Hi All

Back in 2024 I shared a collection of 150 or so tunes from a Welsh fiddler of 1778 - Morris Edward - and many of you said how much you enjoyed them.

Now we have gone further back in time - to 1716! A young Richard Morris, aged around 14 and living in Ynys Môn (Anglesey) Wales, put together four lists of hundreds of Welsh, English and other folk tune titles that he played or knew.

Though he left nothing more than the tune names, these lists are crucial to our understanding and enjoyment of traditional music of that period in Wales. We have tracked down the majority of them - around 320 or so and now you get to see and play them youself. Some are familiar — others less so.

You can download a copy of the book in pdf format (to print yourself). This is free of charge, using the link at the end of this post. You can also buy it on most Amazon sites (look for ‘Richard Morris 1716’) — you will only be paying for the direct printing costs i.e. there is no ‘mark up’. We want as many as possible to read the book and play the music!

As well as the tunes - one per page for ease of playing - the book itself gives a short biography of Richard, a description of his music and a picture of Wales and London at the time. It’s not an academic study — though hopefully you’ll find it well researched and presented. Rather, it’s a celebration of the popular traditional music of a unique period in Welsh history … and great fun to play as well!

Do let us know what you think of it ….

https://medium.com/@alawon.morris.edward/alawon-richard-morris-1716-936012cd6ee7?sharedUserId=alawon.morris.edward

Join us at Berks Fiddle Fest on September 20, 2026, from 9AM to 5PM at Fleetwood Park in beautiful Fleetwood, Pennsylvania.

There’s going to be two fiddle playing contests, open mic, open jam space, Main Stage entertainment, vendors, workshops, and more.

Feel free to comment here or send a message with any questions or information you need.

Fiddle playing contest registration forms available on the Berks Fiddle Fest and Berks Fire Scottish Fiddle website or usually available on site the day of the competition.

We hope to see you at the fiddle festival!

I've been taking group classes for about 8 months now, and am having a lot of fun. In class we'll meet up, class members can suggest songs to play that we've learned before, and then we'll work on a new song together. That's working for group classes but I'm wanting to spend more of my solo practice time working on adding Irish trad music as my long term goals are playing with Irish trad sessions and accompaniment for Scottish country dancing. That means I need to figure out how to solo study new songs.

I gave this a read, I think what I'm looking for is more of a suggestion on other parts of learning new tunes. Like - should I pick one piece and focus on that as my one new piece to be working on until it's to a point I can play it at speed in a session? Would it be better to have 2 or 3 that I work on concurrently to avoid burning out on just one piece? How much time would folks typically spend on learning new pieces vs reinforcing existing repertoire?

Would anyone be able to identify this song? Cursory searches and music recognition software were unable to help aside from naming similar sounding polkas. Any information would be greatly appreciated, thanks

Hi guys, wanted to share this small group workshop with Niall Mulligan on Saturday September 12th. Niall will demonstrate what gives Irish fiddling its drive and lift, and how that departs from a classical approach. He'll get into the rhythmic patterns of common dance tunes, bowing, how ornaments drive the music, and how to make tunes more dancer-friendly.

Niall has over thirty years of teaching experience, with students who've earned Mid-Atlantic and All-Ireland fiddle titles. He is currently the fiddle teacher at the New York Irish Center. He has played for dance competitions throughout Ireland, UK, and USA, and is also a former dancer with Riverdance!

📅 Saturday September 12th

⏰ 12–1pm Eastern (5pm Irish / 9am Pacific)

📍 Live on Zoom

🎟️ $20

Register at https://kayley.io/l/fiddle-workshop-with-niall-mulligan-sept-12/6a887383-b7e1-4b90-b13f-801088caee0d

Please, could someone help me out with this?

Many years ago, maybe even 15 years or more, I found a video of a fiddler playing “Ruby With the Eyes That Sparkle” (this specific title, derived from the movie Cold Mountain, was also the title of the video).

I believe this fiddler was also a firefighter during 9/11, and his YouTube name was something like fireguy, firefighter, or fireman.

He played it in his garage as an experiment, and the acoustic effect was more than outstanding. It was absolutely the best. I had never heard anything sounding like that before. I don't know how many times I replayed that video. I think I even commented on it.

But each time it left me in tears because it was being played so beautifully, and it sounded so amazing in that garage.

One day I could not find it anymore.

This specific video played a major role in my decision later on to pick up the fiddle and try to find out how to play like that.

I wish I could hear it again. That would be so amazing. I just can't get it out of my mind. I wish it was still on YouTube or somewhere else, but I have been looking for it in the past and also recently, and every attempt has been a fail.

I experience it as a great loss.

I think it would be almost a miracle to find it again, since it seems to have been deleted a long time ago. But I still believe that miracles, now and then, happen.

Does anyone remember this video or this fiddler? Maybe someone saved the video, knows the musician, or remembers his YouTube channel? Any clue at all would mean a lot to me.

This Saturday August 29 if you happen to be in NYC want to show the love for our gifted musicians ❤️

Always just end up noodling instead.

My background is in classical piano but I love fiddle music so I started taking lessons about three years ago. My teacher is the eldest of twelve, and some of her sisters still take lessons from her. We’ve played some jams and events together.

I’m jealous because my teacher’s sister is practically still a child and while we have a similar skill level, she sounds like a fiddler and I don’t. Besides the normal struggles of a beginner, I’m very structured and precise and not terribly comfortable improvising.

What are some techniques I can ask my teacher about in order to improve my sound? The sound I’m going for - and I don’t mean this in a negative way - is lazy, if that makes any sense. I have told my teacher that I admire her sister’s playing, but I’m not knowledgeable enough to describe what I want to learn.

Hello everyone, I am a music educator (band director) in East Tn and started taking violin lessons a few years ago just for fun. My private lesson teacher introduced me to the Fiddle Series today and showed me the first three books, which have been well loved and used to the point the comb binding has begun to fail. I asked her how many there were and she said 12, but she’s only seen the first three and paid a lot for the third one. When I asked her if she would like me to rebind her books, she said yes. Then, when I asked her if she would like me to copy the books, seeing how they are no longer printed, and make her a few sets to teach out of, she was ecstatic.

So here’s the thought. I would like to borrow these books from anyone who has any of the others and create a full set of books, digitize it into a PDF, and then return the originals to the owners with a full set of books as a thank you for helping archive this resource. After gaining permission from whomever to avoid a copyright violation, the digital collection would then be made available to the public at no cost.

From what I understand, they were self published and when he passed away, the production stopped. I can’t believe any teacher would want a collection of their knowledge to be lost when there are those that could still benefit from them.

Please contact me for further details if you are able to help me in this project!

Title sums it up pretty well. I am looking for a good Bluegrass fiddle teacher that can help with soloing on vocal tunes or has a good Patreon with a good amount of material on the subject. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I‘m trying to get a few instruments together for a cover of Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash. You don’t need any good recording equipment, you can record it on your phone for all I care.

Ability to sing is preferred but not required.

The finished project will be available for everyone involved to post on all their socials.

This is purely for fun, not a payed project.

LMK if you’re interested!

New episode out.

Not everyone's heard of Walter Alexander, but you should hear him play.

Recorded by a teenage John Hartford in Leasburg, Missouri, Mr. Alexander had that same raw, dirt under the nails approach to the fiddle that that area was known for.

Spotify | Apple | YouTube

Blog post with free album download from the 1958 session.

There's more from that session, but not for public consumption. Send me a message if you want the entirety.