Fiddle Tunes for Beginners

Here are a couple fiddle tunes for beginning violinists. Summer is a great time to add variety into your students repertoire. These tunes can also reinforce techniques that they are learning in their classical literature. But you don’t have to tell them that! Fiddle tunes have a way of making the player and the listener smile. It’s hard to play these happy lively tunes and not smile. These tunes can get into their fingers and spark some practicing! Who knows you might even find your toe tapping.

So where do we start? The Orange Blossom Special or The Devil Went Down to Georgia is probably not the best place for a beginner. But there are some easier tunes that work well. The great thing about fiddling is the tunes are rather simple and we can add more techniques based on the students development. So here are 2 fiddle tunes I like to teach at the beginning of their fiddling journey.

Boil Them Cabbage Down

The First Fiddle Tune

The very first fiddle tune I like to teach for beginning violinists is Boil Them Cabbage Down Boys. It’s in the key of A major which fits well with the finger patterns they first learn. And for Suzuki kids it is a bowing pattern they know. The A section of the tune uses one rhythm pattern. It uses Variation C from the Twinkle Variations. Sometimes we call it, “Run pony, run pony” or “Down Wiggle, Up Wiggle” or “Jack Rabbit Eats Carrots.”

Download here

Teaching the Tune

I teach this tune by ear. Depending on the student’s level, the trickiest part of this tune and rhythm pattern for most students is in measure 4. The pitch changes in the middle of the bowing pattern. Teaching this measure first is usually a good idea. I’ll have them play the first beat “down wiggle” then “Stop. Lift 2. Now play up wiggle.” “Stop. Lift 1. Now play down wiggle on A.” “Stop. Now play one up bow A.”

Extra Fun

These are some extra things that students can add once they know the basic tune. They usually love adding in these fun sounds.

Slides – Sliding the finger from C-natural up to C# on the first beat in measure 1 and 3. Be sure the student knows to slide up to C# and stop. It’s like sliding into a base in baseball. Don’t pass the base.The other slide that can be added is for the very last note. Sliding the first finger from Ab up to A. This can be a long slow slide.
Double-stops – The student can also add an open E double-stop while playing the first 4 measures. This is a great way to work on playing on the finger tips and not the finger pads. I refer to how the fingers land on the strings as “tables.” With each joint flexed to make a table between the two joints. I’ll tell beginning students who haven’t played double stops that they will need “tall” tables. This makes sure that the skin of the finger pad doesn’t touch the E string. And stop it from vibrating and sounding clearly.
Introduction – In bluegrass and fiddle music often the fiddle will give the introduction setting the tempo. If the student is playing double-stops in the piece, use open A and open E. The student will play a 3 beats of the rhythm pattern and then a quarter note on beat 4. If the student is not using double-stops, they can play the same rhythm pattern seen below, but just on open E.

You can see these additions in the notation below. But I usually don’t show this copy to the student. I give them verbal instructions on these “extras.” Especially for beginners the notation can look challenging or even overwhelming. They are very capable of executing all of these elements, but verbal instruction is often easier for them than the visual notation.

Old Joe Clark

Teaching the Tune

Another good fiddle tune for beginning violinists is Old Joe Clark. I teach this tune after I have the student can play in D Major and G Major and is reading notes. So around the beginning of Suzuki Book 2. This tune reinforces the 2nd finger moving between C#4 (high 2) and G5 (low 2).

Fiddle Tune Note Reading

You will also notice in this sheet music that there are courtesy accidentals throughout. I use this tune once the student is reading notes. And the note-reading curriculum I use, I Can Read Music by Joann Martin, introduces key signatures in the second book. For the first book, she includes the sharps by each note. So you will one download using the key signature and one placing the accidental by each note.

Bowing

This tune can also be played all separate bows. So if the student is not ready for slurring eighth notes, the feel free to have them play the tune with separate bows. If you are using separate bows, it is helpful to insert a retake or circle bow at the end of measures 2, 6, 10 and 14.

Extra Fun

Try adding these things in once the student knows the tune.

Double-stops – The student can add an open A double-stop while playing any notes on the E string. The A string notes will be played individually not as a double stop.
Introduction – Use the same introduction that we added to Boil Them Cabbage Down.

Download Here

Find some fun lyrics at www.mamalisa.com that kids will love. Rather silly, and don’t necessarily make a lot of sense. But that’s what sort of makes it fun! Here are my favorite two verses:

Old Joe Clark, he had a house
Fifteen stories high,
Every story in that house
Was filled with chicken pie!

I went down to Old Joe’s house
He invited me to supper,
Stubbed my toe on the table leg
And stuck my nose in the butter!