Folk/Celtic/Traditional fiddle players / violinists
Site Under Construction
At some point, probably in the ever-so-distant future, this site is intended to contain folk fiddle learning resources - a mixture of the best free online videos, instructions, audio files and tune directories, and a selection of books and DVDs to buy.
This corncucopia of fiddle-related delights, as you may notice, has not been compiled yet. Here are some excuses:
- I already know how to play the fiddle, kind of. I learnt how to before the internet existed, and thus I do not know where the best e-learning resources actually are. I'm going to have to research this before I make a website about them. I didn't even learn it from fiddle-tune books, so can't write about those either. I learnt how to play fiddle by following some morris dancers around and learning the dance tunes, and by taping stuff off Jim Lloyd's Folk on 2 programme in the 90s and writing down the bits that sounded like I could do them. And I also videoed the Transatlantic Sessions from the TV and rewound and played back lots of times to learn tunes from it. On VHS. That makes me sound terribly vintage and interesting, doesn't it? Tapes and VHS are so, like, totally retro now. I'll tell you what's even better: there was a folk programme on a local radio station around the same time, which was for a slightly-too-far-away-from-me county, and I could only receive its broadcasts by sitting with the radio aerial in my mouth. And I did. That's how dedicated I was. You people, learning stuff off the internet? You don't know you're born. Before you decide to learn folk fiddle, ask yourself this: "Would I be prepared to sit with a radio aerial in my mouth for thirty minutes per week* in order to learn how to do this?" And if the answer is "no" then, frankly, I don't know how you sleep at night.
- I have to make money. It's a drag.
- I have fiddle practice to do.
- Maybe this whole thing was a stupid idea.
- I want to go back to bed.
- I want some more tea.
*Actually I only did that once, and only for five minutes. And I'm not sure that it's very good for you. I don't really advocate it as a fiddle-learning method. I have to put this disclaimer on in case anyone tries it, says they got the idea from here and then sues me when their brain mutates into a fiddle-playing pterodactyl or something.