Lessons
“Kenny Jackson is one of the best! He is able to break down knowledge of his craft for the beginner to understand, and can teach at any level. I am a beginning fiddle player, and while I am in awe of his musical skill, I still find him to be an encouraging, clear, and excellent teacher. ”
— Sue West
I'm currently accepting new students for private old-time fiddle lessons via Zoom.
I’m always delighted to see someone take up the learning of traditional fiddling! The instrument itself is fairly challenging to learn, especially at the beginning, but incredibly rewarding if you stick with it.
As you know, my fiddling is especially grounded in Appalachian traditional music, mostly dance tunes--reels, breakdowns, and waltzes--but also old airs derived from hymns and secular songs (there aren’t many jigs in this tradition), and this is what I teach. It's different from bluegrass or country fiddling. If you’re not already somewhat familiar with old-time music and its several styles, I can point you to some players to listen to.
Because this traditional music is based in oral/aural transmission, I teach the music strictly by ear. First you learn to get the tune in your head, mainly by singing it, then I’ll teach you how to fiddle it by call-and-response in which I play short phrases of the tune and you repeat them, until we get through the entire tune. Bowing can can make or break your old-time fiddling, and it is something that we will go over in detail.
If you’re a total beginner on the instrument, you’ll have to learn some technicals first in order to get a tolerable sound out of it — how to tune, how to handle your bow, where to put your fingers, etc. Since I don’t teach from a classical perspective, learning technique is not quite as demanding although still important, so you can take heart in that!
At present I'm teaching online lessons only, via the Lessonface platform. Follow this link for info on my rates, availability, etc., and if you still have questions, feel free to contact me.