August 2020 Fiddle Progress Report
Posted on August 14, 2020
Progress report is back!
I know I missed last month’s progress report, and almost considered putting them away for good. But I’ve decided to actually write one this month, and a day early, to boot. This is mostly because I’ve been doing a number of new things lately, which I do want to document.
Looking back at my June report, I see that’s when I started going back through the EEI tunes. I’ve continued to do that, especially focusing on songs that challenge me to make use of 4th finger.
Some new things that I’ve picked up in the last few weeks…
Collé — working on flexibility of my bow hand. I began by practicing with a pencil. But starting this week, I’ve actually moved on to practicing collé using the bow on the strings. I find this easier than trying to do it in mid-air. I feel like this is a pretty important skill to work into my practice for sure.
Vibrato rolls — I’m continuing to build on the vibration training bit by bit. It’s taken me a long time, and I’m still working to understand the newest motion — rolls. I’m starting to get better with this, I think. The next step will be actually applying bow strokes to the finger motion. But I feel that’s a while away yet.
New scales book — I Love My Scales. I bought a new book of scales that has replaced the old scale practice I was doing. I like this far more and feel like it gives me much more practice than just going up and down a scale. Especially since there’s a focus on 4th finger here, too.
Fiddle & Song book — Learning how to shuffle bow. This new book has really put shuffle bowing up first and foremost. I need to write a post about it eventually, but I’m having a great time with the technique!
Most of what I’ve been doing have been from various book/CD sets lately. I took a bit of a break from the AFM and other methods I’d been following. Also took a break from the Skye Boat Song, which I’d learned from my Celtic book all during last month.
All in all, I’m pleased with the variation I have in my practice and the different exercises I’ve picked up since my last progress report. I hope to see continued progress by this time next month!