Intro to Playing Fiddle with Alice Schuth

Embark on a musical adventure with local fiddle player Alice Schuth in this four-week beginners' fiddle class. Designed for adults starting from scratch, this course offers a unique opportunity to learn fiddle from an instructor with a rich background in music education, community building, and performance.

In addition to exploring the instrument and building skills to play fiddle tunes, students will dance, sing, draw, pluck, thwap, and stomp through the sessions. Learn bow and left-hand skills from air fiddle and singing. Delve into notation, melody, and harmony through understanding patterns, shapes, and relationships on the fiddle to create and learn tunes. Students will build confidence as rhythm and melody are explored through traditional tunes and creative games. Conclude the course by performing with your new-found fiddle skills, having gained the confidence to play and create in community, while appreciating the joy of making music with fellow beginners.

Maximum of five students.

About the Instructor

Alice Schuth is a strings educator who has maintained a studio for over 30 years. She is most proud of her work authoring the Paper Orchestra Project, a strings education program tailored to rural communities. Her students often begin as pre-school children in paper orchestra, then become private students, give solo recitals, play chamber music and graduate to orchestral music.

As a certified teacher trainer in the Creative Ability Development method she combines playing music in groups with one-on-one instruction to provide a well rounded musical education. While part of the Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra (now defunct), over a dozen young musicians under Alice's tutelage joined the ranks of the string sections. Alice was fortunate to see her three sons grow as musicians through Eastport Strings and become founding members of the PBSO. Now that they are out living on their own, she devotes her time ensuring other children and parents can have a similar enriching experience through music. 

 Alice studied jazz violin at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA before moving across town to become a graduate in violin performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. After building a career in Boston that included freelance orchestral performance, a thriving private studio, and chamber music coaching, Alice moved with her family to Eastport, Maine, where she co-founded Eastport Strings in 2001. Alice continues to play with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra when she can find the time.