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 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 [email protected].

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 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 [email protected].

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 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 [email protected].

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 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 [email protected].

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 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 [email protected].