Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Fiddlin’

Banjo Ben has helped me to be a better fiddle player! It takes time…a lot of it…, but it’s worth it to be able to play in jams and gigs with other people. Playing fiddle is fairly complicated. Its like learning 2 instruments at the same time. Not only is the fiddle held at an awkward position, the bow takes a lot of practice to get used to. I can already play banjo and guitar up to speed, and this site is helping my left hand to learn licks on my fiddle. I usually learn them on mandolin first…then transfer them to fiddle…

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Hey Tom! Welcome to the board!

What a great idea. I’ve often wondered how hard it would be to transfer mandolin knowledge to a fiddle. I own one, and it sure looks pretty hanging there on the wall, but that’s all it ever does. Maybe I’ll try this out.

Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks for sharing that Tom. I started learning violin when I was in third grade, so it didn’t really seem awkward, it just was what it was. Interesting hearing your take from the point of view a player of other string instruments. Plus, you’re an adult (I presume) and that makes learning new things awkward or different as well, I know, I just started mandolin a few months ago, and I’m old (not so much an adult), and it’s not an easy endeavor.

Please share your progress and feel free to submit videos, may be we can jam with them, who knows. And, welcome to the forum.

I’m always grabbing stuff from this site for my fiddle playing. Much of it adapts quite well.

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Hey, another fiddler! The fiddle is a difficult (though very awesome) instrument, and it can be awkward to hold, but keep at it! It gets easier. @Mark_Rocka, you can definitely transfer fiddle knowledge to mandolin, not sure bout the reverse cuz I learned fiddle first

I have the opposite situation. My daughter LOVES the fiddle, but trying to get her to play the Mandolin more. :slight_smile: