Hello Leendah. I've been wrestling with your question on and off for an hour or two.
Mr. Will CPT said something on here once that has always stuck with me, because I agree with it so much.
The fiddlers he liked the most, he said, were the ones that appeared effortless when they played.
I always aspire to that, to play effortlessly, which I think is close to your term 'finesse'. Of course, I could be wrong. Feel free to correct me.
Certainly the biggest notion for me to keep in my head towards this goal is to relax while I am playing. I have to remind myself all the time to relax. It's certainly a bit intangible and metaphysical, but there it is.
Your music and your playing will not be relaxed and effortless unless you are.
Thanks for posting that link again, SWFL. I love to watch and listen to Paddy Canny.
I don't know if its the most important lesson, but one thing I learned was to economize movement. For example, keep your fingers bent and close to the finger board, ready to use when you need them. You can see Paddy Canny do this in the video. I think this is an aspect of playing effortlessly because you don't spend a lot of energy on getting the fingers in the right place. Some fiddle players' fingers are perpendicular to the finger board when they're not using them to make a note. I think this affects speed and for some, their intonation too.
Even a single lesson with a "big name" fiddler can work wonders. A player like that, after watching you play for just a minute or two, can make suggestions that will improve your playing immediately--and keep you busy for years, making further improvements.
When I finally broke down and took just a few lessons like that (after many years of saying "No lessons, I want to develop my own style") several people commented right away that my playing had improved a great deal.
I'm not so sure it matters what fingers are doing when they are not being used, so long as they are comfortable. For example, a lot of people play their rolls with little taps and lifts of the fingers. It works fine, You have a small movement with a change of direction. Others (myself included) do it with a kind of flick, across the string, a kind of sweeping movement. Sounds the same, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that your fingers are where they should be when the should be.
It's a trifling irrelevance.
What does matter is learing how to listen to yourself. I vote with sunny bear. Stop watching your fingers and start listening.
I'm on the long road, but here's a great tip that helps: Play in the mirror & make sure everything is lined up right (your bow, etc) Relaxing is big - also think of phrasing & use rests to break it up. Another tip: Practice everything slow, but with swing & try to take out the ornaments. If theres a G roll in a jig, just play GFG but make sure you play the first G longer & with a bit more emphasis than the other two notes. Later you can add the grace note & you'll have a more natural roll. Also in horpipes play the runs as scales down instead of (3efe (3dcB (3ABA (3GFE D2 play f edcB AGFE D2 But give the e c A G & D the gusto.
If the listeners cannot tap their feet to your playing, then it ain't happening.
It's only happening in patches, but that's a huge improvement over last year.
9. Play the tune slightly slower than you think it should go. And keep that tempo. It's amazing how much power a slow tempo has.
and
14. You are not ready to move on until you can play a passage at your chosen tempo seven times in a row with zero defects. Seven times. If you screw up on the seventh time, you have to go back to iteration 1.
I wouldn't say I'm at the "finesse" level yet, but I've realized recently that there are no shortcuts. Play every day - and learn to love discouragement (I've discovered it's usually a precursor to major progress). Have fun!
(except, the only thing you might have to consciously practice is listening to yourself. Right from the start, you have to be hearing yourself accurately, no matter how good or bad you are. If you listen to a recording of yourself and something in it surprises you, then you weren't listening well enough when you did the recording. Very early on, as a matter of urgency, you have to get to a stage where listening to recordings of yourself are of no benefit.)
As Sunnybear says, learn to listen to yourself. Important for any instrument but especially for the fiddle or you'll never get in tune. Also listen to the tone you're producing, think about what makes it better or worse.
ok...once you learn "how" to listen to yourself then you need to decide what it is you want to fix
string crossings...Kreutzer #2 and go through all the variations with a metronome
up bow staccato (does wonders for tone) Kreutzer #2
bouncing bow (does wonders for relaxing your pinky) Kreutzer #2
steady even tone...5 minutes of open strings with mm 54, 4 clicks to a bow, 2 clicks to a bow, 8 clicks to a bow, etc
don't obsess..5 minutes a day on each of these and work slowly
and listen to yourself again as you proceed
I am one for practice and play so as to break down what it is I wnat to work on...I cannot learn new tunes by playing open strings likewise I cannot always improve my tone by learning new tunes
...please keep in mind that my post was directed to answer the original plea of how to play with "finesse"..I know that there are those who will argue that you don't need finesse to play trad and some that will argue for the point
You’re welcome John, I always go back to that clip, I just love to watch his hands while listening. So fluid, smooth, like he's breathing.
Yes, hear hear, listen to thyself. Learn to listen to yourself and to be your own worst critic.
I don't mean beat yourself up over it in a negative fashion. What I mean is that ideally, you should already know everything someone would tell you if they were critiquing your playing. If you are listening, truly listening, you will be listening to lots of good fiddlers and yourself, and the differences will be clear.
To sort out what specifically must happen for you to get from where you are, to where they are in what you are hearing, may require some assistance.
...when I say 'you should already know' I don't mean you should know everything technically about what's 'missing' between your sound and others' sounds, but you should be able to recognize it from your proper listening to yourself.
There's the old adage - the difference between a good amateur and a professional is that the amateur practices until he gets it right, and the professional practices until he can't get it wrong. That's probably the origin of the 4000-6000 hours real practice you need to make it to the top levels.
it's funny - it has merit too. It conveys the fact that if you approach Irish fiddle in a technical, purely left-brain manner, you will miss the heart of it. And if you don't live where you're surrounded by it, then you probably won't even realize you're missing it. You can play without great tone and still get your nyah on.
I'm not an experienced fiddler, but my teacher made an offhand remark a few months ago that I keep going back to.
After a long break without lessons, he asked me where I wanted to go next with my playing. Caught me entirely off guard, that, and I immediately let loose with a litany of deficiencies: my tone on this passage is wretched, I keep messing up the rhythm on this bit, I keep smudging this one bar...
He cut me short, and told me that I shouldn't be thinking about what I wanted to move away from - I should be thinking about what I wanted to move *toward*. This has saved me from despair on more than one occasion, and not just in fiddling. Not only does it keep me in a better mood and make me more alert to my progress, having a goal of "achieve X" is a lot more useful than one of "avoid Y, but not by doing Z, and come to think of it, Q doesn't work either..."
Back to "finesse"--the devil is in the details. That's what llig means when he says that you have to listen closely to your playing, while you are playing. If you are daydreaming while you play, and not paying attention, you miss little things that could be done better.
That Zen thing, i.e., forgetting who is playing the fiddle while you are playing, comes after thousands of hours of careful attention to what you are doing.
But for me, I suppose "the most important lesson" I learned was to have the guts to trot out my mediocre fiddling for somebody who is a master of it, and take the constructive criticism. Whatever finesse I can muster now is largely thanks to that decision.
Stopping and starting all the time in the middle of tunes to work on one
passage is risky. The risk is that you fail to get the continuity of the tune
drilled into you. This also applies to classical music. You can find out
that you still can't play a tune (or movement of a sonata, etc etc)
despite slaving away over it. Although it's sometimes necessary to drill
a tough passage you have to balance that by playing through the tune
over and over with steady rhythm and fumble your way through the
bits that are too hard in the interest of continuity.
Another thing that happens - you play a tricky bit over and over until
one time you get it right then move on. Wrong! If you do that, you're
actually practicing how to play it wrong. See #14 in the list above.
"I disagree with the advice "don't practice, just play."
I guess that works if you don't care what you play."
You are either missing the point or being deliberately obtuse.
You say, "there are some passages you will have to practice first, before you can play them.
Who decides when you stop practising and start playing? Is there a specific point where you move from not being able to play a passage to being able? Of course there isn't. Should you still improve as you play? Of course you should.
The point is, throughout all of your playing, if you are paying attention and listening well, you will be improving. There is no need to divide your time with your instrument into work and play. It should be all play. Those who practice earnestly end up playing in a dreary earnest style. Those who purport to "care" what they play end up sounding worthy. But if you simply enjoy playing, then the playful nature of this music should find a home within you.
It's a simple choice. If you want to be a clever clogs, then go away and practice. If you have an ambition to play, then proove it, work hard, dedicate. Drill the techniques into your fingers. You know you can reach perfection through repetition.
Or, enjoy playing. Enjoy paying attention to your playing. Enjoy the music and all the technique you need will simply come to you.
What have I learned? How about "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing well, but if it's really worth doing it's worth doing badly" (think about it!).
The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.
a bit of semantic fuzziness, here. A physician practises medicine, though, hopefully not in the same sense of the word as it's being used here! I practise the art of uilleann piping. What may sound like practising to others is sheer joy of playing to me because i',m in love with the pipes and with this music.
"There is no need to divide your time with your instrument into work and play." llig- this is one of the best bits of wisdom ever! I've known some people who have escaped this syndrome and others who haven't-
the main reason i always hated the more formal "Band Practises" ive been part of. we have to go to practise to practise practising,and the more times we practise it, the better it will be when we actually Play it next Friday night...hehheh. Preposterous
not everyone gets to do what they dearly love. consider yourselves lucky,-not burdened, and just play!
cheers, pipewatcher
(and thanks llig)
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respond with their wisdom. All the suggestions and links were very helpful and appreciated. Being reminded to slow it down a bit and listen really has helped me to reach nirvana at times.
I quite enjoy woodshedding. Sometimes I find myself repeating a single phrase numerous times. I keep it playful though. Call it "practise" or "work" if you must. To me woodshedding is similar to talking with myself. Which I do.
* Play * the tunes ~ absolutely.
To session is to play. Band practice (in what could be a session) is like stalking a wild & free animal, shooting the beast, having it stuffed, & displaying it in your den.
Sessioning is playing with my mates.
Woodshedding is not for everyone. To me it is a conversation with the tune, my instrument & myself . . .
Band practice makes me wonder ~ what if you simply go for it?
Listen ... Listen a Lot .... Listen to Older Fiddlers
30 years ago when I started fiddling I was told repeatedly "more than 50% of fiddling is listening". I didn't pay much attention then, but in retrospect it's the best lesson I have ever learned. Listen especially to older, experienced players (Paddy Canny was mentioned earlier and that's a perfect example). They have been at it a long time, and have much to say with their music, but you have to be ready to listen, then listen again, and listen some more.
For Experienced Fiddlers
For Experienced Fiddlers
What is the most important lesson that you have learned in your years of experience regarding playing the fiddle with finesse?
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by Leendah
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Hello Leendah. I've been wrestling with your question on and off for an hour or two.
Mr. Will CPT said something on here once that has always stuck with me, because I agree with it so much.
The fiddlers he liked the most, he said, were the ones that appeared effortless when they played.
I always aspire to that, to play effortlessly, which I think is close to your term 'finesse'. Of course, I could be wrong. Feel free to correct me.
Certainly the biggest notion for me to keep in my head towards this goal is to relax while I am playing. I have to remind myself all the time to relax. It's certainly a bit intangible and metaphysical, but there it is.
Your music and your playing will not be relaxed and effortless unless you are.
Like Master Paddy, effortless:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBONRwNY77c
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
easy...
learn how to listen to yourself
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Sunnybear
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Never use or think the "D" word.
i.e. "Difficult"
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Thanks for posting that link again, SWFL. I love to watch and listen to Paddy Canny.
I don't know if its the most important lesson, but one thing I learned was to economize movement. For example, keep your fingers bent and close to the finger board, ready to use when you need them. You can see Paddy Canny do this in the video. I think this is an aspect of playing effortlessly because you don't spend a lot of energy on getting the fingers in the right place. Some fiddle players' fingers are perpendicular to the finger board when they're not using them to make a note. I think this affects speed and for some, their intonation too.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by John Culhane
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Even a single lesson with a "big name" fiddler can work wonders. A player like that, after watching you play for just a minute or two, can make suggestions that will improve your playing immediately--and keep you busy for years, making further improvements.
When I finally broke down and took just a few lessons like that (after many years of saying "No lessons, I want to develop my own style") several people commented right away that my playing had improved a great deal.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by John Galt
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
I'm not so sure it matters what fingers are doing when they are not being used, so long as they are comfortable. For example, a lot of people play their rolls with little taps and lifts of the fingers. It works fine, You have a small movement with a change of direction. Others (myself included) do it with a kind of flick, across the string, a kind of sweeping movement. Sounds the same, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that your fingers are where they should be when the should be.
It's a trifling irrelevance.
What does matter is learing how to listen to yourself. I vote with sunny bear. Stop watching your fingers and start listening.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by llig leahcim
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
I'm on the long road, but here's a great tip that helps: Play in the mirror & make sure everything is lined up right (your bow, etc) Relaxing is big - also think of phrasing & use rests to break it up. Another tip: Practice everything slow, but with swing & try to take out the ornaments. If theres a G roll in a jig, just play GFG but make sure you play the first G longer & with a bit more emphasis than the other two notes. Later you can add the grace note & you'll have a more natural roll. Also in horpipes play the runs as scales down instead of (3efe (3dcB (3ABA (3GFE D2 play f edcB AGFE D2 But give the e c A G & D the gusto.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Mad Baloney
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Slow down.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by jwvansteenwyk
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
If the listeners cannot tap their feet to your playing, then it ain't happening.
It's only happening in patches, but that's a huge improvement over last year.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Hup
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
It's not fiddle specific, but I collected the best advice I've gotten over the years and put it down here:
http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2005/12/jasons-rules-of-musicianship.html
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by jwvansteenwyk
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
That was quite a rant; I especially liked:
9. Play the tune slightly slower than you think it should go. And keep that tempo. It's amazing how much power a slow tempo has.
and
14. You are not ready to move on until you can play a passage at your chosen tempo seven times in a row with zero defects. Seven times. If you screw up on the seventh time, you have to go back to iteration 1.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Henk Bos
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
I wouldn't say I'm at the "finesse" level yet, but I've realized recently that there are no shortcuts. Play every day - and learn to love discouragement (I've discovered it's usually a precursor to major progress). Have fun!
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by airport
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Don't practice, just play.
(except, the only thing you might have to consciously practice is listening to yourself. Right from the start, you have to be hearing yourself accurately, no matter how good or bad you are. If you listen to a recording of yourself and something in it surprises you, then you weren't listening well enough when you did the recording. Very early on, as a matter of urgency, you have to get to a stage where listening to recordings of yourself are of no benefit.)
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by llig leahcim
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Enjoy it
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Britney Spears
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
As Sunnybear says, learn to listen to yourself. Important for any instrument but especially for the fiddle or you'll never get in tune. Also listen to the tone you're producing, think about what makes it better or worse.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by cathycook
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
ok...once you learn "how" to listen to yourself then you need to decide what it is you want to fix
string crossings...Kreutzer #2 and go through all the variations with a metronome
up bow staccato (does wonders for tone) Kreutzer #2
bouncing bow (does wonders for relaxing your pinky) Kreutzer #2
steady even tone...5 minutes of open strings with mm 54, 4 clicks to a bow, 2 clicks to a bow, 8 clicks to a bow, etc
don't obsess..5 minutes a day on each of these and work slowly
and listen to yourself again as you proceed
I am one for practice and play so as to break down what it is I wnat to work on...I cannot learn new tunes by playing open strings likewise I cannot always improve my tone by learning new tunes
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Sunnybear
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
...please keep in mind that my post was directed to answer the original plea of how to play with "finesse"..I know that there are those who will argue that you don't need finesse to play trad and some that will argue for the point
to each his own as you develop I say
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Sunnybear
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
You’re welcome John, I always go back to that clip, I just love to watch his hands while listening. So fluid, smooth, like he's breathing.
Yes, hear hear, listen to thyself. Learn to listen to yourself and to be your own worst critic.
I don't mean beat yourself up over it in a negative fashion. What I mean is that ideally, you should already know everything someone would tell you if they were critiquing your playing. If you are listening, truly listening, you will be listening to lots of good fiddlers and yourself, and the differences will be clear.
To sort out what specifically must happen for you to get from where you are, to where they are in what you are hearing, may require some assistance.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
...when I say 'you should already know' I don't mean you should know everything technically about what's 'missing' between your sound and others' sounds, but you should be able to recognize it from your proper listening to yourself.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
I disagree with the advice "don't practice, just play."
I guess that works if you don't care what you play. But there are some passages you will have to practice first, before you can play them.
That doesn't mean musicality goes out the window while practicing. Maintaining musicality is part of practicing as well.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by jwvansteenwyk
Fiddlers ~
"Don't practice, just play."
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by llig leahcim
Does that apply to flute as well?
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Ben Steen
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
There's the old adage - the difference between a good amateur and a professional is that the amateur practices until he gets it right, and the professional practices until he can't get it wrong. That's probably the origin of the 4000-6000 hours real practice you need to make it to the top levels.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
The "don't practice, just play' advice in itself is about as useful as 'stick it under your chin and scrape away '. Not.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Henk Bos
As a provocation it is very funny though.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Henk Bos
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
it's funny - it has merit too. It conveys the fact that if you approach Irish fiddle in a technical, purely left-brain manner, you will miss the heart of it. And if you don't live where you're surrounded by it, then you probably won't even realize you're missing it. You can play without great tone and still get your nyah on.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by airport
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
I'm not an experienced fiddler, but my teacher made an offhand remark a few months ago that I keep going back to.
After a long break without lessons, he asked me where I wanted to go next with my playing. Caught me entirely off guard, that, and I immediately let loose with a litany of deficiencies: my tone on this passage is wretched, I keep messing up the rhythm on this bit, I keep smudging this one bar...
He cut me short, and told me that I shouldn't be thinking about what I wanted to move away from - I should be thinking about what I wanted to move *toward*. This has saved me from despair on more than one occasion, and not just in fiddling. Not only does it keep me in a better mood and make me more alert to my progress, having a goal of "achieve X" is a lot more useful than one of "avoid Y, but not by doing Z, and come to think of it, Q doesn't work either..."
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Forget you're playing the fiddle.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Pomme de Terre
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Well said, airport.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by Henk Bos
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Back to "finesse"--the devil is in the details. That's what llig means when he says that you have to listen closely to your playing, while you are playing. If you are daydreaming while you play, and not paying attention, you miss little things that could be done better.
That Zen thing, i.e., forgetting who is playing the fiddle while you are playing, comes after thousands of hours of careful attention to what you are doing.
But for me, I suppose "the most important lesson" I learned was to have the guts to trot out my mediocre fiddling for somebody who is a master of it, and take the constructive criticism. Whatever finesse I can muster now is largely thanks to that decision.
# Posted on December 4th 2008 by John Galt
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Stopping and starting all the time in the middle of tunes to work on one
passage is risky. The risk is that you fail to get the continuity of the tune
drilled into you. This also applies to classical music. You can find out
that you still can't play a tune (or movement of a sonata, etc etc)
despite slaving away over it. Although it's sometimes necessary to drill
a tough passage you have to balance that by playing through the tune
over and over with steady rhythm and fumble your way through the
bits that are too hard in the interest of continuity.
Another thing that happens - you play a tricky bit over and over until
one time you get it right then move on. Wrong! If you do that, you're
actually practicing how to play it wrong. See #14 in the list above.
# Posted on December 5th 2008 by Hup
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
"I disagree with the advice "don't practice, just play."
I guess that works if you don't care what you play."
You are either missing the point or being deliberately obtuse.
You say, "there are some passages you will have to practice first, before you can play them.
Who decides when you stop practising and start playing? Is there a specific point where you move from not being able to play a passage to being able? Of course there isn't. Should you still improve as you play? Of course you should.
The point is, throughout all of your playing, if you are paying attention and listening well, you will be improving. There is no need to divide your time with your instrument into work and play. It should be all play. Those who practice earnestly end up playing in a dreary earnest style. Those who purport to "care" what they play end up sounding worthy. But if you simply enjoy playing, then the playful nature of this music should find a home within you.
It's a simple choice. If you want to be a clever clogs, then go away and practice. If you have an ambition to play, then proove it, work hard, dedicate. Drill the techniques into your fingers. You know you can reach perfection through repetition.
Or, enjoy playing. Enjoy paying attention to your playing. Enjoy the music and all the technique you need will simply come to you.
# Posted on December 5th 2008 by llig leahcim
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
'Those who practice earnestly end up playing in a dreary earnest style'.
I like that one.
# Posted on December 5th 2008 by Henk Bos
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
The strings hold up the bow.
# Posted on December 5th 2008 by lunchblaze
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
What have I learned? How about "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing well, but if it's really worth doing it's worth doing badly" (think about it!).
The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.
# Posted on December 6th 2008 by Ebor_fiddler
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
The more I read your post, the more I agree with your last sentence.
# Posted on December 6th 2008 by Sunnybear
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
a bit of semantic fuzziness, here. A physician practises medicine, though, hopefully not in the same sense of the word as it's being used here! I practise the art of uilleann piping. What may sound like practising to others is sheer joy of playing to me because i',m in love with the pipes and with this music.
"There is no need to divide your time with your instrument into work and play." llig- this is one of the best bits of wisdom ever! I've known some people who have escaped this syndrome and others who haven't-
the main reason i always hated the more formal "Band Practises" ive been part of. we have to go to practise to practise practising,and the more times we practise it, the better it will be when we actually Play it next Friday night...hehheh. Preposterous
not everyone gets to do what they dearly love. consider yourselves lucky,-not burdened, and just play!
cheers, pipewatcher
(and thanks llig)
# Posted on December 6th 2008 by pipewatcher
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
I play when I practice and I practice when I play..which means I try to listen. It's the full circle Machiavellian fiddle force at work.
# Posted on December 6th 2008 by Sunnybear
Re: For Experienced Fiddlers
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respond with their wisdom. All the suggestions and links were very helpful and appreciated. Being reminded to slow it down a bit and listen really has helped me to reach nirvana at times.
# Posted on December 6th 2008 by Leendah
I am not an 'Experienced Fiddler'
I quite enjoy woodshedding. Sometimes I find myself repeating a single phrase numerous times. I keep it playful though. Call it "practise" or "work" if you must. To me woodshedding is similar to talking with myself. Which I do.
* Play * the tunes ~ absolutely.
To session is to play. Band practice (in what could be a session) is like stalking a wild & free animal, shooting the beast, having it stuffed, & displaying it in your den.
Sessioning is playing with my mates.
Woodshedding is not for everyone. To me it is a conversation with the tune, my instrument & myself . . .
Band practice makes me wonder ~ what if you simply go for it?
# Posted on December 6th 2008 by Ben Steen
Listen ... Listen a Lot .... Listen to Older Fiddlers
30 years ago when I started fiddling I was told repeatedly "more than 50% of fiddling is listening". I didn't pay much attention then, but in retrospect it's the best lesson I have ever learned. Listen especially to older, experienced players (Paddy Canny was mentioned earlier and that's a perfect example). They have been at it a long time, and have much to say with their music, but you have to be ready to listen, then listen again, and listen some more.
# Posted on December 11th 2008 by gwfowler