Want to know more details about the coming Bucket List Fiddle Jam Course?  Here is a replay of the video plus a transcript of what I said below (in case you get tired of looking at my face or something… ha!).

Are you an adult who always wanted to play the violin or fiddle?… had a secret desire?… maybe it’s on your Bucket List? I got something for you here.

Now the problem with most people is that they immediately try to talk themselves out of things… asking themselves questions… “aren’t I too old for this?… Isn’t the violin too hard?… Don’t you have to be super smart? Didn’t Einstein play the violin?… Don’t I have to have natural talents or gifts to play music?… Maybe I’m not patient enough?… I’m too busy for this!… I don’t know where to start!…” Or, probably the worst one is, you’re afraid that you DO do it, and work hard at it, some in your family or friends are going to mock or ridicule you for it, and make you feel bad, or discourage you in some way… That’s the worst!

A Bold Claim!
But what if I told you, that I could teach you to play, and sound good, in ONE month, with only 10 minutes of practice a day? I’d get you to sound good, I’d get you to play in tune, play in rhythm, learn at least one cool fun song, and not HURT yourself, and be on your way! Does that sound interesting to you?

Let me say it again: 30 days or less… or your money back!! What do you think?

Check out this song: This is the song you’d learn:

[plays song]

Are you dancing yet? Kind of fun, isn’t it? Do you like it?
Now whether it’s your style or not, it doesn’t matter, it’s just kind of a fun little song. I bet in one month’s time, if you could play that, you’d be kind of impressed with yourself! You’d go, “Hey! I’m doing it!” Maybe your friends would like it, maybe your family would encourage you, and you can go from there, and feel good, everybody’s doing good, and you know, you’d be on your way!

Now, it sound’s kind of fancy and professional, doesn’t it? But it’s actually a very simple song. I wrote it just for this course. It actually only uses two fingers!

[plays violin]

You can learn this, and it actually has this thing, I try to capitalize on things as they happen naturally, and beginners often will stroke the bow a little crooked, and hit the wrong string, …dragging on the wrong string, and I’ve incorporated that into it,

[play violin]

Notice there is two notes going on? One is just an open string with nothing on, and it’s just kind of dragging along. So, that’s the stuff I do to help you sound really good, and better than you think you could sound.

So, I might think that this course I’m going to make called the Bucket List Fiddle Jam course is the coolest thing since sliced bread, and that song is, but I can understand that you might have a few more questions than that too, and I have a whole list of “Frequently Asked Questions” …let me go through the top ones here…

FAQ’s
The first obvious question is, and man, I wish I had a dollar for every time people asked me this, but, “What’s the difference between a violin and fiddle anyways?”

Well, the answer is: NOTHING!

Some people will argue with me, but I’ve been doing this 50 years… look… there’s no difference. Fiddle is just slang for violin, they are the same thing, the same instrument. Fiddle is more associated with the Non-Classical styles like, Bluegrass fiddling, and that kind of thing… the word violin is more with the serious Classical end, but it’s interchangeable. My Classical violin teacher when i was a kid, called his million dollar Guaneri a fiddle, and the Jazz violinists who goof around and improvise all the time, call it a violin. So, it’s all interchangeable. There is no difference. So that taken care of, we interchange that word here as needed.

One of the main questions is: “Wait a minute, I thought that the violin was like the hardest instrument on the planet? Do you really think I can do this?” Well, the answer is… of course you can. All instruments are equally hard to master.

Now, that said, some of the basics are a little bit weirder, and have some quirks to them. Violin is one of those. But we’ll run you through it. …but because of that, it’s more expressive, and it has a greater reward.

So, think about this for a second. If you play guitar, it’s got strings, and you pluck those strings, and you finger on those same strings… everything is in a line. Piano? Same thing. It’s just in a line this way. [shows] The keys go this way in a line… low notes down here, high notes up here, in-between notes in the middle… and it’s kind of all linear.

3D Playing
The violin, it’s got that… Its got strings. Of course you can finger up and down the strings. But then it has the bow that goes perpendicular to that. Strings are going this way [shows] bow is going this way [shows], and then it has a third dimension, where you gotta angle the bow at the right angle to hit the right strings, so it’s got kind of this 3D spatial awareness you have to learn, I will walk you through all that stuff, make sure it’s easy and you get the hang of it.

So, another question I get is: “Aren’t I too old?” …of course you’re not. You know the answer to that, right? It’s never too late to start to do something. “Don’t I have to start when I was a little kid to be any good at this?” Well, kids definitely have some advantages, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. You just have to have a realistic goal. I’m not saying that you’re going to be the next Itzak Perlman in one month, of course. I”m saying I can get you playing and get you sounding good on one song and you can go from there. That’s a realistic goal for 30 days. I think it’s a good one. You just gotta pick the right thing.

Like they say… How do you eat an elephant? …one bite at a time! …from there, you can do a bunch of stuff. You could learn a few more tunes and go to a pickin’ party and play some Bluegrass, you could learn a few Gospel tunes and play in church, you can back up a singer-songwriter with some long tones, you can put a pickup on your violin and join a Blues or Rock band, “amp up” and jam out! There’s lots of stuff you could do! But just start with one do-able thing and you can go from there.

So, a little aside, I realize that adults, I mentioned kids, but adults just need to learn a bit differently. …and the most important thing for an adult is not is not to scratch and squeak through Twinkle Twinkle or Mary Had a Little Lamb. You don’t want to do that, right? You want to sound good! If you can play one note, and have it sound decent, you go… “Ahhh!”… you kind of melt into the instrument, you’re like, “OK! Now we’re getting somewhere!” You could always use that, like I mentioned already, to back up a singer, or in church backing up the people …people love having the violin to play along! …even if it’s just playing long simple tones behind it, it’s a great thing. There’s some magic to it.

Don’t Hurt Yourself
The other important thing for adults especially is not to hurt yourself. Now, the only way you’re really going to hurt yourself, is if you poke your self in the eye with your bow, or drop the violin on your toe, or something, I’m not talking about that kind of hurt, I’m talking about the repetitive injuries, you know, like with your neck and shoulders, you gotta be somewhat careful, because it’s kind of weird.

We have a lifetime of “stuff” us adults, right? Whether it’s emotional baggage, or injuries you might have had, even if they are minor, or arthritis, or some people have little tremors starting. … you know, playing music can help that stuff. The main goal here is for me not to have have you hurt, and keeping you gentle and relaxed, and graceful. That’s the way to roll I think.

And a disclaimer: I didn’t do any of that stuff right when I started out! Nobody taught me that way. I had to learn that stuff the hard way. I was a very serious young man in my teens, and practiced like a madman, I didn’t play just the violin on that one shoulder, I played the guitar on that shoulder and the bass guitar on that shoulder, and I kind of messed up my back and grew crooked!

I’ve talked about this in come of the preliminary videos. You might have seen that. So, I don’t want you to have any troubles, and I’ve gone the extra mile bringing my buddy and friend, Dr Rob in, on board to be my consultant on these things and make sure that anything I tell you, to roll and loosen up before you play, which we’ll do in the lessons, he approves it and it’s cool, I’m not hurting anybody. ‘Cause, I know… Pain sucks! Nobody wants to be in pain. We don’t want to aggravate anything and make it worse, and also that kind of goes along with the idea that it can be done your way, we can make a lot of adjustments, because everybody is a little bit different, especially when you are an adult.

So, I don’t want anything to be stiff. I don’t want anything to be strict. I don’t want anything to be stiff physically or mentally. I’ve already mentioned that the Classical world is kind of stiff, and it’s got to be in a certain box, done this certain way, we’ve always done it this way, so therefore if you don’t do it that way, you’re WRONG!

I say B.S to that!

There’s always ways… the goal is to have the Joy Factor of music in your life. I don’t care if you hold the thing upside down and stand on your head. It doesn’t matter. As long as you’re playing, and I’ll help you be able to play. Part of the reason I’m on this planet is to buck elitism. In any form. …and I hate to see that stuff in music and I won’t stand for it here either, we are going to make this fun, and as easy as possible.

So, I guess i never really introduced myself yet? Let me properly do that:

My name is Geoffrey Fitzhugh Perry. You can call me Geoff Perry, many of my friends call me Fitz, that’s from my middle name Fitzhugh, that’s my nickname. I’ve been playing for five decades now. I look pretty good for 102! Don’t I? [laughs] I’ve been teaching for over four decades… and I’ve done all kinds of things as player, not just a teacher.

I have a book out that’s distributed all over the world, by the Hal Leonard Corporation, one of the world’s largest music publishers, called “Fiddle Jam” that teaches people how to jam to the Blues and Rock n Roll and make stuff up.

I played in the 1980’s in a Jazz Fusion Rock band and we had some success, we were signed to MCA Records, we were on the Billboard Jazz Chart, we played the Newport Jazz Festival in front of 40,000 people… that was pretty cool. That was a fun band. I later went on to play Cajun/Zydeco. I did four albums with a band “LeeRon Zydeco and the Hot Tamales” …that was fun stuff… it really kind of deepened my roots. After that I played about 10 years in a Gypsy Jazz group doing the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, We had some success. We were featured on PRI’s “The World” show and we were on the up and coming chart at one point, and we got to play a full symphonic show with the Buffalo Philharmonic and some other Symphonies, featuring that music. It’s kind of cool to have a 100 piece backup band behind you! It’s neat to stand as a Jazz soloist in front of a large orchestra, and it’s a personal thrill knowing that I was doing something that they couldn’t even dream of doing, they never get “off the page” ya know, but I’m going to teach you to get off the page too!

The other thing I did, was start the Fiddle Jam institute, of course, which is where this course will be hosted. The Fiddle Jam Institute is an online school I founded that takes the materials from my book and go beyond it.

I’ve also, as a player, jammed with a lot of famous people, or with people who played with famous people. I’ve jammed with some of the Allman Brothers, people from the Bonnie Raitt band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, I did some gigs with a guy form the Steve Miller Band, and some of my friends played with Bob Dylan, and I have a friend who is in Alabama’s backup band that I’ve recorded with. So, I’ve been around. I’m not necessarily a household name like I said, but … all that stuff might be mildly intriguing but it doesn’t mean anything if I can’t teach. Right? It might give me some “street creds” I guess, but it doesn’t mean anything … the facts are, just because I played the Newport Jazz Festival in front of 40,000 people doesn’t mean I had $40,000 in my pocket at the end of the day [laughs] and the reality of it is that a lot of artists don’t make that much money, and I always had to “moonlight,” and I always had to do other things, and I always taught.

I’ve been teaching since I was 16 years old, and I’ve taught thousands and thousands of people over the years from age 3 to 93. Yes, it’s true, I did have a 93 year old beginning student at one point. …and I think that I learned some tricks by teaching her. 93 year olds definitely have some cranky stuff in their bodies, and they are used to moving a certain way and that neat lady couldn’t get the hang of bowing and I had to come up with some special tricks to connect the left and right side of her brain and make her bow straight. I can throw those things at your too, and I include them in the course.

So, I learned as I went, I learned to be a better and better teacher. I’ve taught everywhere. I’ve taught in music stores, a private studio, I’ve been a string director in schools, at one time I was directing music programs at four separate schools all at once! …and I’ve done Fiddle Jam Clinics all over the nation here in the United States, where I take over the school orchestra for the day and get the kids to jam the Blues and Rock n Roll, and stuff, and I think it’s kind of neat. Whatever I can do to be “out of the box” is my “thing” …ya know?

I’ve always been considered a rebel and a renegade. I think I got that from my dad, that’s a whole other different story. He was not a musician, but he was quite the rebel. …and it influenced me I think, and maybe take the path I took today. …but I’m always fighting that stiffness factor and elitism… I don’t like any of that stuff. I try to do the Cool Stuff, the EZ Way! That’s kind of the tag line for the Fiddle Jam Institute. I want to have YOU do the stuff that’s cool and easy.

I know all the short cuts and tricks and again, that supports my 30 day guarantee thing, ‘cause I can get you there.

So, one of the things I’ve learned in my 40 years of teaching is …in helping you sound good is that you need to sound BAD first. That’s right… REALLY bad! I mean like scratching and squeaking the worst frog fart you ever heard.

Now, why would I teach somebody to sound bad first? Because then… of course, logically, you’d inversely know exactly what NOT to do, or where that point is when you’re pressing too hard or moving too slow and it starts to squeak, you go, “oh… there’s that spot, ahhh”… and relax and make it happen.

So, actually learning to sound bad first is actually the fast track to sounding good. Again, more of my tricks I got to throw at you.

Another question people ask me all the time is: “Do I need to read music? Can you be any good I you don’t read?” If you know how to read, that’s fine, but you don’t have to know how to read at all to take this 30 day course. It’s not a bad thing to learn eventually. As a matter of fact I will provide a “Non-Reader’s Cheater Sheet” as a download with purchase of the course, and it will help you to learn to read music later, but no, there will be a chart that I will provide, you can print that out at home, but it also gives all the cheaters fingerings and what strings to play, and I’ll be talking you through it. So you don’t have to learn to read at all to do this course, and that’s part of a good thing I think too, because it forces you to train your ear and not just be staring at the page and be lost, it really makes you listen, and internalize music and get you a faster result as well. You can learn to read later. It’s not a big deal.

So, Is Bucket List Fiddle Jam for you?? Exactly you?

There’s really four kinds of beginning violin learners that I’ve found. One of them might be you.

Maybe you’re a complete NewBie, never picked it up, always wanted to, and you think it would be cool. Well, this course is for you. No problem at all, it’s written for you.

But there’s also other kinds, there’s persons who are maybe a Re-Starter, maybe you played in school when you were young and quit ‘cause it wasn’t cool enough, for whatever reason, you kind of wish you hadn’t quit, and now your want to re-start and try again. This Course is for you too. You might remember some stuff, but I don’t always trust that you remember, or were taught correctly, and maybe you had some bad habits that you are remembering too? So… I’ll teach you the right habits, kind of get a fresh start, and this course will be set up so you can sort of self-pace, so if you remember something and you think it’s easy, you can kind of skip through it quicker too. That’s fine.

Another kind of beginning music student or violin student I find is the Music Dabbler. Like maybe you play a little guitar, strum a couple chords, and play a little bit, maybe you play a few little tunes on piano, and you’ve had music in your life and you want to pick up the violin. You think it might be neat. Again, this course will be self-paced. You might know some stuff, might not know other stuff, this is not a big serious goal, you’ll only be learning one song. I say you can do this.

The fourth kind of beginning violin student that I’ve found is the Multi-instrumentalist, Pro or Semi-Pro Player. Maybe you play in a band already, you play the guitar or something, and your band mates go, “boy it would be really cool if you knew how to play the fiddle, we could do “this” song!” “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” or something! Really please the audience. So, maybe you want to pick up the fiddle to add to your arsenal. Yes, you can do this course too. Again, as I mentioned it’s self-paced, and I’ve done the fast track, it’s exactly what you want, you can fast track your way to good technique and good sound, and be Rockin’ and Rollin’.

One of the things that I’ve developed over my career of teaching is what I call the ORSH Method. ORSH stands for One Room School House. My own mother went to a one room schoolhouse. She’s in her 80’s now, and she always told that she thought it was so neat to be able to be in second grade and kind of keep one ear on the fifth grade stuff so that when you got to fifth grade you already had kind of an idea what was going on and what to expect. …and I’ve incorporated that into my own lessons. I always give tips and tricks for when people are ready, if you’re not ready, it’s cool, it doesn’t matter you’ll still know the basic lesson, but if you’re ready for it, there this little tip you can add to “this” and that’ll be cool, and if you’re not ready for it, it at least plants a seed in your brain, and when you are ready, you go, “Oh, I remember when he said that, let me do that.”

So I’m all the time throwing in stuff on multiple layers, for different kinds of people. and some of the things give what I call Authority. Yes, authority, or what some people call a gift or talent, can be taught, it’s not something you are just born with.

Now obviously some people have an easier time with music when they have just come out of the box, we don’t know why that is, reincarnation or whatever, we don’t know… genetics… that’s a fact for sure, but that stuff can be taught I find, and it has to be just taught the right way, it’s more of an internal game sometimes, and the ORSH method can help that. I teach you not only how to just play by ear, but listen internally, with your inner ear, and be able to visualize things, and even science is now kind of proving these things now too, the organization Heart Math is doing a lot of interesting science and proving that the heart and brain actually work together, and the heart has 40,000 brain cells in it they say, so it has a little brain in your heart too and when they are working together, I know this as a musician… we say “Oh I’m playing from the heart” you know you’re more tapped in certain days, when they are working together, that’s when the magic happens, and even science is proving this stuff and I’ll be incorporating this stuff, even if it seems a little “woo-woo”… it’s actually hard science now. We’ll talk about that in the course too.

So, I asked you if Bucket List Fiddle Jam might be right for you… but I have to admit that, at first, I didn’t think it would be right for ME to teach!

When I first started the Fiddle Jam institute, online school, I made a conscious business choice, to NOT make it for complete beginners, and I started at “near” beginners and up. So, if you knew how to play a couple scales, you’d be “in” and you could start learning. The reason for that is that I thought it was really important, to have a flesh and blood teacher who could say, “no, move your arm this way, do this, do that, don’t do that” and actually be in the room with you…

I now think I was wrong.

I don’t think I was right about that. It’s nice to have a flesh and blood teacher, but at one point, I put out, just on a lark, an absolute beginner video and I put it up on the Fiddle Jam Institute YouTube channel, to see what interest it had.

Now, most of my videos get between like, 300 views to 3,000 maybe or maybe a more popular one might be 15,000 views. But this video I put out called “VIOLIN Scratch and Squeak How Not To” …maybe you’ve seen it? …It now has like a MILLION views!

So I went “wait a minute… so I guess people DO want to learn online?” And I thought: “hmmm…” so I did a little advertising, that you can do with Facebook and these kinds of things, and looked at the data, and I was very surprised, even though I had designed my perfect “avatar” of a customer that I designed the website for as, I thought, a teen-aged, early twenties somebody wanted to learn to jam and kind of get out fo the Classical world, there is some of that too, if you are that, you are welcome here as well,

But the data said otherwise,

The data said, most of the people watching that video were men over 50, and women over 60! I was like… “OK”… So it got me thinking about adults and how adults learn, how adults learn differently than kids, and I brewed on it for a while, maybe too long, I dragged my feet some, you know how life is… but then COVID-19 hit. The pandemic… a world-wide thing… And EVERY teacher had to rethink what they were doing… Me included… And I was kind of forced to go online with zoom and these kind of things, through the phone and through the computer, I realized that “this wasn’t so bad” I don’t know why I was holding back? It’s just, you gotta adjust your teaching a little bit, and I realized, “OK, I guess it’s time for me to do this course. Bucket List Fiddle Jam, here we come!”

Passion for Beginners
So, now, even though I’m this so-called “high-level player” …all this stuff, even my music peers, my friends go, “how do you stand teaching all those beginners, squeaking and squawking?” To me, I just dig it, I love teaching beginners. Maybe it’s something from my dad, he was always kind of a good explainer, or something, I don’t know…

I think a lot of teachers have a big ego, to be honest, and the success of their students, puffs them up, like “Oh, my student is really good” kind of thing. That’s great if you are into that, it’s cool, but I get my thrills out fo explaining something basic to somebody and they go “Oh, I get it!” and I went “YES!!!” Alright, that’s like my biggest thrill, just to explain something and have you say “I get it.” So, somehow, I am just wired that way… that’s who I am, so that’s what I’ll be giving in the course, the best ways to get the most progress out of you in the least amount of time, and the least amount of effort.

There’s many stories on the internet, from some of my own videos about how I learned to practice. I had a great teacher, and how I learned to practice efficiently… I’m not going to get into the long story here, but how I got more practice out of less time than other kids when I was growing up too, because, I knew how to be self-critical, and knew the stuff to do. So, I’m going to pass all these things on to you in the course,

So, Bucket List Fiddle Jam, if you are interested, what do you get?

One: You get to sound good, and I said you get to learn how to finger, you don’t hurt yourself, you learn a cool song, and you go forward from there, that’s the goal, the overall goal.

The Format of the course is going to be 24 lessons, that’s so you can do most of them within the month and review at the end. All online. It’s going to be on a special access area of the Fiddle Jam Institute. There will be a main lesson, where I’ll be blabbing about the points of the lesson, and showing you stuff, then there’s going to be a 10 minute practice session. I said 10 minutes of practice. You can try the stuff with the main lesson, if you’d like to we’ll sit down and I’ll practice and you can practice along with me. 10 minutes each time. You can repeat those later in the day if you want, and of course, the more you practice, the better you get. 10 minutes aught to about do it, especially with the techniques I present. It’s not a huge commitment, you can do this. I know, adults are busy. I wanted to make this easy.

So in the first week, the main goal, like I mentioned, the first thing is to help you sound good. and we might make you sound bad the first day, you know… we’ll always have a musical experience. I’ll try to make you play something musical in every lesson wherever possible. I want you to get the goosebump factor going. There’s not a lot of scale and music theory going to be happening here, we’re going to get you sounding good, and on your way, in the first week.

The second week will be more focused on the fingering aspect of things. I have some tricks there to help you learn “intonation.” Intonation means, playing in tune. Not sounding bad. I have this special trick, a DIY intonation trainer thing… and some of this stuff, when you get to the fingering part is just… and the bowing part… is just muscle memory… some things will be explained and you go “OK… I got it.” “You know, nobody told me that before… OK.” “Now I got it in my brain.” Other things are going [to be}: “Well… you might get this, but your fingers don’t get it yet.” “This is something you’re gong to have to repeat a hundred times today.” I’ll be clear about which is what. Not that you just have to endlessly repeat things. But, if you need to do that to get it to be a no-brainer, I’ll tell you. There will be some of that.

In every lesson the format will have some light stretching, and I’ll review the last lesson, so we remember where we were, and where we are going, we’ll do the main lesson, we’ll also do a little cool down, …that’s something I never did as a player, when I’d finish a gig, I’d put the instrument away and go home. I never thought about stretching or relaxing, and the undoing of the stresses of the playing in a bar for four hours. …and that’s why I kind of messed myself up so much too, so we don’t want any of that to happen to you, we’re going to do this very gently, there will be a lot of encouragement and virtual hugs, fist bumps and high fives and that kind fo stuff. …and also in every lesson at the end, I’ll be telling you what we will be working on next, so you’ll alway have kind of the big picture going on, where you’re heading with this stuff.

Also we’ll have a special private Facebook Group just for the Bucket List Fiddle Jam people, ..maybe many of you are on Facebook. It’s not a requirement, it’s optional. If you’re not into Facebook, that’s cool. There you’ll be able to post your own questions and even your own video of your practice and playing if you want people to respond, for further encouragement.

The last section of the course… of course, will be learning that song… the Bucket List Fiddle Jam song that I played earlier. We’re going to learn it not by reading, we’re learning it by ear, I’ll be spoon feeding you one note at a time. I’m going to go through every detail, you’ll be able to watch me in the videos, and I’ll go nice and slow, we’ll learn it by memory and by heart as we call it. One part at a time. That song I played has two parts, You’ll learn the first part and then the next lesson we’ll also learn the back-ups to that part.

So, can you play the backups and melody at the same time? No, it will be two different violins BUT, I think it’s really valuable, and this can transfer into things after the course too, to learn the basic harmony notes of a song, [how it] follows the chords, I’ll explain some of these things. and also deepens your sense of the song like, in your mind, when you learn the backups you kind of hear the backups while you’re playing the melody, and it kind of expands things…and gets that intangible authority thing going on… The B section, the second section, will be done that same way.

I also will exchange, I’ll have not only us play the backups together, but I’ll play the backups and you can play the melody along with me so you’re hearing both parts at the same time. we’ll swap roles, so I’ll play the melody while you play the backups, it’s all keeping the sense of music in your brain.

There will also be some bonuses about backing up… one fo the reasons that I teach that in this one song, is I want you to be able to do that outside the course too… Like I said, if you go to a local Bluegrass pickin’ party around the campfire, I want you to be able to play, even if you don’t know the song. Kind of cozy up to the nearest guitar player and ask what chords are they? …and you kind of know what to do, so you can play something and have the enjoyment of music in your life, even if you don’t know a thousand songs and show up to those things and be intimidated, you don’t have to. So I’ll teach you how to play with some tips on how to get started with that too… without knowing anything.

And also, my thing is also jamming, making stuff up, you know, improvising, I’m not looking to turn you into a professional Jazz violinist or anything, but knowing how to mess around a little bit, takes the pressure off, reciting. Some Bluegrass people get freaked out because they learn the song and have to do it the same way every-time and it’s no different than Classical music how it’s kind of this high stress, “oh my god, I have to play it RIGHT NOW, and the correct way, or I’m messed up! if you mess up it’s not a big deal, just kind of learn to mess around with the notes and we’ll put our toe in that water too.

Anything to take away the stress and keep you relaxed.

So, with purchase, I also give some bonuses, there will be a report, on, if you don’t have an instrument yet, whether you should buy or rent or borrow one, what to look for, what not to get, what to get, what problems to look for, and, you’ll have access to that.

There will be, as I mentioned already, play along tracks you can download, at different speeds and play along with the band and stuff, those are good to have too. There will be the sheet music chart. There will also be the Non-Reader’s Cheater Sheet page that can help you learn the basics of reading when you are ready. There will be a practice log. and we’ll see what else I include too…

Bucket List Fiddle Jam… is it sounding good? I hope so, I’m pretty excited about it. I’m psyched to finally do this one and I think it going to be kind of my “flagship” course. It’s what I’m most passionate about. I’ve done other courses before, you’ll hear about those too.

It is possible. You can do this!

30 days from now… what is the future you going to be like? Is it still going to be, “Ahhh… I wish I had done that,” or is it going to be “Hey! I did it!” …and I’m enjoying myself. It’s cool, even if you just play the song for yourself in your bedroom, that’s OK… or if you play it for your family and they like it. …or your friends… and you go from there…and all of a sudden you’re playing in church or playing somewhere, and doing things, and you’re involved in the community … it’s all good! Right?

So you’re saying, “This is a pretty big result… what’s it going to cost me?” Right? That’s a logical question… I’m known in my family as the miser man… always watching the pennies… it’s not going to cost much… I thinkI’m fairly priced,

it’s going to cost less than a couple hours of private lessons with your local teacher…

It’s going to be priced at just $79!

That’s a pretty good price I think, for the result you are going to get… hopefully that’s an irresistible offer for you, and you can’t stop from doing it. I want more people to be involved in music and this is a great way if you are pricing it right.

Also a little wink there, if you’ve looked at some of my earlier promotional videos on this course, that I’ve started doing in the past week or so, there was a survey you could take and if you’ve taken the survey there was a coupon at the end of the survey that you can get 15% off the price so that’s even better. …

There’s also going to be some options, if you want, there is no pressure, I’ll be releasing 3-song packs of lessons later, if you have a certain style you like, might be the Bluegrass, you want to learn a few Bluegrass tunes, you can pickup the 3-song pack, or a [pack of] blues songs, or do some Gospel tunes for you’re playing in church, or something, or other, packages you can get later, they are going to be $18.95 so you can get that for 50% off, you get it for half price…

And also, I’ll be starting a new program, I think this is kind of cool, I’m kind-of excited about it. A Charity program. If you are buying the course for yourself, and you would like to gift it to someone else, you don’t have to pay full price for the second one. $20 bucks (!) will get you second access to the course that you can then gift to someone, if there is someone in your life, you can gift it, we’ll work that out, you can tell me their email, and you guys can get all the stuff going on. Or, if you’d just like to give it to someone in need… you can do that, and I’ll figure out who to give it to… I’ll have a list of people, we will be taking applications, for those in need. I’m also in touch with a not for profit organization that gives music lessons to foster children and folks, So we’ve got ways, if you are feeling generous, and want, you don’t have to pay for a second course, just for 20 bucks, you can donate another course, I’ll give that course to the next person. So, check that out, if you are interested that could be something you are doing.

…and one other thing I’m going to throw into the pot, if you’d like, during the pandemic, which I mentioned earlier, I also gave out and had this Super Sale going on… where I gave away like a thousand dollars worth of stuff, for $79 bucks. If you want to pay another 79 bucks, even though you might not quite be ready for it in the first 30 days, but after that you would. You can get full access “All Access” to the complete library of the Fiddle Jam Institute. There’s about 200 lessons in there about all kinds of things. Also I threw in in that sale, all three of my previous courses. there was Fiddle Jam 101, the basics of jamming over different styles using super easy finger patterns, that you can do even as a near-beginner, after this course you’ll be ready for that no problem. There was Music Mechanics 101, for people who want to know how music works and what notes to play with guitar chords and that kind of stuff, it kind of runs you through those basics, there was a Blues Violin Course I produced a couple years ago, that was kind of successful. it was kind of fun too, I think 13 songs… blues songs, learn how to jam over them and that kind of stuff… so I’ll throw in all that stuff if you want to pay the extra $79 bucks too. …and I’ll keep that sale going for right now… just for you guys…

So, my goal, is to have, like i mentioned, more people playing music in the world, and more people having this whole left-right brain connection thing where the science is telling us is happening now. How that happens with music, the basics is that, each hemisphere of the brain is good or better at certain things… one is better at thinking and one is better at feeling, so in music, we have to be able to think of stuff, and know a few things, how to hold the bow, what the notes are, that kind of stuff, but also we have to, at the same time, have to feel stuff, feel the music, feel the rhythm, so playing music helps cross talk between the two halves of the brain which helps us keep our brain healthy, it staves off Alzheimers, gives us general well being and less depression, these kind of things, so it’s all good,

I’m thrilled to have th e world be a better place because, YOU are in it playing music! Right? …and if this is up for you and you are into it, join us! Let’s do this, so go below, wherever you are watching, buy the stuff at whatever level you want, and we will Rock n Roll this world together and make the world a better place to be together, all of us. Alright?

So, I hope to se you in the course, get it while you can, it’s not going to last forever, I’m going to close the door on the corse after a while because in this first inaugural run I’m not sure how many people I actually want in it that I can serve, I’m going to give this a try, we may run it again, next year or something, so get in on it while you can. Its a great price, we’ll get that goal, you have that 30-day money back guarantee, no questions asked, if something changes in your life, and you just can’t get to it. I understand, this is self paced, you can go at your own pace, it’s a great price I think and you’ll be able to ask me questions, Let’s doit! Alright? So, amen to that and hopefully we’ll see you in school!