Inter/Advanced BG Fiddle
In this class we will delve into the details that make bluegrass fiddle so compelling, including a focus on bowing, left-vs-right hand articulation, strategies for improvising and finding your own sound while maintaining stylistic integrity, and more. Let’s analyze some of our favorite recordings of bluegrass fiddlers and figure out why we love them!
Ella Jordan
Ella Jordan is a fiddler and singer who grew up homeschooled on a farm outside of Austin, Texas. She got her start playing twin fiddles with her sister Minnie at country music oprys all across Texas, and she is now forging a sound all her own within C&W, bluegrass, and contemporary stringband music.
Ella was the youngest-ever winner of the Old Settlers Youth Music Contest, was a recipient of the Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin, was selected as a participant of the 2020 Acoustic Music Seminar, was the 2023 winner of the Freshgrass Fiddle Award, and has performed and taught at countless festivals and camps across the country. She was also awarded the Fletcher Bright Scholarship during her time at Berklee College of Music, where she graduated while still in her teens.
Her recorded work includes albums 'Close Enough to Hear', by Mile Twelve, ‘Hidden Animals’ by Ben Krakauer, ‘Mile 77’ and ‘Instant Lonesome and the Twinkle Brigade’, (a two-volume collaboration between folk music legend Jody Stecher and Mile Twelve), and selected tracks on 'If Not Now, Who?' by Joe K Walsh.
She is probably best known for her stint as the fiddle player in the Boston-based progressive bluegrass band Mile Twelve, which she joined in late 2021, but she also has worked and toured with Asleep at the Wheel, Tray Wellington, and more. She also frequently appears with Joe K Walsh in many musical contexts, including most recently as a trio with piano player Jed Wilson.
Whenever she's not playing music, she's following her other passions--riding and training horses, rehabbing injured waterfowl, and spending time in nature.
