Irish Fiddle for Violinists

This course assumes you’ve been classically trained on the violin, or play the violin from another tradition. Different to the classical approach, the Irish tradition encourages aural learning, learning by ear, by teaching each tune slowly, short-phrase by short-phrase, repeated many times.

Throughout the course the differences between Irish music and the Classical traditions are highlighted, such as the non-reliance of notation (notation is only a guide), not using vibrato, and alternatives to position playing.

The course clearly breaks down ornamentation and shows how to use it to create the typical Irish fiddle sound with triplets, cuts, and rolls. The tutor discusses the rhythm and bowing of various tune types, demonstrating how to create that distinguishing ‘Irish’ swing. How to bring colour to the tunes through the use of variation and chords is also explained and clearly demonstrated.

Finally, the influence the piping tradition has had on the Irish fiddle tradition is also discussed plus incorporating some of this intriguing influence into your playing is demonstrated.

The list of tunes taught includes reels, jigs, hornpipes, and a slow air.