You can play violin. The secret is learning to practice in a way that doesn't make you want to throw your instrument out a window. I've been teaching online since 2017. Sign up for free lessons, tips, and giveaways — plus dad jokes you'll regret laughing at. 🎻🤓
The Ultimate Online Fiddler’s Resource Guide
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I’ve been working on something I’ve wanted to do for a while. The Ultimate Online Fiddler’s Resource Guide — and it’s out today. The internet is full of fiddle stuff. Some of it is incredible. A lot of it is hard to find, scattered across YouTube rabbit holes, random forums, and blogs that haven’t been updated since 2009. I’ve spent years accumulating these — lessons, tools, communities, tuners, backing tracks, notation resources, teachers worth knowing about. And I got a lot of help. Students in the Play Every Day community pitched in ideas for sections, plus specific camps and festivals worth knowing about. This is the resource guide I wish I’d had when I started. 👉 Download the guide (free PDF) → 🎻 New Video: Take Me Home Country Roads – Fiddle BreakIn my newest short video, I take the chorus of this John Denver classic and fiddle with it — slides, double stops, polyrhythms, melodic patterns. If you're interested in taking fiddle breaks, my advice is to build a solo around the melody. 👉 Watch the short on YouTube 👉 Watch the full tutorial on YouTube And speaking of Country Roads — I’m doing a Jam Session Workshop for the song on Monday with the Play Every Day community. 🛠 Site UpdatesA few folks who were subscribed to the course and community bundle couldn’t download audio and PDF files. If that was you — happy dance time. It’s fixed. And if you spot a mistake or something that’s not working on the site, don’t be shy. I read every one of these. It genuinely helps. Play Every Day🗓 Upcoming EventsMonday, Jun 15 · 3:00–4:00 PM EDT Take Me Home Country Roads — Jam Session Tuesday, Jun 16 · 10:00–11:00 AM EDT Weekly Meetup with Tom and Deb Thursday, Jun 18 · 8:00–9:00 PM EDT No Fear Fiddle Friday, Jun 19 · 11:00 AM–12:00 PM EDT Classical Corner Practice Group Hat tip to Tom, Deb, Jocelyn and Krista for leading student events 🎩 🌟 Community SpotlightCourtney went to her first jam! 🎉 “I finally was able to attend my first jam ever this week. I had no idea it would be so fun and relaxed. I wanted to capture a video for the memory. You can see how hesitant I am, even though this was one of the simpler tunes for chording. I can’t wait to go again and keep building the skill!” That hesitation she’s describing? That’s courage. The fact that she went anyway — and then went back to write about it — says everything. 🎻 Until next week, keep on fiddling… — Jason PS: Thank you for being here. If you enjoy the newsletter, please forward it to a lucky friend. And if this email was forwarded to you, get your own ✨ |
FiddleHed
You can play violin. The secret is learning to practice in a way that doesn't make you want to throw your instrument out a window. I've been teaching online since 2017. Sign up for free lessons, tips, and giveaways — plus dad jokes you'll regret laughing at. 🎻🤓
Hi Reader, We're past the halfway point of the 5-for-30 Practice Challenge. Today is Day 16. The middle is the quiet part. Nobody quits loudly. They just say "I'll play tomorrow." So today I'm not giving you a lesson. I'm showing you my own practice. I picked a tune I didn't know by heart: Westphalia Waltz. I read music fine. But reading a tune isn't knowing it. If I look away, it's gone. So I chunk it. In Strum Machine, I loop the first four bars. I read them once. Then I turn away from the...
Hey Reader, Today is the last day to enter the fiddle giveaway. Entries close tonight. Saturday I draw a name. Sunday I tell everybody who won. 👉 Enter the giveaway → You can enter more than once, by the way. Share your link with a friend, share it on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube — each one adds entries. The referral link is the big one. It’s all on the entry page once you’re in. I’ve been playing it all week I keep picking this fiddle up when I’m supposed to be doing other things. It...
Hey Reader, We’re giving away a violin. Not a cheap one. A handmade one. Michael, one of our own PED members, started out on guitar. Then he picked up fiddle. Then — because apparently one instrument wasn’t enough of a project — he started building violins. He’s made a bunch since joining, and we’ve already given a few away... I’ve been playing this one. It sounds great. It’s beautiful. And it’s easy on the eyes, which matters more than we like to admit. 👀 I demo it a bit in this YouTube...