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.
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.
Welcome to the Fiddle Studio P podcast featuring tunes and stories from the world of traditional music and fiddling. I'm Meg Wobus-Beller and today I'll be bringing you a setting of the tune Horses in the Canebrake from a jam in Baltimore, M maryland.
Meg Wobus Beller:
Hello everyone, I hope you are well. Our topic for today is the best age for learning to fiddle or learning violin, since I teach both and I don't mean for this podcast to imply that there's a wrong age to learn, because I really would have to say I don't think there is one. I think if you want to play the fiddle and it's not causing you too much pain to your hands or your ears or your emotional sensibilities, that you should go ahead and play, no matter what age you are, there's not really a reason not to learn. I think, especially if you focus on the point of fiddle playing as learning the fiddle and not as trying to master the fiddle. If you're trying to master the fiddle, yeah, there are ages to start that will have their advantages over other ages, but if you're just trying to learn the fiddle, well, whenever you start, wherever you start, however old you are, you'll always be learning, so there's definitely not a time when you would learn more or less If you're four or if you're 40, you're still going to be learning. But I will go ahead and talk about some different ages, because I have taught a lot of different ages.
Meg Wobus Beller:
When you're just starting out as a teacher, you have to kind of take everyone so you even teach the students that a lot of folks shy away from, which are the students under the age of five. There are parents I have been one of them who want to get their three or four-year-old violin lessons. My dad did this for me and it worked out pretty well. I have taught three and four-year-olds. A few of them stuck with it. A lot of them didn't. It's not necessarily the best age to really tackle a complicated physical skill. To really tackle a complicated physical skill, you know kind of still learning about jumping, running, rubbing their belly and patting their head at the same time stuff like that. The beautiful thing about starting before the age of five or six is that you get this amazing brain wiring effect where most kids who start a string instrument early like that, basically learn perfect pitch Whatever's going on in their brain. That helps them find the notes and know whether they're right or wrong, kind of cements in what that note is, and once they get a name for that note, they just know it. You know, like you know your colors. That color is blue, the name of that color is blue, there's light blue and there's dark blue, sort of the same thing. That sound is a D and whether it's a high D or a low D, it's a D. So you get that from starting early. That is a nice reason to start at a young age. Starting early, that is a nice reason to start at a young age
Meg Wobus Beller:
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Meg Wobus Beller:
Starting in elementary school is great. Probably my favorite thing to teach, you know second, third, fourth graders, violin or fiddle. They're learning so many different movements that they pick up the movement part of playing the fiddle very easily and they have a lot of enthusiasm. Love elementary school enthusiasm. When you get into middle school, kids are getting used to picking up more complicated things. So in terms of trying to teach them theory, trying to teach them the details of technique or how music is organized or how it works on the page, they're going to pick that up quickly and be more interested and open to learning that stuff. And open to learning that stuff One thing that goes along with middle school is just being a little bit more aware of yourself, which can make people self-conscious or shy, but it also will help a fiddle student be more aware of what they're doing, whereas you can't always get an eight-year-old to sort of self-monitor. Is my bow straight? You know what's my arm doing? But a middle schooler who's 12 or 13 or 14 is going to be much more adept at that kind of self-monitoring behavior. Like am I doing this? Did it work? Should I try something else? Stuff like that.
Meg Wobus Beller:
In terms of high school, I love teaching high schoolers too. They're usually making the choice themselves. I haven't really taught someone starting out in high school whose parent has decided they should do this. They're the youngest adult learners for whom it's their choice to start, so it really makes them own the learning process in a different way, usually compared to, say, a high schooler who's been playing since they were five, maybe much more parent and teacher focused what should I do next? What should I do now? Whereas a high schooler who's choosing it for themselves is on their own journey and their own exploration of it. They're just going to approach things differently.
Meg Wobus Beller:
You can learn in your 20s. I've taught folks in their 20s. They learn quick. They don't usually have a lot of responsibilities so they can really dive in. They're not distracted with other things in life. A lot of times they're learning because I've got my first job, I've got an income and I can finally do what I want with my money and my time. So that has been what I have found with young adult learners. I've taught folks in middle age.
Meg Wobus Beller:
You know it can be tricky to fit in learning and practicing things around other responsibilities that you have with family, maybe with aging parents, with kids or with jobs that are more responsibility, and a lot of times fiddle can be something of an escape. You know something different from what you do with the rest of your life.
Meg Wobus Beller:
And, of course, do not discount starting fiddle in retirement. Lots and lots of folks start fiddle in their 50s, 60s, even 70s because they are looking for something fun to fill up their time, something good for their brain, something enjoyable. A lot of times it might be something they've always loved. They might have played other instruments and been curious about fiddle, or maybe have never played an instrument and just say you know what? I don't want to go through my whole life and not try this out. So no bad age to start the fiddle, go for it, it's going to be great.
Meg Wobus Beller:
Our tune today is Horses in the Canebrake, another G major tune out of Kentucky. Are you getting tired of them yet? I'm not. I think if you're an old time fiddler you got to have a high tolerance for G major tunes out of Kentucky. A cane break is a naturally occurring tall growing plant used by farmers as an enclosure for livestock. Okay, well, it's kind of a local tune and not related to Cattle in the Cane. That's another tune I play. So I guess there's a version by William Lee, jake Phelps and Street Butler that was recorded in Todd County, kentucky. You can look around for that. There's a field recording by Bruce Green, of course, of Phelps playing it in 1973. But most folks use the 1965 recording and you can find it in the Old Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes book if you're looking for a printed source. But this is Horses and the Canebrake. Thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening.
Meg Wobus Beller:
You can find the music for today's tune at fiddlestudiocom, along with my books, courses and membership for learning to fiddle. I'll be back next week with another tune for you. Have a wonderful day.
