great fiddle video: Natalie MacMaster

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Jennie
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great fiddle video: Natalie MacMaster

Post by Jennie »

Just wanted to give you fiddlers the name of a cool resource. I just ordered a fiddle lesson video with Natalie MacMaster for my daughter, who's an intermediate level player. Natalie MacMaster is a Cape Breton style fiddler.

The lesson gives students some tunes (march, strathspey, reel, jig, and hornpipe). She provides the sheet music, but takes each tune and then minutely goes through each one giving suggestions for stylistic ornamentation and bowing. There is a lot of detail-- every single phrase has suggestions for grace notes, bowing, cuts or double stops. You could come up with some really polished pieces if you spent some time with this.

It turns out that at this point in time, it's a little too detailed for my daughter, who has a twelve-year-old's attention span (appropriate, since she's twelve years old) and is not ready to do quite so many new things at once. But I think it's terrific, especially for someone who wants to apply all the Cape Breton style ornamentation to some real music. Just thought I'd offer a recommendation for anyone who's at that level right now. I got it from Paul Cranford Publications. Anyone else using this? Or have another suggestion for those of us who are far from teachers?

Jennie

Edited to fix spelling of MacMaster.
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ennistraveler
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Post by ennistraveler »

It sounds like it would be the perfect Christmas gift for my boyfriend, who loves Nathalie's fiddling and wants to learn the Cape Breton style. How much did it cost? Is it available on DVD?
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Jennie
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Post by Jennie »

This one cost $29.95, though since then I located it four dollars cheaper at Elderly Music. Unfortunately, it's not available on DVD. I did notice a couple of Kevin Burke instructional videos in both DVD and VHS format. Maybe we'll try them next; my daughter loves Irish music and that's her main focus lately.

I'm wishing I were a fiddler. I really enjoy Natalie's lesson. It's an hour long, but has way more material than I could practice in one lesson. If your boyfriend loves Cape Breton music, and if he's able to pick up tunes from the sheet music or from her phrase-by-phrase demonstration, he could really have a lot of fun with this one. If I were using it myself, I'd pause the video and practice each little phrase several times before continuing.

Also bought a CD of Jerry Holland playing, Cape Breton style. Wow!

Jennie
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