Description
WHY PLAY ETUDES WHEN YOU CAN PLAY FIDDLE TUNES?
Introducing fiddle tunes into your etude practice builds finger dexterity, bowing agility, and sightreading skills while also being FUN!
This collection of 40 toe-tapping traditional fiddle tunes is arranged by key signature and sequential difficulty, from beginning to advanced levels. In first position only, tunes can be played slow to fast while focusing on the following technical skills:
Finger Dexterity: Fiddle tunes require rapid finger action on one or two strings. Ornamentations increase the speed of finger dropping-and-lifting and can train a light, tension-free touch. You’ll learn preparatory double-stop technique through the focus on “quiet fingers” that stay put as long as possible. Guidance for turning tunes into finger exercises will get your fingers flying faster and more accurately in no time!
Bowing Agility: Use fiddle tunes to focus on left side/right side coordination. The characteristic rapid string changes and off-beat slurs call for a relaxed, flexible technique and mindset.
Sightreading: Fiddle tunes can be deceptively simple to play at sight. The trick is in maintaining full-speed tempos, bowings, and ornaments while always reading at least one note ahead. The 40 tunes in this book will give you lots of fresh music to play, and resources where you can find even more.
Improvisation: Traditional techniques for adding slurs and ornaments allow you to play a tune differently each time. Preparatory scales and arpeggios are provided for each key, with introductory chord theory and chords for every tune, to help bridge players towards harmonic and chordal improvisation.
An excellent companion to this book is Scaling the Circle of Fifths: Fundamentals for Fiddling and Improvisation on the Violin.
