fiddles.....slightly off topic

[Chris "Bucket" Thomas]

My 7 year old daughter wants to learn to play the fiddle. She asks every single day with no prompting……usually happens when I pull out the mandolin etc.

I want to be reasonably knowable when I speak with a potential instructor.

I have several questions:


1. Is there a “resource point” (as great as Mandolin Café, I will settle for something even ½ as good) for fiddlers? I have not found anything yet.

2. ½ & ¾ scale fiddles for children. Good or bad brands in reasonable price ranges etc.

Any insight or part experiences are welcome.


Thanks,

Chris
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Lane Pryce]

Hey Bucket check out www.maestronet.com and www.fiddlefork.com both are great forums for fiddle players and for wanna be fiddle players. You can get all the info you will need at either. Cheers --- Lp

[MWM]

My daughter is 10 and has been fiddlin' for about 3 years. She wanted to play an instrument and chose violin over piano. We found a classical teacher who taught Suzuki method with some BG and Irish music thrown in. The teacher requests a half hour practice every day, 6 days a week. Since it's the teachers request, we don't force the practice - just remind my daughter. We try to reward her with a concert or CD every couple months. We rented a half size violin for a couple months and then bought one. A year later we needed a 3/4. About a month ago we finally bought a full size violin. Bought all 3 used from Elderly and my daughter chose the instruments herself with a little input from the staff and me.

My daughter goes to jams with me about once a month and often plays miked on-stage in front of many people. She sometimes comes with me to Festivals and has played solo pieces in Church. We just spent last weekend at a big festival in IN where she played in a couple jams. Most of the weekend she spent just having fun with friends & siblings around our camp which was fine. This summer she's started taking breaks on BG songs and has surprised me more than once at how well she's doing. I never push things and try to avoid even asking her to play. It's really tough to do that last part sometimes. If you ever force it you'll lose. Find a good teacher and be patient and loving. Good luck.

[Lane Pryce]

MWM well said. Lp

[Pete Martin]

my suggestion is rent until the kid gets to a full size fiddle, then buy. In the begionning, Suzuki violin instructions is very good. Do this about a year, then find a fiddle instructor. I know many good fiddlers who started in Suzuki as kids.

[WaywardFiddler]

Hi,
My 5 year old daughter is a Suzuki Method violin student. Of course, Suzuki is classical but with that background you can take on anything. Our teacher happens to be well-trained classicly (MA in teaching and ex major orchestra performer) but is also a fiddle fan, has a huge library of fiddle tunes that she teaches as well.
Suzuki done well is impossible to beat. It all depends on the instructor, some traditional teachers buy a Suzuki method book and set themselves up as "Suzuki teachers". They ain't. The Suzuki Association of the Americas now has certification courses. Ask the teacher what certs they have. Although be aware that some of the teachers that have been in the Suzuki game for many years and are very good don't have any certifications, why would they need them? Ask what Suzuki organizations they participate in. Go observe some lessons and group classes. No real Suzuki teacher or student will object to that. Part of the Suzuki method is observing other lessons as much as you want.
As a point of reference, our instructor does a weekly private lesson as well as a weekly group lesson for all students.

Resources... well, fiddleforum.com is about half as good as mandolin cafe. Same idea, less well organized. I also hang out on the rec.music.makers.bowed-strings news group, which has a small group of regulars. The "American Fiddle Method" books and CD's by Brian Wicklund are Suzuki Method applied to Bluegrass. My daughter loves them.

For instruments... find a good local violin shop and work with them. You will want set-up and so forth, and since student violins are the bread-and-butter for most shops, they will most likely have a reasonable rental/trade-in policy. For reference: the shop I go to credits 6 mo rent to *any* instrument purchase, and allows 2/3 of price as trade in value for any instrument they sold you. Brands.. very hard question to answer, as there are so many with so much variation. My daughter started on a 1/32 "Art Chinois" AC-200. An OK instrument, but *all* 1/32 fiddles sound like a cigar box -- but of course I spent an hour in the shop picking out the best cigar box :-) She is now on a Nagoya Suzuki 1/16 -- more by default than by choice but it gets us by. The Nagoya Suzuki units seem to be consistently "pretty good". I've heard several students playing Scott Cao violins, since he is local. He has three grades: China factory, China workshop, and master violins that he builds himself. The China workshop violins that I have heard all sounded great and are a good value in a student violin. His signed violins have won medals... but those are not student violins. I see you are in Virginia -- hop on over to the r.m.m.b-s newsgroup and ask there for a recommendation on a local shop. I know one D.C. area violinist is a regular and could probably give you a pointer. Figure about $500 for a good student violin outfit including a reasonable bow and a good set up.

A good shop will probably also have a list of local instructors that you could go talk to. As for sizing the violin, the instructor will have his/her own preferences, so you will want them to tell you what size to get. The instructor would also probably help you select an instrument. FYI: my sizing rules: 1) holding the violin normally on the shoulder, the child should be able to wrap fingers all the way around the scroll and hold it like an apple, with the finger tip extending into the peg-box and still have a bend in the elbow, 2) holding the arm under the violin straight out with no elbow bend, the scroll should end at or before touching the wrist joint, 3) when in doubt, go with the smaller size.

-dave