---

---

---

Bio

Tim is an award winning and experienced fiddle player who specialises in teaching fiddle playing for fun! He teaches a number of styles including Irish, Klezmer, American Old-Time, folk, etc

Although he is a classically trained violin player with RSM Grade VIII, these days he describes himself as a fiddle player. He is a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) and is a Registered Private Teacher with the ISM.

He teaches primarily from his purpose-built music studio in the garden at his home, either one-to-one or online. This is equipped with all the music and accessories needed to deliver productive lessons.

For those that wish to do so, Tim is also happy to prepare and submit students for ABRSM performance Grade exams (Grades 1-5). This can be a good way of marking achieving milestones, and is an option for those interested in following this process. It is not a requirement.

Tim is a musician with many years experience of playing the fiddle in folk bands, country bands, acoustic bands, etc. He is also an accomplished wedding musician, playing regularly at weddings as one half of ‘Bertie and Jonny’ – a violin and guitar acoustic duo. In November 2024, Bertie and Jonny picked up the award for Best Wedding Musical Act in East Wales, 2024 at the Welsh National Wedding Awards.

He enjoys teaching and sharing ideas on improvisation, accompanying singer-guitarists, and the skills required to play with other people and entertain in informal musical situations. The emphasis of his teaching style is to inspire, communicate and share the shear joy of fiddle playing and making music!

---

Teaching Info

His fiddle lessons teach you all the fundamentals and essentials about playing the instrument (which includes reading music / musical theory) but also tells you about the many styles of fiddle playing there are out there, providing tips and advice on how best to capture an authentic fiddle sound (double stops, drones, cuts, slides, etc) – information not readily available in books!

The main emphasis of his teaching method is that the student feels relaxed, is enjoying the lesson and learning the instrument – because that’s what fiddle playing is all about!. He applies a well tested approach to learning the instrument which involves introducing new elements at a controlled pace while making sure that the fundamentals are fully grasped to ensure that a rapid, enjoyable return is delivered, learning to play some familiar tunes quickly. Tim believes that a good music tutor is someone who is patient, listens to the student and guides the student in the right direction, while making the lesson as productive as possible. Going that extra mile to show the student that their progress is important and offering plenty of encouragement along the way are part of Tim’s teaching style.

He particularly likes it when students come to him with tunes or styles they want to learn. He’s happy to tailor the course to the individual student. He’s also familiar with and has a large library of different fiddle tunes that can be taught, many with backing tracks readily available. He selects from this to guide the student in the particular direction or genre they wish to learn.

Tim regularly updates his tutorial book called ‘Fiddle Players Guide Book’. This book has brought together in one volume many of the topics he focuses on in his lessons with Chapters such as ‘Essential information for violin players’, ‘How to make your violin sound like a fiddle’ and ‘Accompanying a Singer/Guitarist’. Feedback on this book has been very positive with students saying it is a good reference source to complement the lessons. Copies are not generally available but a FREE pdf copy is available to everyone who signs up for lessons with him.

New students with Tim also gain exclusive access to a database with over one hundered and fifty well known and popular tunes to learn. Each tune comes with sheet music, demonstration MP3 (with fiddle) and backing MP3 (with fiddle removed) that you can play, download and use for practice. Many have slower versions designed for learning. The data base is being added to all the time, often with suggestions from students! There are some great tunes to learn and share!

---