Ayepod.net - Scottish Fiddle Intermediate Course with Mairi Campbell.

Fiddle Course with Mairi Campbell.
Fee $72 (approx £38). Buy this teaching course.*

*When you purchase this course we will email you a secure link to the teaching with a user name and a password. This will happen within 24 hours of your purchase. if you have any questions please contact us.

This Scottish fiddle course in six lessons has the power to truly transform your fiddle playing. It offers you loads of practical advice, with exercises on how to let go of tension, achieve a better tone and improve your technique. Develop your style in Scottish music through the learning of these six traditional and contemporary Scottish tunes.
There is a tremendous wealth of teaching experience here, and each lesson offers the balance of technique with the finest music in our tradition.

What makes this course unique is that four of the lessons are also songs. I sing them before playing them and encourage you to do that too, for it is a great way of letting the music ‘breathe’.
I’ll also show you different styles of fiddle tunes and explain ornaments, cuts, how to get that ‘lift’ for dancing and the many ways to put yourself into the music.

The repertoire I have chosen are well known and well loved traditional Scottish songs and tunes as well as two of my own compositions. This course will set you up for a trip to the auld country, a Burns supper, a tune in the pub, or simply the pure enjoyment of you and your fiddle playing in the house.
Enjoy,
Mairi

This song/tune is a great starting point for learning about ornaments. It’s not too fast and you can experiment with my ideas and many practical suggestions on bowing, how to develop a sweeter tone - did you know that your ideal right thumb works as a shock absorber?! Give it a try. Hear the difference.

Lesson 2 - Hieland Laddie

This jacobite song gives you a chance to try variations. It’s a march and a little more lively, and I add another style of ornament and play on two strings at once for a drone effect. There’s lots more advice for bowing and practical suggestions to improve your tone and ease your playing.

This great strathspey is an essential part of any fiddler’s repertoire! Well kent in both Scotland and Cape Breton, it carries the dancers in step dancing, highland and Scottish country dancing. And it’s a song to boot! I’ll introduce you to Scotch snaps and cuts galore. Plenty of opportunities to practice them in this tune. We look at older ornaments and super-natural notes! Technique in this lesson covers the importance of the left hand for expression and tone, and answers your questions about the left thumb! Like - what does it do? (I never thought you’d ask!)
I’ll give you practical exercises for helping you realise the mystery of the left side of violin playing. Really amazing what is lurking in there!

This great song is also a fine example of a slip jig. You’ll have a lot of fun learning this tune to sing, play or dance for. I have used it also for you to develop your left hand finger technique. This is where the ‘dancing fingers’ technique comes in handy. I’ll also revise the exercises from previous lessons which will help you develop more fluent and cleaner string crossings in this jig.

This is one of my own tunes and it works great for The ‘Gay Gordons’, a very popular ceilidh dance here in Scotland. It is a march and I’ll show you how to get that elusive ‘lift’ into the tune with some quirky suggestions that really work! Three more types of ornaments and more great ideas and tips for waking up your left side and keeping the right nice and easy.

This lovely slow air is a fine example of a modern ‘old’ tune. Longer phrases and with a gaelic lilt to it, you can make it your own with all that you’ve learnt. I’ve added new ornaments, and the left hand ‘star jump’ exercise to help you play it the way you feel it.

Biography: Fiddler and singer, Mairi is based in Edinburgh. She is one half of The Cast together with husband Dave Francis and plays with a number of bands and orchestras, including Bella MacNabs Dance Band.
Mairi was born in Edinburgh and after studying at the Guildhall School of Music in London her interest in Celtic music brought her back to Scotland. She and Dave formed a duo in 1991, and in this context she performs her own songs alongside traditional material. Mairi has played viola with the innovative Kreisler String Orchestra in London and has spent some time in Cape Breton studying the music and dance of the island.

For our online teaching to work you will have to have Windows Media Player installed on your computer. This comes with Windows. If you are a Mac user you can download it here. You will also need a fast internet connection (adsl, broadband), and speakers connected to your computer so you can hear it (these can take the form of computer speakers (connected from your sound card) or headphones). These lessons are not downloaded to your computer - they are streamed from our internet servers. If you have any questions please contact us.