Ben Evert.com

There’s a lot to think about if you don’t play the fiddle at all but want to learn. Answers to these three questions will start you off on the right foot: Do you need private lessons? Are any of the online resources good for beginners? Are you required to be able to read music? This article offers some answers.

Do you need private lessons, or should you go the “teach yourself” route? I recommend finding a private teacher if you can.

Why do you need private lessons? Because a beginner can get into all kinds of trouble at the start. The fiddle is not easy or intuitive. Chances are, if you don’t have somebody looking over your shoulder and saying “No, not that way. Do it this way.”, you’ll develop bad habits that will really slow down your progress later on.

So how do you find a teacher?

• Try your local paper first. Sometimes teachers advertise their services in the want ads.
• If that fails, your local music store might provide a lead or two.
• Go to music events where there is fiddle music and ask around. Fiddlers and their friends know where fiddle teachers hide out, and they’ll cheerfully tell you who to call.
• Try the internet. Just google “fiddle teacher” and include the name of your town or city.

Some combination of these should do the trick. Once you find a person or two, you need to find out what their musical background is. First prize is a good fiddle player (as opposed to a good violinist) who has some classical training. He or she will be able to school you well in the basics and help you apply these fundamentals to fiddle music. That’s what you want.

Are any of the online fiddle resources good for beginners? Yes, if you choose wisely.

There are lots of free lessons online these days. Many, however, are not much use for beginners because the information goes by too fast. Here’s what to look for:

• The video should have split screens or double screens, with bowing in one screen and fingering in the other. You should be able to see them both at once.
• The tune should be divided into sections and each section should be taught separately.
• The sections should repeat at a slow pace so you can practice each section along with the teacher.
• There should be access to written music, preferably both standard notation and tablature. At least one written music source should be visible on screen.
• There should be accompaniment available so you can practice with a guitar or other instrument.

The more of these criteria an instructional video meets, the more useful it will be for a beginning fiddler.

Will you be required to read music in order to learn to play? No. It’s helpful, but it’s not a necessity.

Of course, the usual method for presenting violin or fiddle sheet music is classical (standard) notation. That works great, if you can read it. If you can’t, there is fiddle tablature. It is simple and easy to understand. Not all fiddle tab is the same, but most systems have these points in common:

• There are four lines or spaces, and these represent the strings on the fiddle, top to bottom.
• The numbers on the lines/spaces represent the left hand fingers in the first position. A “1″ on the top line/space means you press down the 1st finger on the E string.
• The numbers have stems going up or down from the number. If two stems are connected, the two notes are eighth notes; if they aren’t, the notes are quarter notes.

There is more to it than this, but you get the idea. It is relatively easy to get the hang of it, and it enables beginners to get on with the business of playing the fiddle and not slowing down to learn standard notation. Its main limitation is that it’s hard to find tunes written in tab. The primary sources for written fiddle music are almost always in standard notation. If you can find a teacher who uses tablature to teach tunes and will write them out for you in tab, that’s a big plus

If you’re about to start down the fiddlin’ road, I hope this helps. Have fun.