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RENTAL, SALES &
REPAIR
Shar Music has
great customer service (mail-order, by phone or online). Their company
Shar Violins has a flexible purchase
plan for instruments via mail-order including upgrading to a larger size
and trade-ins, which makes it similar to renting. They also sell various
supplies and equipment including shoulder rests, and often have very reasonable
prices for strings.
Al Corey music store
(Waterville, Maine), call ahead 872-5622 to see what supplies they have
in stock.
Mark Donovan (Bowdoinham, Maine) makes instruments, and
may do repairs, (207) 666-8226.
Frost Gully
Violins (Freeport, Maine), upscale repair, sales and rentals.
Johnson Strings (Massachussetts),
good quality rentals and sales.
Music &
Moore at 49 Topsham Fair Mall Road, Suite 20, Topsham, ME (207) 725-4733.
Friendly service and reasonable prices. A rental program may be available
in the future.
Music Center
at 149 Maine St. # 2, Brunswick, ME (207) 725-6161 rents violins (via
Northern Kingdom Music) and sells used violins on consignment.
Northern Kingdom Music
(Rockport, Maine), basic service, including repair, sales and rentals.
Carter Ruff
(Bath, Maine) makes guitars, and sometimes repairs violins.
Sirius Music (Brunswick, Maine), contact Tom Bailey at (207) 729-1387
or (207) 319-8846.
David Stimson (Boothbay, Maine) offers repair services
including: gluing and crack repair; new bridges and soundposts; fingerboard
dressing; nut repair and replacement; sound adjustment; tuning pegs. Located
at 261 River Road; davidstimson [at] gwi [dot] net, (207) 380-2842.
Salt Bay (Damariscotta/Newcastle, Maine), reasonably priced
sales and repair, on Route 1, (207) 563-6611.
Somerset Violins
(Waterville, Maine), reasonably priced sales and repair.
Stamell Stringed
Instruments (Amherst, MA) offers a one week, home trial of instruments
and bows.
Starbird Music
(Portland, Maine) has a rental program and is a nice place for supplies.
I've been told that American Music and Portland Conservatory
might also have rentals.
Many of my students have had good luck getting a starter
violin on e-bay and craigslist. You never know what you'll get, but it's
an inexpensive gamble. Maybe they are just lucky people.
Mail-order sales of strings, instruments and supplies:
Concordmusic.com; Elderly.com;
International Violin Company;
Juststrings.com; Thestringcentre.com
EQUIPMENT
I recommend getting a $5-$10 foam shoulder rest to start,
then trying out more elaborate shoulder rest designs before purchasing
another. The foam ones are sold online Amazon.com/Violinonline.com,
Stamell Stringed
Instruments and Shar
mail-order music supplies.
An article about posture, shoulder rests and chin rests
is here.
I use a high-tech Bonmusica
shoulder rest, which was well worth the money. It's sold through many
companies online including Amazon.com and Shar.
Shar Music offers
customers the option of purchasing several kinds of shoulder rests at
once, trying them out at home, and shipping back/returning the ones that
don't fit. This seems like the most efficient way to find the right kind
to fit each individual. It would cost the price of 2-way shipping, plus
the price of the shoulder rest that's not returned. Remember that child-sized
violins need child-sized shoulder rests!
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MAINE FIDDLE CAMP
Maine Fiddle Camp
~ I've attended this for four years, and it's really amazing and worthwhile.
Very enriching for musicians of any and all levels of experience. Fiddle,
piano, cello, guitar, banjo, bones, tin whistle, mandolin, bass, and accordion.
Classes and workshops with performances, jams, song swaps, and dancing.
Lakeside setting with bonfires, swimming, bunkhouse cabins and tent sites.
And, incredible food featuring local organic produce. Here's a link to
a waltz I composed for Maine Fiddle Camp.
GROUPS OF MUSICIANS
INCLUDING STUDENTS
Family contradance
(Belfast, Maine) the first Friday of each month in Belfast from 6-7 p.m.
The music is an "open stage," so you are welcome to bring an
instrument and join in making music for the dancers.
Family contradance (Brunswick, Maine) on the third Friday
of each month in from 6:30-8 p.m. The music is an "open stage,"
so all musicians are welcome to bring an instrument and join in making
music for the dancers. At the People Plus Center (corner of Maine St.
and Noble St., across from First Parish Church). For more info and for
a list of the tunes, contact Marlene Sinyard at (207) 729-6907.
www.fiddleicious.com
(Falmouth, Maine) Opportunity for beginners through advanced players of
all ages, on many instruments, to rehearse and perform. I played with
them for a season and recommend it, it is educational as well as fun and
gentle/supportive. I encourage students to drop in and listen to rehearsals.
www.somefolk.org
(near Freeport, Maine) Fiddle tune sessions.
www.submusicworks.com
(Bath, Maine) Monthly informal jam.
Coastal
Youth Orchestra (Brunswick, Maine)
www.augustasymphonyorchestra.com
Community orchestra with musicians of all ages; see their website for
schedule of rehearsals and concerts.
Here is a link to some of the tune lists
of groups in Maine which welcome musicians of all ages and levels, including
students and beginners.
PERFORMANCE LISTINGS
FOR FIDDLE MUSIC
Downeast Friends of the
Folk Arts ~ Lists music jams, concerts and contradances throughout
Maine and New Hampshire.
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PRACTICE TOOLS
Tuning notes for violin: E
string ~ A string ~ D
string ~ G string
Some of my students like to have a book. One that looks
useful is "First Lessons -- Violin" by Craig Duncan, published
by www.melbay.com, sold at local music stores and probably on e-bay as
well. I think it comes with an audio CD and DVD as well.
A book that looks good as an overview of fiddling is The
Fiddler's Almanac; you can buy it here,
and browse through its pages here.
Listening to music is very important to learning to play
it; I recommend exploring the fiddle music on CDbaby.com;
you can listen to audio samples from each CD on the site. Many Maine fiddlers'
albums are available from this site, and a variety of styles can be found
to suit your individual taste.
Free tutorials on technique and some basic tunes are at
fiddler Jim Burke's site www.fiddlehub.com.
More free fiddle lessons are at www.childsplay.org.
AUDIO FILES & SHEET
MUSIC
CDs of beginner through advanced fiddle tunes can be purchased
from Maine Fiddle Camp.
Free downloads
of tunes played slowly and quickly are at Maine Fiddle Camp's tunes
page. There's also a special selection for
beginning players.
Written versions of common fiddle tunes are in several books including
the New England
Fiddler's Repertoire, the Portland
Collection, the Waltz Book
series, and online at Fiddleicious.com.
Some of the books are available used at Amazon.com, and at music stores.
An online library of traditional music is here.
Additional audio archives are at the Digital
Library of Appalachia.
Both audio files and sheet music for many common traditional tunes is
here; also at The
Kitchen Musician's website; The
Fiddler's Companion (from which audio files can be created using this
file conversion
site); and John
Lamancusa's collection of old-time fiddle tunes which includes field
recordings of them.
Click here
for a site with free, printable music staff paper
Here is a link to some of the tune lists
of groups in Maine which welcome musicians of all ages and levels, including
students and beginners.
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