Supporting children to learn to play the fiddle

There are plenty of things you can do to help a young child who wants to learn to play the fiddle, even if you don’t play an instrument yourself.

Getting a suitable instrument

Fiddles come in may different sizes. It’s important to get a fiddle the right size for your child, so they can play without being uncomfortable. Fiddle sizes are referred to as fractions of a full sized fiddle. The full sized instrument is referred to as 4/4. Younger children might play a 1/4 size fiddle or even smaller.

Children need a smaller fiddle to be able to place their fingers comfortably on the strings when they play. The size of fiddle an adult or child needs is related to their arm length. The easiest way to check if the fiddle is a suitable size is to have the player hold the fiddle in place on their left shoulder and ask them to stretch their left am out under the fiddle. They should be able to cup their hand around the scroll of the fiddle with their arm slightly bent at the elbow.

Alternatively there are many websites that give measurements for the child’s arm length and the measurements of fiddles that will be a suitable size for them. You can find out more about this on this wiki page

Smaller instruments don’t have the same ability to resonate that a full-sized fiddle has, but it’s quite possible to have fun learning some basics until your child big enough to progress onto a bigger fiddle.

How to tighten and loosen the bow before/after playing

It’s important the bow isn’t over tightened for playing, and that it’s loosened off again before it’s put back in the case. Here are some instructions for tightening and loosening the bow .

Fitting a Bow Buddy

A Bow Buddy is an ingenious gadget that slots onto the frog end of the bow, and helps the player establish a relaxed hand hold as soon as they start learning to play. This video shows how the Bow Buddy fits onto the bow. Right at the end of the video you can see how the hand sits on the bow with the Bow Buddy in place. The Bow Buddy needs to be removed to fit the bow back in its case.

Tuning your child’s fiddle

This video gives detailed instructions for parents to tune their child’s fiddle. If you’re not familiar with the names of the parts of. fiddle, you can refer to this diagram.

Ideally fiddles should be tuned each time before your child plays. Fiddles are likely to go out of tune if the temperature or humidity changes, and can go wildly out of tune of they are knocked or dropped. The app Sound Corset has a really clear display showing when the fiddle is in tune. You can see some information about it in the middle of the website page about tuners

Keeping the fiddle safe

Makes sure when the fiddle is put in its case that your child always fastens the wee velcro strap around the neck of the fiddle. It’s too easy for a case to be picked up when it’s not zipped closed! Fiddles and bows are fairly fragile. For most children it’s best to practice somewhere with a rug or soft floor covering in case either the fiddle or bow is dropped.

Practicing

In the very early stages of learning let your child decide whether/how often they want to get their fiddle out. If your child is keen to get their fiddle out to play there are various things you can do that will help them learn effectively, and enjoy the time they spend practicing.

Holding the bow

The bow is designed to be held at the frog end. One very important factor in a good bow hold is that the bowing hand should remain relaxed. For most people this is not instinctive! In the early stages of learning it’s helpful to encourage your child to keep the bowl on the strings when they’re playing, as lifting the bow off the strings will automatically bring a lot of tension into the hand.

Playing

In the very early stages of learning, if your child wants to play their fiddle, encourage them to try anything out. You could play a CD and ask them to play along with it, or ask them to try playing as loudly or as quietly as they can. It can be fun to suggest they try to play in a way to make you dance, or to make what they play sound happy or excited, or anything else along those lines. It really doesn’t matter what your child plays when they’re doing this sort of thing – it’s just about exploring the instrument and what it can do, and becoming more comfortable with moving the bow from one string to another.

If while your child is playing you notice anything sounding interesting/different/musical etc, do ask them if they heard it…it makes learning way easier if kids are able to listen to the sounds they’re making as they play, so anything you can do to draw their attention to what they play is helpful. Asking the child something along the lines of “did you notice what happened when….?” can be an effective way to draw their attention to the sounds they’re making.

Listening to music

One thing that will make your child’s learning much more effective is for them to have a clear idea of the sounds fiddles can make, and to have an idea of the sort of sounds they want to make. This is something that will develop over time as your child learns to play. You can greatly help this process by creating plenty of opportunities for your child to listen to other people playing the fiddle (either live or recordings). If your child is drawn to particular players/bands see if they can tell you what it is about what they’re hearing that they really like.

Play pulse and rhythm games together

There are many simple rhythm games you can play with your child even if you known nothing about music yourself. You will just be learning along with your child!

Finding a beat

If you’re out walking together, start counting together in time with your steps. Count 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. When you have a steady count set up, try to accent the number 1 so it is louder than the other numbers, so you’re counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc

Once you’re doing this you can play around with who counts which numbers. How you do this will vary depending on how many people are walking with you, and how confident each member of the group is. If there’s only 2 or three of you, you can try leaving one or more of the numbers silent, or have someone say 2 numbers. Start off by keeping the number 1 the loudest.

Now you can play around with adding in some variations. Here’s a few ideas top get you started:

Try changing around who is counting which number
Change which number is accented
Add a second accented number
Speed up your walking pace and counting
Each person continues to count, and adds in a clap along with one of the other numbers
Get someone who’s not counting to add in a clap in between all the numbers
With everyone counting all the numbers, add the word “and” in between each number. Count
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4

Pulse and rhythm

If you’re unsure about the difference between pulse and rhythm, this is a very simple video that explains it

Listen to some lively music. See if you can clap along to the pulse (beat) in the music.

Find a slower tune or song that you and your child are really familiar with. Try clapping along together to the rhythm of the words or notes.

Rhythm and words

Come up with a simple short phrase and clap the rhythm of the words. Think about a favourite thing – perhaps your favourite thing to eat. Start by saying “I like sausages” (or whatever your favourite food is!) Say it again and clap the rhythm of the words (on clap for each syllable!). Then your child can come up with a favourite food. Clap the rhythm of whatever words they come up with.