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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Fiddling Debut

My last post was about the sea shanty sing we hosted last Sunday. A footnote from the day is that I made my fiddling debut.

I've been practicing the fiddle every day since getting it two and a half weeks ago. It's definitely challenging, but I also feel like I'm over the first hurdle (i.e., I'm mostly past the "sackful of screeching cats" phase.) It's starting to feel more natural, and the things that I thought and hoped would translate, have translated. The fiddle is tuned exactly the same as the mandolin, so the fiddle tunes I've been learning on the mandolin over the past two years are pretty well burned in.

I've been very self-conscious about sounding bad, so I've been trying to play in the basement, and at off hours. But my first "outing" happened one night last week. I was playing upstairs, and Hailey walked in. I was expecting a joking complaint about the noise, but she shocked me by telling me how good it sounded. (I'm sure this sounds like a humblebrag, but I swear I don't mean it as one. I was *shocked* that she thought it sounded good.)

My second "outing", and a sort of debut, was at the sea shanty sing. I got out a few instruments in advance, in case anyone wanted to grab one and play (the mandolin, the 12 string, etc.), and Darling Wife told me I had to bring the fiddle out, that people would want to see and hear it. Sure enough, my friend Don walked in and grabbed it right away. He played Ashokan Farewell (from Ken Burns' Civil War series), and it sounded fantastic.

Coincidentally, that's a song I know on the mandolin and have been practicing on the fiddle, so I played started in on it when he handed it back to me. Then I played a couple of mandolin/fiddle standards: Whiskey Before Breakfast and Red Haired Boy, and Don grabbed an acoustic guitar and played the chords along with me. It sounded great together.

All I could hear was the notes I missed, the notes that weren't quite in tune, and where my bow touched the wrong strings. But it was very gratifying to learn that it doesn't sound completely horrible to an audience of supportive friends. So I'll keep practicing.

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