Fiddle Progress Report – May 2024
June 1, 2024
There’s not a huge amount to talk about this month in the world of Fiddle practice. I’ve been happily consistent in playing every day, even if it’s just scales, and I’ve moved through a few new tunes this month, as well.
In the EEI book, I’ve played through:
- #92 – Can Can
- #101 - Baa Baa Black Sheep
In this book, Black Sheep is one of the exercises that comes with the introduction of the G string. Now, I already play across all strings just fine, especially given that I do Sight Reading Factory exercises every day. And this tune feels pretty simple, so I don’t think I’ll spent a whole lot of time on it going into June.
In the AFM method, I’ve moved on to Lil’ Liza Jane. Again, this is another song I haven’t really revisited in something like 5 years, so I was very surprised at how quickly I was able to pick it back up, and how much I remembered it. I feel like I must have practiced some of these AFM tunes really well, because this has been the case with each of them when I’ve returned to them this year.
Practice Log Archiving
One of the other things I’ve decided to do is begin backing up my practice log. Up until now, I’ve kept it sitting on a Google calendar, which isn’t the best for long-term archiving. I’ve slowly been copying the practices day-by-day to my PC copy of Obsidian, mostly because I can then convert that into a PDF that I can hold on to safely.
I bring this up because as I go through some of the oldest practice log entries, it makes me realize how far I’ve actually come in my ability to practice and pick up old/new tunes. I felt bad about going back to the beginning when I re-started again back in January. And I feel like my progress has been extremely slow, but that’s somewhat on purpose.
In hindsight, I see a lot of these early practices where I was unhappy about troubles that I don’t struggle with as much anymore. That’s not to say I’m a great player, but rather, that I can see improvement in the reports in my practice log and how content I am with the outcome of my practices now vs. then.
That helps me feel like I’m on the right track, even if I am taking my progression much more slowly this time around.