With not just one, but five new string-friendly instructional book, CD and DVD releases, Fiddling Demystified launches a new fiddle instruction series with master fiddler Donna Hébert's encyclopedia of fiddling for violinists, violists and cellists: "A Practical Guide for String Players." The viola and cello editions will be released at the American String Teachers' Conference in Feb. 2008. On the companion Fiddlejam CD, Donna jams on all 31 tunes from the book with friends. Her instructional DVD "Fiddling with a French Accent" teaches seven of the standard tunes in the French-Canadian repertoire. Also published are two of Hébert's other fiddle books for strings, "Mrs. McLeod's Reel: Six Authentic Settings for One Extraordinary Tune," and "The Great Groove Band," nine tunes for a mixed-skills group.
Music for the French DVD, McLeod's and Great Groove Band books are scored for violin, viola and cello. Coming later in the year are a companion Practical Guide Jam Session CD from Donna's group, Groovemama, a Franco-American fiddling DVD and the viola and cello editions of "A Practical Guide."
Fiddling Demystified and "A Practical Guide for String Players" grew out of Donna Hébert's fiddling classes and her method for teaching and playing in multiple fiddle styles. For sight-readers, she notates the style points for each tune, with deeply detailed lessons for each one. CD tracks feature Donna playing the tune both slow and fast, with a separate lessonf for most tunes. Two discs (130 minutes!) teach melodies, styles and chords, with backup and harmony lines for many tunes, setting each one authentically in its native dialect.
With 31 tunes drawn from Irish, Scottish, New England, Canadian, Québécois, Appalachian Old-Time, Cajun and original sources, there are many lessons available in each piece. Those who are just learning the tune can use the CDs to find the melody, while others can find chords and harmonies, bending notes and creating ornaments with the left hand and dynamic shadings with the bow that bring the tune alive.
Seeking the similarities among regional fiddling styles, Hébert breaks fiddle techniques into four categories: Rhythm, Bowing Licks, Scales and Harmonies and Left-Hand Ornaments. Her Practical Guide to Fiddling Style Markers fills out these categories with 20 pages of fiddle techniques from every style in the book, cross-referenced within the tunes they help to style and are also listed in the index.
Why is Fiddling Demystified special?
Among a host of fine fiddle tune collections available today, what makes "A Practical Guide" and the entire Fiddling Demystified series stand out? The level of detail in Donna's transcriptions and CD lessons and her analysis of style. Her primary focus is on "cranking out that rhythm!" says Darol Anger in his foreword to "A Practical Guide" Says fiddling colleague Jane Rothfield, "Donna has written a veritable encyclopedia of fiddling. She cracks the codes of fiddling rhythms, styles and techniques with an easy-to-understand right and left-hand method."
Jane Ezbicki, 2006 President of the Massachusetts String Teachers' Association, hired Donna and Groovemama in 2006 to work with the Wayland MA High School Orchestra and remarked,
"Donna and her colleagues changed the way my students and I think about fiddling. They actually helped us to feel confident enough to turn our music over, close our eyes and play independently."
Adjunct fiddle instructor at Amherst College, Donna has been recognized by New England arts councils, NPR, Smithsonian-Folkways Recordings and the independent recording industry for her fiddling and cultural contributions. Teaching workshops for schools, universities, conferences and ASTA chapters, she also directs Fiddling Demystified Camp, a five-day August fiddling intensive, and The Great Groove Band of school-age folk musicians every year at the Old Songs and Philadelphia Folk Festivals, working with Old Songs this year to establish a new Great Groove Band Summer Camp. A Franco-American fiddling master, she has worked under state arts council sponsorship with apprentices from Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. With the Vermont Folklife Center and fiddler George Wilson, she also co-directs The Beaudoin Project, preserving, documenting and presenting the music of Louis Beaudoin and his family.
Says Dr. Alan Jabbour, Director (ret.) of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress,
"Donna is an outstanding performer and a world-class teacher of the art of fiddle. I consider her at the forefront of the developing field of fiddle pedagogy."
