• Address: Fountain Valley, CA 92708 (map)
• Date Posted: 09/30/09

I teach out of my home in Fountain Valley. I teach 1 hour lessons. I teach my own method (of 25 years). No reading, ear training only! Bluegrass, old time, Irish, Texas styles. All lessons are put on cassette tapes so you can go home and actually hear and remember what we worked on. I give fingering and bowings. I specialize in beginning adults. I teach Timing, Technique, Theory, Tuning. I am 4-time Southern California fiddle champ and 12 year judge at the Topanga Banjo/Fiddle contest every year. I used to be a park musician at Knott's Berry Farm and Magic Mountain, toured to Japan with Knotts, was in a finalist bluegrass band in 1998 for the Pizza Hut International Bluegrass Showdown in Louisville, Kentucky (IBMA). The Fiddler's Fakebook by Oak Publications is a good place to see/learn basic tunes with a wonderful discography..but make sure you memorize everything you learn!

Check out:
Southwest Bluegrass Association: http://www/s-w-b-a.com
Bluegrass Association of Southern California: http://www.socalbluegrass.org/
My Yahoo Group: Bluegrass_in_OC@yahoogroups.com

A Old Joe Clark
A Red Haired Boy
D Liberty
D Whiskey Before Breakfast
D Harvest Home
Dm Road to Lisdoonvarna
D Staten Island Hornpipe
A St. Anne ’s Reel
D Silent Night
G Leather Britches
D Over The Waterfall

Violin and bluegrass are definitely apples and oranges as to approach. It is all improvised on a general theme. I suggest you purchase recordings and listen to how they play. www.Amazon.com is a great place to get CDs!

SUGGESTED LISTENING
1. Kenny Baker: Farmyard Swing; Frost on the Pumpkin; Grassy Fiddle Blues; Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe; Portrait of a Bluegrass Fiddler; High Country; Baker’s Dozen; Kenny Baker Country; Dry and Dusty
2. Mark O’Connor: Festival Favorites; Texas Jam Session; National Junior Fiddle Champion; Markology; Pickin in the Wind
3. Bobby Hicks: Texas Crapshooter; Fiddle Patch
4. Richard Greene: The Grass is Greener; Duets
5. Byron Berline: Dad’s Favorites; Pickin & Fiddlin (The Dillards with Byron Berline)
6. Blaine Sprouse: Blaine Sprouse
7. Earl Collins: That’s Earl
8. Aubrey Haynie: Doin' My Time
9. Rickie Simpkins: Dancing on the Fingerboard

You can call me at: 714.962.5083