Fiddle Jam Club Newsletter and more...

Hey Fiddle Jammers!

Happy New Year!  I hope you all made it through the Holidays unscathed and are jamming joyufully!

Things are still humming along at the Fiddle Jam Institute online school.  The School Store is still open for stand-alone courses.  Check them out!

Most of my efforts currently are going into developing my Outlaw Fiddle electric violin business, and I hope to be showing them at some violin conferences in the coming year.  I have changed the name of FJi’s YouTube channel to reflect this addition from Fiddle Jam Institute to now: Outlaw Fiddle Jam.

I am still doing the weekly live streaming sessions if you are interested, at 6:30pm Wednesdays EST.  Join in!  You can watch these as replays too.

For those interested in gear that is good for electric violin, I am currently selling my Pearse G1 amplifier that I used for 30+ years on 1000’s of gigs.  It has a 12″ speaker and also a 4″ speaker that makes electric violin hi-end sound sweet, but not screach-y.  I’m asking $550 for it.  I have twice that into it.  I have it listed on Reverb.com also, but will be happy to sell it to one of you privately (it would save me about $50 in fees).  I can offer free shipping in the continental US, and am willing to look into shipping elsewhere.  I include the ad text below for you to check out if you are interested.  Just hit me up via email if you’d like more info.

Stay in touch!

Fitz

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Reverb.com ad:

Pearse G1 Guitar Amp late 1980’s. Workhorse 100 watt amp used on 1000’s of gigs, never whimpered once. This was one of the first tube-less amps that sounded the closest to tubes at the time, endorsed by Steve Via, Alan Holdsworth, Les Paul and many others. I worked at the factory in Buffalo, NY as shipping manager and had the electronics guys do all the latest artist mods (EQ and Gain structure).

One knob not original (I stumbled coming home tired from a late gig and banged it into the door jamb). The potentiometer is fine. Tons of design features/options: Dual channel (clean and dirty, or both simultaneously, switchable via footswitch included). FX loops for each individual channel and a master effects loop (pre-amp to power amp). Nice musical sounding limiter. 3 different db input sensitivity settings. Separate inputs for each channel and a combined input. Internal spring reverb tank (lightly foamed to tone it down a bit for my personal preference).

Cabinet is a bit dinged up after 30+ years of steady gigging, but has no rattles. I have it as a closed back cab currently, the open back boards are long gone. I used to run two of these in stereo, one closed back and the other open back, in a Marshall-like stack. I used this amp for electric violin as well as guitar and had a MTX 4″ mid-range “cranker” car stereo speaker also in the cabinet for a little extra sweet high-end for the violin (included, but currently disconnected). Original Fane 12″ speak included also. Padded factory amp cover included. Removable casters.

Great amp. Sad to see it go, but it is time to get it to another good home, as I have moved on to other rigs for my electric violin. I will ship for FREE anywhere in the US.<<::>>

 

Hi Fiddle Jammers!

I just finished the latest of my weekly Fiddle Jam Live streaming sessions on YouTube (Every Wed. 6:30 EST). Go to the Outlaw Fiddle Jam YouTube Channel to find more about that.  This time I got into Boundary Expansion for your playing, talking some about different styles, but more about little things you can “borrow” from styles like Blues and Cajun music that are not really major or minor and sometimes 1/4 steps in-between on certain notes within a scale (not ALL of them!… that would just be OUT OF TUNE! ;~)  Check it out if interested.  The replay should be available any minute now: HERE

I also mentioned/reminded that the big Black Friday Super Sale has only two days left!  $100 to get in on about $1000 worth of material, access, courses, and books!!  It’s a great time to get in the Fiddle Jam Club!  Click on the link below to get more info:

Happy jams!

Fitz

https://fiddlejaminstitute.com/webinar/product/fiddle-jam-black-friday-sale/

Hey folks, I hope this finds you all well.

If you are subscribed to my Fiddle Jam Institute YouTube** channel (see below if not), you maybe have seen a notice in your “feed” that I did my first live streaming Fiddle Jam Session test last week, with the intention to do one each Wednesday about the same time.

…well… the best laid plans, sometimes can take unexpected twists and turns if seems.  Yesterday I tested positive for COVID… no worries, I only seem to have had one day of flat out in bed with fever symptoms, and feel that I am on the down-side of it now.  But I did already miss week #2!

Wisdom tells me that I should have 1 or 2 of these sessions pre-recorded and in “the can” for when life throws in a curve ball.  At least I could post those in that case as a default.

I think it’s fun to do them live if possible, and will eventually get the hang of seeing and responding to chat streams if you have questions or comments in real-time, but for now, send me your questions, and wish-list of things you’d like me to cover and I will be happy to do my best to accommodate you!

The general intention I am putting forth, is a more immediate and personalized jam session that we could not fit on the Fiddle Jam Book’s CD, where I spend more time on inner ear and groove training using “call and answer” and slowing down the cool stuff riff by riff so you can develop a useful jamming vocabulary on your fiddle for a featured key each week.  Though, if there is interest, I can do other things too.  One thing that was mentioned to me was breaking down the famous jazz song, “All of Me” into smaller bites that a jazz novice could handle more easily.  I’m open to your suggestions!  What I cover does not HAVE to be the basics.  Any topic is fair game.  Send me your ideas and votes!

Happy Jams!

Fitz

To subscribe to the Fiddle Jam Institute YouTube channel: simply go to ANY of my videos, say… like last week’s live stream session test HERE or below (in case you missed it ;-), and if you are logged in to your YouTube account (it’s free to start one), just click on the SUBSCRIBE button below the video and it will add anything new that I post into a notification for you.  This can come to your email or just show up as a priority in your video list “feed” along with other videos from providers that you might have subscribed to or show interest in.  Pretty easy stuff.  Let me know if you need any help!

 

Check it out!  I just stumbled on this on YouTube recently.

 

My recordings and live band “Fitzhugh and the Fanatics” was the “un-Gamal-izing” of myself after my 8 year stint with the Jazz/Rock powerhouse, Gamalon.  I started out by stripping down American songbook/Jazz Standards into a more bluesy 3-chord format wherever I could, just for fun, with a recording titled “Blue Standards”.  That took all my jazz Theory training, applied in reverse!  It ended up sounding kind of like Elvis Presley meets Stephanne Grapelli meets Stevie Ray Vaughn if you can imagine that (for sale in the school store FYI ;-).

When a small record label (Hot Wings Entertainment) took some interest in what I was doing, I recorded a second album as Fitzhugh and the Fanatics, but this time with more of a Cajun/fiddle rock slant, which at the time was my newest musical interest.  The result was this “Flavor” CD.

In that era, I also did 4 albums with a full on Cajun/Zydeco band called LeeRon Zydeco and the Hot Tamales.  You can find that stuff on the web I you search a bit.  We did a LOT of gigs and ate really well …most of those gigs were paired with Cajun food!

Hope you are all well and happily jamming!

Fitz

Hi Fiddle Jammers!

The Rock Your Strings online event starts TOMORROW! Jan 17-20, 2022.

 

If you’d like to have access to this event, you’ll need to sign up at: www.rockyourstrings.site

There is also a free Facebook Group associated with this event: Rock Your Strings Facebook Group

Access is FREE to the sessions from 7 different teachers (me being one).  If you’d like to be able to replay and study later (recommended) there is a one-time fee of $37.

My session was fun.  It includes me encouraging you to play along with me, getting used to some beginning improvisation techniques, and talking about other practice and performance methods and attitudes, so have your instrument on hand while watching!

Check it out!

Sign up now!

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Fitz

 

History of Electric Violin Documentary Cover of iFiddle Magazine again Fiddle Jam 101 Course has been updated! The way-back machine: early Gamalon electric violin photo Fiddle Jam Newsletter Jan. 2021