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Hello Musicians!
What is everyone playing this Fall?
I haven't started a new song in FOREVER. I have been playing my list of old songs.. usually three in a practice session. Which for me is good. I usually play one song 1-4 times until I am smooth and no BIG errors.
Mostly, I have been playing Ashokan, God Father, Sad Romance, Amazing Grace. A bit of Addam's Family. I try to keep my "Snow Deer" in my mind so I can play it on FiddleFest 2015. I do like to play Minuet and Allegro, just because they are perky and fun.
I don't think I will be doing anything too new for a bit. I want to play a little with Irish Washer Woman...Inspired here on the forum to give that on a shot to add to my Fiddletunes.
I will bust out my little list of Holiday tunes and get them in shape. I started learning White Christmas.. that one is fun...and then the list of the norm.
I haven't made any more progress on my "Let it Be" by ear song.. but the part that I have learned I work on it here and there. Also I play "Yesterday" I am still finding "Imagine" challenging.
Sitting at my desk .. there is this longing quest to be home perusing sheet music.. and I am saying.. "oh I forgot about " Hangin' Tree.". and Oh I forgot about... "
Just thought I'd start a chatty Fall post to just talk about what we are playing.
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
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I want to revisit some of the songs I found or tried in my first few weeks of playing, see if I can actually play them now, lol.
I'm still practicing the Irish Washerwoman, trying to get it up to speed. And my homework song is currently The Walls of Liscarroll. I only just got to start on that one a little bit today.
I'm still working on Harvest Home, trying to get it to sound as good as possible.
I've also been playing Simlple Gifts for a couple weeks (or more?).
There are a couple other little, easier, songs I've been playing too, when I need the satisfaction of learning a song quickly, lol.
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I've been working on adding tunes from the Fiddle Hell common tunes list to my repertoire in preparation for Fiddle Hell 2015, November 6-8 in Westford, Mass.
Right now, I can play 18 of the 52 tunes on the list, so I've got a ways to go. Not expecting to be able to play all of them any time soon, but I'll keep chipping away at it.
Beyond that, I've been working on learning more bluegrass songs, though, I have to confess that I've mostly been playing mandolin when it comes to bluegrass. But, anything I can play on mandolin, I can transfer to fiddle with some minor adjustments.
Oh, and can't forget the Adams Family Halloween project. It's been tough to squeeze that in with work and family commitments, plus all of the above, but giving it the old college try as there is always something new to be learned with FM's group projects.
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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Playing becker's gavotte from suzuki book 3, started that one last week and trying to figure out the timing of it right now.
Also muddling around with some songs from my Harry Potter book. Found the first page of Jewish town from schindlers list the other day and watched someone else play it on YouTube, it's a tough one and I might give it a go next practice.
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I've been working my way through a new playalong book with a CD. It's 'Best of Grade 2' and is a compilation of some of the most popular grade 2 exam pieces from one of the main exam boards over here in the UK (ABRSM).
Having fun, though some of them are a bit of a challenge.
I am working on Gavotte by J.S. Bach in Suzuki book 3 and a couple of fiddle tunes - pear tree and Angeline the Baker. The dotted rhythm is my weakness, so Angeline the baker is harder for me. Gavotte is hard for me to get my octave in tune -- have to stretch my pinky a lot!
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Perpetual Motion (Suzuki book 1) seems to be a composition I just can't play right. Have been working on it for a while now and am still having trouble with it, mainly because of its use of 4th finger. So I will keep working on it as my main study piece. I'm also using a simplified version of Ode to Joy as a 4th finger exercise.
Now with Talk Like a Pirate Day past, I've put the sea shanties aside for a while. My "for fun" tunes at the moment are some fiddle tunes that my son is doing in his group classes: Little Liza Jane, Brian Boru's March, and As I Went Out Upon the Ice (polka).
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I'm just doing the old usual stuff I've been (trying) to play.
I just threw in 'Midnight on the water' and "The Butterfly". There are so many nice tunes out there I feel like a kid in a candy store, unable to decide what I want to play and I end up with barely anything, lol.
It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself. Johann S.Bach
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I've been working on some of Corelli op.5 sonatas. Really excited about it. Besides that, kayser and schradieck studies 
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@KindaScratchy - Wow.. you are moving along.... Fiddle Hell sounds so fun.. but a little like HELL. LOL
@mischa91 Suzuki 3.. You are moving along well!! Yahoo!!
@Jim Dunleavy - that sounds fun.. I have a few play a long books that I don't use often enough.
@pky - I like Gavotte .. I need to play that one too!
@Fidelestre - I still have to learn Perpetual Motion ...
@AnnyJ - I love Midnight on the Water!!!
@ElisaDalViolin - sound beautiful. I am going to look up those pieces as I am unfamiliar.
@damfino sound like you have a plan. Good songs. I am not familiar with The Walls of Liscarroll... I'd like to hear that.
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@coolpinkone The book I'm starting to go through in class is full of fun fiddle tunes I'm not familiar with. I might have told you the title before, but in case not, it's The Complete Irish Fiddle Player by Pete Cooper. It is filled with tips and tricks with bowing and fingering, I love it. My teacher got this book years ago, and she said it was a big help and she still uses the things she learned from it.
@pky Did your teacher ever have you try some viola playing tricks for your fourth finger? I'm finally getting starting to get the hang of the trick my teacher has been showing me, and now I find myself actually hitting the fourth finger notes a little sharp, a nice little change, though I'd rather just hit the note right, lol. She has me use either the second or third finger as a pivot point (just based on whatever note is before or after the fourth finger) and lift the index finger from the string, and roll my hand towards me to land the pinky finger in its place. She has a short fourth finger (nothing like ours, though, lol) and does this to reach her notes, and picked it up from playing the viola.
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Not anything exciting other then the two songs from Outlander and those are only the simple version, so while I loved them, I am already bored with them. Oh, playing Star Wars, also simple short version. I am tired of playing short tunes and am really wanting to move to something beyond that but am trying to finish the book I am working on first. Ugh, so bored with everything right now.
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@Georganne - will you be in Fiddlefest this year?
I Love the Outlander version of Skye boat... it is what drew me in...even though Bill and Ferret had been telling and posting about it. Funny how that is... because we sang The Skyeboat song in school growing up... or I learned it in my English classes from the poem adaptation.
I recall a line of the song that I had wondered. Then I played the Outlander song.. and it occurred to me that it was The Skyeboat Song. I am in love with Skye Boat song. I never get enough of it.
I am in the mood for something new .. I flopped on The Addams thingy.
Hummmmm....
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
@coolpinkone,
I like gavotte, too. Go ahead and try it out!
@damfino, I will try your teacher's trick and see it helps. I not only have short pinky syndrome, I also have "can't spread my finger syndrome!" When I watched my teacher's fingers when she spreads them opened, she could spread them two inches apart! my middle and ring, and ring and pinky, the most is one inch! Sigh! She did teach me one trick, I don't know if it's the same trick you told me - i.e., make my thumb follows my index, when I have to use my pinky to reach, move my thumb to between my index and middle fingers; this trick helps me especially when I am playing on G string.
@KindaScratchy where did you get the sheet music for these pieces from? Or are you learning to play them by ear?
I'm currently working on Seitz's concerto No.5 1st movement (from Suzuki #4 if I'm not mistaken), which is fun and challenging.
Also, kinda stuck on Wholfahrt's etude #13 (opus 45). My teacher wants me to play the 3/4 notes with a full bow and the 1/16 ones at the tip and the frog alternately. Massive pain in the butt, though I guess it's kind of inevitable now, after a year and a half of avoiding playing at the frog at all cost..
Finally, learning these days the third position, and super excited about it
Oh, and I'm new here, so nice to meet y'all
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@niloiv - welcome to the forum.
Very happy to meet you and have you here.
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NiloiV said
@KindaScratchy where did you get the sheet music for these pieces from? Or are you learning to play them by ear?
Funny you should ask, @niloiv .
I was "paper trained," as they say, at an early age (having played guitar, flute, fife and recorder since I was a kid) and was very dependent on sheet music for most of my musical life, so when I was getting ready to attend my first Fiddle Hell two years ago, I gathered up sheet music for every one of the 52 tunes on the Fiddle Hell Common Tunes List.
I did that by searching for free ABC notation files and importing them into MuseScore. I put PDF versions on my tablet using the MobileSheets app, and off I went to Fiddle Hell. It became immediately apparent, once I was there, that the sheet music was of no use and was actually a hindrance.
Not only are the workshops structured around learning by ear, but also there is great variation in the way traditional fiddle tunes are played, so the versions that I had compiled bore little resemblance to the versions being taught. And, if I wanted to learn the style and embellishments that the instructor was playing, I had to focus on listening and watching, not looking at the sheet music.
Since then, I've been on a mission to improve my ear learning skills. That's been especially important since I started attending bluegrass jams where everyone plays by ear and virtually no one uses sheet music. I think I've greatly improved my ability to play by ear, though I still have a long way to go.
That's a long answer to your short question. 
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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I recently found the sheet music for Star Wars, so my geeky little self had to start giving that a try, lol. Between my homework songs, practicing vibrato, and my staycation week I haven't had a lot of time to practice extra songs, though I did a couple run throughs of the next song in my fiddle book, but I don't remember the name off the top of my head.
@pky My teacher doesn't have me move my thumb any different from how I have it on the neck, which I usually keep near my index finger. She calls the motion rocking forward, but you are actually kind of twisting your wrist as you reach your pinky, while pivoting off your middle or ring fingers, and your index finger is completely off the violin. She said you can use this even for reaching your third finger if needed, so it might help you. I tried seeing if there were any demonstrations of this online, but I couldn't find any, even though she said it is a very common thing used for playing viola. Maybe when I finally get around to making a video of a new song, I can make one of this motion to show you, if this doesn't make sense.
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