Every year my daughter and I spend our holidays with dear friends who create celebrations for a large extended family. My friend is godmother to my daughter and everyone there has watched her grow up. Even though in some years, we only see each other on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, we just pick up the story, counting off this year’s ring of growth in our tree of life.

We spend the day catching up on each other’s lives and cheering each other on our journeys. Then we partake of a grand feast. There is always a feast. We bring our best dishes to accompany the lamb for Easter, turkey for Thanksgiving and roast beef at Christmas. We eat, visit some more and play music until it’s time to go home. Everyone has a song, a tune, a story to share. There are tunes and songs we always play because everyone there knows them and can add their voice. The music moves around the room, in us and through us, creating sanctuary where all belong and are welcome. We always feel rooted and festive and full of love when we leave for the long ride home.

After Christmas 2007, I wrote a fiddle tune that brought back the energy of that day. Called High Street Christmas, it’s a Cape-Breton-style reel in A major.  No live recording yet, but try this Finale audio file of the transcription. This tune will be on my new Grooviolon CD.

Happy Holidays & Bonne Année

Donna Hébert

Related show

• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 13 Jan 2009 - 2 Jun 2009
• Time: 6:30pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Amherst MA
• Venue: Novice Fiddle Class at Donna Hébert’s studio
• Country: US
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes: 18 weeks – 2 hour class – limit 6 people
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 26 Jun 2009 - 28 Jun 2009
• Time: 3:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Altamont NY
• Venue: Old Songs Festival
• Address: Altamont Fairgrounds
• Country: US
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes: Old Songs Festival – Great Groove Youth Band coached by Groovemama
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 15 Sep 2009 - 14 Dec 2009
• Time: 6:30pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Amherst MA
• Venue: Donna Hébert’s studio
• Country: US
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 413-658-4276
• Notes: Fall semester class for novice adults – registering up to 6 students. Weekly 2 hr class. Basics of efficient playing, theory, ear-training, repertoire.
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Jamming on the back porch at the 2008 Champlain Valley Folk Festival

Learning by ear

Listen repeatedly and sing along with the source, then transfer the sung phrases to the instrument. [Don't worry if you can't sing in tune. Your voice is helping you to punctuate the rhythm of the tune.] Go back to singing when your lose the tune – it’s best when the tune crawls into your ear and won’t leave. Sing and play. Sing and play. Play and sing. Time means nothing. Above all, don’t worry. It’ll come if you just keep listening.

When you have the notes, listen some more for rhythms and figure out the bowings that create them. Think about using the up-bow more to create subtlety, tying notes across the beat on a upbow to camouflage the movement. The upbow is your friend.

Now listen some more for harmony, chords and countermelodies. Figure out how the chords progress in this tune. Is it major or minor? A I-IV-V or Modal progression? Mine the tune for clues to harmonic movement. Then find a short line for each phrase. Try to stay on one string, visiting two at most and staying off the E string entirely for most harmony or counter lines. Often one phrase will lead you into the other, but you do need to ‘feel and find’ or actually know the chord progression. I’m a feel and find gal and learned chord names and the theory behind it later. Trying all the options lets you hear extra stuff – some of which is glorious amongst the notes you’d never play again. Aren’t you relieved now to know where the notes to avoid are located?

Now that you’ve found the chords, use them to play with rhythm. Find backup double-stop riffs that make the tune dance. Get so deep into the groove that you have to rock those rhythms with your bow. Here’s where time can really stand still, a paradox of your play with rhythm, but oh so true! Listen some more for variations and study how a small but constant varying of rhythms creates the new flavoring for the tune.

Above all, learn to love the many ways you can combine three, three and two rhythms into a bar of eight sixteenth notes. Syncopation is your friend, man! Find some great conga or djembe players and play jigs and reels while they pour those rhythms into your ears. Now THAT’s a jam session! Call me up and I’ll be there!

© 2008 Donna Hébert, fiddlingdemystified.com

Related show

• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 10 Feb 2009
• Time: 6:30pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Chestnut Hill MA
• Venue: Boston College / Connolly House / Irish Studies concert – FREE
• Address: 300 Hammond Street
• Country: US
• Admission: FREE
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 617-552-3938
• Notes: Donna with Max Cohen (guitar), Jeremiah McLane (accordion/keyboards)
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 17 Apr 2009
• Time: 8:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Bowdoin, ME
• Venue: House Concert at Pam Week’s
• Country: US
• Admission: $15
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 207.666.3709
• Notes: House Concert with fiddler Donna Hébert & guitarist Max Cohen
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 18 Apr 2009
• Time: 8:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Hampden ME
• Venue: House Concert
• Country: US
• Admission: $15
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: (207) 951-2481
• Notes: House Concert outside Bangor ME. Call or email to reserve seats and get directions
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 16 May 2009
• Time: 8:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Northampton MA
• Venue: Quaker Meeting House
• Country: US
• Admission: $15
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 413-335-6632
• Notes: MIST COVERED MOUNTAINS Celtic trio – Donna, Max Cohen and fiddler Katherine First. DEBUT CONCERT IS A BENEFIT for American Friends’ Service Committee.
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 13 Jun 2009
• Time: 7:30pm
• City: Donna Hébert in New Haven CT area
• Venue: Mickey Koth & Bill Fisher’s house
• Country: US
• Admission: $15
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 413-658-4276
• Notes: House Concert with Donna Hébert & Max Cohen
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• Artist: Donna Hébert & Max Cohen
• Date: 21 Jul 2010
• Time: 8:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert & Max Cohen in South Strafford VT
• Venue: Unitarian Universalist Church – Summer
• Country: US
• Admission: $12 at the door, children free
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 802-889-3246
• Notes: Donna Hébert & Max Cohen in concert – French-Canadian & Celtic fiddling and fingerstyle guitar -
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A bird, a canyon, a day of wonder and sorrow

Grand Canyon - 3/5/08 (Donna Hébert photo)

I was traveling out west in March 2008 with Groovemama pals Jane Rothfield and Max Cohen. On the way to Phoenix from Albuquerque, we visited the Grand Canyon. It was a sad and beautiful day, clear, glorious and and majestic with the ravens soaring overhead as we walked the trail at the canyon’s edge, sad because my father was dying in Florida. As we left Hermit’s Rest, one raven landed in our midst. Fixing me with a beady eye, the bird whuffled its throat feathers in and out, clacked its beak and seemed to speak to us. We were enthralled – I even snapped this photo.

The long moment ended and the raven took flight. Stunned, we all just stood, silent. Then Jane and Max and I piled into the car. Just as we left the Canyon, the call came through. It was my brother and my father had just passed. On March 17, in memory of my dad, Rodger E. Hinds, I wrote a slow air with Max Cohen and called it after the raven.

In an uncanny twist of fate, Julie Beaudoin, 87-year old widow of Louis Beaudoin and a band member in the Beaudoin Legacy, was visiting the Grand Canyon a month later when she died suddenly. As “Mémère Julie, she had adopted the band members into the Beaudoin clan and we miss her presence keenly. Dedicated to her as well, Max and I tried to take ”Raven’s Wing” soaring like its namesake over the canyon rim.

Grand Canyon 3/5/08 (Donna Hébert photo)

The story has even more layers. Upon hearing the about the bird and listening to the music, my mother told me about my father’s World War II airborne unit, the Ravens (301st Bombardment Group, Army Air Corps).

301st Bombardment Group, Army Air Corps

This was new to me, as was the the photo of his insignia with three ravens on a blue background. Their newsletter is even called “The Raven.”

Last summer I visited with Jane and her husband, Scottish singer Allan Carr. I gave the tune and story to Allan for him to work his Celtic magic upon. The lyrics are below.

As the months have gone by, a raven comes often to visit in the yard. Not a crow, much bigger. Not the same raven, of course, but a relative. I greet him as if he were a a relation of mine. Who knows?

UPDATE 6/09

Max and I made a new recording of Raven’s Wing in D major with fiddle, viola and guitar on my new “In Full Bloom” CD. I’ve taken down the old free file in E major. I invite you to listen to a sample there and perhaps buy the tune or the CD. The tune is also included in the companion tunebook.

Related show

• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 26 Mar 2009 - 27 Mar 2009
• Time: 9:00am
• City: Donna Hébert in Boston, MA
• Venue: Mass Music Educators’ Conference/ Seaport Hotel & World Trade Ctr
• Country: US
• Notes: Donna & Fiddling Demystified are sharing an exhibit table with string educator & improvisor Julie Lyonn Lieberman
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Welcome to my new fiddleblog!

You’ll find free tunes and lessons here as well as a catalog of fiddling treasures and holiday specials.

Updated band pages for Franco-American group The Beaudoin Legacy and my new performing duo with Max Cohen are available, with pages for Chanterelle, teaching and Old-Time band Groovemama coming soon.

Week I, 2008: Fiddle music tamed this wild bunch!

Next summer Fiddling Demystified and Old Songs add a fourth week of camp to their other three at Old Songs Community Center in Voorheesville NY, just outside Albany. First week in early July is for ages 6-18, the second is for novice adults, with me, Jane Rothfield and Max Cohen teaching. The third is Fiddling Demystified for Strings camp for a second year with me, Max Cohen and cellist Renata Bratt from California teaching.

Getting back to my French-Canadian roots, the new fourth week is French Accent Camp, with Québecois musicians and teachers Pascal Gemme (fiddle, songs) and Yann Falquet (guitar, songs) from Genticorum and Marie-Soleil Pilette teaching stepdance and calling social dances. Nightingale’s Jeremiah McLane teaches piano and accordion and young Franco-American fiddle composer Daniel Boucher will teach his unique and popular repertoire and I will teach the fiddle music of Louis Beaudoin.

2009 Old Songs Camp website and registration forms are available online. We accept 30 campers for each week and we expect all four weeks to be popular this year. Send someone to camp next summer as a holiday gift!

CONTACT OLD SONGS (oldsongs AT oldsongs DOT org) to join the camp mailing list and for housing and registration information.

CONTACT ME (info AT fiddlingdemystified DOT com) about the program for each week.

© 2008 Donna Hébert, fiddlingdemystified.com. All rights reserved.

Related show

• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 31 Dec 2008
• Time: 7:30pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Burlington VT
• Venue: First Night Burlington / Flynn Theater
• Address: 153 Main St. Burlington VT 05401
• Country: US
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes: Beaudoin Legacy – VT Franco-American Heritage group. Chansons, fiddle tunes and dancing for New Year’s Eve!
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 25 Feb 2009
• Time: 7:00am
• City: Donna Hébert in Melrose MA
• Venue: Folk Arts Center of New England – Donna leads a French Canadian jam session
• Country: US
• Admission: free
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 18 Apr 2009
• Time: 2:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Bowdoin, ME
• Venue: Fiddle/guitar workshop at Pam Week’s
• Country: US
• Admission: $25
• Box office: 207.666.3709
• Notes: Fiddling Demystified/Louis Beaudoin fiddle workshop – Donna Hébert Fingerstyle and DADGAD guitar – alternate fingerings, chord voicings and groove rhythms – Max Cohen
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 19 Apr 2009
• Time: 2:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Portland ME
• Venue: Acoustic Artisans / Jonathan Cooper – Fiddle/Guitar Workshop with Donna/Max
• Country: US
• Admission: $20
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 207-893-1866
• Notes: Fiddling Demystified/Louis Beaudoin fiddle workshop – Donna Hébert Fingerstyle and DADGAD guitar – alternate fingerings, chord voicings and groove rhythms – Max Cohen
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 13 Jun 2009
• Time: 2:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in New Haven CT area
• Venue: Mickey Koth & Bill Fisher’s house
• Country: US
• Admission: $25
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 413-658-4276
• Notes: Recording device recommended! Tunes and rhythms taught by ear with music handout at end of workshop.
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 17 Aug 2009 - 21 Aug 2009
• Time: 9:00am
• City: Donna Hébert in Vooreheesville NY
• Venue: Old Songs Community Center
• Address: 37
• Country: US
• Admission: $475
• Notes: Fiddling Demystified’s French Accent Week with Pascal Gemme & Yann Falquet from Genticorum teaching fiddle, guitar and songs, dance teacher Marie-Soleil Pilette, Jeremiah McLane teaching accordion/piano and fiddle teachers Donna Hébert and Daniel Boucher.
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 10 Sep 2009 - 13 Sep 2009
• Time: 3:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Calixa-Lavallée, Québec
• Venue: Chants de Vielles Festival
• Country: CA
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 450-583-5631
• Notes: Geneviève Nadeau – info@chantsdevielles.com Donna and Max Cohen in workshops and concert at the festival performing material from their new “Grooviolon” CD.
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 24 Oct 2009
• Time: 2:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Amherst MA
• Venue: French-Canadian fiddling workshop 2-5 pm @ Donna Hébert’s studio
• Country: US
• Admission: $45
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 413-658-4276
• Notes: Donna Hébert combines her Fiddling Demystified for String Players method with an encyclopedic knowledge of French-Canadian and Franco-American fiddling. A student of Vermont fiddler Louis Beaudoin, Donna has taught 8 apprentices in Franco fiddling. She will demonstrate straight and crooked tunes and syncopated rhythm patterns. All music and style is taught by ear, with music handouts at end of workshop. Recording device recommended!
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 9 Jan 2010
• Time: 2:30pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Pinellas Park FL
• Venue: Fiddle/guitar workshop with Donna Hébert & Max Cohen
• Country: US
• Admission: To come
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: To come
• Notes: Donna teaches Fiddling Demystified and Louis Beaudoin’s French-Canadian style and repertoire. Max teaches DADGAD guitar lead and accompaniment for Celtic and dance music.
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 20 Feb 2010
• Time: 1:00pm
• City: Donna Hébert in Pawtucket RI
• Venue: Le Foyer – workshop with Community Music Works, potluck and family dance
• Country: US
• Admission: TBA
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes: with Donna Hébert, Max Cohen, Daniel Boucher
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 27 Mar 2010
• Time: 10:00am
• City: Donna Hébert in Montreal
• Venue: SPDTQ-EspaceTrad
• Address: 911, rue Jean-Talon Est, #010
• Venue phone: 514-273-0880
• Country: CA
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 514-273-0880
• Notes: Fiddle music of Louis Beaudoin: style and repertoire workshop with Donna Hébert. Intermediate 10:30 am – noon Advanced 1:30-3pm
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• Artist: Donna Hébert & Max Cohen
• Date: 23 Jul 2010 - 25 Jul 2010
• Time: 10:00am
• City: Donna Hébert & Max Cohen in Parc Saint Jean Bosco, Saint-Charles Borromée, Quebec, Canada
• Venue: Festival Mémoires et Racines with Donna Hébert, Max Cohen, Daniel Boucher
• Country: CA
• Admission: $48-60 Canadian
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 450 752-6798
• Notes: Franco-American fiddle music & songs – with Daniel Boucher
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• Artist: French-Canadian Music & Dance Camp with Donna Hébert, Pascal Gemme, Marc Maziade, Steve Normandin & Marie-Soleil Pilette
• Date: 16 Aug 2010 - 20 Aug 2010
• Time: 9:00am
• City: French-Canadian Music & Dance Camp with Donna Hébert, Pascal Gemme, Marc Maziade, Steve Normandin & Marie-Soleil Pilette in Voorheesville NY
• Venue: Old Songs Community Center
• Country: US
• Admission: call for details
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Box office: 518-765-2815
• Notes: French-Canadian music, song and dancing with fiddlers & singers Pascal Gemme, Donna Hébert & Daniel Boucher, guitarist & singer Yann Falquet, dance caller and step-dance teacher Marie-Soleil Pilette, and more! Classes 9-4 Mon-Fri, evening jams/dances, Thursday night faculty concert.
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Louis Beaudoin, 1976 (Ann Meuer photo)

SING OUT! Magazine asked for a Teach-In article about Louis Beaudoin for the Winter 2008 issue. Since 2005, I’ve been making prescriptive transcriptions of of all the Louis Beaudoin audio samples I can find, with 40 tunes transcribed so far. Multiple listenings are necessary to glean all the goodies from these recordings; melodies, bowings, drones, syncopations and rhythmic variations just begin to scratch the surface. There’s something magic in his playing that can’t be quantified, that I can only describe as joy. No way to write that down. Just have to play the music and feel it yourself!

Here are links to the SING OUT! article, with transcriptions for fiddle. Each tune is sampled once through with Louis playing.

Both tunes are also recorded on the new Beaudoin Legacy CD.

• Louis Beaudoin Teach-in – PDF
• Blackberry Quadrille two page PDF sheet music
• Blackberry Quadrille – MP3 of Louis Beaudoin
• Les guenilles - PDF sheet music
• Les guenilles – MP3 of Louis Beaudoin

© 2008 Donna Hébert, fiddlingdemystified.com. All rights reserved.

Related show

• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 7 Jul 2009 - 11 Jul 2009
• Time: 9:00am
• City: Donna Hébert in Voorheesville NY
• Venue: Old Songs Community Center
• Country: US
• Admission: $375
• Notes: Fiddle & Strings Week I for ages 6-18. Teachers are Donna Hébert, Jane Rothfield and Max Cohen from Groovemama.
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 1 Aug 2009 - 2 Aug 2009
• Time: 9:00am
• City: Donna Hébert in Ferrisburg VT
• Venue: Champlain Valley Folk Festival
• Address: Kingsland Bay State Park, Ferrisburg VT
• Country: US
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes: Beaudoin Legacy performances/workshops Great Groove Band workshop/performance with Donna Hébert, Sarah Hotchkiss, Max Cohen and George Wilson
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• Artist: Donna Hébert
• Date: 14 Aug 2009 - 16 Aug 2009
• Time: 10:00am
• City: Donna Hébert in Schwenksville PA
• Venue: Philadelphia Folk Festival
• Address: http://www.pfs.org/PFF_GreatGrooveband.php
• Country: US
• Admission: Festival ticket required
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes: Great Groove Band for ages 6-18 with Groovemama coaches Donna Hébert, Jane Rothfield, George Wilson, Max Cohen, plus guest coaches Alan Bradbury and Michelle Kaminsky. Learn three tunes/songs and perform on the main stage Sunday afternoon to open the festival program.
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Donna Hébert - Bill Spence photo

Welcome to my new fiddleblog! You’ll find free tunes and lessons here as well as a catalog of fiddling treasures and holiday specials.

Updated band pages for Franco-American groups The Beaudoin Legacy and my new duo with Max Cohen are available and with pages for Chanterelle, teaching and Old-Time band Groovemama coming soon.

I turned 60 this year, so now I’ve been teaching more than half my life. Time flies when you’re fiddling around! Fiddle mentors Louis Beaudoin, Allan Block and Gerry Robichaud helped me find my French roots and fiddle groove in the 1970s and they would love to see my young apprentices now! The latest is Louis Beaudoin’s grandson, a fellow band-member in The Beaudoin Legacy. Though last spring we sadly lost Louis’ widow, Julie, at age 87, her great-grandaughter Rachel has begun to learn fiddle and is passionate about bringing the family’s music into her generation. And so the circle is unbroken.

Being able to help so many people find and nourish their music has inevitably enriched my own. This year, I was exceptionally fortunate to be awarded a state Artists’ Fellowship in the Folk Arts by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which also named me a Creative Teaching Partner in Fiddling. The latter certifies me to work in Massachusetts string classrooms, introducing fiddling into the curriculum.

Watching the orchestra improvise their parts in performance onstage brought the audience of parents and educators to their feet at a 2008 fiddle concert with Groovemama and the Dennis/Yarmouth MA strings programs. Strings teacher Kerry Cutler brought us in and we provided CDs and sheet music ahead of time. Teachers included, there were more than 60 people onstage. We asked them all to listen for which part of the arrangement needed their voice, then add it to that part, so they were swapping melody for harmony for bass line for rhythm riffs, back and forth, the music rippling across the stage like water. Now that’s what I call FUN!

This year I completed and released Fiddling Demystified for Strings Vol. I , the teacher-training package in the Fiddling Demystified series, along with the companion Fiddlejam CD. Sample lessons from the book are available online. Next in line is my instructional DVD of French-Canadian fiddling. Both will be available at the March 2009 ASTA Conference in Atlanta, where I will lead a Fiddle Immersion Jam. House concerts and workshops are on the menu in Atlanta as well.

© 2008 Donna Hébert, fiddlingdemystified.com. All rights reserved.