After sitting through the Burke DVDs a few times my opinion of them is rising. It’s just Kevin’s slow, relaxed, borderline- comatose delivery that drives me mad.
The lack of a clear view of both arms/hands simultaneously is still a limitation, but there is some very good stuff on those discs.
So far I am most disappointed with Both Kevin Burke’s and Charlie Lennon’s explanations of bowed trebles/triplets. It’s not that they don’t try to explain, I just think they may underestimate how absolutely impossible that technique seems to a beginner. That wrist flicking thing needs a lot more analysis and examples…
Well, not true. As you may remember, I spent more than a decade trying to master oldtime fiddle, mostly unsuccessfully. (Old folks rarely “get there”, I’m sorry to say). After repeated bouts of tendonitis, I mostly hung it up, and spend a lot more time on mandolin, flute and whistle. The best I can offer is:
stretch a lot
stay relaxed (don’t clench)
don’t push too hard
if it starts to hurt, STOP!
Even very accomplished fiddlers struggle with the wonkey body stuff. Be careful, and enjoy.
Advice I received; OPEN up dont get into it, open your chest relax your face and shoulders, again, don’t try to play tunes etc, just real slow scales , getting your intonation right, WHILE concentrating on relaxing your face shoulders. DONT grip the fiddle with yr chin, place it in position, getting chin and shoulder rest size right, and pull your chin back, not down. DO NOT GRIP THE FIDDLE ANY TENSION IN THE BODY WILL INTERFERE.
Find a high position, no not on the neck! but on a hill, chair, table… sounds silly but it works. don’t get tight and intense about playing, relax and get loose and free. draw the sound out of the string, dont grind it in…
yes, by all means, try to RELAX. I’ve had a hard time with this and have ended up with very painful wrists and neck (not to mention the fiddle’s poor neck, what with my death grip and all).
I’ve heard people bemoaning the awkwardness of flute playing, but i swear it’s nothing to fiddling (for me at least).
I’ve been playing for just over a year and for the most part, I’m self-taught using the internet. While I’m not in real isolation, I just found it fits into my schedule better – as I can play and practice in the early morning hours. I have an acoustic fiddle – but also have a Yamaha SV120 which I love.
There’s not a lot of trad Irish music, but it has a lot of great “getting started” type information.
The lessons are sorted by beginner, intermediate and advanced – but within those categories, the lessons aren’t organized very well, so you’ll have to root around to see which ones you want to view first – like how to hold the bow, scales, etc.
There are also tunes to learn – they are broken usually into 3 parts. Part 1 shows you how the tune is supposed to sound. Parts 2 and 3 break it down into pieces and they should you note by note – slowly – how to play the tune. You can replay each part until you can play along. Then when you have the tune going pretty well, you can go back to Part 1 and play along with the fiddler and guitar player.
All in all, it has worked pretty well for me.
Hope this helps… and if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to share my experiences…
I’ve been playing for just over a year and for the most part, I’m self-taught using the internet. While I’m not in real isolation, I just found it fits into my schedule better – as I can play and practice in the early morning hours. I have an acoustic fiddle – but also have a Yamaha SV120 which I love.
There’s not a lot of trad Irish music, but it has a lot of great “getting started” type information.
The lessons are sorted by beginner, intermediate and advanced – but within those categories, the lessons aren’t organized very well, so you’ll have to root around to see which ones you want to view first – like how to hold the bow, scales, etc.
There are also tunes to learn – they are broken usually into 3 parts. Part 1 shows you how the tune is supposed to sound. Parts 2 and 3 break it down into pieces and they should you note by note – slowly – how to play the tune. You can replay each part until you can play along. Then when you have the tune going pretty well, you can go back to Part 1 and play along with the fiddler and guitar player.
All in all, it has worked pretty well for me.
Hope this helps… and if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to share my experiences…
