Fiddle Progress Report – March 2024
April 1, 2024
March was another month of consistent practice for me, though I continue to take this all very slowly. Despite the slow pace, I have felt pretty good about the state of my practice on the tunes I’m playing, so this seems to have paid off.
Since February, I’ve moved on through two different songs in the EEI book:
- #81 – Michael Row the Boat Ashore
- #86 – Ode to Joy
Ode to Joy is fairly easy for me except for the fact it’s there to focus on 4th finger, which is always a challenge. I have very short fingers, and that is the shortest, so 4th finger playing needs all the practice it can get. I do practice with Tetrachords, but that’s still different from actually using it in a song.
I also moved on from Boil Them Cabbage Down from my Fiddle and Song book to Shortnin’ Bread with the AFM method. I haven’t played anything in the AFM method in a very long time – since the first year of practice! But this was the first method I used that focused completely on fiddle tunes and learning by ear.
I was surprised to see how quickly I picked up this tune again. While it is simple, it’s nice to see that I retained some muscle memory even for songs I haven’t played in almost five years. I know that I’ll be moving on from this song this month, and I might pick up another AFM tune in the series when I do.
Wishing you a happy April!