r/Fiddle

Hey y'all, looking for some ideas here.

I'm a pro Irish/folk player needing to replace my pickup that crapped out on me (right before St. Pat's, worst timing in the world)... I've been borrowing my bandmate's pickup that sticks on, but it's wired & needs phantom power and it's driving me absolutely nuts.

What pickups do you love that are:

1. Passive or otherwise don't need phantom. I have wireless bugs that I adore and desperately want to go back to using.

2. Relatively discreet. In-bridge, under-bridge, internal? Not a fan of a mic hanging over everything, I will smack the bejeezus out of it.

3. Best bang for the buck. Not looking to go above about $300 on the high end. And it absolutely has to stand up to regular use & last me a while.

Thank you!!

Anyone have any tips on how to start. Trying to play bluegrass fiddle route. Just got fiddle today and i know twinkle twinkle little star and d major scale that’s abt it lol.any tips on where to start would be great

Hello, fiddlers. I hope you don't mind a banjo player encroaching on your territory. But I've started a banjo interview newsletter, called Banjo Head, and this week's installment features Cody Looper, the man who has been doing fiddle and banjo duets with Michael Cleveland, is a member of Flamekeeper, and also the five-string behind Jason Carter (and Carter and Cleveland, to boot). He has much to say about the joys of playing with Cleveland in this interview, so I hope you'll come check it out. It's free, unless you want to see the tab . . . or are feeling generous.

https://banjoheadmagazine.substack.com/p/the-powerhouse-from-anderson

https://preview.redd.it/det4mlr40dzg1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c05e904192792a71a0152541b9423bdf4467511

Hey everyone,

I've been playing old time for a few years and always found myself digging through YouTube tabs, scattered PDFs and forum threads trying to find different versions of the same tune. So I built something to scratch my own itch and figured I'd share it here before going further.

Sally's Garden is a community database for old time tunes (and Appalachian music more broadly). The idea is simple:

- Search for a tune by name (or alias because we all know Cripple Creek has twelve names)

- Browse different versions contributed by the community, ranked by likes

- Filter by instrument and tuning (Cross-G fiddle, Double-C banjo, DADGAD guitar, etc.)

- Contribute your own version either an audio upload or a YouTube link

- Mark tunes as "I know this one" to build your personal repertoire

- See what tunes you have in common with another musician when you visit their profile

There's also a jam session tool you create an ephemeral session (24h), share a link or QR code, everyone joins and the app calculates in real time which tunes the most people in the circle know. Useful when you show up to a pickup jam and aren't sure what everyone plays.

The app is called Sally's Garden, it's free, no ads, mobile-first (usable with one hand while the other holds a bow).

https://sallysgarden.net/

Homepage

I'm not trying to replace The Session or any existing resource this is specifically built around the old time repertoire and the jam session culture.

Honest question for this community: does this solve a real problem for you? What's missing? What would make you actually open this on your phone at a festival?

All feedback welcome brutal honesty especially. This is early and I'd rather fix it now than after.

PS: the database is pretty empty right now, that's kind of the point of this post. I'm counting on this community to bring it to life, one tune at a time

https://preview.redd.it/mtuvixi5mj0h1.png?width=888&format=png&auto=webp&s=3043adf86b8a0eaf0bae9ef2bfcdee3b679efcc3

https://preview.redd.it/r2jjwo4amj0h1.png?width=730&format=png&auto=webp&s=63a6f00c7294beafc25fb00c2962e4342ae8d6d2

https://preview.redd.it/4eqd960dmj0h1.png?width=722&format=png&auto=webp&s=6d3947364ec0049c45969724ef40d3ee9f82526d

I've been trying to learn to play Ida's Jig (Dàimh) on my fiddle, but can't seem to figure it out by ear, has anyone got advice or experience to share on the matter?