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MikeNELincs Junior Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 6 Location: NE Lincs England
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:10 am Post subject: Hi from north east Lincs |
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Hi, my name is Mike....I only started to learn to play this year....I got my first violin in January, I found a good tutor & have had weekly lessons ever since.....I'm happy with my progress & more importantly so is my tutor (or so she says).....I would be more than happy to chat to anybody else who has recently taken up the fiddle & anybody else who has hints & tips for me.....Mike |
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Shirley Senior Member
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 178 Location: West of Denver, Colorado, USA
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:58 pm Post subject: |
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Hello, Mike! Good to have you to talk with - lots of folks here to share opinions with, and learn from, I find. If you have stuck with the violin for six months, and are progressing, I guess you are hooked. Good luck!
I don't know where Lincs is - I'll have to get out a map of England! I just love it over there, although I've visited only three times...I sort of felt as though I had "come home" when I stepped out of the plane - perhaps because I was hit with the humidity that reminded me of my childhood on the east coast of the US
We all look forward to exchanging ideas with you - glad you are here!
Shirley |
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MikeNELincs Junior Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 6 Location: NE Lincs England
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Shirley, & thanks for the reply.....Yes you could say I'm hooked on the violin....I wish I had taken it up much earlier in life, but if I were forced to play it at school, or at school age, sadly I would have just laughed ....It was defiantly not for me...But with age, folk music found it's way in, & inevitably the fiddle.....My daughter gave me a new book of music today, only for beginners, but still it had things in it I wanted to learn.....Now I can play music today, that I didn't know yesterday.....Thanks again for the reply....best wishes........Mike |
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Shirley Senior Member
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 178 Location: West of Denver, Colorado, USA
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, Mike - so many of us wish that we had started earlier in life - BUT, as you say...many of us did, even so, but gave it up. A guy, especially, has to have a certain maturity, I bet, to say he plays the fiddle - not very macho to a young man's contemporaries. But, hey - older men (and women!) love a guy who plays fiddle, classical or folk.
There are lots of folk players here, and on other sites, as well, and they all have a marvelous time. Continue to enjoy playing, and good luck with your new music! (I really wish I could play folk music convincingly - I grew up with "hillbilly music," and I adore the sound. It takes a real ear to reproduce it.)
By the way, is "Lincs" a name for Lincolnshire? Or parts of it?
Take care!
Shirley |
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MikeNELincs Junior Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 6 Location: NE Lincs England
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:21 am Post subject: |
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Hi Shirly.....I'm only at the very early stages & playing some of the basic sheet music, that I suppose everybody begins with.....My main tuition book that I play from in lessons is called team strings. Some very basic stuff but quite a few challenges aswell.....One in particular I battled with for weeks on & off, It was the longest thing i had ever tried to play ,with no breaks, rests or pauses....It had me going mad,....But I can play it confidently now without the music book....Funny how the notes & finger positions stay in your mind.
I had comented to my daughter that I wanted the notes to Loch Lomond, as I love scottish tunes, so she ordered me a basic book from somewhere in the states, that has got it in, & an extra bonus for me is that it also contains Greensleeves & Londonderry Air aswel, two great slow tunes for learning.........
Yes Shirley, Lincs is for Lincolnshire, I'm on the east coast, on the estuary of the murky brown river Humber......best wishes........Mike |
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Shirley Senior Member
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 178 Location: West of Denver, Colorado, USA
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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Mike - looks to me as though you are on a fun track! Was it a "fiddle" piece that had no rests? Those can be devilish. Likewise Bach is like that a lot - my husband believes that Bach was born before they invented the "rest."
(I keep trying Londonderry Air, but I can't get it to sound like anything. Slow tunes intimidate me! )
Keep it up! Good luck! And I'm sure any questions you have can be answered here. (Scottish music is a big favorite "over here," too - lots of Scottish music groups.)
Keep it up!
Shirley |
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MikeNELincs Junior Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 6 Location: NE Lincs England
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:50 am Post subject: |
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Hi Shirly.....I already know what you mean about slow tunes.....I have since heared the midi track of how it is supposed to sound, I think I was a little quick
I'll just keep scratching away at that & other tunes.....
I have not yet attempted a fiddle tune but I'm sure I'll be having a go at some point, if I can find the right tune/s for a complete novice.......best wishes........Mike |
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Shirley Senior Member
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 178 Location: West of Denver, Colorado, USA
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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Hi, Mike - Mel Bay has published some beginner fiddle books, as well as one mainly of Scottish tunes, if you are interested. Your lessons are pretty straight forward stuff, it seems. Good luck! Enjoy!
Shirley |
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MikeNELincs Junior Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 6 Location: NE Lincs England
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 3:37 am Post subject: |
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Hi Shirley....Thanks, I'll search those out for sure......How long have you been playing, & does your husband play the violin as well???.......Mike |
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Shirley Senior Member
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 178 Location: West of Denver, Colorado, USA
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:37 am Post subject: |
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Hi again, Mike!
You asked how long I've been playing...I began the viola in Jr. High school (the instrument closet had no more violins in it, so the viola was pretty close ), I took about a year of lessons (took the street car down town, and waited in the dark outside "Pinkey's Tap" for the return trip - no worries in those days, since regular men with hats and briefcases also used the street cars...any drunk accosting a 13-year-old girl would have been in trouble...I guess those days were different).
Boy, I got side-tracked there! I played in the HS orchestra (on gut strings now that I think of it - that is all there were) had fun, but didn't really take playing seriously, and I know it showed. I stopped playing after HS, I don't really know why, and then just exactly 50 years later my husband got my old viola fixed up for a surprise present, and I started again - that was five years (and three violas) ago (you can tell by my name that I am no spring chicken!) - but this time I am serious, which can also be a problem, since adults are much harder on themselves.
Anyway! Please do post any questions you have, or any thoughts, on a new thread, and you will get interesting replies - and good luck to both of us!!
(Your profile says you are a plumber - every time my husband gets under the sink, or under the summer cabin, to fix a water problem, he says bad words and hollers, "I am SO glad I don't earn my living by being a plumber!!!" But we called a real plumber a short while ago, and he fixed our leaky parts jiffy quick, and cheaply, too, as he worked so fast. Let's hear it for plumbers!)
Bet it isn't as hard as playing the violin, though?
Best of times!
Shirley |
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MikeNELincs Junior Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 6 Location: NE Lincs England
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:59 am Post subject: |
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Hi Shirly.....Sounds like quite a few years then.....When I had my first lesson, my tutor thought I may be better off with a viola, as I'm not what you would call small & nimble fingered, & she felt that I may need that tiny little bit more finger room....I would like to try one one day but I'm sticking to the violin......It has been nice chatting & thanks very much for the welcome........Mike |
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