Customer Reviews

Old-Time Fiddle for the Complete Ignoramus (Book & CD set)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After taking violin lessons for 3 months I came across this book. I with I had started with this instead of Strings 2000. The writing is very humorous and all the basics are covered - D, D Dorian, A, A Minor, C, G... Tunes are simple but the author encourages improvisation and tell you how to do that! I showed this book to my violin teacher, who is predominantly classical and jazz, and she promptly bought a copy. This book makes learning the fiddle fun!

This is an excellent text for a beginner fiddler. The instructions are clear, concise and written with a humerous twist that eases the pain of starting out. Tunes are good too... easy to play and plenty of scope for improvisation later on. Tabs are included if you can't read music making it easy to get started straightaway. The accompanying CD is a great stand-by, so's you can listen in when the going gets tough.

this book and cd was all i needed to be playing old-time music by heart in a few short sessions. It's wonderful. The book isnt so much a "how-to" as it is a "hey, come sit down and i'll tell you about fiddling" kinda book. very enjoyable to read, simple steps, and teaches you to teach yourself. if you're even thinking about getting into fiddling, get this book!

If you just beginning to play Old Time Fiddle, then Wayne Erbsen's "Old Time Fiddle for the Complete Ignoramus" is the best instructional material you can get. After sampling the instructional materials out there, I feel it is THE BEST book and CD to start with. Instead of other books that just throw songs at you, Wayne TEACHES you, step by step, taking care to present the simple things first and in the right order. The book is written with humour and an understanding of what the novice fiddler's problems will be. That insight is the mark of a good teacher. The CD is simply beautiful with the songs played up to speed and slowly as well; the playing on the CD is inspirational; if these demonstrations don't motivate you to play the fiddle, then you've taken up the wrong instrument! One of the best features of the book is the way the tablature is written. Instead of just using "numbers" (signifying fingers) the way other books do, Wayne has you reading NOTES in no time, which is going to be alot more valuable in the long run when confronting standard notation in other situations. In conclusion, I'm very glad I started with Wayne Erbsen's book; he promises that you "will" be fiddling in a very short time and he keeps that promise!

This is a very basic beginners book. Get ABCs of Violin books 1 & 2 to go with it. Then if Fiddling is your thing, get Mel Bays Kids Fiddle too. The ABCs of Violin books with CD and DVD will be a lot more help for learning to play, but all the other information, stories and pictures in this book (Old-Time Fiddle for the Complete Ignoramus) still makes it worth buying. The easy to play collection of fiddle tunes in Kid Fiddle, from Mel Bay will give you a pile of neat fiddle tunes to keep you busy untill your skills are honed.

In good shape and with lots of helpful tips on how to begin playing fiddle. There is even some info I couldn't find anywhere else. It's very casual and provides a down to Earth motivating approach to teaching beginner fiddle.

I used this book to start learning fiddle, just to see if I would like it. This is a great, first-step, teach-yourself introduction for learning the fiddle for folks without musical knowledge or training. You can quickly start enjoying your fiddle right away, in a way that encourages you to learn more.

It starts with an introduction to the instrument, instruction on how to hold and play the fiddle, and a brief history of old time music.

The book shows you how you can learn new music, explaining how to read tab, play by ear, and understand traditional music notation. There are several bare-bones melodies included with instruction on how to flesh them out and improvise, and encouragement to make these tunes your own and find others to jam with.

The music is a mix of easy-to-play standards (The Blackest Crow, My Old Hen), and includes at least a couple tunes that everyone is sure to recognize (Shortnin' Bread, House of the Rising Sun). There's plenty of anecdotes about the music, the players, and the history of fiddling.

I used to teach adults beginner methods on piano and recorder. The first book is so important, it can mean the difference between a life-long enjoyment, or a feeling of failure and incapability. This book is fun and each song helps to develop your skills and knowledge. The author guarantees that this will teach you to play, and I believe that is a reasonable guarantee.

This is a pretty fun fiddle book. I have bought several books, but this one is the best basic book and CD that I have.

Great book for a clueless beginner like me! Was able to start playing the first week, not just learning notes for 8 lessons like some of the violin books - which are fine if you want to play violin. But fiddlin', well this book and CD are a great start! Tells you how to read the "tabs" which are the letters for the note, so you can play right away and stil learn to read music if you want to. Nice to not have to! The practice CD really helps if you play by ear as you can sting along with him to get it right. Much more affordable than private lessons!

I love this book! I never touched a fiddle in my life, but always wanted to learn how to play. I never thought it would actually be possible for me to learn to play. You always hear how difficult the violin is - how many hours and hours of practice it takes, but with this book I learned how to play Joy to the World, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Shortin' Bread after only a few lessons. I first learned all the parts of the fiddle and bow, then learned to tune the strings, then learned the D scale. Once I learned the D scale and the first part of Joy to the World, I was able to pick out the rest of the song by ear. Then taught myself Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by ear, then played Shortin' Bread from the book. It's awesome! I'm 28 years old, didn't know the first thing about fiddlin', but now I can actually play music. The book was so encouraging and fun to read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in playing the fiddle. And you really don't have to learn to read music to do it either!