Fiddle Studio

Charley and I compare our top choices for Old Time classic G tunes. What is a classic tune? What tunes are on Charley's list? What tunes are on my list? Listen and find out!

Then we play Barlow Knife.

Get my Old Time Tune Pack 1 at fiddlestudio.com with detailed teaching materials for Chattanooga, Barlow Knife, Josie-O, Shove That Pig’s Foot, and Roscoe.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Today we talk about controlling the bow on the string, another fun challenge for folks who are picking up the fiddle.

I play the version of Icy Mountain from Ward Jarvis that's cross tuned AEAE from the Milliner Koken collection. The B part should NOT have been repeated, oh well!

Here is the bow control exercise, starring Silas the dog.

It turns out I DON'T have an episode on slurs, so putting that in the hopper. My course for learning slurs and shuffles for jigs and reels is here.

I've been exploring the book and you can see some tunes I've tried out on this YouTube Playlist.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

My husband is learning to play the fiddle, and with Charley's permission I discuss some of the issues he's running into playing an instrument without frets for the first time. This time we talk about left hand tuning issues. Next time will be the bow.

A lovely version of Kaw River, a Texas style reel in D from fiddler Sunita Pathik.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Wow, it's good to be back!

This episode is an update on what I've been doing and what I've been thinking about. Hope to be back with more fiddle topics, interviews, and tunes for you all soon.

For my anti-tech writing, check out my Substack A Life Outside or my short (FREE) book Turn It Off: A step by step guide to going offline.

Sheet music for Amazing Grace is here: https://fiddlestudio.blogspot.com/2025/11/too-much-nothing-amazing-grace.html

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Great interview this month with seven time National Fiddle Champion and creator of the FiddleStar site, Megan Lynch Chowning! Megan doesn't compete in fiddle contests anymore, or judge them, or go to them, so I was very curious to hear about why. We talk about fiddling in California, fiddle contests, fiddle camps, and different kinds of learning and relating to fiddle music. Megan filled me in on the just-released John Hartford Fiddle Project Volume 2 that she co-produced.

Megan Lynch Chowning is a seven time national fiddle champion, touring musician, Grammy-nominated recording artist, teacher, singer, and flatfooter. She's toured with Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan, Dale Ann Bradley, Roland White, Larry Cordle, Jim Hurst, Chris Jones, 3 Fox Drive, Due West, Chris Stuart, and BEML (the duo of Bill Evans and Megan).

Megan has released a series of entirely solo fiddle albums, focusing on crowdsourcing fabulous but slightly more obscure fiddle tunes. She has taught fiddle and vocals at prestigious camps such as Augusta Heritage Week, the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop, Sore Fingers Bluegrass Week in the UK, Walker Creek Music Camp, and the California Bluegrass Association Camp, among many others. She’s the co-director (with her husband, Adam) of the IBMA-award-winning Nashville Acoustic Camps. But sometimes she just likes to sit quietly and smell the flowers.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

My interview this month on the Fiddle Studio Podcast is a conversation with The Wild Shoats, formerly The Shoats. Check out their fabulous brand new album Yell in the Shoats, just out! This is a relatively new band with three talented Old-Time fiddlers. I've heard them called both an Alt-folk group and a Gothic stringband.

I get their take on the music of Appalachia, and the relevance and connection they feel to it as 21st century musicians. Hear how these musicians came to Old-Time music, met up and started singing and playing and writing music together and created their unique sound. We also chat about playing in tune on the fiddle, matching up different bowing styles, and staying relaxed while practicing. How does Huck practice when he doesn't have a lot of time?

West Virginia native Mary Linscheid, brothers Gus and Huck Tritsch of Millheim, PA, and Alex Heflin of Morgantown, WV, set an alt-folk soundtrack to the strange late-stage capitalist Appalachia they grew up in. Calling on their collective backgrounds in folk songs, honky tonk, and the Appalachian high-lonesome sound, the Shoats reimagine the songs and sounds of their home through haunting original material and well-loved covers. The Shoats won the Appalachian String Band Music Festival’s Neo-Traditional Band Competition in 2023.

Yell in the Shoats album

The Wild Shoats

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

A bluegrass fiddler and a contradance fiddler walk in to a bar...and discover they both have degrees in music education. This month I talk with Austin Scelzo and we don't hold back discussing what we think is lacking in classical music and public school music education and training.

Austin and I talk about leaving classical music and finding a home in fiddling and all about bluegrass music and fiddle and what you might not know about it. We touch on how a lot of formal music training emphasizes hierarchies and levels and the repercussions- from a feeling of not-enoughness, to hesitancy to perform, to tension in your body and your playing.

We discuss how to expand from just playing the instrument to playing and embracing music and all it can offer. Austin had great ideas about reframing performance and building a musical vocabulary as well. If I could wave a magic wand I'd make this interview required for music and music education majors at music schools everywhere, just to hear an alternative perspective.

The song we share is Austin's song Trouble in My Soul and would you believe the set of pipes on this guy? Wow!

Austin Scelzo is a New England based bluegrass musician who plays fiddle and sings with the bands the Rock Hearts and On the Trail. He's won numerous awards nationally and internationally for his leadership in bluegrass advocacy and mentorship and he's well know for his friendly, down to earth, informative teaching that has brought many fiddlers and musicians into the bluegrass fold. He teaches at camps around the country and has his own teaching studio and jam classes. Check out his offerings:

Austin's Website
Teaching and Performing Calendar
Services
Bluegrass, Country, and Roots Online School
Harmony Vocals Online School
Bluegrass Jam Class (Wernick Method)
Connect on Facebook and Subscribe on YouTube

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

I could never pick a favorite interview, but this one was up there! The conversation this month is with a heroine of mine, Judy Hyman. Judy co-founded the Horseflies in Ithaca, NY in the late 1970s and has played and taught Old-Time and Alt-Rock fiddle ever since. She now composes music for film and media.

Despite having a classical violin background growing up, Judy has never learned a fiddle tune from paper! We talk about why that is, her musical influences, and how she and her bandmates built the unique Horseflies sound. We dig into playing and creating music that creates and channels emotion, including what Judy calls "swirl", and the use of delay.

Of course we discuss her husband Jeff Claus and the banjo uke, and Judy shares the modifications that she uses to keep fiddling after playing hard for many years- for her bow and her fiddle. Then we talk about composing!

https://www.judyhyman.com/

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

We’re having a conversation with Oliver Scanlon, a fiddler and traditional musician based in Syracuse NY. Originally from Vermont, Oliver learned fiddle from the great Pete Sutherland. He played, performed and recorded extensively with Pete over the last 10 years of Pete’s life with Pete’s Posse, playing for hundreds of contradances, concerts and festivals for their nine years as a trio, releasing eight recording projects along the way! Oliver's current dance band is Stove Dragon and he does professional sound and teaches lessons on fiddle and mandolin.

Oliver and I talked about Pete Sutherland a great deal in this conversation as we discussed Oliver's path from learning the fiddle and immediately connecting to folk and traditional music—though perhaps not for the reason you might think—to how he ended up touring the country just out of high school. He talks about lessons he learned along the way and some interesting takes on the different styles he plays. Oliver is a fiddler who does sound and gives us his personal take and recommendation for specific microphones and pickups to use or avoid!

After many of my interviews we have trouble ending the chat—Oliver and I kept on talking about teaching after I'd officially wrapped things up so I stuck that bit on the end of the episode.

Oliver's website
Pete's Posse

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

An interview with West Virginia Old-Time fidder and fiddle teacher Dakota Karper. We talk about fiddle and banjo, starting her folk school the Cat and the Fiddle, improv and interpretation in Old-Time tunes, teaching beginners and developing young musicians using the Old-Time repertoire, and her Patreon which is an awesome resource!

Dakota Karper, hailing from rural West Virginia, grew up immersed in the rich traditions of Appalachian Old-time music. From an early age, she embraced folk music, studying under master fiddler Joe Herrmann and honing her craft at the Augusta Heritage Center. Dakota also deepened her skills with classical violin at the Shenandoah Arts Academy in Winchester, VA. After spending seven years in Baltimore, she returned to Capon Bridge, WV, where she now teaches Appalachian fiddle and performs regularly throughout the region.

Dakota's website: https://www.dakotakarper.com
The Cat and the Fiddle School: https://www.thecatandthefiddlewv.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dakotakarper
Bandcamp: https://dakotakarper.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dakotark

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

I was honored to chat with Bruce Molsky on the Fiddle Studio Podcast this month. Bruce has a new album out with Darol Anger called Lockdown Breakdown. We talk about getting into Old-Time and sticking with it over the years, trying to sound like your heroes, picking up new tunes, the Berklee American Roots music department, and what he listens for in old recordings.

Bruce breaks down singing and fiddling at the same time and how to develop that slippery skill. We hear a track from the new album, Can I Change My Mind.

Bruce Molsky has been playing and studying Old-Time music for 50 years, and for much of that time teaching as well. He famously learned fiddle and banjo from folks down in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina in the 70s, including Tommy Jarrell among others. He’s been performing and collaborating ever since, has over dozen great albums to check out, and he teaches Old-Time music at the Berklee School of Music and online at Peghead Nation.

You can see Bruce on the BBC TV “Transatlantic Sessions” with Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas, and on “David Holt’s State of Music” on PBS. He stays active touring and recording with longtime collaborators Darol Anger, Tony Trischka and Mountain Drifters’ Allison de Groot.

Bruce Molsky: http://brucemolsky.com/
On Facebook: http://facebook.com/brucemolsky
Peghead Nation Course
Lockdown Breakdown on Bandcamp
Youtube: http://youtube.com/brucemolskymusic
Email: bruce@brucemolsky.com

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Klezmer violinist and composer Alicia Svigals is widely considered to be the world's leading klezmer fiddler, often called the Queen of Klezmer. She was a founder and a longtime member of the Grammy-winning group the Klezmatics. She has performed with and written music for violinist Itzhak Perlman. Alicia Svigals has worked with everyone in every possible way: soundtracks, compositions, genres, in plays, on tv, and on stages all over the world. She has a brand new album out called Fidl Afire!

Alicia Svigals: https://aliciasvigals.com/
Fidl Afire Album: https://borschtbeat.bandcamp.com/album/fidl-afire
YouTube video on krehts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyz0Dg-_ssU

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Hey, it's episode 100! We hear from Charley Beller, Irish flute and guitar player and contra dance musician from Baltimore, Maryland and my spouse. Charley has played guitar on most of the podcast episodes, but this is the first time he shares on the podcast!

What's it like to learn a dozen musical instruments? Why would a person practice all the time? How does Charley view the first few months of learning a new skill?

We also chat about Clifftop and Charley asks me about a few questions as well. The tune is Greg Hooven's Won't Come Till Morning and the audio is from the Clifftop Open Fiddle Contest.

Going forward the Fiddle Studio Podcast will be monthly, on the first Tuesday of the month.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Why does the fiddle squeak? If only we knew. Hang on, we do know! I offer lots of diagnosis and advice for how to get to the bottom of squeaking. Together we can not squeak as much.

The tune for this week is Marion Reece's version of Cumberland Gap.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

What is the best age to start? There is an exact and definite best age to begin playing the fiddle and if you don't start then you're doomed. I'm kidding.

The tune for this week is Horses in the Canebreak.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

People play the fiddle for all kinds of reasons, and as a fiddler and fiddle teacher they often tell me all about it. I talk about some of the variety of reasons I've heard from adult fiddlers for why they're voluntarily choosing to take up this rewarding and challenging new hobby!

Our Tune this week is a funky Sally in the Garden I got from Marion Sumner's recording.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Busking is playing in the street for money. I've done it. In fact, I've done in New York City in the subway! A few thoughts on busking, and some busking stories.

Fun tune this week, Old Aunt Jenny With Her Night Cap On.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Recently I tried to play jazz. It got me thinking about jazz, so I share some thoughts about playing jazz as a violinist, how I approach it, what it's like, how I practice, and how I take a solo.

The tune is Ed Weaver's Cluck Old Hen. In the words of my friend Shane, it's a "nice, meditative tune".

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Have you thought about playing the mandolin? You could do worse. Welcome back to our regularly scheduled episodes, featuring a bunch of Old-Time tunes for the rest of June and July. We get caught up and talk about the mandolin. You may already know this, but the mandolin is tuned the same as a fiddle. Interesting!

This week the tune is Shippensport, a G major reel based on West Virginia fiddler Burl Hammond's playing. This tune is very fun to play!

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.

Starting summer vacation this week so I'm replaying an episode I recorded in December of 2022 about double stops and drones. I'll be back next week with Old-Time tunes.

My course for double stops and drones can be found here.

This episode covers how Megan helps her students learn to play double stops and drones and presents a setting of Tail Toddle from a workshop with Jeremy Kittel at Fiddle Hell.

The artist mentioned is Jeremy Kittel.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at https://www.meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

You can reach me at meganwobus@fiddlestudio.com.