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Falling in Love with the Fiddle
by James C. Boyce
 


Book Description
This book relates how James C. Boyce fell in love with the fiddle, learned to play it, and began to teach others to play it.

It gives his personal advice on the purchase and care of a fiddle, and includes his observations on the mystique of the instrument.

"Falling in Love With the Fiddle" is designed for people who never learned to read music, and also for those who do read music but want to get "off the page" and play music by ear.

This is an aural learning program for the beginning fiddler - teaching how to hold the fiddle and bow, and to play the sounds that you hear. The AudioTab CD will help you learn how to tune the fiddle, and how to play three simple tunes on it. Ultimately, the book and CD will help you learn to play the "sounds" of the fiddle.

Book Reviews
Michael A. DiSpezio, Science Author and Educator

   "...Jim shares the technique, history, and art of old-time fiddle playing."
Bill Black, Irish Music Band and Session Leader
   "Jim has brought the understanding and appreciation of the fiddle to so many people..."
Fred Klein, Santa Barbara News-Press
   
"...Charles Cann's instructional illustrations are first rate. Important source information is also included."


About the Author

James C. Boyce (1946 - 2015) was a luthier who learned to build and repair instruments in 1965.

He started playing guitar at age 11, and played guitar and mandolin in various bands since he was a teenager. He fell in love with "fiddle music" in 1976, and took up playing the fiddle at the age of 35.

He started teaching beginning fiddling two years later, eventually developing his method into a course at the local night school. He added a second fiddle course, inviting "local masters" to teach fiddle songs to more advanced students.

He was a founder of the Woods Hole Folk Music Society in 1972. From 1996 to 1999 he produced "Fiddlin’ in Falmouth", a live musical variety local TV show featuring local fiddlers and musicians from the Falmouth Area. In 1998, he started the Falmouth Fiddlers Association, and the Cape Cod Fiddle Contests.

He lived and worked in North Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Sample page with illustrations by Charles Cann:




Book Acknowledgments
Drawings by Charles Cann
Edited by Laura Higgins
Audio Tablature and CD Recording by Linda Dougherty
Music Notation by Marilyn Rowland
Cover Art by Sean Boyce
Graphics by Tom Mignone
Photograph of Falmouth Fiddlers by Charles Richardson
Typing by Ursula Boyce

72 Pages, Size 8.5 x 11", 34 Illustrations, $19.95

Published 2005 Journey Publications, Summerland, CA






Falmouth Fiddlers Association