I tried to find an YouTube video of it or some other rendition but failed.

I have a hard time playing it as slowly as it’s played on the DVD. But I’m working on it.

She’s quite easy to understand and has a lovely accent besides.  The filming is done quite nicely with good closeups of bowing and fingering. The songs are taught at a nice pace. I’m used to learning them backwards but I can get over that.

Overall, I would recommend this video if you want to learn a few Scottish tunes.

Edited to add, here’s a better link with a detailed listing of the artists on each podcast.  Some great stuff, from fiddle to pipes to rock to vocals.

I have my music organized in a binder, separated by categories. I also have my practice lists. I try to start with the practice lists and see if I can remember the songs I learned earlier merely by name. If not, I can turn to my iPod and one of several practice playlists I’ve set up. Usually hearing the song is enough to trigger the memory and I start playing. In the worst case, I turn back to the binder (or to a book like The Fiddle Music of Scotland, which I love.

If I have to turn back to written music, I try to just look at the notes, then turn away and play. Sort of read ahead in my mind.

If that doesn’t work, I start playing while reading and THEN turn away.

I know I’ve lost it if I have to sit there and read the whole damn thing while I play it.

First, I tried cuting down to every other week but that was less than satisfying somehow. I think weekly lessons are far better at keeping your attention up and your focus on. I will definitely keep playing. I’m sure I’ll learn at a somewhat slower pace but I plan to keep learning!  I am disciplined enough to keep practicing (or I could never be self employed!).

I hope to start lessons up again someday. In the meantime, my fiddle teacher, in Walnut Creek, has said he’d be happy to work in the odd lesson now and then if I get stuck on something. Plus, he sometimes joins the group of students who come play at my house every other week, so I’ll still have some access to his excellent knowledge and encouragement.

So right now I’m working my way through older songs, to cement their imprint in my mind. I have my iPod playlists of various tunings and am going through them and refreshing myself on various older tunes. (And I’m pleased about how many come back pretty quickly. I totally credit the backwards building method of learning songs!)

Joe, a mandolin/guitar/fiddle player, was the only guy that could play tonight but we decided to still play, even if it was just the two of us. He brought his mandolin and we set about getting reacquainted, seeing what the other had been working on the past few months.  We played a few familiar pieces then branched into one he was learning that I used to know. Of course, it wasn’t fresh in my mind so we both stumbled a bit.

But we did the backwards building bit and started with the third part of Billy Wilson, just playing it over and over until we were comfortable. Then we played the 2nd part a few times, then played the 2nd part and moved into the third. Finally we started on the first part, where he was the roughest because it was the newest to him. But we just played it over and over and I could hear him relaxing into it and I fixed a few errors in my playing as we kept going.

On the one hand, it’s nice to play with folks who are much better than you are. You learn a lot. Yet… playing with someone who’s comfortable playing the same thing over and over until you’re both comfortable is quite valuable!  I think we both benefited from just trying to play fewer songs for longer periods and relaxing into learning together.

Next week I’m hoping we have a larger turnout but it will be nice to play “in real life” no matter who shows up.

I decided to work on some Celtic stuff tonight, after I practiced my daily list, and made it through 99 March, The Banshee’s Wail, Blackwater Reel, Blind Mary, Bobby Casey’s Hornpipe, The Britches ala Martin Hayes, Caisleean na n’Or, and Cup of Tea.

I hit Turolugh O’Carolan’s Fanny Poer and suddenly the HBO series The Wire is in my head, which I haven’t watched for some time. But somehow the yearning and struggle I heard as I played manifested itself as The Wire to my brain. Isn’t it interesting what instrumental tunes can do?

I mentioned it to my teacher at the next lesson and he instantly pointed out the problem. I had broken an E string (or begun to break one) so had changed it. And hadn’t paid any attention to this little slip of plastic around the string. I guess some folks put this “insulation” for lack of a better word up at the bridge to mute the high strings just a bit. That was what was rattling!  We slipped it down over the wound end and voila!  No more bothersome vibration.

It’s the little things like this that can plague a new player and some folks might be too embarrassed to ask. Or maybe you’re learning all on your own like I was when I started. So if you hear a buzzing… check out your strings!  Oh and one other time I’d heard some buzzing and it turned out the chin rest was just a little loose. Easily tightened up a bit with a bent paper clip, although I’m sure there’s also some special tool to adjust these!

I don’t totally trust transcriptions if I don’t know the source, and even then I try to keep an open ear.

Last night an old modal piece called Ducks on the Pond caught my eye, even though it’s in a book I’m not overly thrilled with. In the pre-mp3 days that might have been troublesome. But I went out to Amazon and sampled a bunch of songs until I found one I liked. I found this mp3 called Ducks on the Pond- southern appalachian and while it doesn’t match exactly it gives me enough of an idea to come up with a version that sounds good.

At least I like it–and that’s who I’m playing for.