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Great! It’s no fun playing on an out of tune fiddle. 😀
Cheers!

Update: All the tips helped! What works for me now:

I bring my tuning fork to my chair with me. During some of the pauses between songs, I’ll tap it on my knee and vibrate it on my violin. Its high soft A is actually easy to hear above the chitchat, plucking, etc.

Once I get the A in my head, I can do a quick tune.
Works great, and is a…[Read more]

Hi, Sunbreaker. Niall generally plays an AES violin. He plays one London 5 and one Dahlia 5. Strings are D’ Addario Helicore, and shoulder rest is Mach One. Tuner is also a D’ Addario Micro Violin Tuner. Cheers!

I have a question. How do you memorize a tune. I can read music, but the music that I play doesn’t stick in my head. I will play the tune onto a recorder and then learn it note to note to get it in my head. But the best contest fiddlers have so many tunes memorized, which first had to be technically worked out before getting memorized. I’m so…[Read more]

Dang, Mark. Glad to hear you’re in recovery mode, sir!

Megan will be in the Fiddlevideo studios July 27-August 1. She’s also scheduled to be back for a couple of days in late September. We’ll have guitar recording and other production work to do after she records, but you can expect her first batch of lessons to be published later this fall.…[Read more]

I’ll keep it in mind for a future instructor, Sunbreaker!

I hope Megan comes soon. I’m looking forward to her tunes. I have a couple of requests, Wyatt’s Waltz and Fifty Years Ago Waltz. And I’ve memorized Casey’s Beaumont Rag and working on Tugboat, then Cane Rag. I’m recovering from a broken neck and as I lose weight I can get my elbow under to reach the fourth finger drone on G-string for tunes in…[Read more]

Niall does Gypsy jazz?! It would be awesome to have a gypsy jazz teacher on the sight!

It would be awesome to hear the Jay Ungar version of it being taught.

Great to hear, Mark. We’re finalizing her list of tunes now, and I look forward to releasing the first batch this fall, sir.

She’s also already scheduled to be back in the studio for a couple of days in September, so we’ll keep adding to her lessons!

I joined on July 5th after seeing her name advertised on youtube with you and I’m looking forward to her lessons. She is my fiddle hero and I followed her to Weiser.

I just wanted to leave this link here, because this video was really helpful to me…
It’s Megan Lynch Chowning’s video about transitioning from classical to fiddling:

Some helpful things I got out of her video:
– try to not use big full bows
– tone down vibrato
– play/practice with strong rhythmic feel

Exciting!
I was just watching her great video on transitioning from classical to fiddle.

Thank you for the wisdom and tips!

I do always have a tuning fork in my case, but assumed I couldn’t hear it well at a jam. I’ll try using it!
I’ll check out that D’Addario tuner too, that looks quite nifty.
Walking away to listen / tune from a distance, is a good thought too. I actually feel pretty sure I could get it that way (especially if…[Read more]

Oh, thank you!
I will play it that way…not sure what I was doing!

Welcome, Mark. If you’re fiddling enough to annoy the neighbors, you’re doing something right! I see you’ve already picked a tune to start on, and I’d just encourage you to listen to the various performances and find those which feel a good match for your playing level and your stylistic leanings. Best of luck on Beaumont Rag, sir!

C

I signed up today, July 5th, 2021. I consider myself an intermediate fiddlers playing tuned mostly from Fake Books. I want to go the next level. I tried contest fiddling in the past and enjoyed what can be done. Megan Lynch Chowning is one of my favorite fiddlers. So, I want to know how to begin here. Should I started at the first tune or…[Read more]

Sorry, didn’t realize the link would show up as a huge advertisement!