scales & Westphalia

Getting a teacher was the best thing I could have done. I was sawing away when playing by myself. The teacher showed me how to do scales in long bows - playing the whole length of the bow requires a lot more accuracy than short strokes - you are holding your arm further from your body and it requires more thinking and strength. I was starting to use the whole range of motion to play. She had me playing scales using my pinky finger - I had been playing using the open strings, so I was only using 3 fingers. I saw the value in playing using the pinky, then my scale patterns are useable higher up on the fingerboard. She showed me how looking in a mirror would help me play with the bow at a 90 degree angle to the strings... from my point of view I couldn't tell the angle, and playing at an angle sounded scratchy and noisy. She had me playing A and G scales.

The next step was scales that were slurred - 2 notes per bow. She started me learning Westphalia Waltz - I went home and found a few different versions on the internet which was just confusing. I didn't mind learning by ear, but I ended up writing out the music so that I could write down the bow marks, which is where I need all the help I can get.

finding a teacher

I decided in the summer to find a teacher because a few months later, I was still sounding pretty squeaky and I was still not sure when to use an up bow or down bow, though I had learned a few scales and was pretty comfy with the fingerboard.

I found a teacher on the internet, but she didn't take me on because I have a weird work schedule. She seemed pretty cool, grad school education and neat website. Someone had suggested someone who was in an orchestra, but she was older and I assumed she'd have no time.

I did find another teacher on Craigslist, she plays fiddle music but knows classical stuff too a bit. She tours and plays professionally. At first she had me doing long bows, and did a fair amount of tweaking of my posture and how I held the fiddle. I had the heel of my hand resting on the fingerboard, and because I was practicing sitting down, I had started an "arm shelf" habit - I was leaning my elbow into my side, propping up the violin, instead of standing up straight with my elbow not against my body. I also wasn't using the shoulder rest, and when I tried, it turned out to be the wrong size. When I got the right size one, it made an amazing difference in how the violin sounded - just the position and posture.

She also showed me how to hold the bow properly. I had started holding it with my thumb flat on the bow, but my teacher told me to keep my thumb bent, and to not worry about it leaning in to the bow hairs. It feels like I'm pinching the bow, and it's a bit awkward, but I can see how you can exert more power on the bow that way. Playing in a fiddle style must take more strength - she told me to not be afraid of pressing the bow harder on the strings. I had read somewhere on the internet to let the weight of the bow make the sound, but for my teacher that's not enough, I have to press down on the strings.

learning by myself

I decided not to take lessons at first. I had taken piano lessons for many years, and taught myself to play guitar. I have a good ear and a fairly good understanding of theory. I looked at some info on the internet about where the notes were on the fingerboard and tried to read about how to play the violin in general.

I figured I'd be frustrated by starting at the very beginning, because I already knew how to read sheet music.

My parents are from Ireland and Newfoundland respectively, and my mom likes listening to ballads from the 60s and 70s, eg. Johnny McEvoy and Paddy Reilly and others like that, eg. songs like Fields of Athenry, but I'd been exposed to tunes here and there like Garryowen.

So before I bought the fiddle, I had been trying to memorize tunes from my dad's pennywhistle book, and I waded into the world of fiddle music on the internet. I found things that were not really fiddle music, but bluegrass, that I had been exposed to randomly, like Cripple Creek and Orange Blossom Special. I found out that the world of fiddle music was pretty varied: Metis fiddling, old time, Irish, Scottish, Ottawa Valley. It was pretty exciting. If it was sheet music only, I inputted it into my Cubase software and recorded the midi file as an MP3 and listened to them on my iPod.

I found Whiskey Before Breakfast that way, and proceeded to learn it on the fiddle. It took awhile, but I was still not sure whether I should use one bow per 4 beats in the bar, I would run out of bow and get into other trouble, but it was fun to get better playing it.