I never learnt the violin as a child, the torture of a sibling’s attempt was enough to put me off it. I did learn a woodwind instrument and even did an “exam” to grade 3, but I couldn’t see the point in exams for music. Instead I eventually learnt the guitar just to be able to sing along … so I only ever learnt to strum chords to my favourite songs.

Fast forward, … my children learnt the fiddle. And so they needed fiddles, so I bought a few fiddles in the hope one might be nice enough to keep.

At that time I did give it a go, but I think I only tried to learn one tune, but my wife objected to me playing it in the house.

Last Christmas I got a Ukulele so I could imagine a new song, and so I had to learn it.

Then I was given a mandolin, which is not too different from the guitar and Ukulele, but with four strings tuned the same way as a violin.

Then I wondered … having nearly learnt how to play a mandolin, could I have any success on the fiddle? As it happens the wife was away … so as all men do when the wife is away …

Out came the fiddle, with about an 1/8″ of dust.

Two days later I was playing Auld Lang Seyne.

It would take me a couple of goes before I got my ear into the tune. I would frequently miss a note, but to misquote Mr Wise: “It had all the right notes in all the right places, but not on every attempt”.

Comment

Two days to learn the fiddle sounds impressive. But, since I have never shown any particular musical ability, I assume I am average. Yet, how did I  manage it?

1. I learnt how to read music … so reading music wasn’t a barrier
2. I learnt the Mandolin fingering … indeed, I learnt the fingering one way (one finger per semi-tone) with the forefinger used on the first two. Then I had a quick go on the fiddle and realised the fiddle would be easier if I used a different fingering (one finger per note of the scale). So for a couple of weeks I relearnt how to play the Mandolin.
3. I learnt the music … so I already knew what I was attempting to play using the same fingering.
4. I employed a tuning device

Yes it was a struggle for the first four hours. I was never hitting the right note and the tuning device wasn’t much help, presumably because my bowing was so poor that there really wasn’t a single note for the device to say what it was.

Then rather than try to follow the music, I began to learn parts of the tune. I would play three or four notes attempting to get the tuning as accurate as I could. And I kept going at the same song for perhaps an hour at a go.

Eventually I started to get an idea of

1. roughly where the finger needed to go
2. an idea of the note I wanted
3. an idea how to change the fingering to get the note
4. better bowing technique so the tuner was giving better feedback

And, at times it started to sound good …. although there were as many times when it sounded like a cat in pain screeching in an echoey tunnel.

The Let Down

Now I face the problems:

1. Any progress from now will be a lot slower
2. trying to get my wife out of the house