[tropicana]

Besides the obvious first step (Step One: Acquire fiddle), what should I do to teach myself how to play? I want to play Celtic, blues and backup for my band. I've heard us with a backup fiddle before and it sounds great, much better, in fact, than my meager contributions on the guitar. So, where do I start?

Hey, I've been playing violin for 9 years. I know a few people who can fiddle up a storm, and what I've noticed about them is that they

1. know the instrument really well
2. can play by ear
3. have great violin technique in general

if you've never played violin (aka fiddle) at *all* and don't plan on taking fiddle/violin lessons
here are some suggestions:

a. Unless you have an incredible ear, make sure someone puts some tapes on the fingerboard (where you put your fingers) in the right place.

b. Get this book:
Essential Elements for Strings
We use it at the elementary school I help with and it has *great* tecnique and teaches you solid note reading too.

c. Pick up the violin for fun and start sounding things out. If you learn this early, you can go really far. still pay close attention to tecnique, though, because your sound can greatly improve with great tecnique.

d. Find some fiddle instruction books ) I'm not sure what to recommend.

I teach violin lessons. Email me for more!

[Flyguy]

Yes, lessons REALLY helped me when I was getting started. There's just so much simple stuff that you can do that will improve your tone that lessons can teach you. It is possible to learn without lessons, but it'll take a little more work. Good luck either way!

[tropicana]

I didn't really plan on taking lessons, mainly because I'm usually flat broke, but I think I'll look into it. I still have to find a fiddle, and that might take me awhile
Musically, I'm pretty average. I have RCM piano up to and including grade five (for now), Music Theory 1, and the fiddle would be the fourth instrument I've learned. I ave a pretty good ear, but tapes on the fingerboard couldn't hurt, and I'll look in to getting that book.
Thanks a bunch.

[Born2Worship]

In my opion, lessons are a complete waste of time and money. The violin is easy enough of an instrument, that all you need to know is the string names and start working on the G scale. I figured out "This is the day" in G the day I got all 4 of the instrumetns I play (plus piano but we already had it). I recemmend practicing doing G G A B, G G A B, B C B A A, B C B A A, F# F# G A, F# F# A A, A B A G G, A B A G G, E E E E E E D C B G, E E E E E E D C B G, G G A B, G G A B, B C B A G.