I'm a mandolin player who is learning to play fiddle. I have heard and read many times that I will need weekly lessons and multiple years of practice before I can produce an acceptable noise. Of course I'm dealing with the twin challenges of intonation and bowing, both of which require discipline and practice. But my experience has been quite positive and fun. My progress is obvious, and sometimes I sound pretty good!
It is often said that the only way that mando helps with learning fiddle is that mandolin players know where the notes are, by virtue of our logical fretboard. However, I have discovered another advantage of previous mandolin experience: We know where the double stops are. We are used to thinking in terms of more than one note at a time, and two- and three-note chords are normal fare. If we have been playing folkish music for very long we can routinely hit double stops, almost without thinking about it. After, all a double stop is just part of a chord (or chord pattern) that we already know.
And playing double stops and against open drone strings is a simple way to sound like a better fiddle player than we really are. While double stops do not hide poor intonation, at least they provide some distraction and cover. When I try to play clean & classical, I sound like the hack that I am. But when I drop in the double stops and drones it almost sounds like I can really play!
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