I generally teach 1-hour lessons. I teach my own method (of 35+ years). No reading, ear training only! Bluegrass, old time, Irish, Texas styles. I give fingering and bowings. I specialize in beginning adults. I teach Timing, Tuning, Technique, and Theory. Please have available some type of recordable media (i.e., voice recorder or something similar) so you can record, practice, and actually hear and remember what we worked on. I also teach on-line using www.Muzie.studio, which is free to you as my student. I video record all lessons so if you want a copy, I can always send it to you.
I am 4-time Southern California fiddle champ, 18-year head fiddle judge at the Topanga Banjo/Fiddle contest. I was a park musician at Knott’s Berry Farm and Magic Mountain, toured to Japan with Knott’s, was in the No. 1 southwest regional bluegrass band as a finalist bluegrass band for the Pizza Hut International Bluegrass Showdown in Louisville, Kentucky (IBMA) and am currently in Grasslands, the 2013 first place winning band at the 48 Hour Bluegrass Band Showdown in Bakersfield, sponsored by the California Bluegrass Association. We have played many bluegrass festivals, including Grass Valley, Huck Finn, Parkfield, Blythe, Calico, Route 66, and Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival. We played monthly at Me-N-Ed’s Pizza in Lakewood, CA.
Check out: The Fiddler’s Fakebook by Oak Publications is a good place to see/learn basic tunes with a wonderful discography, but make sure you memorize everything you learn!
TUNES TO LISTEN & LEARN:
A Old Joe Clark
A Red Haired Boy
D Liberty
D Whiskey Before Breakfast
D Harvest Home
Dm Road to Lisdoonvarna
D Staten Island Hornpipe
A St. Anne ’s Reel
D Silent Night
G Leather Britches
D Over the Waterfall
Violin and bluegrass are definitely apples and oranges as to approach. It is all improvisation on a general theme. I suggest you purchase recordings and listen to how they play. www.Amazon.com is a great place to get CDs!
SUGGESTED LISTENING
- Kenny Baker: Farmyard Swing; Frost on the Pumpkin; Grassy Fiddle Blues; Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe; Portrait of a Bluegrass Fiddler; High Country; Baker’s Dozen; Kenny Baker Country; Dry and Dusty
- Mark O’Connor: Festival Favorites; Texas Jam Session; National Junior Fiddle Champion; Markology; Pickin in the Wind
- Bobby Hicks: Texas Crapshooter; Fiddle Patch
- Richard Greene: The Grass is Greener; Duets
- Byron Berline: Dad’s Favorites; Pickin & Fiddlin (The Dillards with Byron Berline)
- Blaine Sprouse: Blaine Sprouse
- Earl Collins: That’s Earl
- Aubrey Haynie: Doin’ My Time
- Rickie Simpkins: Dancing on the Fingerboard