Hello, all! It's Ashley once again, reporting back after a full week of fiddle learning. I have been part of the in-person Kansas City session on Thursday nights, but also decided it wouldn't hurt for me to take advantage of the Zero to Fiddling course we launched this week. It feels like this two-pronged approach is going to give me the best chance of getting... proficient? We'll see how it pans out for me.

The biggest success moment of my week came in the in-person class, where we focused on bow technique. It seems to be pretty common knowledge among string players that perfecting this part of the playing process is extremely important, but also deceptively challenging. I learned about the "frog" and how my little pinky finger is pretty much the muscle of the whole situation. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of the clumsiness my fingers felt the first time I learned how to hold chop sticks. Getting the right pressure in the right places and letting the balance of it all work in my f...

Ashley here. I don't know that I've officially introduced myself, but I've worked in the background at Drunken Fiddles for a few months, helping with content and other various tasks. While my work doesn't directly require expertise in fiddling, Laurel thought I should try my hand at it - partly so I'd understand what it's really like to start and partly because she thought it would be fun. And so my journey began! She helped me track down an instrument and got me enrolled in the latest session in Kansas City. Class officially kicked off last night, so I thought I'd report back about how that went. 

A Blast from the Past
While I've never played a stringed instrument before, I have some musical background - from playing piano, flute, and singing. As the lesson kicked off, I could feel my brain reactivating the parts of itself that stored information like "what are the names of the notes?" and "I think that's a quarter note". These portions have been largely dormant for many, many years, ...

While we've offered an online school for many years now, it seemed like there was an additional need for an intensive focused specifically on starting from the absolute beginning. Enter Zero to Fiddling.

This course will kick off on September 1st and is designed for students who have NO fiddling experience and are looking to get started. Over the course of the 8-week session, we'll release a lesson once a week, give students a few days to watch and learn on their own, then follow-up with a live practice session where they can log in and practice live with Laurel. Throughout the course, they'll have access to a private student community where they can ask questions and collaborate amongst themselves. 

Whether you've always dreamt of playing or are just in search of a new hobby to stretch your brain creatively, this will be a great place to start. And don't worry: we can help you track down an instrument if you need one. :) Hope to see you there!