🎻 I was totally looking at the sheet music...

Hi Reader!

A few days ago I was playing a few tunes with my partner and other half of Shannon Lee, and we decided we wanted to take a stab at a more modern tune written by David Kosky called The Mystery Inch.

Bear had really been enjoying listening to it and had already put the time into working it up, whereas I knew it to hear from a Goitse recording -- usually listening while at the gym or doing dishes!

So needless to say, he knows the tune better than I do, and was patiently playing along with me as I figured out the twists and turns of the B part.

But here's the thing I didn't talk about in our Instagram post (though discerning eyes will be able to tell)...

I was reading off the sheet music in the recording! 😱

In pretty much every other recording I've posted to YouTube or Instagram over nearly the past decade, I'm only playing tunes that I've learned by ear. And honestly, I was hesitant to even share this video because I do hold myself to a high standard for committing tunes to memory.

Why go ahead and share it then?

Quite frankly, I wasn't expecting to find a lesson/fiddle tip that I could share with you in posting this, but it suddenly came to me...

We so often hold ourselves back from sharing our gift of music because not every note is perfect. But waiting for perfection and not sharing could do more harm than good.

My duo is fairly new, so we're wanting to post a new video on our Instagram page once a week so people can become familiar with our sound + it gives us a good chance to play more together, and play under a bit more pressure knowing that we're recording!

Could we have picked a different tune that I knew better? Sure! And I'm sure we will over the coming weeks.

But let me tell you a bit more about what was happening behind the scenes as we filmed this -- not because you asked to hyper analyze my every move, but because you may recognize yourself and your approach to tune learning in this process!

We took 8 different takes of this video, and each time I got to know this tune a little better.

1. The messy start of "let's just hit record and see what happens when we play the tune up to speed." Quickly found the tricky turnaround spots and played through those measures a couple times before hitting record again.
2. Did better overall, but there were still a few missing notes. Started finding a couple ornament and note variations I liked.
3. Totally flopped on a measure and decided to redo.
4. Got a strong A part together and figured out which time through the tune I wanted to play which variation. B part was still a mess.
5. Figured out my pattern in the B part (D-E-G#) so I knew which note started the skipping arc patterns and which order those came in. Even though I was sight reading, I needed to know which note was coming up next due to the fast pace of the tune!
6. Best take yet -- but listening back, you could hardly hear the fiddle's F# starting note and I wanted it to come out clearer (especially since it's the first note)!
7. Definitely started feeling more comfortable with variations, note patterns and clearly getting the starting note to come through.
8. The version you'll hear in the video! I still missed a couple notes, but overall... that was a fun way to get to know a tune better!

What do you think, Reader? Do you like exploring tunes this way? Did you recognize any patterns that you do as well, or maybe got some ideas for how to approach a tune?

Happy exploring this week -- and consider this my vote of confidence in you to share something that doesn't feel "100% there" yet!

~Hannah