Teaching With Bubble Notes

I have used Bubble Notes since 2000 to teach hundreds of beginner fiddlers ages 4 to 82 in private lessons, community school classes and in practices with the Southern Kings Fiddlers on PEI. Bubble Notes have are also useful in elementary school fiddle programs when a class often includes both students who read regular sheet music and those who do not. Bubble notes enable everyone in the class to more rapidly learn to play tunes together, regardless of their previous musical background.

When I started teaching in the 1990’s I used a teach yourself fiddle book which had the finger to be used written below each note. I found the students were not learning to read the notes on the staff and were making many mistakes due to playing the correct finger on the wrong string. I did not like Tab for violin either, as that system has difficulty indicating the length of notes and also does not lead to the reading of regular notation at all. Teaching by ear results in many students forgetting the note sequence and asking for a visual aid of some kind as a reminder.

So in my quest for something large and easy to read and to teach I developed the big, color-coded by string Bubble Notes and found that the vast majority of beginner students of all ages can learn to read them WITHIN ABOUT 5 MINUTES!! Students make very few mistakes in choosing the string to play due to the color-coding, and the finger or string name needed to make the note is right there inside the note. So mistakes playing Bubble Notes are very few and far between (however, these can occur with dyslexic students due to problems in reading the notes smoothly from left to right).

Most importantly, while students are playing these notes, they are getting used to the same treble clef used in regular notation, so that after using tunes in Bubble Notes for a few months, the transition to reading regular notation is much easier than it is with Tab or other systems not using the treble clef. Of course, there are some students, mainly older adults, whose vision is not acute enough for them to make an easy transition to the smaller black notes, and they prefer to keep using the Bubble Notes even for more advanced tunes.

Bubble Notes enable the beginning student to get right to the task of learning how to make the sequence of notes sound good, and they can quickly learn to play a good variety of tunes in short order. Typically, a student starting in the fall will be able to play several tunes by November and then they can try some of the Christmas songs that so many of them love. I have taught hundreds of people with the Bubble Notes, and everyone has enjoyed them because it makes the process of learning to play a rather tricky instrument easier and faster. They can concentrate on bowing and left hand position without also worrying about decoding abstract black notes.

This website now has a growing library of Bubble Note tunes which can be printed off and also listened to on mp3. We also have a Christmas tune list which can be printed off. If any student or teacher wishes to find other tunes in Bubble Notes, please contact me at gagliano31@hotmail.com, as I do have a couple hundred in stock!

Happy Fiddling, Amy Swenson