Improve or learn fiddle . Expand your repertoire of traditional Scottish music . Explore Scottish technique, bowing, improve your tone. Tension free playing.
Technique and tune videos provided after each lesson to help with home practice and consolidation.
"Hello fiddle folk!
I am now offering either face to face or online tuition from my studio in South Queensferry. It is amazing how resilient and adaptive we can be when needs must!
If you haven't tried zoom before, please don't be put off as the quality of learning online has not been reduced in any way and my students are progressing as they would if we were face to face. One lovely aspect is that I can now teach beyond my local area and I now have the loveliest students from all over the world. Scottish fiddle has never been more accessible and I feel blessed to be able to share it with people that I couldn't before this pandemic.
All lessons are followed up with tune and technique videos. These really help with home practice between lessons. The usual video format would be - 1. Tune up to speed. 2. Tune played slowly. 3. Technique related to tune style. e.g reel, strathspey, march, jig. 4. Breakdown into segments for tricky parts.
Lessons are 1 hour, either fortnightly or monthly (to allow plenty of time for home practice)
If you are a complete beginner, an improver, an advanced player looking to work on specific techniques, or someone who played when they were younger and are in need of
a refresh, please get in touch. I would be delighted to help."
Much fiddle love,
Kirstie xxx"
"Kirstie is an excellent teacher. She is kind and patient, but also highly skilled in explaining the technical aspects of bowing, finger placement, tone and quality that create beautiful music. She selects a wide variety of pieces for the class to play, and focuses on the rhythms and tradition of the tune, whilst also encouraging us to add in our own musical interpretation to make the music our own. I cannot recommend her highly enough!"-
Susan Regnart
"Kirstie is so enthusiastic about Scottish fiddle music that you can't help being enthused yourself. She is always encouraging never critical. She makes lessons fun, so that you want to learn. A wonderful fiddle player and top class teacher!"-
Helen Roy
"As a complete beginner (and a mature student), I have been attending Kirstie's classes for 10 months and particularly love her positivity and overall enthusiasm for playing the fiddle. I have received a loads of great tips for progressing"-
Elaine Cannon
"Kirstie has been teaching me fiddle for about 18 months, and has massively helped me to progress. The lessons are fun, but challenging when they need to be! She has a great selection of "tasty tunes", and uses modern techniques (providing a video of all the tunes we didi). She's friendly, enthusiastic and I'd happily recommend her to anyone wanting to learn Scottish fiddle."-
Ken Murray
When I started lessons with Kirstie I'd never even picked up a fiddle before. (In fact I'd never played any instrument and I couldn't read music so I didn't have great hopes that I could ever learn to play well!) But Kirstie had us playing tunes right from the first lesson, now I play nearly every day and I absolutely love it!
She's a brilliant teacher, introducing new techniques and tips through the tunes as we progress, and always really encouraging. We get video files after every lesson which really helps with home practice. And we have a laugh! Go for it! -
Caroline Rance