1. Cos I'm too old to start another instrument. No, really. Life is short, ars is long.
2. Cos I love the fiddle but there are so many fiddlers around here that I could never contribute anything worthwhile even if I lived for another fifty years. I'd rather hear their good playing than my shite
3. Cos I should spend what limited practice time I have on the mandolin istead of being distracted by the novelty of a new instrument.
4. Cos it looks bloody hard
5. Cos the noise a learning fiddler makes is bloody awful
6. Cos I need frets!
7. And a plectrum
5 Just think How much you will annoy the neighbours. Rather than the sympathetic smiles I used to get - they are looking at me thinking I've gone mad and I can't blame my daughter as she's already a much, much better player than I am.
Annoying my neighbours was one of the reason I picked up the fiddle. They're a couple of bullies always picking on the rest of the neighbours in our little block, it is sweet to get back at them somehow.
And I never use a silencer, it would spoil the sound AND the fun
Bren, you're probably a few years younger than me and I only started just over ten years ago. The problem is that, although mandolin and fiddle coexist(and tenor banjo etc), you don't get the same chance to focus properly on each of the instruments.
Although, I'd like to think that I was improving all the time, perhaps my progress would be greater on a particular instrument if I just stuck with the one. On the other hand, practising the tenor banjo has helped my mandolin playing as has some of the techniques from the fiddle.
So, as long as we're enjoying ourselves......
9. Because in five years you will actually be having fun playing the thing, or still thinking "Hmmm. Should I learn to play the fiddle?"
Cath, I noticed that five of the seven houses on our street went up for sale the year after I started playing. I'm quite sure, though, that it was merely coincidence. Quite.
I played both Mando and fiddle I got tired of Mando and tuning it and also I almost got Carpal Tunnel from it. Fiddle is really really hard to learn on your own all though I became a decent player for the amount of time I had been playing the bowing was difficult and aI could not play fast and clean (I would always hit other strings) I would say if you can get a teacher go for it but if you can't I would say focus on Mando and just move around with the instruments in the family if you really want a change get a Tenor Banjor or an Octave Mandolin because it will not take the effort. If you really want to annoy the neighbors consider taking up the Bombarde (suprisingly it is louder than the Great Highland Bagpipes) or a loud bagpipe like GHBs (they would be the loudest), Galician, Asturian, or the Binou Kozh.
I spent 10 years plucking up the courage to start on the fiddle. I think I partly felt that I needed moral justification, since I turned down the offer of free violin lessons at school, aged 9. Eventually, the decision was made for me, a few weeks before my 30th birthday, when a session companion gave me a fiddle out of the blue. In fact, I had already promised myself I would own a fiddle by the time I was 30.
I will get round to having some lessons sooner or later - it is a hard step for me, as I am largely self taught on mandolin and whistle (although some lessons on them would not go amiss, either). In the meantime, I am having fun with it. I would disagree with unseen122's comment above: A teacher is undoubtedly a good idea if you can find one and afford one, but if not, get a fiddle anyway and get what you can out of it. Even if you never reach a high enough standard to play outside a soundproof booth - there's no reason why you shouldn't, with a bit of work and patience - it will enrich your musical sensibility, give you a different perspective on the tunes you already know and be a generally healthy excercise.
Bren I posted on the "Why Fiddle" thread . . didn't see your comments on this thread . . . so you have answered some of my worries . . yes I am too bloody old !!
Why NOT fiddle? Only the dead know. And even they wish they could still fiddle. Ok so I'm 51 and I took it up only a few short years ago. I'll play outside of that aforementioned soundproof box because I know I am really just practicing for my next life. (see WHY FIDDLE discussion)
A good reason to NOT fiddle would be if you really felt for some reason that you didn't deserve to enjoy one of the most enjoyable experiences on the planet(s). You're never too old.
You're not very supportive you lot.
You are backing me into a corner where I might have to try the thing, despite my best instincts.
Divorce will follow surely (not Shirley).
I've played banjo now for a year and half and just recently (1 month ago) started learning fiddle. That's how I found this site, looking for scottish tunes to play along with my pipe playing bud. At first the fiddle seemed a daunting task to undertake, but I have really picked up the thing and flew with it. It's not an expensive one and it doesn't sound the best in the world but what sounds that come out really grab hold of me. I have fallen in love with the thing and it may very well overshadow the banjo a great deal. I'd say get yourself a cheaper model (100.00 US) and go with it, I'm sure you won't regret it.
Aaagh, not a $100 fiddle. You might luck out, but don't count on it. It's really really hard to make nice sounds on that kind of thing (especially as a beginner) and the frustration might well turn you off the fiddle forever (unless of course that's the result you're looking for!). Rent a $300 fiddle first.
Yeah don't get a cheap fiddle that is one of the reasons I never play because I have a cheap piece of crap and that is what it sounds like also. I regret not saving my money to get something better but if I didn't I probably would still be fiddle-less but I guess it is good I don't want to play because there are instruments which I am better at and are more important for me to play and are alsoe decent quality. If the only mandolin you ever played was a Johnson you thought wow i don't like this and gave up that would be the equvilent of buying a cheap fiddle.
I agree about finding a good teacher. I have a wonderful teacher - lessons only cost a bottle of red wine but are sporadic due to certain circumstances.
I started fiddling about 4 years ago and the best thing I did was find a suzuki teacher who will do lessons every 2 or 3 weeks, or whatever frequency suits me. My fiddle playing never sounded like a dying cat or drove my neighbours to move house, except for the ones who just hate music. If you follow the suzuki method
ooh, the thing posted itself and I hadn't finished...the suzuki method means your playing sounds really good from about...well week 2 perhaps, prob not day 1!
Why not fiddle?
Why not fiddle?
1. Cos I'm too old to start another instrument. No, really. Life is short, ars is long.
2. Cos I love the fiddle but there are so many fiddlers around here that I could never contribute anything worthwhile even if I lived for another fifty years. I'd rather hear their good playing than my shite
3. Cos I should spend what limited practice time I have on the mandolin istead of being distracted by the novelty of a new instrument.
4. Cos it looks bloody hard
5. Cos the noise a learning fiddler makes is bloody awful
6. Cos I need frets!
7. And a plectrum
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Bren
Re: Why not fiddle?
Magnificent seven perfectly valid points there Bren. But you missed point 8:
It's a hoot
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by llig leahcim
Re: Why not fiddle?
Bren, the fiddle really is not such a departure from the mandolin, and they coexist perfectly in my life.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: Why not fiddle?
5 Just think How much you will annoy the neighbours. Rather than the sympathetic smiles I used to get - they are looking at me thinking I've gone mad and I can't blame my daughter as she's already a much, much better player than I am.
J
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by jfother
Re: Why not fiddle?
Annoying my neighbours was one of the reason I picked up the fiddle. They're a couple of bullies always picking on the rest of the neighbours in our little block, it is sweet to get back at them somehow.
And I never use a silencer, it would spoil the sound AND the fun
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: Why not fiddle?
Bren, you're probably a few years younger than me and I only started just over ten years ago. The problem is that, although mandolin and fiddle coexist(and tenor banjo etc), you don't get the same chance to focus properly on each of the instruments.
Although, I'd like to think that I was improving all the time, perhaps my progress would be greater on a particular instrument if I just stuck with the one. On the other hand, practising the tenor banjo has helped my mandolin playing as has some of the techniques from the fiddle.
So, as long as we're enjoying ourselves......
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Johannes J
Re: Why not fiddle?
9. Because in five years you will actually be having fun playing the thing, or still thinking "Hmmm. Should I learn to play the fiddle?"
Cath, I noticed that five of the seven houses on our street went up for sale the year after I started playing. I'm quite sure, though, that it was merely coincidence. Quite.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Batlady
Re: Why not fiddle?
I played both Mando and fiddle I got tired of Mando and tuning it and also I almost got Carpal Tunnel from it. Fiddle is really really hard to learn on your own all though I became a decent player for the amount of time I had been playing the bowing was difficult and aI could not play fast and clean (I would always hit other strings) I would say if you can get a teacher go for it but if you can't I would say focus on Mando and just move around with the instruments in the family if you really want a change get a Tenor Banjor or an Octave Mandolin because it will not take the effort. If you really want to annoy the neighbors consider taking up the Bombarde (suprisingly it is louder than the Great Highland Bagpipes) or a loud bagpipe like GHBs (they would be the loudest), Galician, Asturian, or the Binou Kozh.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Unseen122
Re: Why not fiddle?
I spent 10 years plucking up the courage to start on the fiddle. I think I partly felt that I needed moral justification, since I turned down the offer of free violin lessons at school, aged 9. Eventually, the decision was made for me, a few weeks before my 30th birthday, when a session companion gave me a fiddle out of the blue. In fact, I had already promised myself I would own a fiddle by the time I was 30.
I will get round to having some lessons sooner or later - it is a hard step for me, as I am largely self taught on mandolin and whistle (although some lessons on them would not go amiss, either). In the meantime, I am having fun with it. I would disagree with unseen122's comment above: A teacher is undoubtedly a good idea if you can find one and afford one, but if not, get a fiddle anyway and get what you can out of it. Even if you never reach a high enough standard to play outside a soundproof booth - there's no reason why you shouldn't, with a bit of work and patience - it will enrich your musical sensibility, give you a different perspective on the tunes you already know and be a generally healthy excercise.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by ragaman
Re: Why not fiddle?
Bren I posted on the "Why Fiddle" thread . . didn't see your comments on this thread . . . so you have answered some of my worries . . yes I am too bloody old !!
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Justintime
Re: Why not fiddle?
Why NOT fiddle? Only the dead know. And even they wish they could still fiddle. Ok so I'm 51 and I took it up only a few short years ago. I'll play outside of that aforementioned soundproof box because I know I am really just practicing for my next life. (see WHY FIDDLE discussion)
A good reason to NOT fiddle would be if you really felt for some reason that you didn't deserve to enjoy one of the most enjoyable experiences on the planet(s). You're never too old.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Saille Fearn
Re: Why not fiddle?
Here, here.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Johannes J
Re: Why not fiddle?
You're not very supportive you lot.
You are backing me into a corner where I might have to try the thing, despite my best instincts.
Divorce will follow surely (not Shirley).
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Bren
Re: Why not fiddle?
Perhaps Shirley will follow divorce. Some women *like* men who fiddle. (Then again, isn't Big Daddy's real name Shirley?).
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by ragaman
Re: Why not fiddle?
I've played banjo now for a year and half and just recently (1 month ago) started learning fiddle. That's how I found this site, looking for scottish tunes to play along with my pipe playing bud. At first the fiddle seemed a daunting task to undertake, but I have really picked up the thing and flew with it. It's not an expensive one and it doesn't sound the best in the world but what sounds that come out really grab hold of me. I have fallen in love with the thing and it may very well overshadow the banjo a great deal. I'd say get yourself a cheaper model (100.00 US) and go with it, I'm sure you won't regret it.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by cricketpiper
Re: Why not fiddle?
Aaagh, not a $100 fiddle. You might luck out, but don't count on it. It's really really hard to make nice sounds on that kind of thing (especially as a beginner) and the frustration might well turn you off the fiddle forever (unless of course that's the result you're looking for!). Rent a $300 fiddle first.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: Why not fiddle?
Yeah don't get a cheap fiddle that is one of the reasons I never play because I have a cheap piece of crap and that is what it sounds like also. I regret not saving my money to get something better but if I didn't I probably would still be fiddle-less but I guess it is good I don't want to play because there are instruments which I am better at and are more important for me to play and are alsoe decent quality. If the only mandolin you ever played was a Johnson you thought wow i don't like this and gave up that would be the equvilent of buying a cheap fiddle.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Unseen122
Re: Why not fiddle?
I agree about finding a good teacher. I have a wonderful teacher - lessons only cost a bottle of red wine but are sporadic due to certain circumstances.
J
# Posted on January 9th 2005 by jfother
Re: Why not fiddle?
I started fiddling about 4 years ago and the best thing I did was find a suzuki teacher who will do lessons every 2 or 3 weeks, or whatever frequency suits me. My fiddle playing never sounded like a dying cat or drove my neighbours to move house, except for the ones who just hate music. If you follow the suzuki method
# Posted on January 9th 2005 by carly
Re: Why not fiddle?
ooh, the thing posted itself and I hadn't finished...the suzuki method means your playing sounds really good from about...well week 2 perhaps, prob not day 1!
# Posted on January 9th 2005 by carly
Re: Why not fiddle?
Any lessons are better than none it is easier to change style than it is to start from scrtch.
# Posted on January 10th 2005 by Unseen122
Re: Why not fiddle?
Bren....backing you into the corner is where you'll sound best!
# Posted on January 14th 2005 by Saille Fearn