Fiddle & Violin Lessons

Specialties

I’ve been teaching students to play Irish, old-​time, bluegrass, klezmer, cajun and improvising on the fiddle for 18 years. I teach a lot of absolute beginners but also a fair number of students who’ve played violin or another instrument before and want to bring music back into their lives. Though I specialize in fiddle styles, I also teach classical music and reading for students who are interested.

My main goal as a teacher is to make the lessons a fun and joyful experience so that the student will naturally want to practice without feeling like its a chore.

Lessons are organized with an old-​school oral tradition meets high tech approach. Though students learn everything by ear, I provide a recording of each song and technique to help remember the tune and practice with. In addition, I have a wiki site which keeps track of every lesson so students can easily check what they need to practice every time they sit down to play. For each lesson summary, there are links to recordings, fun play-​along tracks and video lessons.

I’ve also started a Youtube channel called «Fiddlehed» to provide further material for my students as well as for people around the world who want to learn more about fiddling. Check it out to see how I teach.

Thanks,

Jason the Fiddlehed

History

Established in 1996.

One day I was looking at a bulletin board for music lessons and realized that there were many violin teachers but not a lot of fiddle teachers. A week later I had set up a studio and started to teach, learning as I went.

Eighteen years later, I’ve taught hundreds of students, started a Youtube channel called Fiddlehed, met a lot of cool people and been all around the world with my fiddle.

Meet the Business Owner

Jason K.

Business Owner

I’ve been playing violin since I was ten. I wasn’t very serious when I started, but slowly have been drawn towards making music. I started a band in high school called Fresh Corn. Considering that the first show we played was the worst show of my entire life, it’s amazing that I’m still doing this! But music has always been fun even now that I do it professionally as a teacher, performer and composer.

I went to UC Berkeley, almost became a music major, but was convinced by my mom to study biology. It worked out for the best because I was able to take only the music classes I really wanted to take, while I noticed that a lot of music majors there were burnt out, wanting to do something different.

I worked as a biologist and part-​time fiddle teacher for many years after college, and then started to tour the world with Diego’s Umbrella and The Pine Box Boys. I also started to compose for film (scoring the documentary Gumby Dharma), as well as for commercials.

Thanks!