A violin student is nearing the end of his personal challenge to learn a fiddle tune every day of the year.David Grubb, from East Wemyss in Fife, is an undergraduate at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and has so far managed to learn 364 new folk tunes since he launched the project in December 2010. He uploads videos of himself playing the tunes on a dedicated website and has earned quite a following.
Speaking to Fife Today about his reasons for starting the project, he admitted that it started out as a “bit of fun to learn new tunes”.
Now, he has clocked up video hits of almost 60,000 and hopes to not only improve his own learning but inspire other musicians to learn the fiddle.
“Not only has the project been good fun, it’s also served as a valuable resource to new fiddlers who are looking to learn new tunes and techniques,” he said.
His penultimate entry is a performance of Lady Catherine Stewart’s Strathspey, a traditional Scots strathspey and over the year he has played jigs and reels hailing from across the UK and Ireland.
David has found many of the tunes from books, sheet music and from recordings on the internet that he transcribes.
The student, who plans to establish a career in music, will graduate in 2013 before applying to take post-graduate courses in Cardiff and Glasgow.
“I’d love to be a performer whether it be in a symphony orchestra, theatre orchestra or a folk band. I’d be more than happy either way,” he told the news provider. In fact, David is already in a folk band and his year-long project has helped him become a better fiddler.
He explained that while the project might officially be over today (November 30th) he will not stop as he has such a large fanbase and there is also a lot more to learn.