[zale]

So great to hear you are listening, Casey.

Keep up the good work. Your site has great teachers and a fantastic collection of fiddle tunes.

While I have your attention, have you considered broadening your genre. I am particularly interested in learning some Gypsy jazz ala Stephane Grappelli but I’m finding it difficult to get started.

I would welcome a teacher who specialized in that style.

Warmest regards

Zale

[zale]

Yes. Totally sick of it and very happy to hear something different at the beginning of Andre Brunet’s video.

I usually just skip past it and start after it’s over, but that’s a tiny hassle I would love to see gone.

I too love this site, but I can catch a brand in half a second and would appreciate something much shorter beginning the videos. Perhaps they could use a branding intro only for people who haven’t subscribed, or only on the performance video and not on any of the instructions.

There’s room for improvement, but it’s a small thing, eh.

Zale

[zale]

Hi Oliver:

Sounds to me like you have a great system figured out. I don’t practice for that long each day anymore. But I always try to have a new technique I’m working on, plus a review of the tunes I know. I always try to play a bit each day.

One of my main efforts these days is to learn to improvise licks while other play and sing, so I try to get as much playing in as I can while others perform. But when I’m working on the actual fiddle tunes, I’m concentrating on things like being able to throw in double stops and drones, or a bit of spiccato bowing to give the tunes variety.

For me, the beauty of the fiddle is that notes are more than just notes. They have attack. They can begin hard or soft, and can swell in the middle or stay even. This is what gives them such expressive quality. And then of course there are slurs and slides and ornaments, not to mention regional styles. Someday I may be able to impress beginners, but I’ll never master the instrument. It just goes on forever, and just when I think I’m getting good I hear somebody who is a master. It’s humbling.

I’d like it if this site could bring in a gypsy jazz instructor. That’s a style of fiddle I find really attractive.

Anyway, Oliver, way to go. I’m sure you are making amazing progress with that much practice and dedication.

[zale]

I work up one tune at a time. Generally it is easy for me to learn the notes, but it takes lots of practice to get up to speed. This means I usually go over one phrase at a time and work through the piece.

By that point I don’t need further instruction and I tend to overwork my bow hand to the point of causing repetitive strain injury, so I often, as like now, pause my membership until a new tune catches my interest. This is a feature of the site that I really appreciate, because money is tight and I rarely sign up for a site that has automatic billing.

BTW, Kevin Burke is giving a workshop in Qualicum Beach this week, just three quarters of an hour from my home. I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve been a big fan for years and fairly recently learned Morrison’s Jig from him on this site. Great site with great instructors.

[zale]

I sometimes buy a CD when I attend a live performance or concert, or when I go to a workshop that I have enjoyed. But money is tight and Youtube provides most of my listening these days.

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