I just got a new fiddle for Christmas. I play all sorts of music but i’ve grown up playing guitar, banjo, mandolin, piano etc. I can’t read music but I can play by ear, and have already begun to pick up some jigs on the fiddle from a CD i have. But it seems slow and painful, does anyone have any tips on beginning? I could take lessons, but would prefer to learn myself, (I taught myself the instrauments i play now) thanks
Michael
If you’re playing jigs already, you’re doing very well! It is a slow and painful process. If you just wanna play trad, you don’t really need lessons, but you could get a friendly fiddler to give you a few tips on how to hold the bow (it doesn’t really matter, but a better grip will give you a better sound). Other than that, just keep going. It sounds like you’re doing really well. 
Jo.
Thanks Jo, not only encouraging but right now any information is good! Anybody else please send your tips!
Michael
Well, maybe this won’t be much help, but…
If I were you, I’d take lessons.
As I’ve written in other threads, the best thing for anyone learning by ear is to download an ABC music format player like AbcMus from
http://home.swipnet.se/~w-11382/abc.htm#abc
Download 1600+ tunes from the same site. Links to other sites will give you all sorts of goodies - Shetland fiddle for example.
It’s best to download all of the tunes in one 300k zip file (player is about 6M) then sort them out to your taste after. Slow the tunes down and work on melodious hornpipes and jigs. Just remember, there are lots of people like me who are fed up to the back teeth listening to endless reels and that feckin’ O’Neill’s march.
Michael…since you don’t read music, but play by ear, you might enjoy learning fiddle tunes from a different format. Try this one and see what you think:
http://mytunebook.de/r_clarke/tunes/xtrareel/xtrareel.htm
You’ll need a midi sequencer, but it’s a free download, which allows you to not only download the entire tune in seconds, but to hear the tunes in any key, or at any rythm. You can tune to your fiddle and slow it down while playing along. I’ve learned dozens of new tunes on the fiddle this way. Ornamentation is in there too.
You might consider taking lessons via internet at http://www.scoiltrad.com - ideal for learning Irish traditional music.
Susan
On 2003-01-19 05:51, DerryMan wrote:
As I’ve written in other threads, the best thing for anyone learning by ear is to download an ABC music format player like AbcMus from
http://home.swipnet.se/~w-11382/abc.htm#abc
Hmm… was this intended to be a joke? If so please disregard what I’m about to say.
Learning from ABC/midi tells you nothing about how to play music other than the approximate melody of the tune. You’ll learn ziltch about rhythm, phrasing, micro-phrasings and other stuff that are essential to good Irish trad music.
You’ll be better off learning tunes off a CD of a good player or a decent player live if you are really earnest in learning by ear.