On this page you will find all my free Irish fiddle lessons — online video tutorials based on my experience teaching 2000+ hours of Irish fiddle lessons to students from complete beginners to advanced players.
Below you will find links to Irish fiddle lessons, including:
- full-length 30 minute tutorials on popular Irish fiddle tunes for beginners
- 15-minute fiddle lessons for intermediate players, including some less well-known Irish fiddle tunes
- lessons on important pieces of Irish fiddle ornamentation
- some of my tips on practicing fiddle technique
- playthroughs of popular Irish fiddle to practice learning ‘by ear’
More online fiddle lessons coming soon
I will be adding more lessons on:
- irish fiddle bowing technique
- an overview of the different types of Irish tunes (jigs, reels, slipjigs, slides etc)
- further videos on Irish fiddle ornamentation
- advice on improvisation and variation
- further tune tutorials
I’m taking everything that I’ve learned teaching Irish fiddle lessons online, and made video lessons that you can watch in your own time. So bookmark this page and check back for new videos. Or sign up to my mailing list to be notified when I publish new lessons.
FREE online fiddle lessons
The Irish fiddle lessons for beginners below are for people with a basic grasp of playing fiddle, but maybe just starting out learning Irish traditional fiddle music. The lessons for more advanced fiddle players are for players who are more experienced at learning tunes ‘by ear’, but who would like to know more about learning authentic Irish fiddle ornamentation, and finding that authentic Irish fiddle sound.
I’ve also included video lessons on practice tips, and also some videos that are just playthroughs of tunes, so once you have a little more experience, you can have a go at working out the melody ‘by ear’ for yourself.
Fiddle players, if you would like to take your fiddle playing to the next level, take a look at my online fiddle courses, including my free Irish fiddle course.
The lessons
Click on each image to go to that lesson page.
In this short video, I’m playing through my setting of My Darling Asleep. My Darling Asleep is a really popular Irish tune to learn on the fiddle. In fact, it’s often one of the first Irish tunes that new fiddle players look to learn.
If you’d like to learn My Darling Asleep on the fiddle, start off by watching the video. Here I play through the tune My Darling Asleep. Fiddle players who have some experience learning tunes by ear will be able to pick out the melody and any variations or ornamentation. But If would like to learn this tune with me more slowly, or if you would like me to make a tutorial video, please do let me know.
In this online Irish fiddle tutorial, I’ll teach you the reel, The Hunter’s House. This reel was written by Ed Reavy, and is one of his most well known tunes. You will hear this tune in Irish sessions everywhere.
I take you through tune slowly so that you can learn the melody, showing you up close the left hand fingering. I’ll give you some ideas for how you can use chord shapes to help you play this fluently.
I’ll also show you where in The Hunter’s House you might use some classic Irish fiddle bowing techniques, such as cross bowing and circle bowing.
Something a little differnet – have a listen to what it sounds like when you tune a fiddle down a whole Octave! Using Octave strings we can get a very very low sound, almost the same as a cello. In this video I’m playing the reel, The Morning Thrush.
In another of my Irish fiddle lesson videos, online now, I will teach you a fantastic hornpipe written by the great Ed Reavy. This is not an easy tune to play, so this fiddle lesson is aimed at more advanced or experienced players. But it’s a great tune for practicing some really good left hand technique.
In this beginners Irish fiddle lesson, I’ll take you slowly through a popular Irish jig on the fiddle. The tune is called Out on the Ocean. If you can already play basic notes on the fiddle, then this slow tutorial is a good place to start if you are new to learning tunes ‘by ear’. I take ear phrase at a time, slowly, so that you can work out the notes.
In this 30 minute online Irish fiddle lesson, I teach you the popular Irish polka, The Britches Full of Stitches. I’ll teach you each phrase of this great tune slowly, and then show you some ways that you can give it that authentic Irish style with some suggestions about bowing, ornamentation, chords, drones, and some melodic variations. Lots to get your teeth into here!
In this, the first of two longer Irish fiddle lessons online, you will learn how to play one of the most important pieces of Irish fiddle ornamentation, the roll (or long roll). I’ll take you through this ornament in detail, giving you two different ways of learning to play rolls on the fiddle, and suggest ways to practice them. This has proven to be my most popular online Irish fiddle lesson video.
The second of two longer Irish fiddle lessons on rolls, or long rolls. I teach you a fantastic traditional Irish jig by the late great Paddy Fahey and show you some examples of where we might play rolls in this tune.
Once you have started to get confident with some Irish fiddle ornamentation, check out this video on my top tip for playing better Irish fiddle ornaments. I’ll show you how I practice my ornaments, but it’s also a tip you can apply to anything you are practicing on the fiddle.
For intermediate players, try learning this lovely Irish jig ‘by ear’ with this slow playthrough of the melody. This is Timmy Clifford’s Jig.
This reel was written by fiddler John McCusker, so is really a Scottish tune. But it has become really popular in Irish sessions, so it’s a great one to learn. This is an intermediate lesson, as there’s some slightly tricky rhythm in the B part; but I’ll take you through it phrase by phrase so you can learn it.
This well-known Irish jig is a popular session tune, so one that is definitely worth learning. This is my setting of the tune, with all ornamentation and everything. This is just a playthrough of the tune – I intend to make a tutorial in the future.