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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- FiddleHed is the fun way to learn fiddling online!
In a nutshell, to play a tune fast:
1. Play the tune many, many times.
2. Minimize movement in the left hand fingers and bow.
3. Play slow, medium and then fast.
4. Use an external time source.
The best and simplest thing you can do to play something faster is to play it many, many times. Much more than
you think is reasonable. If you do that, you'll probably naturally start to try it faster.
To play faster, you need to minimize your movement and energy.
For the left hand, try not to lift the fingers very much. Practice this without playing. Imagine a spider crawling across the strings.
Don't even bow, just slowly lift the fingers a millimeter above the fingerboard. Harder than you might think to do.
Some simple exercises for this:
D0-1-2-3-3-2-1-0
D0-1-L2-3-3-L2-1-0
try these with slur 2, slur 2 separate 2.
D0-1-2-3-2-1,
try with with slur 3
Practice using very short bow strokes; less than an inch of bow.
Push the speed in both directions. In order to play really fast, you need to be able to play really slow.
If you can play something extremely slowly, you'll know that piece much more deeply and confidently.
Speed up to the point that you can't quite to sit and then slow it down a notch.
If you can use a metronome or the play-along track, that will help you play fast too.
Metronome practice can be hard, even at a comfortable medium tempo. This is because you have
to be good enough at the tune to be listening and syncing to an external time source.
Remember, out of all the lessons on tunes, variations, technique, etc., the best thing I have to give to you is good practice. Simply play every day in a fun and productive way: loop small phrases, sing what you play, play things at different speeds, transpose phrases, parts and tunes to other strings & other scales. Listen a lot; listening is practice too. Don’t hurry. Try to focus on making the sound as good as possible so you enjoy it.
I made some “Learning Chunks” on the FiddleHed site to help you do this. These focused exercises contain sheet music, tabs and mp3 snippets to guide you on each step of your fiddle journey.
These and all new lesson pages can be viewed for one week after publication with a FREE trial membership. Check it out here: fiddlehed.com
And after you sign up, I’ll also send you a mini-course of lessons specially designed for your skill level.
Alrighty. Play every day, have fun 😀 and thanks for making music 🙏
Now, go fiddle with it...
Jason 🎻
I am 66 years old and learning to play the violin late in life and your teaching style is so helpful to me! I am happy to donate, just tell me how. Thank you!
You're a really good teacher! Thank you!
Thank you! 😃
I have been playing fiddle for a long time, but I recently joined a session group. It is a lot of fun, but they seem to think that everything absolutely must be played at breakneck speed. Just because something is played fast doesn’t mean it is played well. There are some things that I do need to play faster than I am doing now, but practice is the key. So many people take all of the soul out of a tune by playing it as fast as they can go. I enjoy your channel.
Great lesson. I didn't realize how far I lift my fingers off the strings until I saw this. That is going to be a hard habit to break, but if I take it slow and think about it it will pay great dividends. Also I tried your method of playing a hard passage as slow I could so I really know the lick. Then I was able to play it at speed. Thanks for your videos!
Your lessons are so easy to watch and follow.
Thank you so much! Your tips are very helpful, and I hope more people discover your channel. Your how to play videos are great, and they helped me play songs I had wanted to learn for a long time. Keep on fiddlin' man.
You're welcome and thank you for the feedback. Cheers!
Some of the suggestions are also transferable to my tin whistle practice. Thank you!
Great lesson from a great teacher 🎻💕
Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks again for your help! Awesome! I signed up for your lessons , super excited!
Very cool lesson. No one else is teaching this. I love it.
You are, without a doubt, the coolest of the cool...
Super pleased that Kitty still features!
Another great lesson! Thank, man!
Justin Morgan Thanks so much for the kind words!
Growing to like your video instruction.
i like waltz tunes because playing fast is something i can not seem to accomplish so i hope this exercise will get me to the river.
Thank you, a very good way of teaching, so practical necessary for beginners.
Very helpful tips beautiful
The finger chart made me spray iced tea on the monitor. Thanks.
Very good lesson. The sevcik op 1 exercises with piano are on youtube and follow these principals
Cool tip, thanks for sharing
I agree with this. Many a great fiddle tune is ruined by being played too fast . . . some rhythms are better a little slower. I mean... do you want to show off? Or do you want to sound great?
Exelent lesson! Thank you.
You are awesome..and very thoughtful...very grateful for helping us out......
Thank you for the kind words. You are very welcome. Happy Holidays.
And...pretty handsome.
Fantastic
Saw your office hours Impressed. Improv as soon as you can Pick up the fiddle 8 years ago and cann't put it down Thanks to you any and all tips are greatly appreciated. Hope to hear /see you soon on my iPad P.S. Your band every get close to Wisconsin ?
John Fahey Sometimes we make a tour around the states, so keep your eye pealed.But more importantly, keep up the great work 👍
Been loving your videos and lessons. I’ve been fiddling for a year now and love it! Any Chance you could teach the song “Indian on a stump”? I can’t find a lesson for it and but it sounds like tons of fun to play.
Found this a good lesson, love the laid back delivery
Exelent lesson! Thank you..I love the cat ..my cat hates my violin..hides under the bed when I go to 5th position on the E....
My dogs howl when I go anywhere on the E string. They have mandatory outside time when I play the violin :).
Thank you .God bless you
Thank you!
I’m guilty! I’ve played guitar fo 30 years and am very comfortable going fast tempo. I’ve been playing devils dream at medium tempo and when I try to go at a faster tempo, i have a hard time syncing my fingers with my bowing. Then I start getting aggravated with myself.
such a teacher !
Pure gold
Thank you :) im learning
You're welcome!
Please please please do a tutorial on something in the orange by Zach Bryan please!
Can you recommend a metronome? I have a tuner with one, but I can't hear it when I'm playing my violin. Great video! Putting it in my favorites to refer. Trying to play faster with Irish music, going to use and practice these techniques! Thank you so much!
+nancymaewi get an app for your smartphone. i use Cleartune.
+FiddleHed Thank you!!!!
+nancymaewi actually, clear tune is a tuner. but there are tons of free metronome apps. and there's tis youtube metronome: th-cam.com/video/usctjhJGYic/w-d-xo.html
Thanks, I did get the cleartune tuner, which is awesome! I can't use the You Tubes, due to bandwidth restrictions, but found a nice metronome on the apps store, Pro Metronome, which looks like it will work! Gotta love those apps....need to check them out before anything I guess! Anxious to test it!!!
Great tutorial :)
Where did you buy those stickers on the fretboard?
Jose, sorry to have missed your post. There are several fret markers commercially available. Google "fret markers" and some should show up. There are also articles about how to apply tape and where it should go. I don't really recommend doing it though. You will be using your eyes instead of your ears to locate where your fingers should go. Practice scales and focus on the sounds of the notes instead. I have them on my violin because I thought it would help others see my fingers better. Again, sorry I took so long to respond. Happy Holidays.
FiddleHed (
you meant four step processes of crawl, walk, run and flying.
Right on! Happy Holidays!
Watches in fast forward... haha
Thank man for this I'll be playin like adam larkey in no time heehee
Thanks.. do you have one like this for how to improvise? thx
+Daniel Bullard hopefully soon i will!
OH MY GOSH .... ahahahahahaha.
Iam 66 years old I agree it not how fast you play the The turtle wander race
as a career string teacher
-ears -not fingerboard tapes!
phil newton 🙌🏼🙌🏼