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LEARNING TO PLAY THE FIDDLE
WITH
BFG.
Page contents.
Learning
Being your own teacher
FAQs
Help for parents and child protection
Learning by
participation.
At BFG we can help you
to learn to play the fiddle (but other
instruments are welcome). There isn’t much formal teaching – the group
is about learning. Most musicians learn to play largely by
teaching
themselves. Although we tend to regard it as the norm, the method
used
by classical musicians, where learners have regular lessons, exercises
and graded assessment, is quite unusual. So unless you want to
play the
classical violin, there is no reason why you shouldn’t teach yourself,
using recordings, going to the odd workshop and just getting
on with it. We don’t do exercises and although practice is
useful, we
prefer to think of playing music, rather than practising to play.
BFG
is about learning by participation. You may have to spend time learning
tunes, but you are doing that so that you can play with other people.
It helps if you can find other people to play with, which is one reason
why we
encourage parents to learn along with their children.
Friday sessions
BFG meets every Friday
in Blackford Village Hall. The session is
largely unstructured with groups of people learning and playing
together. What actually happens depends on who is there on the
night. Generally, the more experienced players (of various ages)
will help those just starting out. There will always be more
experienced players at the weekly sessions and you might be able to
persuade some of them to give you help at other times. But our
motto is “Be Your Own Good Teacher” because we think that you are best
placed to help yourself.
Being your own
teacher means:-
- Listen - mainly to yourself when you play but also
to the CD which goes with your music book so that you know how
the tunes go. You could also listen other BFG players and to CDs of
good fiddlers.
- Look - see how good players hold their fiddles and
bows and try to copy them.
- Ask - if you don't know how to do something or you
need some help, ask one of the better players.
- Help each other - find someone at the same level as
you and play together. Try to help them and get them to help you.
Fiddle playing is not a competition - we want everyone to succeed.
- Come to the BFG gigs. We play regularly in various
settings and most of the gigs are open to everyone. We will always play
something that everyone can play and our repertoire on any gig always
depends on who is there.
- Don't give up - sometimes you will feel that you are
not improving. This happens to everyone so find someone to encourage
you.
- But - if you do want to give up remember that you
can always try again if you change your mind (and remember to give us
back your fiddle until you need it again).
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Frequently
Asked Questions
- How much playing should I do? The important thing is
to try to play every day. Make it like brushing your teeth or washing.
Five minutes is fine to start with. You can do more when you feel like
it – the important thing is to enjoy it rather than to regard it as a
chore.
- How long will it take me to get good? This
depends on how much you play and how good you want to be. Our
best players have been playing for eight or nine years and they can
play for a ceilidh of 2 to 3 hours without music. But you will be
able to impress people after a short time.
- What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin?
They are the same instrument but played in a different style. Fiddle
players play traditional music and they are less fussy about getting
things absolutely right. Violin players play classical music and
are much more careful about the technicalities of playing. If you want
to be a violin player, you need to get lessons somewhere else.
For Parents
If you are a parent, you
might want to look at the list of hints below.
The best thing you can do is to learn to play with your child(ren).
Otherwise you are asking them to do something which you clearly don’t
regard as important enough to do yourself. Make music a part of your
everyday life and enjoy it.
- Encouragement is essential. It’s probably not a good
idea to gush with praise every time a child picks the fiddle up but you
can help children to focus on their improvement over the longer
term. You could, for example, point out that they should compare
themselves to where they were a month ago, not where they were
yesterday.
- Try for a regular session each day. At the start,
this can be short, 3 – 5 minutes would do as it establishes a habit.
But make it fun.
- Link learning tunes to pocket money or to treats -
but in a positive way..
- Organise playing sessions with other parents and
children. Music is social. (So if you have a party, ask us and we’ll
come and play music with you.)
- Finally, if it really isn’t working, don’t be afraid
to let them leave it for a bit and come back later. There is no
barrier to coming back and having another shot at it.
- If the fiddle sounds unusually grim, it may be out
of tune. You can always bring a fiddle to be tuned to Peter’s house or
that of any other competent fiddler.
Child Protection
BFG is registered with
the Central Registered Body in Scotland (see
http://www.crbs.org.uk/). We have obtained disclosure for a significant
proportion of the adults in the group and always have at least one
designated
child protection officer on duty for the Friday sessions. A child
protection policy was agreed by BFG in April 2006 and a copy of this
can be obtained on request (see contacts page.)
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