Isabel Cagney, Ireland

I’ve been playing the fiddle for about 5 years but its only in the last 3 months that I’ve started to feel like an actual musician! I have come on in leaps and bounds since starting the lessons with Hannah and my love for playing music has really grown.

Before meeting Hannah, my playing had no ornamentation, my bowing technique was all over the place and my tunes had no character. She taught me how and when to use ornaments by adding them to tunes I already knew well and now I find myself adding ornaments to tunes without even thinking about it! My bowing has really changed for the better and my bow has almost become an extension of my arm.

She helped me overcome my fear of reels and I can now play reels with actual rhythm and style! She gave me tips on how to keep the rhythm of the reel while adding emphasis and a lilt to the tune and I really feel like I am starting to develop my own style of playing.

To be very honest, I was a bit dubious about how online music lessons would work and I’m not very good at technology! But I really enjoyed the system she has set up. It allowed me to learn at my own pace and it really changed my mind about online learning. In between lessons we exchanged videos which meant that I didn’t have to wait until the next lesson to ask a question and Hannah could give me pointers and encouragement on the tunes I was learning. The online system allowed me to fit the lessons around work and college which was what I had always struggled with previously.

I only realised this week, how much Hannah has helped me, I was playing at a local session, and I found myself being able to play almost every tune with a lilt and style and pick up tunes by ear without even thinking about it. For the first time I felt like I was a musician rather than just someone who joins in and plays along!