Here We Go!

The first post! Some of you reading this have been practicing with me for many years. Initially, I was putting on 6 week long study sessions that have led into the Saturday Sessions, which have become a place to focus on skills presented in my book, The Fiddle Garden. The first session was very minimal in its set up. I was just using the video and audio from my laptop. We decided to upgrade everything to make the experience better for those attending by adding a camera, condenser mic, and audio interface as well as getting the best quality internet we could. Orion (my son) has been with me the whole time, handling the tech end and Howard (my partner in everything) is reliably in the chat directing questions and cheering you on.

In the last month, we started taking video of the sessions to make them available to those of you who can’t attend the sessions live, which meant we needed to rearrange how we set up in the room to make it easier for Howard to work the second camera. When we wake up on Saturday morning, we buzz around the house getting my teaching studio ready to see about 80 of you on my computer screen.

My email list started with about 200 folks that had either purchased the book, took private lessons from me, or had attended camps where Howard and I have taught. Y’all kept showing up, purchasing books, and telling your friends, and for the last couple of months, I was sending out around 700 emails to folks who were interested in showing up Saturday morning to work on fiddle skills. It has been important to me to keep it personal. I wanted you to feel that I was working with you knee to knee, just the way I learned, sharing with you what has been shared with me and what I have learned along the way. I still feel that way.

Thank you for joining me on substack. I know it’s not ideal to have to sign up or subscribe to something else, but it will make it easier for me to communicate with you since the number of emails I was sending were being limited. Your donations allow me and my family to be able to offer the classes for free, and I can’t thank you enough. If you find yourself not being able to donate, spreading the word helps me tremendously.

Pat yourself on the back for working on being a better fiddler today than you were yesterday! See you on Saturday morning!