I was one of the first people to start learning fiddle through Katie Glassman's Fiddle School. I was a little nervous to start learning the fiddle at age 63. I didn't know if I could do it, especially I didn't know if I could learn by ear. Katie thoughtfully and skillfully broke down the beginner learning process into basic building block techniques. Each lesson builds on the last lesson, and emphasizes maintaining all these proper techniques as you continue to progress to the next stage. She breaks down learning the tunes into manageable chunks. She explains and demonstrates the proper bowing techniques, left hand techniques, and enables you to get the correct timing. Because it's online you can go back and review, which is extremely helpful in this learning process. The practice pals are very helpful by providing both a warm up before practicing tunes and to reinforce techniques that you previously learned. I skip around and go through the different practice pals to mix up my warm up routine. The practice pals are tailored to the next songs in your progression of the book. The back up guitar tracks provide the fiddler the ability to practice their newly learned tune with proper back up. It's great to have the slowed down versions and then the faster versions to practice tunes with. Being able to listen to the tunes as played by some of the greats is helpful to allow you to hear the spirit of the tune. I find it helpful to be able to play the whole song along with Katie, to make sure I'm on track. I love the arrangements of the tunes she chose to include in session one and am looking forward to session 2. Even when I'm on vacation or traveling I can use the online fiddle school to continue to progress, learn and practice. I truly enjoy learning to play the fiddle and have proven to myself I can play the fiddle even at my age! Katie has developed a great educational fiddle curriculum for all ages to take advantage of! She is an excellent teacher, an accomplished talented fiddler and musician. Linnea Kenney
