Bluegrass Fiddle and Beyond

Etudes and Ideas for the Modern Fiddler

"Buy Now" to view and securely purchase the available paperback / digital editions at our publishing partner Hal Leonard LLC.
  • Suggested Retail Price: $19.99
  • Format: Book/CD
  • Pages: 50
  • Dimensions: 9 x 12
  • ISBN: 0-87639-108-0
  • SKU: 50449602
  • Publication Date: May 25, 2010

Related Online Courses & Programs

Music Theory 101

Pitch. Rhythm. Scales. Intervals. Chords. Harmony. If you're serious about music, these are fundamental concepts you need to understand and master. Music Theory 101 will set you on your way.

Specialist Music Theory Certificate Program

A solid understanding of music theory is no mere academic exercise but a common language that will enable you to concisely communicate with other musicians, a core component of any collaborative endeavor with music. From basics like reading and writing music notation and using scales to advanced topics such as modal and pentatonic melodies and harmonic tensions, you’ll leave this program with a concrete foundation in music. As a result, you’ll approach your next project with a full set of tools and much more confidence.

Improvise with more expression and freedom in bluegrass and related styles.

These ideas, exercises, and etudes will help you expand your palette of improvisational techniques and sounds. Develop your versatility over the fingerboard, and master harmonic and rhythmic ideas on the violin. The CD has demonstration and play-along tracks, performed by an all-star bluegrass band.

You will learn to build solos using techniques such as:

  • Uncovering a melody’s most defining notes, and using it in a new context
  • Reharmonizing chords and changing modes
  • Breaking down, rearranging, and varying melodic and rhythmic cells
  • Using position shifts, string crossings, and double stops
  • Drawing from tetrachords, guide-tone lines, and other constructs

 

“The most comprehensive and humorous journey yet into the world of bluegrass fiddle and beyond.”

—Stuart Duncan, Fiddler, Recording Artist

“Matt Glaser makes a valuable contribution to the violin literature. These etudes prepare any violinist for the technical demands of improvising at all levels.”

—Mark O’Connor, Violinist, Composer, and Educator

“Matt Glaser is one of those very rare musicians who plays with mind-bending virtuosity, who understands everything about what he’s doing down to the smallest detail, and then can articulate it with utter clarity. In this book, Matt provides a valuable toolbox for fiddle players who want to expand their improvising skills. Get it, and get to work!”

—Bruce Molsky, Fiddler, Teacher

“Matt Glaser is one of an elite group of teachers who can combine of musical expression and theory in a way that is not only interesting, but aesthetically desirable. In this book, Matt makes it all make sense, in his surprising, funny, affably abrasive way. It’s an approach to music and ideas that takes us to the living essence of what it is to be a feeling and thinking human being. He is a philosopher king in these glittery degraded times. Dig him now.”

—Darol Anger, Fiddler, Producer

Authors

Matt Glaser

Matt Glaser is a fiddler, educator, and author, who has performed with Stephane Grappelli, David Grisman, Lee Konitz, Bob Dylan,…