling? Fiddle music relies very much on specific bowing patterns, meaning sequences of up bows and down bows, to get those danceable rhythms. A down bow tends to create a natural accent (meaning you stress the beat, rather like accenting a syllable when you speak). [...]
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Some weeks this is just how it is. One of my teenage students walked in the door today, obviously frazzled. I asked how she was doing. “Tired!” she said, with uncharacteristic force. “Are you tired from good things or bad things?” I asked. “Good things. But they’re wearing me out.” She went onto explain: she’s [...]
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The new issue of Mel Bay’s Fiddle Sessions is here, including part two of my article about how to play accompanying chords with other musicians. There are also transcriptions of two different jazz violinists’ takes on “Go Tell Aunt Rhody”, and an interview with a hard-of-hearing fiddle player. “Chords: What To Play When You Don’t [...]
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Eileen Troberman, an Alexander Technique instructor, discusses and demonstrates sitting posture, for maximum efficiency and minimum discomfort. Share this with your non-fiddling friends, too!
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