Q:
I want to learn to play some songs that are cool and sound great but are simple enough for a beginner. I don’t like the songs beginner books offer — things like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or worse, songs I’ve never heard of! Can you recommend a good book or specific songs to look for?
– Robert K., age 51
A:
I know exactly what you mean; it is neither fun nor productive to learn songs that you’re unfamiliar with. Because of the fretless nature of violin, you really have to know what you are going for before you can try to play the notes in tune.
I have searched high and low for a replacement to Twinkle as a first violin tune. I planned to proudly stamp my teaching materials with a big circle with an X through it saying “NO Twinkle Taught here!”.
But… as I’ve gone through the options, I can’t find anything that is as beneficial or accessible as a first tune on violin as good ol’ Twinkle.
I’ve looked through beginner fiddle tune books and beginner gypsy violin books, and it’s the worst of both worlds: the tunes are completely obscure so you don’t know how they are supposed to sound AND they still don’t sound very good or fun to play. On top of all that they are also sometimes still too complex for a beginner to tackle without incorporating some bad habits along the way.
Here’s my “beginner story”:
I had no interest in playing classical music, so I studied with an Irish fiddle teacher for the first year and learned about 30 tunes. I didn’t know how they were supposed to sound, and my technique was all over the place. I was just kind of winging it to get the tunes out to the best of my ability, but after a year they all still sounded terrible. That’s when I went on my quest for a classical teacher to help me sort out these techniques. I went through about 3 teachers over the course of that next year but it all still felt very aimless. I remember sitting on my bed thinking, “Is there just something wrong with me? Maybe my arms just aren’t attached right to play violin…”
Then I found a new teacher who started me on the Suzuki method. At that point I was so desperate to play a single thing with good tone that I didn’t care if it was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. After about four months of going through the simple initial steps of the Suzuki method, I was able to go back to some of those Irish fiddle tunes I knew and play them well. After a year and a half of combining Suzuki method with my interest in world fiddle music, I had a few very simple Irish fiddle tunes under my belt that I could play for an audience and people would actually enjoy listening and maybe even dance. At the five year mark I was jamming many styles of world music, but I don’t think I would have gotten there without the Suzuki method.
Part of the process of learning violin is developing muscle memory for particular movements: bowing, left hand intonation, certain string crossing patterns, etc… This muscle memory has to be in place before you can put it all together to play nice tunes. If you try to go the other way around, it just makes the whole process take longer and many people quit before they get there because it feels convoluted and frustrating. It’s different from guitar or piano where you really can learn great sounding tunes right off the bat just by hitting certain keys or using a certain pattern of frets and strings.
I think the Suzuki method is the BEST for training your body to do those basic techniques. Each piece only introduces one or two new techniques while most tunes that actually sound good combine many techniques. Many of the pieces are recognizable melodies, and it comes with a CD so that you can listen to all the pieces and get them in your head. (I know… yawn….) But it works! And it doesn’t take forever. After about 6 months of going through the methodical process of the well designed method, you would be opened up to playing a wide variety of good sounding fiddle tunes.
I’ve dreamed about creating my own beginner method using simplifications of the cool fiddle tunes I know. Once I started looking closely at the tunes to see what techniques they require, and tried to analyze the sequence in the Suzuki method books, it gave me a much deeper appreciation for how genius Suzuki was. Even if it was possible to create a beginner book just as beneficial only with hipper tunes, I’m frankly not sure I’d have the patience! I’m pretty patient generally, but not like him! This method was his life work:
I have just ordered a new book in the hopes of finding something good: Mark O’Connors Beginner Fiddle Method. I will let you know what I think of it.
All that being said, here is a well organized website with a few beginner violin tunes (including audio so you can hear them): http://www.fiddlestudio.com/search/label/Beginning%20Tunes
Be warned, though: the offerings on this site have many of the common problems I talked about above. The first tune is legitimately a beginner level piece and it doesn’t really sound like much more than a bowing exercise. The second piece sounds very nice, but is a HUGE jump in difficulty level.
Good luck and keep me posted!
Jenny,
This was very inspirational in that the link for the http://www.fiddlestudio.com rang the bell so to speak for me. Several tunes in that web site were tunes that my teacher made me memorize over and over to the point that several teaching lessons were spent on each tune (like boil them cabbage down). These tunes are in another beginners book that my teacher told me to get and had both a CD and a DVD to illustrate each tune of the tunes in the book. This was very helpful for me, a beginner, much like your YouTube lessons are. Thanks for this post because it gave me a different view on beginning fiddle lessons.
The solution is to add a CD. That way, Jenny can put any tune she wants to in her book of songs. The student will get the visuals (the book of music) and the ability to hear what the tune sounds like. And even more, the student can play against the CD matching notes and note quality. (Excellent ear training!)
I am a twinkle adverse adult learner as well. I think what helped me was before I tried to play a tune I would listen to a recording so much that I could hum the tune to myself then, once it was really familiar, I would try to play it. My 1st tune was Britches full of Stitches which wasn’t too terrible. What would really help is sheet music showing the bowing direction (along side a recording).
When I started fiddlin’ twenty years ago (age 40) my teacher would teach me a simple tune and when I sort of had the hang of it, she’d play a harmony. Suddenly we were no longer palying a tune, we were making MUSIC! That was highly motivating. What I’m trying to say is, a CD or DVD with tunes would increase in value, if it has the tunes to play along with AND a harmony to enjoy doing it.
Cheers
Awesome post and format, please keep it up. I have started to play violin for fun with my teacher which is a very high skilled multi-instrumentalist and after we did a few years of guitar, vocals, ear training and bass he thought I could learn violin and cello as well. He did not wanted me to learn through the Suzuki method exactly because the finger marks can make you lazy and not hear what you are doing, so I started with scales and LISTENING to what I was doing. Then I went through all the boring songs, twinkle twinkle and such and it does help a lot. I can say my singing improved after playing the violin and all my instruments actually because my ear are more keen to the subtle variations now. They say violin is the closest instrument to the heart and I understand that completely. Now I want to learn bluegrass and my guitar is pretty sharp but I’m not near learning a tune like Jerusalem Ridge or Blackberry Blossom as good as I want to, so I was thinking about the Master O’Connor mehod too. I would like to know what you think of it before I buy it. I’m from Brazil btw. Thanks a lot and keep up the great website.
I’m a 75-year old grandma learning to play fiddle in an adult small (4 people) group setting. It is fun but has limitations. Due to time constraints we don’t get a lot of individual attention to technique and so after several years I am still having difficulty primarily with bowing. Think I will avail myself of Suzuki Book 1 and see if I can improve. Thanks for the details!
I investigated (and was going to buy) a Suzuki Method book, vol 1, with CD, but an evaluation by a student who had already purchased it revealed that the CD just plays each tune straight through at a very fast tempo so you can’t play along; there is no break down into small sections for the beginner to learn, and no discussion of any technique used in each mini-bite of music. It is a revised edition and comments say it is better than the first offering which sounded like the songs were played on a synthesizer.
Another problem is that some feel the only way you can learn Suzuki Method is with an instructor. This is a real problem. I took guitar lessons for a while and they were disastrous. The “teachers” aren’t interested in the student making progress or the student will outgrow the teacher and that cash flow will go out the door.
What do you think about the Violin Lab? I want to study Irish fiddle music, too. But like yourself, I see the need for a classical grounding first. Not always easy to acquire especially if you live in an area that only values football and church.
I’d like to offer a suggestion on this topic. My instructor made me buy “The American Fiddle Method” volumes 1 and 2 and I very please he did. These books ma appear to be bule grass/folk style but I think that the tips on how to play the fiddle in each book can be used for any other type of fiddle music. Vol. 1 has a CD and a DVD that illustrates each song in the book very well (see http://www.amazon.com/The-American-Fiddle-Method-Volume/dp/B0053S7TFS/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1416335291&sr=8-5&keywords=american+fiddle+method+volume+1) and Vol 2 teaches more advance techniques. Amazon has them and I found both books, cd’s and the most of the DVD very helpful.
Wow, Chuck! Thank you for this information. How very good of you to take the time to reply. I will definitely check it out. I’m not so interested in Bluegrass as I am in Irish folk and Gypsy music. My favorite fiddler is our very own Jenny O. And my fave Gypsy violinist is Roby Lakatos; check him out, he’s fabulous! Even though he plays Hungarian Gypsy music, he too has had extensive classical training so he is very together. (In fact, when I found this out, it made up my mind to study classical, too.) Thanks again, Chuck. Really appreciate it! Lisa 🙂
Well I’m glad to be a help. I found that Amazon has volume 2 of the American Fiddle Method with a DVD and CD. The DVD’s in both vol. 1 & 2 are very helpful.
If you are interested and looking for free sheet music check out http://www.abcnotation.com http://thesession.org/tunes and especially http://www.itma.ie for a great source for Irish music, their online collections go way back to the late 1700’s (PW Joyce manuscripts are overwhelming).
This is so exciting! Thank you so much! I took your advice and got vol. 1 & 2 (they came yesterday and they look really good.) I can’t wait to get started!
I also ordered Jenny’s “Tideland” in the same order, and I’ve bee listening to it ever since. It totally rocks and I highly recommend it.
Thanks Lisa!
I’ve been reading all of the comments carefully. Jenny and just about everyone else are recommending Suzuki method. I’ve decided to put Jenny’s experience ahead of my like and didlikes. If Suzuli method will give me a solid foundation and save time from detours, then it will be worth it to bite the bullet for a while. If I can get to work and focus on the learning, then I will get past all the beginning stuff nobody likes. I’m just going to bow to the greater wisdom found in these posts re Suzuki. 🙂
Jenny,
Thank-you! Your playing of “The Gael” inspired me to finally begin learning to play the violin, and thank-you for the time you spend with us. I agree with you on both “Twinkle, Twinkle” and using Suzuki.
I began learning the fiddle from a teacher who was self-taught, and was teaching by ear. He didn’t teach me method, scales or even how to read music. It was listen … watch … listen … play. This was disastrous for me. I couldn’t learn this way and after six months decided to move on.
I spent hours and hours watching different violinist instruct/play songs on YouTube making a list of the video instructors I ‘connected’ with, another of songs I wanted to learn, and downloading ‘simple’ versions of the songs sheet music. I even taught myself to play a couple of the songs, but ‘something’ was missing. From my hundreds of hours of research/video watching it seemed a lot of people were having success with Suzuki. So, I purchased the Suzuki book 1 without the CD, and then went on YouTube to watch the videos. Yes, brembelia2004, the songs are played straight through and fast, or normal tempo for the song. For me, I recorded each song on my iPhone by using the Voice Memo app and holding the iPhone near the computer. The audio isn’t CD quality, but it was enough to allow me to follow along in the Suzuki book as I listened to each song. I would listen to a bar on the iPhone, following each note in the book, pause the iPhone, and then I’d play it myself. If needed, I would watch the video to see how the violinist bowed. As I completed a bar, I’d go on to the next one playing them together until I had the song down. This worked well for me, but, again, I was still missing ‘something’ … and that turned out to be the experience of a professional teacher. As for teachers not wanting the student to outgrow them, and thus, stop the ‘cash flow’ … I haven’t experienced this. If you have, then perhaps it’s time to find a different teacher.
Having explored the guitar and piano, I believe you can teach yourself to play an instrument, though by far, the violin is the most difficult; however, I also believe for every year of experienced teaching it would take me years to reach the same level … if ever. After just one year with my current teacher I have learned so much, and most of my self-taught ‘bad habits’ have been eradicated.
Yes, “Twinkle, Twinkle” is a simple song, but that is what makes it such a good teaching tool. It is easily, and more importantly, quickly mastered. I was able to take this simple song and play around with technique: bowing (making sure I bowed straight, different bow pressures, rhythms), fingering (working on finger memory; the song can be played on all 4 strings, and again, trying different finger pressure), and so on without having to ‘think’ about the song itself. Of course, one quickly moves beyond “Twinkle, Twinkle”, but the techniques mastered with this simple song ensured better playing as I progressed. And, whenever I get frustrated I often go back and ‘mess around’ with “Twinkle” … ‘to clear the palate’ so to speak. Hopefully … one day … “The Gael” will be my ‘palate cleanser’, and all thanks to you Jenny!
I have been a string player for many years. I concur with your assessments. A few tips and tricks that I have learned long the way are 1) It takes hard work and dedication to learn a Fretless instument. But having something you can show off is always a great ego buster. 2) Mueller-Rusch are good method books as well as the All-For-Strings books. 3) IF you are learning intonation having a tuner to help train your ears is VERY beneficial. Personally, I have an app on my phone that I will put on my stand and do scales too. 🙂
http://www.amazon.com/KJOS-Muller-Rusch-String-Method-Violin/dp/0849730015
http://www.amazon.com/78VN-All-Strings-Book-Violin/dp/0849732220/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416341120&sr=1-2&keywords=all-for-strings
Hey Jenny / All
Both my daughters used the Suzuki Method, and they both are good musicians, but unfortunately with a career after college they don’t have as much time any more to play.
I like Mark O’Conner, his music and his abilities, but. . . .
A word of caution on Mark O’Conner, he is the Antithesis to Suzuki Method. I’ve read a lot of postings from and about him and he will bash the Method at every turn.
Don’t understand why but it is what it is.
Just my thoughts and comments
I’ve been playing now going on 3 years in April and loving it. . .
Nick (age 53)
Hello Jenny
The only use for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is to check tuning between adjacent strings (using the first two notes on say the G string and the next two notes on the D string). One other use can be quite fun especially if someone doesn’t know you play the fiddle. Starting on the “A” play a fouled amateurish “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, then launch into a lively Staten Island Hornpipe….all in good fun!
Skip (age 61 and counting)
That’s a neat tune (Staten Island Hornpipe) and found it on abcnotation.com
Ket of D http://abcnotation.com/getResource/downloads/image/staten-island-hornpipe.png?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/Contra/KC/reel/StatenIslandH_D/0000
Key of E
http://abcnotation.com/getResource/downloads/image/staten-island-hornpipe.png?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/Contra/KC/reel/StatenIslandH_E/0000
I was recommended by a Suzuki mom who studied in Japan as well as my cello teacher to listen to Allyson, violin:
https://www.youtube.com/user/AllysonsViolinStudio
It’s very different culture here in the States 30 min private and groups whereas there it’s 15 min with overlap so you hear students before and after you. I was lucky with my teacher who encouraged us to enter quietly 5-10 early and stay late too to listen or even participate with duets or group piece. It helps you have a practice buddy or group too. I’m learning with my child so I have both the piano and violin duet books when I get bored with the slower pace I have other music to master. Then we can play in harmony. I think if I remember correctly May song could also accompany the theme of Twinkle. Can’t wait to try it with my kids later.
I am so glad you wrote this blog. I have been playing for approximately 6 months (I am 46 years old), and am having trouble getting good tone. I have spoken to my teacher about it, and she has assured me that it just takes time. I have no musical background, and was beginning to wonder if I had any ability at all. This blog has given me new hope. If you had the same doubts as I have, then I believe there is hope. I truly love playing the Fiddle, and I will never give up. Thank you for the inspiration.
Very kewl, Tim Olsen! Keep us posted on your progress! 😀
Hang in there Tim! I promise you I felt the exact same way. One little tip is to find good tone on a small portion in the middle of the bow before attempting full bow strokes. This helped me develop good tone and unfortunately I didn’t catch on to this method until I had already been playing for about two years.
Jenny- Thank you again for the above tip. I will never stop playing. I am having too much. And, by the way, your rendition of Last of the Mohicans is one of the reasons I wanted to see if I had any Fiddle talent at all. Being able to play that song is my ultimate goal! It is beyond me at this point, but I will get there! Your instructional videos have been a great help to me as well. please keep them going.
HI Jenny,
This is Megan Beller of fiddlestudio. Thank you for the link. It’s true that the Suzuki Book 1 is a very nice, slow progression, and some people need that either for physical or other reasons. But I’ve taught lots of folks without it. The linking step between Boil Them Cabbage Down and Uncle Jim is the A scale and arpeggio. That gives you the A part, and then the B part breaks down into easily explained and copied chunks- and the ending is the same. It’s always been an easy tune for me to teach to a complete beginner, but might be tricky for someone to tackle on their own with no frame of reference. I teach it to kids often after they have only learned the first 4 or 5 songs in Suzuki book 1. Old Joe Clark and Mari’s Wedding are also favorites to start, despite the lot 2.Great site!
Thanks Megan!