Charlie Walden's Tips Possum-Style Fiddlin'

Someone once asked a fiddler standing on a street corner in Nashville, "How do you get to the Grand Old Opry."  To which the fiddler replied, "Practice son. Practice."  How right that fiddler was!  No amount of theorizin', analyzin' or other such activity will get you where you want to be.  But deliberate, regular and well-planned practice will improve your playing no matter what your level.

I envision good practice having three components.  The first of these is passive and active listening.  Passive listening means hearing good recorded fiddle music all through the day.  This means putting on a fiddle tape or CD while you're eating breakfast, driving to work, making dinner, etc. 

Active listening is critical and deliberate listening to recordings a fiddler of your choice.   Listen to rhythm, bowing, melodic passages, chords.  Try to soak it all in.  Pay attention as if it were Monday Night Football, The Man Show or some other such engrossing TV programming.

The second component is to practice specific techniques that improve your left-hand and your right-hand. 

The third component is tunes.  You can learn these by ear or off the page or some combination.  Work on some easy stuff for personal encouragement and for a challenge always be working on something that is over your head.

In order to plan your practice use my Old Fiddlers Practice Log.  Print out a copy each week from the link or download it in PDF format and keep it handy.  Fill one out each week to plan your daily practice and then stick to it.

Tip #2  Twelve Ounce Curls

Nothing strengthens your bowing arm like repeated 12 oz. curls.  Just pick up your favorite brew and raise it to your lips.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat...

Tip #3   Emulate a Great Player

One of the best things I ever did to improve my playing was to attempt to emulate great players.  By emulate I mean try to become a dead ringer copy.  During some point in developing my playing I attempted to emulate Cyril Stinnett, Pete McMahan and to a lesser extent Kenny Baker, all players I had met and admired.  

You must attempt to learn a majority of the repertoire of the player you choose and in so doing all the elements of style you can figure out.  In other words, don't just learn the tune but try to play it exactly as they do.  And don't worry about becoming a clone (wait a minute, who the heck wouldn't want to sound like Kenny Baker).  Your own approach will emerge in time.

Tip #4   The "Tennis Ball Trick" Improve Bowing

Novices tend to play stiff armed when bowing.  Also, there is tendency to play out of the shoulder when really most action should be in the fingers and wrist.  If you are experiencing this try putting a tennis ball in your right armpit and holding it there while you are playing.  If you are playing from the shoulder the ball will fall out.

Tip #5   Learning To Use The Whole Bow

Look at any good player you really admire and you will that they use the entire bow in their playing.  You should be equally comfortable playing at the tip, in the middle or down by the frog.  To improve use of the entire bow isolate areas of the bow and play a variety of kinds of tunes with each section.  Take a little white electrical tape and mark the bow with it in two places, thereby dividing the bow into three sections.  The tape will serve as a guide to keep you working in the portion of the bow which is targeted.

Tip #6 2008 Harrietville Festival Workshop Videos (Parts 1 - 5)