Beginning Irish Fiddle (where to start, what videos to watch)

In this lesson I bring together ideas, techniques and repertoire from many of my different Fiddle Channel videos. I discuss what constitutes a beginner in Irish fiddle, what level of technique is necessary, what type of tunes you should start with, and what your aims might be as your playing develops.
I list most of the relevant tune and technique videos that I have made. A more comprehensive list, including the most popular tunes in each type, will be posted on my Patreon page.
Below are details of further fiddle resources from Chris Haigh
1. Patreon
2. Books
3. Subscription video courses
4. Website
5. Email to request pdf’s.
1. PATREON
This is a platform where anyone can help support creative artists and get closer access to their work. You can join me on Patreon at three levels, for £4, £10 or £40 per month.

At the lowest level you get access to all my pdf’s and tune collections, plus many exclusive tuition videos not available to the public.
At level 2 you can join also me once a month for a group Zoom chat, and can request a backing rack once a month.
Level 3 gives you all the above plus a free lesson once a month, and access to all my backing tracks.
You can find me on Patreon at
/ thefiddlechannel
2. BOOKS
I have seven fiddle tuition books published by Schott, all widely available from the publisher, from Amazon, and many other outlets. All come with audio tracks illustrating the tunes and exercises.
Exploring Jazz Violin
Beginning Jazz Violin
Discovering Rock Violin
Exploring Folk Fiddle
Exploring Klezmer Fiddle
Hungarian Fiddle Tunes
French Fiddle Tunes
Exploring Country and Bluegrass Fiddle
You can order from
bit.ly/31ZWmgm
3. VIDEO SUBSCRIPTION COURSES
I have three video subscription courses
MUSIC GURUS- Exploring Jazz Violin. Based on my Schott book
Parts 1 and 2 are each £26 for 26 lessons, covering the first and second halves of the book
Part 1; tinyurl.com/49tfk5ef
Part 2 tinyurl.com/23atebfc
-MUSIC GURUS Discovering Rock Violin. . Based on my Schott book
£35 for 46 lessons
tinyurl.com/2ua2kuxh
ACADEMY OF FOLK
Includes a folk fiddle primer course, with introductions to basic techniques and concepts plus an Irish Fiddle Course. A monthly sub of $9.99 gives access to all lessons
academyoffolk.com/
4. WEBSITE
My website is probably the most extensive and detailed summary of fiddle styles on the web, as evidenced by the range of top hits on Google for many fiddle styles.
www.fiddlingaround.co.uk
________________________________________________________________________
TO REQUEST PDF’S, or ask any questions, CONTACT ME AT
[e-mail]

[@TheBigMclargehuge]

"Here's the easy one to start with!" ***SHREDS INTENSELY***

[@patfiddles]

Great advice, Chris- really affirms my decision to focus on Irish fiddle. I started playing violin as an adult and at 64 can do without the shifting, vibrato, complicated bowing, and longer pieces. Give me the simple tunes that can be played in first position, are easy to memorize, and my efforts can be focused on the challenges of bowing quality and ornamentation. Definitely not the easy way out, but I like where my effort needs to be applied to get a decent sound. The skillset required is challenging without being overwhelming. Thanks for the video.

[@M_SC]

I find the difficult violin things you mentioned easier than all the double stops of fiddling

[@margaretbinns3134]

Wish I had this video during the pandemic . I have tried playing Swallowtail Jig for over 10 yrs and I’m can’t say I’m any good at it at all . I do play in orchestras but this summer I am planning to focus on Irish fiddle. I’m glad you said many things to explain where my head should be and loved when you said “ give it a year “🎼🎻 off we go .

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Glad you enjoyed this Margaret!

[@4GoatLove]

Very important addition to your video lessons. A map to the Irish fiddle. Having the different types of Irish tunes explained and the skills needed for each helps sort out the many facets. I do like this organization. Thanks again for all your work. You have helped me develop my skills as a musician tramendesly.

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Thanks, I'm glad this idea seems to work!

[@willchandler6545]

You always pop up on tunes I'm learning

[@wordybitz]

As a true 6 month adult beginner, I found this incredibly helpful. Thank you Chris, for your generosity and accessible teaching style.

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Stacy, glad you found this useful!

[@fabianaortiz7627]

HOLA! excelente video! I like Irish music very much! I'm a beginner student so your channel is great and useful for me! Gracias saludos desde Argentina 🙂

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Thanks

[@derekbarlas8092]

Great idea for a video Chris. I've been jumping around between various of your more "beginner" type tunes for a couple of years now, but it certainly helps to have them all listed by genre like this. Thanks, Derek.

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Thanks Derek, glad to hear that it's proving useful.

[@robertshorthill6836]

You haven't mentioned the Daley's Reel, which is in the "bluegrass" key of B flat. Most guitar and banjo players will use a capo at third fret and play a G major form. However, fiddlers and mandolin players must learn the Bb scale and fingering to play this tune. Now one could use a capo at 3rd fret, on mandolin, figure out the melody, remove capo, and play in G. It is a nice tune in Bb, but difficult to accomplish, up to speed for those not familiar with this key. Just thought I'd toss this out to fiddlers.

[@joeharris8574]

Good info, thanks.

[@terrytombaugh3253]

Extremely useful.

[@mattmiller6973]

This is exactly what I needed! Thanks

[@Vortid]

Very helpful!

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Thank you Dawn!

[@USA1492]

This was very helpful. Thank you

[@haleem4420]

Love your videos and your books. The books are so systematic and give the students a wholesome idea of the genre they're interested in. I bought the jazz and the rock ones. I'm very happy with them.❤

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Thanks Haleem!

[@thehumblewolf]

This is like gold. Thank you so much for sharing. I’m a beginner been playing a few years, feel pretty comfortable with clear sound and some vibrato in the first position, and this is the exact type of direction I was hoping to take my playing!

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Delighted to hear it!

[@arfyf6314]

Love your videos. They’re so friendly and funny (nice sense of humour at our expense 😂) but very informative and extremely helpful. Especially liking this one. Thank you very much 👍

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Thanks Arty, your comments are appreciated!

[@angelawekx3888]

Your video is really helpful. Thank you so much ... Greatings from germany🎻😊

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Thanks Angela!

[@503matelo]

Very helpful

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Thanks Dave!

[@jasminen273]

Thank you very much your videos. I’m an intermediate player and very interested in the Irish style. Eventually I’d like to learn hornpipe style.

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Jasmine, glad you're enjoying my videos!

[@JustFiddler]

Matur suksma🎉

[@maciejkachel6001]

Thanks Chris, Another great video! I was wondering where to start with your Irish music collection videos .. now I know :) Please do the same for the Bluegrass!

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Maciej. Glad you found this useful. If I do this again, do you think I should do bluegrass on its own, or bluegrass with old time?

[@maciejkachel6001]

@@TheFiddleChannel Both! 😁

[@michaelhutchens4243]

Hey Chris great approach to this style of music. (I'm more into Bluegrass, but appreciate this genre) I remember you posting a video of the differences between Old Time and Bluegrass. That would seem to be a good start into that style. But yes I agree a beginning set of (how-to get into) Old Time and Bluegrass fiddle music would be invaluable. Thanks

[@julianbowerman8477]

Hi Chris Mazurkas ? Sonny Brogan, Charlie Lennon’s. Easy and melodic 😊 Really appreciated this guide. Makes excellent sense.

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Julian. Mazurkas is a good idea!

[@dougnickerson]

Very good video; I have one student who wants to play at sessions, I’ve picked out some tunes that are played at sessions and are also accessible .But the relative difficulty is hard to assess once you’ve been playing for a while - for example this week we discovered by experience that the Banshee is more difficult to play than The Wind That Shakes the Barley - my student found the latter reel much easier , the Banshee does have string crossing that can be tricky in theB part. So I’m recommending this video for people, I myself had classical Influenced violiN lessons year ago and have been going to sessions in the US for five or six years. So the other student for which this video is very helpful is me 😀

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Doug. Glad you're finding this video useful. One thing to bear in mind for your student is that almost all traditional tunes are as easy or difficult as you want them to be. A particular written arrangement may be hard, but almost certainly any difficult bits can be simplified. A tune consists of a simple core melody, dressed up with fills, scale fragments, ornaments and so on, all of which can be varied to suit the player.

[@justbbryan8826]

Thank you for this Chris. I am new to the fiddle but have played the bagpipes at quite a high level so already play jigs, hornpipes, reels etc so know the make up of these tunes. I have no doubt of the challenge ahead, am really looking forward to it. Which lesson in your opinion should I work through next?

[@mrtziganarama]

Glad you found this useful. I'd suggest polkas and waltzes to start with.

[@kevinfarrellUK]

I have your book 'Exploring folk fiddle' ... a gold mine of anecdotes, good tunes and solid advice, and as a 'now' 64yr old relative beginner have found it invaluable. One thing I have discovered to great frustration is when finding a tune to try, I go hunting various versions of it, and find there are as many variations, interpretations and arrangements as there are minutes in a decade. This seems true of all folk tunes but by far the most are the Irish fiddle tunes, and it drives me insane as I end up not knowing where the median may lie. All part of the journey, I suppose. I have watched many of your vids too, they have been and are a great resource, the idea of building a set by category has not really occurred to me before, this vid has me thinking. Thank you for sharing and helping old buggers like me have a go at it. ;))

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Kevin. Glad you've found my stuff useful. Regarding the question of versions, it's not quite as big a problem as you think. The first thing to remember that every other fiddler in the world has to face up to this, and we don't in fact have complete chaos. If you're playing mostly with the same set of people (eg at a session), they will mostly know roughly the same versions of the tunes. Record the whole session, and learn one tune each week from these versions. Looking at thesession.org can be frustrating because of the dozen or so versions of each tune you don't know which to learn. But if you use KZbin instead, you can see that version 1 has 50,000 views, while version 2 has only 100, so it's pretty clear which one to learn! And try to follow my idea of learning the skeleton of a tune rather than the fine detail. This makes it a lot easier to deal with playing along with other people's versions of a tune. I think this might make a good topic for a video!

[@kevinfarrellUK]

@@TheFiddleChannel Thank you for the reply! Yes, I am subscribed to the session and as a resource it is brilliant but can be overwhelming when, as a relative beginner, i find myself like a kid in a candy shop trying to choose a tune to learn. KZbin channels such as yours are a god send and I am sure I am not alone in thinking they are invaluable. Thanks again and keep up the good work! ;))

[@TheFiddleChannel]

@@kevinfarrellUK Thanks Kevin, you're welcome. I will attempt to do a video on the topic of how to choose a version of a tune to learn.

[@dougnickerson]

Chris’s comment that the session is helpful is true. The people at the session I go to occasionally play a tune a bit different that how I learned the song . St Anne’s reel is an example of a reel that has a few versions both in the a and the B part . Recently I’ve been asking people ,”what do you play on this part ?” Can’t always bring the session to a grinding halt by asking questions but used if you keep it quick people will be happy to answer your question . Often it is just a few notes that are different . So if you modify your version , now you know two versions 😀

[@aetre1988]

And here I started right in on The Derry (hornpipe) like a total newbie/moron. (Like the tune, though, so no regrets. Would love to see this channel's take on it.)

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Aetre. That certainly was a challenging tune to start on! I recognize the tune, though not by that name. I'll put it on the list.

[@aetre1988]

@@TheFiddleChannel Awesome; yeah, it's in O'Neill's Music Of Ireland under the name, "The Londonderry Hornpipe," though a lot of KZbinrs have it as "The Derry Hornpipe," "The Ladies," or just, "The Derry." Recordings seem to vary wildly in speed and complexity, which honestly just makes it more interesting to me. Cheers. :)

[@iainbremner8909]

Thanks Chris. This has been very useful. I come from a classical background in violin and am just beginning my exploration of Irish fiddle! I'm curious about the fiddle on top of your piano as it has the high 'arches' in the top outside the 'f' holes. Do you happen to know its make? I have a fiddle just like it, made in the late 1800s, with 'STEINER' stamped on the back of the neck block.

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Iain. I'm afraid I can't tell you much about it- it belongs to my wife and she can't remember where she got it from. It doesn't have a name, and as far as I'm aware it's of no value. But it is very attractive!

[@thomaserobinson]

This was really helpful, thank you. I've been lucky to find a slow session down the road in Edinburgh where I'm doing group classes with the Scots Music Group. We play Irish and Scottish tunes. Please could you do one of these for Scottish music?

[@TheFiddleChannel]

HI Tom. Glad you found this useful. I've got quite a lot less Scottish videos thank Irish, but I'll get round to a "where to start" on Scottish music soon.

[@thomaserobinson]

@@TheFiddleChannel Thanks again :) I've been amazed at how much there is out there for fiddle in terms of online communities and video. I'd be interested if you ever made one on this weird magpie learning environment that now exists, and either how to navigate it or what it's effects on musicians and music might be. That's one reason I appreciated this video so much: guides are great!

[@poppyk1431]

do you have a lesson on Irish Washerwoman. considered easy? Is all bowing single note up down?

[@davedupplaw]

Irish Washerwoman is a well known tune but it's not easy. Everyone I talk to, whatever the instrument, says it's tricky 🤣 The second part is the tricky bit.

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Poppy. That would be a good one to do. Well known but, as David says, not straightforward. The bowing would certainly not be great with all up/down. I'll get to that shortly!

[@rosehebrewable]

@@davedupplaw I play fiddle and Irish whistle and I can say that Irish Washerwoman is a challenge on both.

[@josephlandholt5941]

Free thumbs up to anyone who can tell me the name of the hornpipe at 9:10

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Hi Joseph. I suspect I made that up on the spot, so you won't get many thumbs up!

[@robertwalker3654]

What tune ist this at 6.20 ?

[@TheFiddleChannel]

It's called Morrison's. I dod a video on it; kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2OxgGOhfq2SeJY

[@cearuilinjayne745]

Songs learn the vocal melody ornament it

[@antoniodominguezjr4734]

Calling Catharsis an Irish fiddle tune seems weird, let alone a beginner Irish fiddle tune.

[@leiladekwatro3147]

Its called catharsis because the first time playing the whole thing succesfully would be a cathartic experience

[@lmtt123]

This isn't Irish fiddle. This is English fiddle. Most tunes have common roots but an Irish fiddle player wouldn't play in this style. Also, there are 10 year old children in Ireland playing Irish fiddle better than this so it's not a "twenty year job". It depends on your ability and practice.

[@TheFiddleChannel]

Thanks for your kind and supportive comments. We can all only do our best and encourage others to do the same.

[@dawnbirch-james3752]

Thank you for this video. It gives people something to grab hold of and make sense of. Whatever fiddle English Irish or otherwise I like it. I m not a 10 year old fiddler in Ireland. I m a 61 year old English woman who picked the violin up again after a 35 year rest!!!! And your videos are very helpful. Correct me if I m wrong but I don t expect you want to play like a 10yr old Irish fiddler (amazing that may well be) - you most likely wouldn t also be able to play all the other styles you play so brilliantly. Thanks again.