Just curious how many people out there are familiar enough with the Hardanger (Noregian Fiddle) to recommend the best way to find one, and how it differs from standard fiddle or violin, in the learning process. I know that the Hardanger has four sympathetic strings, which to my ear, is very beautiful, and fills out even simple melodies. My wife is interested in learning “violin/fiddle” but doesn’t read notes—I play piano/keyboard and whistle, and play by ear, as well as read sheet music. I want to encourage her, and maybe the Hardanger is not the best way for her to learn. She did mention “the Suzuki method”??? . . . teaching children how to play . . . I don’t know. I’ll shut up now, and wait to see what any of you might offer up
ps. I have seen the HFAA web site, with sound clips.
I’d start with the Frequently Asked Questions at http://www.hfaa.org/ which is the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America.
Regarding the Suzuki Method, is her mother available to work with her? I think that the original idea involved the close connection between the mother and her young child. I don’t know how much this has expanded over the decades. I have a niece back in Texas who learned by the Suzuki Method, but haven’t had a chance to talk to her about it.
Laurie Lewis plays one occasionally.
Dennis Havlena used to have instructions for converting a regular fiddle to hardanger, but his Web page seems to have disappeared. Guess I need to pull the link from my http://www.coastalfog.net/flatpick/fp_main.html page.
. . . Regarding the Suzuki Method, is her mother available to work with her? . . .
. . . my wife didn’t remember exactly what the “Suzuki method” is, just that it had something to do with teaching kids. It’s my wife that wants to learn, but I don’t even think anyone else in her family plays an instrument. My wife has a great voice and sings . . . very musical . . . and I trust if she truly has th desire, she can learn
Dennis Havlena’s site has some interesting stuff on it, and his sound clip of “En Roulant Ma Boulle” is great. IMHO, the modified fiddle to hardanger sounds like the other sound clips at HFAA. I read some of the FAQs, but jumped to the sound clips and went through there. Quite a variety of styles for one instrument.
Thanks for the tip on Laurie Lewis. I’ll check into that!
That’s funny, I kept getting “server not available errors”, but as soon as I read what you wrote, I tried again, and it worked just fine. Must have been a psychological problem on my part.
Thanks for the tip on Laurie Lewis. I’ll check into that!
It’s The Maple’s Lament, and it’s on http://www.hfaa.org/music_samples.html . I just listened to it for the first time in at least a decade, and it’s pretty cool.
Just a thought about learning. I’m only guessing here but I think that if there is a special difficulty learning this instrument, over and above the normal difficulty learning fiddle, it would lie in tuning and keeping tuned the sympathetic strings. I would assume that their tuning pretty much dictates the keys that would sound good. You’d need to check out if this extra dimension is a problem for learners.
