🎻 "Playing scales" sounds boring -- let's spice it up a little bit!

Hi Reader!

Maybe I'm wrong and you love playing scales, and could happily do so for hours. I was never one of those people though. The most I could handle for scales was around 20, mayyybe 30 minutes at the start of my practice session.

If you're trying to avoid or get out of the classical world and into the "real feel for Irish fiddle" world, I'm guessing the last thing you want to hear is that you need to play scales!

Here's the catch though...

Playing scales really does make you a better trad musician! Let's talk about why.

With scales you can:

• Practice hearing intervals (thirds, fourths, etc). The more you play them directly under your ear, the easier it's going to be to say "hey I know where to put my fingers to make that sound!" [Spoiler: massively helpful for picking up tunes by ear.]
• Work on the finger pattern for rolls, cuts, gracenotes without necessarily having to remember which note of the tune you're on.
• Try different slurring patterns with the bow to practice phrasing
• Understand the different rhythms of a jig, reel, polka, etc.
• Practice bowed triplets.
• Improve intonation, tone and accuracy.

The list could go on, but I hope I've convinced you that there are a lot of relevant trad skills you can build with these exercises!

So maybe instead of thinking of these as scales (if that's blocking you from doing them), let's try renaming them...

So maybe we don't want to say "I'm practicing scales." Maybe instead you could say:

• I'm putting in the reps to be able to play a third on my instrument any time I hear it come up in a tune.
• I'm developing my ability to make a jig sound like a jig without overwhelming my brain by focusing on too many moving parts.
• I'm strengthening my fingers so that my rolls are clean and sound delicious.
• This is my time to play, explore and get curious. How many different ways can I play this pattern: D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D?

Thoughts? Any fun ideas for what you could call scales instead? I'm all ears, Reader!

Before I sign off today, I did want to let you know about another live teaching opportunity I have coming up as part of QuaranTUNE's Summer Fest -- these are all virtual workshops designed to be accessible to learners of all levels even if you can't travel to live workshops during this season.

Here's a breakdown of each class I'll be teaching:

Friday June 6th, 4:15-5:15pm EST -- Learn an Irish Fiddle Tune by Ear

Learning by ear can be scary if you’ve never done it before! It can also be frustrating to slow down the tune learning process if you’re used to sight reading sheet music quickly. This class is all about empowering you to give learning by ear a try! We’ll focus on one tune in class, and you’ll also walk away equipped with the skills to try learning other similar tunes by ear as well.

Saturday June 7th, 10:15-11:15am EST -- How to Style an Irish Jig

You're no stranger to Irish traditional music, and are feeling pretty comfortable about getting the notes under your fingers. That said, you know that playing Irish fiddle music isn't really about playing and memorizing notes you see on a page. In this class, we’ll look at common jig bowings and ornaments and learn how to mix and match these to help you achieve the characteristic jig sound.

Saturday June 7th, 11:30am-12:30pm EST -- Tips for Memorizing Traditional Irish Tunes (All Instruments)

If you’re wanting to move away from the sheet music and focus more on adding style to your tunes rather than remember which note goes where, this class is for you! This is a judgement-free zone where we’ll focus on helping you feel more comfortable learning tunes by ear and learn which skills to practice to help this process go faster for future tune learning.

(PS -- you already got one of my tips from reading about scales earlier in this newsletter, Reader!)

Saturday June 7th, 5:30-6:30pm EST -- Irish Fiddle Technique for Complete Beginners

If you’ve decided to pick up the fiddle as a secondary instrument, and are a fan of Irish traditional music, this class is for you! We’ll work on both the fiddle and bow hand technique to help you get comfortable with holding the instrument. We’ll also cover the fundamental good habits to build while learning this style of music on a new instrument right from the start.

Each workshop is $12.49. I'll also be performing one of the evening concerts with my partner, Bear Whitmer, for our duo Shannon Lee. There are some incredible other faculty members on staff for Summer Fest, so I highly recommend snagging the $25.99 All Access Pass! These concerts are always a blast to tune into.

Phew, that was a longer one! I'll keep sharing about the workshops for the next couple weeks, but in shorter format Reader. Thank you for sticking with me, and I hope to see you this summer!

Happy scaling ear training!

~Hannah