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@DanielB I spent ten minutes with Au Clair de la Lune... nice tune.. I recall it from somewhere.... and your lesson plan is nice.. because I don't play those notes often so those are the ones I have to figure out the most.. The below the grid notes. 
@Tucson... thank you for the notes for the higher pitch..
Cheers...
We might have to have a Moon Jam peeps..
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
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"At the start of practice you could just hold the violin and caress it (!) "
Wait... that's not a normal part of picking up the violin to play? 
I always run my fingers over Madame's silky finish, brush any stray loose rosin dust off the playing area, and give her a little shake to make sure the rattle is still safely inside before I play.
It kinda goes along with taking a deep breath to inhale that lovely old wood/rosin scent that is only noticeable when you are snuggled up to the fiddle, either under the jaw or cuddled up to your shoulder like a baby.
Seriously, though EJ - I think RU is on the right track. You should engage your other senses to subconsciously differentiate the two instruments. What do you associate with the fiddle and not the trumpet?
Don't discount the power of smell as it relates to recall. You have talked about a campfire/smoky smell from your reenactment campouts. Maybe associate woodsmoke with the fiddle. Play the fiddlerman games with something smoke-scented nearby (you can get liquid smoke at the grocery store), eat some beef jerky before you practice, put a virtual campfire on your computer screen... It might do the trick for you.
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Let's not forget, the violin is not as delicate as everyone first thinks! LOL After bumping it a few times and gaining some confidence, I was able to hit notes more clearer and find my vibrato! ....just by knowing the neck wouldn't snap with a little bit of pressure! 
LOL Just don't ask about the ding.....
I see what you mean about sense recognition. Campfires are definitely a trigger for me! And if I want that smell to come back, I just have to hit a few double stops and find that "sweet spot" and voila! Campfire smell! Certain notes still activate it in my violin! Maybe I should include "John Ryan's Polka" or "Bile 'em Cabbage Down" in my warm-ups from now on!
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin
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@EJ-Kisz I find it really interesting that you're confusing trumpet fingerings with fiddle fingerings, given that they're very different instruments. Violin never interfered with my ability to play recorder, flute or fife. I only had trouble confusing the two stringed instruments that I play.
When I first started learned the violin fingerings, it kind of messed up my guitar fingerings...even though I had been playing the guitar for 40 years or so. When I picked up my guitar, I'd look at a note and go for the violin fingering.
You'd think that the guitar muscle memory that I associated with notes would be so ingrained, that it would be impossible to overcome. But it was just the opposite. It seemed to fly right out of my brain; I was concerned that I'd never get it back. But I did.
At times, I've also inadvertently done guitar fingerings on the violin.
After a while, I somehow developed a mental switch that I can flip when I change from fiddle to guitar. I can't really explain it but it may have something to do with associating notes and fingerings with how I hold the instrument (on the shoulder vs. in front of me).
That seems to support what others have said about tactile and sensory clues.
When the work's all done and the sun's settin' low,
I pull out my fiddle and I rosin up the bow.
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Is being able to read sheet music important?
- Makes you a more rounded player.
- Truly important if you want to call yourself a musician.
- Not necessary if you can play by ear.
- Not necessary if you can improvise.
- Only important as a classical violinist.
- Better to have a great memory.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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I've got enough problems trying to learn to play the fiddle without complicating things by trying to read music 
It's a good thing I can play by ear 
I do look at music occasionally but it's usually just to check the 'key' and time signature.
If I want to learn a tune that I 'don't know' I find an audio version of it and listen to it until I know the tune and then I start to learn how to play it.
Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of 
..... What was I saying???? 
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@Ferret: Learning to read the dots can be useful, but it is just one way of getting the song.
Think of it like with lyrics.. If two people want to learn the words to a song, one might listen to it until they know them all, the other person might look them up on a lyrics website and learn them from that.
No big difference in the end, both ways work just fine.
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
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I think that both, reading music & playing by ear, can compliment each other very well! If you're better at one, it certainly helps with the other!
I'm able to do both to an extent. I guess it depends on the instrument I'm playing at the moment. Bass guitar.....all ear! LOL Trumpet....90% music, 10% by ear. Violin.....at the moment....50/50. I really want to read music better while playing violin.
I guess the reason is that I want to be able to play in any environment and play material that I have never heard before without having to look up an audio file. I think the classically trained musician in me still misses the orchestra setting. Having done that for many years, you learn quickly that not every one can play the melody! LOL
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin
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Oh, agreed. Ideally, one can do both. And for that matter, be able to read dots, tab, ABC and any other notation system one is likely to encounter for the instruments they play.
I mostly play by ear, but being able to read standard notation and some tab and etc comes in very useful sometimes.
I recently was given a neat book on music from 1888. Many of the examples aren't available on youtube or etc, and if I couldn't read music, a good percentage of the book would be of little use or interest. Instead, it was a good excuse to dust off the keyboard and run some warm-up exercises and work through some of the examples.
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
I have a few thoughts, take them or leave them. I played guitar for years, and never learned anything but a little tab. I found though that many of the guitarists I played with actually only learned by teaching each other the notes/chords for a song. I think this mentality really held me back though in my playing ability. I could never tell you what notes were in what scale. I couldn't tell you what key a song was in. Most of the time I couldn't even tell you what chords I was actually playing. we would simply tell each other which fret and string to play on. If we ever wanted to jam with a fiddle player though, or pianist, I think it would have been difficult at first to get started (never had the opportunity to try though).
With the violin, I am making it a point to learn to play by reading music, and it's helping me a lot I think. Because now I know, based on the key of the piece I'm working on, exactly where every position is going to be for my fingers. It eliminates some of the confusion and thinking that I might have to do while playing the guitar.
Also, from the stand point of psychology (No, I don't have a Ph.D., but still consider myself a psychologist), the more parts of our brains we get involved in the learning process, the better we learn something, and the greater the chance of quick retrieval. For example, if you play strictly by ear, than only your Temporal lobe is being activated when you are learning a piece. If you are also using your eyes, then you also enlist the neurons in the Occipital Lobe. Just by reading along, you double your brain's neural connectivity, and thus, your ability to learn something.
Sorry, allow me to digress, because obviously you are also using your body to learn(Parietal Lobe (If I'm remembering correctly)) so you are only increasing your learning by one third, but you get the point.
Whenever you are trying to learn something, regardless of what it is, the more areas of your brain you engage in the learning process, the more likely you are to recall it later. If you want to memorize a poem for example, read it aloud, not to your self, because by doing so you engage your ears as well as your eyes in the attempt to burn that image into your brain.
Just my thoughts.
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Love it! " Never argue with a wookie, he's liable to rip your arms off if he loses!"
"Please play some wrong notes, so that we know that you are human" - said to Jascha Heifetz.
Picklefish said
Love it! " Never argue with a wookie, he's liable to rip your arms off if he loses!"
I love a good Star Wars quote!
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ROFLMAO
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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I started with an instructor, now that I am trying to teach my self again and took piano, once I look at the finger board and reacquaint my self with the strings, I sill have to think about All Cows Eat Grass and Every Boy Does Fine. Will I ever get away from this?
I too was writing in the notes for my lessons for the first few months.
Any and all instructions are welcome.
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