FiddlerBard Fiddle Lessons

Hello to all those following this page! First, thank you VERY much for following my business page!! I really appreciate the support and all. To those that might join in the next few days as I finally sent out invites to people I know: I appreciate y'all taking a moment to check out my business and give it a follow.

If anyone IS interested in lessons, please shoot me a DM. Once again, I am happy to do Zoom lessons for those not local. If you, or the student in mind are neurodiverse we can sit down together and make an accommodation plan to suit you, your schedule, and your brain ^_^.

Cheers all and have a great weekend!

Once again, pic from Open Beta to please the Algorithm Gods!

So, I was going pretty good on a post a day right at the beginning, then Open Beta had a gig, I had literal Cthulhu dreams immediately following and I came into a week where the Day Job is robbing my spoon drawer. So we were going to talk about Rosin next, but I'm going to hit something that's a bit more important. That's self-care.

I'm not talking about taking a bath and brushing your teeth, or eating regularly. I mean, that's important, and you absolutely should be doing all that, taking your meds, drinking water. Now though, there is something beyond that that you need to do.

You need to listen to your body and rest. That one's been hard for me to remember, to realize what I need to do. I forget that with everything that life brings. And that's what I'm going to talk about today, is remembering to rest.

So a lot of teachers, from your elementary school orchestra director right up to the section lead in the community orchestra, will tell you that daily practice is necessary to improve. "If you're not practicing daily, you don't want to improve" is one of the things my own private teacher told me.

That? Is wrong. Do I want you to practice? Abso-bloody-lutely. Do I want you to practice daily? Pffft, no. I can't ask that of someone when I don't do that myself. I mean, if you CAN and you WANT TO, do it! But listen to your body, don't practice on days you hurt, or days when hauling yourself out of bed is exhausting.

Another thing. If you're starting out, it's glamorized to practice to failure. When you blister and bleed and your fingers cramp and your muscles scream. THAT is a way to actually damage yourself.

Start slow and small, ten minutes at a time, a couple of times a day if you're feeling it until THAT is easy, then add five or ten minutes to your practice time. Let the calluses build up, let your muscles build so you don't throw your back and shoulders out of whack.

Be kind to yourself. Let your strength and endurance build. that give you a solid foundation to build on going forward.

So, you want lessons, but don't know what to do after finding a teacher? I've got you covered ^_~

First, you'll need to get a fiddle if you don't have one! For beginners of all ages that are just starting to explore music in general and violin in particular I heavily recommend renting an instrument from Milanos Music, Allegro Music, or (the best choice in my opinion) Andrew's Fine Violins.

All three of them are excellent shops, Andrews just specializes in string instruments, violins in particular. Now because these are all excellent shops, the rental will come with a violin, a bow, a case, and in most cases a cake of passable rosin.

I'll cover rosin in another post as it's its own thing. You'll also need a shoulder rest, which I'll be talking about tomorrow!

Now, to start with you don't need anything fancy, a 'student' violin is perfect for beginners. More questions? I'm happy to answer them, reach out! (once again, pic fo ye olde algorithm gods)

Hello all! I'm taking the big leap here and starting to offer lessons rather officially! Please DM me here and we'll figure out times and places for lessons while I find a more central 'studio'. I'm happy to give Zoom/Teams lessons as well for those not local ^_^ (Yay technology!) We'll discuss the cost per lesson then.

I'm excited to start sharing music with new people!

Picture to bring new roads and to please the algorism gods ^_^

(All photos unless otherwise specified are by Melissa Wold McCollum, whom I will tag as soon as I get this thing completed and posted!)