Hi, my name is Len Zaikoski.
I'm a 40-year-old, happily-married, father-of-one who programs computers for a living and plays Irish fiddle and mandolin for fun. I live in Central Pennsylvania, in the USA.
There's actually quite a vibrant session scene here in Central PA, so I've got my pick of a few -- even though all of the closest ones have met a cruel and untimely demise....
I played "violin" in Elementary school, but gave it up in Jr. High, and then took it up again (in 1999 or 2000, I think) after a long time of developing a love of "Celtic" music.
Since then I've learned the difference between "Celtic" and ITM, and like to think of myself as an "Irish" fiddler -- even though I'm almost 100% Polish! :) Hmmm, maybe this explains why I enjoy playing polkas so much….
For Christmas 2003, my lovely wife bought me a nice Takamine acoustic-electric guitar and I've been learning to play accompaniment. I've read numerous times that playing a rhythm instrument helps with your melody-playing and it certainly is fun, too. I doubt I'll ever bring it to a session, though.
I also have a nice Clarke "Sweetone" tinwhistle and have some fun with that, too. I like having an instrument I can carry around anywhere and not have to worry about breaking it. I can play a couple of tunes on it, but it will be a while before I ever think about breaking it out at a session! :)
For Christmas 2006, my lovely wife bought me a mandolin (a Fender). I love the sound of a mandolin and because the fingering is the same as the fiddle I was able to immediately transfer most of my tunes over. I still need to improve my picking, but I've been getting better over this last year with it. I also like being able to switch between melody and backing as necessary for the session I'm playing in.
Tunes in KeepFiddlin''s tunebook: 471
| The Cat In The Kitchen | jig | June 27th 2008 |
| Two Mile Bridge | jig | February 15th 2008 |
| Riding On A Hand-Car | jig | October 17th 2007 |
| Don Messer's Breakdown | reel | July 28th 2006 |
| Ariel | hornpipe | July 27th 2006 |
| Audacity | March 8th 2004 |
| Molly Branigan's | July 24th 2006 |
| CANCELLED | July 15th 2003 |
| Do ITM musos prefer memory or photographs? | October 11th 2006 |
| Questions about Manus McGuire | July 27th 2006 |
| Delete a listed session? | June 15th 2006 |
| Last thing said on BBC's Culan? | March 10th 2006 |
| Composing tunes.... | August 9th 2005 |
| Discussions | Re: so is anybody in South Central Pennsylvania? | August 13th 2008 |
| Discussions | Re: so is anybody in South Central Pennsylvania? | August 13th 2008 |
| Discussions | Re: When you use ABC | August 13th 2008 |
| Discussions | Re: Abcmus | July 20th 2008 |
| Tunes | June 27th 2008 |