Fiddle
Darol,John Hartford, and Vassar Clements at Mark O’Connor’s Fiddle Camp, 1996 (probably)
Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Camps in Tennessee during the late 90's pretty much changed the Fiddle world, bringing together legends and young hotshots from all over to share their knowledge and brilliance.
Because of these camps, we now have an explosion of interest, virtuosity, and knowledge that informs every part of fiddling, and those pioneering camps run by Mark, Alasdair Fraser and Jay Ungar have resulted in the present unimaginable richness of Fiddle Culture.
Where else could a youngish jazz-obsessed fiddler from California sit down with his greatest musical heroes and jam for hours?
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Celebrating 12 Years of Darol Anger’s ArtistWorks Fiddle Course
We’re beyond excited to announce that 2023 marks the 12-year anniversary of Darol Anger’s online fiddle course here at ArtistWorks.
Fiddle Lesson: The Concept of Tone
When most fiddlers are first learning to play, their primary focus is on performing the proper notes of the tune, intonating those notes correctly, and producing a generally pleasing sound. However, as students of the fiddle progress, they quickly discover that there are a plethora of ways in which they can create various sounds and tonalities on their instrument that greatly expand the realm of expressive possibilities.
Fiddle Lesson: Bowing Patterns for Melodies
A unique characteristic that sets bowed stringed instruments, including the fiddle, apart from others is the vast array of bowing techniques and patterns that a player can employ to alter a performance and the manner in which they execute a melody. These various bowing methods and patterns greatly impact the tonality of a tune and can drastically change the way a piece is performed.
“Old Time & Bluegrass Fiddle with Brittany Haas” is Now Open!
We are absolutely ecstatic to announce that our newest course, “Old Time & Bluegrass Fiddle with Brittany Haas,” is officially here! As of 9 am PT, the course is officially live and open to all students.
Pre-Sale VIP Memberships for “Old Time & Bluegrass Fiddle with Brittany Haas” Now Available!
We’re excited to announce that pre-sale VIP memberships are now available for our newest course, “Old Time & Bluegrass Fiddle with Brittany Haas.” While the course officially launches in December, joining early grants you access to a handful of amazing perks and exclusives leading up to the launch, including:
New Course: Announcing “Old Time & Bluegrass Fiddle with Brittany Haas”
We are excited to announce our newest course coming in December 2022, “Old Time & Bluegrass Fiddle with Brittany Haas.”
Fiddle Lesson: Learning the Blues Scale
The sound of the blues scale is one of the most prominent tonalities heard throughout a variety of American musical traditions. It can be heard consistently within blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, soul, and, of course, bluegrass music. Countless compositions employ the blues scale in their melodies and it’s also a great tool to use when improvising, especially when you’re first learning how.
New Lesson Department with New Lessons Added: 5-String Fiddle!
We're excited to announce the addition of a brand new lesson department on 5-String Fiddle! Darol has lined up a whole series of new lessons covering the 5-string fiddle, we are kicking it off today with 3 new lessons but stay tuned cause there are more tunes coming in the weeks ahead. You can find this new series of lessons right in the Lessons Main Menu, or to go straight to one of the lessons from here click any of the links below. Enjoy!
5-String Fiddle: Introduction 5-String Fiddle: The C String 5-String Fiddle: "Breaker's Bakedown"
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Breaker’s Bakedown on the 5-string Fiddle
Greetings fiddlers! We’re inaugurating a whole new 5-string Fiddle lesson series with this preview: a lesson on my original tune “Breaker’s Bakedown”.
This is a 5-string fiddle tune that appears on my new Mr Sun Band recording, "Extrovert", released on Compass Records in mid-May. This is a preview and you can hear the single on Bluegrass Today at this URL.?
Mr Sun always likes to put at least one unapologetically straight-ahead fiddle tune into every show and every recording. I wrote this one to feature and celebrate the five-string fiddle; you can't really play this one right without that bottom string on there.?Right at the crux of the tune, it's like that first hill on the roller coaster, up to the top all the way to the bottom.?I was thinking about Kenny Baker a lot when this tune got made, and I feel like there's a lot of Mr Baker in there. He had some pretty sly, dry humor going in so many of his tunes. So... in honor of Kenny and all the thousands of cooking shows we watched during the pandemic, this one's called "Breaker's Bakedown".