What do you say we take a little break from all the serious training Dojo talk and share some fun inspo over the weekend? Doug's Cajun Fiddle post inspired me to share a video from my fiddle idol, Liz Carol. Please post yours as a comment here or make your own post by selecting "Hot Violinist Hangout" as the category when you post. You may notice that just about everything about her technique is "wrong." But somehow it's clearly working for her!! (Watch her double toe tapping while playing too - that's something we will do later this year in the Rhythm Dojo.) I got to see her play solo like this right in front of me at Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp in the early 2000s when I had not been playing very long. At one point the fiddling was just really cooking up and she was going off on all these improvised runs and she let out this vocal glee sort of laugh rhythm thing. It was really incredible, like once in a lifetime sort of experience. Meanwhile through the camp - I was miserable to be honest. Everybody there played amazing, even the other students sounded a lot like Liz. I was slower than everyone. I swear I was the worst one there. At the time I felt like I didn't learn anything because it was all too fast and I was so far behind where I wanted to be. But looking back, that's where I learned how to do five note rolls Liz's way. And that turned out to be pretty important actually! Those five note rolls are likely the link that allowed me to meet you! I wasn't happy or feeling too good at the time, but I was learning things that changed my whole life. I also bought a CD straight from David Greenburg's suitcase that had some tunes that one day I would learn. (On the E Muzeki, Sindh CD as The Greenburg Medley, if you wanna search on streaming and check out my eventual progress.) Have a great Memorial Day weekend if you're in the states! And a great weekend wherever you are. Memorial Day means Summer is here, which means we can soon put a bookmark in Vibrato and go on to Summer Bow Focus in the Dojo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo_Rg1h2l6w Don Rich was (and, even though he's been gone for over 50 years, still is is) such a class act. (If only he could've stayed off that ding/dang Honda road bike!😢) Some friends of mine, in a Celtic band on the east side of the state (La Compagnie) covered this song on their 2nd album (under the Trois Buffons "side project" iteration of the La Compagnie band). It's definately on my "list of songs to learn".

Maybe your brain will like this format! Take a look at the attached PDF. See what I mean? With familiar lyrics separated line by line - you might find it's much easier to learn and memorize a song. And then play it from your heart. To prepare, activate the part of yourself that finds jigsaw or crossword puzzles fun. It's a very similar feeling, only a tad more rewarding imo. Steps: 1) First find a piece of sheet music and confirm it's in a good violin key. Cheat code for this is look at key signature. If there are three or fewer #'s (sharps) or two or fewer b's (flats) you are probably in a good key. If you see tons of sharps or flats, look for another version with fewer. 2) Tab the sheet music. This is a free tool I offer to help with that: https://www.jennyoconnor.com/violinigma/ 3) Then sit down with a blank page and write the lyrics line by line in a way that feels even and right to you 4) Carry the tab markings from your music sheet over to the lyrics sheet. It may help to have your violin in your lap and pluck a few notes as you hum along to confirm what goes where If you try this, please feel free to share your song cheat sheets here! 🧩 Jenny

OK, Once I got past the "eye candy factor" (which,believe me, took awhile🫤) I noticed the oldest daughter's bow hold . Not sure if all French Canadian Quebecois fiddlers hold their bows like this or not. She's definately got her own thing going on here.ttps://youtu.be/AF3TgdBIGMk?si=sPnsvlBBNHdHNoIq

Goodbye conventional bow hold. It's been 6 months and I just can't get acclimated to your standards. Im fed up with not being able to mange bow bounce, straight longbowing and overall bow control so i think i shant persist in struggling with you any longer. You leave me no alternative but to switch over to the Charlotte Le Blanc/Quebecouis fiddler bow hold. The conventional bow hold might work for some violinists but not for this "non-conformist/wierd artist grouchy old Hollander". I'm going to have to "breakaway" (because ,as the late,great Gary Richrath put it: "What's right for them may be wrong for you"). Ill keep working on all the rest of the WAD foundation stuff though. Pardon the torn up kitchen folks. I'm knee deep in a "DIY kitchen cabinet, house renovation".