Raise your hand if you’ve got a kid learning from home this year. Yeah, that’s a lot of hands out there. If your other hand is busy wiping the sweat off your forehead right now, it’s normal. Schooling from home for the first time is a lot to handle, especially if...
My Fiddle Story - Baxter Bell I started playing the violin before I knew any better! I was five at the time, and apparently, I had grown fond of the piano, as my grandmother had a baby grand in her living room, quite an extravagance for the wife of a barber in the...
TELL US ABOUT YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY! Wow. Daunting challenge. So to begin, I’ll relieve those of you who may read this, the mental exercise of determining my age. I’m 72...which underscores that it is never too late in your life to pick up your axe, and start...
Even when we’re not in the midst of physical distancing and a sea of canceled events, everyone struggles with low motivation from time to time. But you don’t have to bend to the whim of motivation; instead, you can cultivate it consciously. Here’s the recipe to keep...
A Note About My Music I grew up on a farm on the land my grandfather homesteaded and in the house he and my grandmother built. My dad grew up there too. He and my mom remained hereafter they married. My mom was raised in a musical family. She sang and played the...
As fiddlers, nothing makes our hearts plummet more quickly than a buzzing fiddle. The worst-case scenarios flood in: “Is there a crack? Is something loose? Do I have to take it to the luthier and fork over a lot of cash to figure this out?” Thankfully, these aren’t...
I currently reside in the rural west Tennessee community that I grew up in. We raised cotton, hogs, and a large garden. We were poor people like most in the community. We had music and making music to fill the hours that chores and the cotton patch didn’t require....
We often discuss the loftier aspects of musicianship, but today we’re getting into the nitty gritty: how should you care for your fingertips, and nails? These simple things can make a big difference. Where should I expect calluses to form? As your calluses form for...
I started playing the violin with the Suzuki method when I was 6 years old. When I was 10, I had joined a local youth orchestra, but I was always interested in more kinds of music than classical. At a summer camp I learned about fiddling. At about that age, I...
Practicing fiddle is like stretching your muscles: it lets you notice areas that need attention and give them extra care until you notice improvement. For many people, the area that needs a lot of special attention is their left hand, where tension commonly builds up....
by Celeste Johnson Let me guess: you’re reading this from home. Hopefully, you’re also wearing your favorite pair of slippers and sipping a good cup of something. But even if you’re happy to hibernate at home for a while, some of the changes in our routines...
You know the little forks in the road that completely change the course your life? Crossroad moments that, if they hadn’t happened the way they did, would have left you a completely unrecognizable person? Maybe it’s the story of how you found the love of your life at...