Where to start?
If you’ve recently joined Fiddlevideo, you may feel a little overwhelmed with the variety of tunes, lessons, instructors available…that’s totally normal! In this video, Megan Lynch Chowning gives out some great tips for new Fiddlevideo.com members which should get you pointed in the right direction.
We hope you have enjoyed this preview from Megan. If you would like to take advantage of a full Fiddlevideo membership and start learning some great tunes, we encourage you to sign up today and get unlimited access to over 350 full lesson modules which include:
- Performance video
- Basic melody tutorial
- Advanced melody tutorial
- Picture-in-picture videos for up close viewing of the left hand
- A/B user-defined video looping*
- Video speed controls (slow down the lessons)*
- Guitar practice track(s) – (N/A for trad Irish lessons)
- MP3 downloads of the audio performance tracks
- Sheet music for the basic song melody (including guitar chords)
Your subscription gets you access to lessons from all professional instructors on this site as well as all technique tutorials which break down common fiddle bowings, fingerings & tricks.
Take your fiddle playing to the next level today!!
Thank you for this video I needed to hear this!!
You bet, Sonya. I’ll pass your comment along to Megan. She has such great advice, doesn’t she?
Well now, Sonya! You may have needed to hear all my words of encouragement, but I also loved hearing your kind words about the video. I believe in you and happy fiddling!
I’m 100% not learning the fiddle so I can play all the tunes from Final Fantasy. *WINK* Seriously though, the sounds from Gypsy Waltz are what’s speaking to me right now. Picked up the fiddle 6 months ago and haven’t been able to put it down. For sure needed the pep talk.
Watching some of those reels were like…”things i’ll try again in 75 years for 200$ please Alex”
Hi Megan , I’m really enjoying your lessons especially the first finger capo, nashville numbers systems and pentatonic scales. So brilliant how you can explain them, armed with these formidable weapons what lesson should i go to next. i was hoping to go on a journey from intermediate to advanced with you. What should be the first tune or song ?
Thanks in advance
Paul
Hi, Paul.
I’d recommend listening through a couple of the performance videos to find some tunes which speak to you…then tackle them one by one! You can use the filters at the top of the website to filter down on Bluegrass/other styles…
While we do categorize tunes based on difficulty, each lesson includes both a simplistic version as well as an advanced…so for each tune you choose to learn, you’ll automatically be moving towards more and more advanced playing techniques. All the best!
Hey Paul – basically what Casey said! But please keep those comments coming. I check regularly and really hope you’re finding your way on this journey. I’m just glad I can help. If you’re focusing on bluegrass style, I’d probably recommend next trying one or two of the singing songs that I teach breaks for. Happy fiddling!
Hi Megan. I just now signed up for this site. I have been a wanna be fiddle player for a long time. But I usually start with good intensions and put it aside for one reason or another. Partly because I could never find the information I needed to advance beyond someone teaching a particular song, and that was usually just a one note at a time thing. Long story short, I came across your video by happen stance and I am so glad I did. You were explaining and teaching just what I ‘ve been looking for, for years. I have begun a new journey now and hope to finally get somewhere.
I can grasp the things ahead of me and I see a good road ahead. But the one thing I sometimes worry about is the anatomy factor. Everyone’s physical structure is somewhat different. I find myself having a real issue in twisting my wrist around far enough to reach the G string well. I know the secrets about that like moving the elbow further inward and holding my fingers up as in an arched like fashion, but it is still a stretch. I ‘m a guitar player as well and I find myself at times grasping the neck of the fiddle hard unknowingly with my thumb. I also have a bad habit of curling my little finger underneath the neck. Can you help me with these three issues? I really think I can learn everything else in time.
Thanks in adavance for your help. And I really appreciate this site and you and others involved.
Hi, Steve. Chiming in here to agree with your assessment of Megan’s teaching style. She’s great! Welcome to the website, sir!
C
this website is incredibly cool, thanks you all teachers and hello from France !
And thank you for joining, Mohawk! Hello right back! We have several subscribers who live in France…I’m jealous!
Hello, thank you for this wonderful and precious website! I would like to know if you can give me any advice on an particular order to watch the videos, especially the technique ones. I started the “reverse shuffle” but I feel I need to watch another before, I am a bit lost… Thank you!
Thanks for the fabulous pep talk. I have listened to lots of the performance videos and started working on a couple of tunes. Can’t narrow it down much though. I love all the instructors and all genres! Need more time in the day, but no doubt your excellent site is very motivating to procrastinate on other work and just play the fiddle. 😁
Bluegrass lives in my soul!! It comes from my dad who had been in numerous bluegrass bands and some older style and more contemporary.. he passed away from glioblastoma and was a navy vet.. so his playing years ago started in military, his first band called Taken by Storm and I grew up with going to all the San Diego bluegrass fests.. When he retired we moved back home to Maine and when my mom passed she was trying her hand at the fiddle in 2014. So I inherited that same fiddle when my dad passed in 2016.. My dad was a guitarist and lead vocal in his bands.. some of the last bands he was in was Phat Grass.. I always loved singing harmonizing.. but playing this fiddle made me feel close to my parents but also something I want to integrate with my kids .. my first son is 23 already doing gigs.. I’ve been practicing for the last year as much I can but I became lost without direction after getting past like sounding screechy and learning notes in first position, learning a few tunes and I stumbled upon Megan’s videos and I instantly loved her teaching methods but would also love to check out Irish and Scottish because of my ancestry. I love Alison Krauss Sarah Watkins and I’m with her..
Can anyone tell me where the backing tracks are located. I’ve gotten the performance MP3 downloaded no problem. But can’t find the backing tracks?