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How much should you practice fiddle?

I often make a point of telling my students that I don’t mind how much they practice the fiddle. Really, I don’t! Some find it surprising, but I understand that everyone’s situation is different; we all have competing time commitments and priorities. Few

of us can practice as much as we might like. (That includes me.) We also all go through phases of having the time and motivation to practice, and other times when finding the time is challenging.

So, making the very best of your fiddle practice time is really important. More tips coming soon on that! The one thing I do ask my students to do, is to think about their play:practice ratio. 

Play and practice

What does that mean, exactly? Playing is when you pick up the fiddle and play whatever you fancy. It’s playing for fun. It’s playing without thinking too much. Normally for fiddlers that means playing tunes, whatever is in your head at the moment.

Sometimes it means ignoring the bits that don’t sound so great, and enjoying the bits that do. Fiddle practice is focussed attention. It means working on something specific. It’s repetition, but repetition with intention.

Trying to make each go round, each iteration, better than the last in some specified way. Practice can be fun, but it isn’t always.

Fiddle practice is about trying to get better. Practice means ignoring the bits that are already good, and honing the bits that need work. A glib way of putting this: practice is what you’d rather other people didn’t hear.

So, how much fiddle practice should you do? The answer is, as much as you want for your goals.

Your play:practice ratio

So, you decide: what ratio do you want of play to practice? There’s no right or wrong amount. If you want to get better fast, I recommend a higher ratio of practice. If you most of all want to just enjoy playing, have more play in your ratio. The only wrong thing would be a year down the line, thinking ‘I don’t know why I’m not improving as fast as I’d like’; or even worse, giving up because you’re not finding time to play for the joy of it. If that’s the case, you got your ratio wrong.

0:100 doesn’t work

For most people 0:100 and 100:0 don’t work. All play, or all practice: one means little improvement; the other, no fun. Find a balance instead. Your balance. Got 20 minutes? Try 5 minutes intensive warm-up on exercises, 10 minutes playing your favourite new tune, 5 minutes playing only the trickiest phrase. Or whatever works for you. But do it knowingly. Decide what play:practice ratio you are going to aim for in 2026.

Do you already play some fiddle? but maybe you are feeling a little bit stuck in your fiddle playing? or you’d like to take your playing further?

• Looking for … that authentic flowing Irish fiddle sound?
• Feel like your bowing is a little …. rigid or mechanical?
• A bit confused by …. how and where to play proper ornamentation?
• Struggling to play …. with real rhythm, pulse and lift?
• Want to play join in sessions …. but intimidated by the speed?

My Complete Irish Fiddle Courses will transform your playing.

take the next step

Learn this lovely Irish tune – the First Pint jig. It’s a cracking tune written by Colin Farrell, and a well known tunes in many Irish sessions.

It’s such cheerful tune, and makes a great tune at the beginning of a set of jigs in my experience.

Different fiddle tunings

Different fiddle tunings are much less common in Irish fiddle playing than they are in, say, old time or bluegrass fiddle playing.

In old time fiddle playing, for example, ADAE is a very common tuning. That means just tuning the bottom G string up to A.

Or taking that a little further, AEAE is also common, tuning the bottom G string up to Aand the D string up to E.

Or, there’s ‘dead man’s tuning’, where the bottom two strings are both D, but an octave apart! And the top string is often tuned to D as well. So, that’s DDAD.

Drop or flat tunings

Here is The Humours of Tulla played in my EBF#C# tuning.

This tuning is sometimes called tuning the fiddle ‘in B’ or ‘to B’. That’s because the D string (the bottom note for many traditional instruments) becomes a B instead.

This means you can easily play with other instruments that are tuned ‘to B’ – most notably, ‘flat’ sets of uilleann pipes. Or B whistles would be another example.

I just really like it for the different sound that it gives the fiddle, with all the strings a little looser they resonate more, and drones and chords just sound a little richer to my ears.

For an even lower deeper sound, I also have an octave violin, or octave fiddle, which can play a whole octave below standard fiddle tuning.

The Morning Star reel is a lovely single reel. I play it here in the key of G, but it can be played in other keys.

The Morning Star is a wonderful reel to play on the fiddle, with lots of aspects of bowing and phrasing to practice. In this tune tutorial, I’ll just be going over the melody, taking the parts slowly so that you can learn the tune.

You will hear The Morning Star reel also played in the key of F (mostly probably following Martin Hayes, who recorded it in that key), but this is the more common session key.

This is an old tune, recorded as far back as 1907 by Patsy Touhey on the pipes. It can be found in both of Francis O’Neill’s books, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland, originally published in 1903, and The Dance Music of Ireland, originally published in 1907.

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My online fiddle course — The COMPLETE IRISH FIDDLER – Essentials — is now launched.

Fiddle players, if you are looking to take your fiddle playing to the next level, come and see how I can help you transform your playing.

With modules on fiddle bowing technique and bowing patterns, ornamentation and where to use it, pulse and rhythm, the core Irish tune types, plus all my best exercises and practice tips. This course is guaranteed to take your fiddle playing further.

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The Eel in the Sink is normally played as a single reel, and can be found in different modes and keys – A dorian for example, with a C natural, rather than C sharp. I like it played in A mixolydian, with bright sharp C sharps, and then the nice surprise of the G natural when it turns up at the end of the A part.

I don’t know much about the tune, and can’t remember where I first learned it. In a session in London, probably. The Eel in the Sink is an old tune, I would think, and was recorded by Peter Conlon as far back as the 1920s, though under the title The Irishman’s Blackthorn.

I like to think the tune has an appropriately slippery quality – like eels in the sink!

Is it The Cart Before the Horse jig? Or The Horse Before the Cart jig? I (genuinely) can’t remember now! Either way, this this lovely three part jig has been going around my head recently.

I believe that this jig is a Tommy Peoples composition, but now that I’ve said that I don’t seem able to confirm that fact. If anyone knows, please let me know. It certainly has some of the qualities of other tunes by the late great Donegal fiddler.

I really like the way that this tune seems to be almost entirely predictable in its melody, but still manages to not exactly go where you expect it to. Maybe that’s the way a tune should be that is called the Horse Before the Cart, or maybe the Cart Before the Horse?

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My online fiddle course — The COMPLETE IRISH FIDDLER – Essentials — is now launched.

Fiddle players, if you are looking to take your fiddle playing to the next level, come and see how I can help you transform your playing.

With modules on fiddle bowing technique and bowing patterns, ornamentation and where to use it, pulse and rhythm, the core Irish tune types, plus all my best exercises and practice tips. This course is guaranteed to take your fiddle playing further.

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Instruments & Tutors

Our talented team of tutors is ready to lead you through a diverse range of workshops, covering a range of folk instruments. Whether you’re drawn to the tunes of Ireland, Northumberland or Cape Breton, or to songs and accompaniment, there’s something for everyone. We offer workshops on the following instruments:

Irish Flute, Whistle, & Uilleann Pipes with Dominic Henderson

Squeeze Box & Vocals with Hazel Askew

Guitar & Mandolin with Kit Hawes

Each tutor is a professional musician with years of teaching experience, ensuring that you’ll receive top-notch guidance. Find out more about each of the tutors here.

Our residential folk music course is designed for beginners to advanced players, although some experience with your instrument will be necessary. (You should at minimum be able to play, for example, simple scales in common keys and basic tunes. If you are unsure if this folk music camp is a fit for your current

One of the things I get asked about a lot is the fiddle bow hold. What is the best way to hold the bow for fiddlers? Does your fiddle bow hold really matter? And is it different to the way that classical violinists hold the violin bow?

In the video below I’ll answer these questions, and help you to develop a really good fiddle bow hold.

I often start out with complete beginners by looking at the bow hold first, rather than worrying about anything else. The reason for this is that if your bowing technique develops well at the beginning, you’ll make a nicer sound from the start – and this is really encouraging for beginners! There’s no need to make that clichéd scraping or screeching noise people imagine.

And getting a good comfortable, relaxed but controlled fiddle bow hold from the start is crucial to that.

The important features of a good bow hold are that your thumb is not gripping the bow, and is able to move and allow the bow to move in the fingers, which frees up the wrist of the right hand.

The bow is not held at the finger tips, but deeper into the fingers, allowing for more control over the bow.

The fingers are leaned over at an angle towards the tip of the bow, allowing the side of the index finger to rest on the top of the bow, controlling the downward pressure of the bow when needed.

The little finger acts as a counterweight, controlling the tip of the bow.

The video will take you through all the steps. I hope you find it useful.

Learn to play a Burns’ night fiddle tune – A Man’s a Man for A’ That by Scottish poet Robert Burns. A perfect tune to learn on the fiddle for Burns’ night.

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Robert Burns composed the song in 1795, and it is famous for its expression of his egalitarianism.

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My online fiddle course — The COMPLETE IRISH FIDDLER – Essentials — is now launched.

Fiddle players, if you are looking to take your fiddle playing to the next level, come and see how I can help you transform your playing.

With modules on fiddle bowing technique and bowing patterns, ornamentation and where to use it, pulse and rhythm, the core Irish tune types, plus all my best exercises and practice tips. This course is guaranteed to take your fiddle playing further.

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I am leading a new Irish session at the Red Lion in St George, Bristol on Wednesday evenings. Come one come all for some mighty Irish music.