Fiddling Demystified’s left and right-hand method uses ear-training to mine tunes for style and rhythm clues. For sight-readers, the method fills in the style details for each tune, breaking down bowing licks and ornaments into manageable lessons for teachers and students. Residencies tailored to your organization’s needs can be compiled out of the following topics:
- Fiddling Demystified for String Players – learn tunes and style boundaries and simple arrangements
- Learning the Art of Groove – 2-note chords and rhythm patterns in three fiddle modes
- Improvisation & Grooveswapping – learn how to ‘fiddle’ with melodies and rhythms
- Fiddling with a French Accent – Learn the driven-bow syncopation that characterizes French-Canadian and Franco-American fiddling, along with the crooked tunes (l’airs tordus), cross/open tunings, podorhythmie or seated foot-tapping, turlutter (lilting the tune with the voice) and the joyful repertoire and rhythms
Donna teaches fiddle and performance at Smith and Amherst Colleges in western Massachusetts and also is a state Artists’ Fellow in the Folk Arts. She performs with Panache international fiddle quartet, Mist Covered Mountains Celtic trio and Chanterelle with singer Josée Vachon. She tours in a duo with guitarist Max Cohen and also directs the Great Groove Band in youth performances at the Philadelphia and Old Songs Folk Festivals every summer.
“An outstanding performer and world class teacher. I consider her at the forefront of the developing field of fiddle pedagogy.” Dr. Alan Jabbour, Dir. (ret)., American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
“Fiddling Demystified should be required reading for every string teacher hoping to branch out into fiddling!” Strings Magazine
“You made theory feel like a fun puzzle to tackle, and a tool that would open up new doors to enjoying playing music with other people. To me that’s huge, since it can move people past thinking “theory is going to be hard, or boring, and won’t relate to what I want to play anyway.” Of course the approach of having us immediately apply it is an important part of that — people see that they can use the information to start doing stuff that sounds good, even if they’re still a little hazy on the concepts they just heard.” Susan Conger, music teacher (3/14 Smith College workshop: “Learn the Art of Groove”.
“Donna gets it all right! I suspect that the general level of fiddle knowledge and playing will take a major uptick soon after Fiddling Demystified is published, just as other great music books such as Earl Scruggs’ original banjo book, O’Neill‘s great Irish fiddling reference and the infamous jazz Real Book influenced the course of musicians’ lives and work.” Darol Anger, string pioneer & Berklee prof, in his foreword to Donna’s “Fiddling Demystified for Strings”
