Darol Anger's 8 Paths of Improvisation: on the violin 

Straight to the point, thank you sir! Here are the 8 in a list as I heard em: 1. twiddle a very small bit of the tune (ornamentation) 2. "fiddleize" the rhythm (e.g. convert to all 8th notes, plugging new notes in where necessary) 3. distort/stretch the melody rhythm-wise ("temporal displacement of melodic fragments") 4. thematic development of a small fragment of the tune (ala Beethoven) 5. arpeggiate the chord changes 6. harmonic displacement (i.e. play a harmony instead of the usual melody) 7. play your hot licks (not necessarily staying connected to the melody) 8. go entirely "free" (all these after first finding the "melodic skeleton" and learning the chords)

thanks Darol. Watching your facial expressions is as much entertaining as learning your improv approaches

I think you are amazing! One of the living jazz violin legends. A very rare breed!

Thank you! Very concise and simple. Just started fiddling after several years of inactivity, so this is really helpful.

I'm really glad I found ya! Thank you for the video. It's awesome and helpful for me. 😊

Hilarious and extremely informative all at once....glad I accidentally found your site. Back to my woodshed....

Great intro man!

You’re awesome! You’re the BEST! Alright, I’m gonna get on with my fiddle and get brave and start my first improv ! How about “Twinkle, twinkle…”….? So glad I’ve found you! THANK YOU!

So I've really been enjoying the videos of a guy associated with the "dusty fiddles" moniker on RU-vid - the very few videos I could find. And my thought was, how could he be so good and yet nobody's heard of him? And now I discover YOU. Comparing faces, obviously there's a significant age different. But the facial shape and build seem identical to me. And the virtuosity in the very specific area of swing fiddle. Which, seems to me, is becoming something of a lost art. So I have to ask, are you two guys _one and the same?_ Or is this just one of life's crazy coincidences?

Thanks - Very fun and funny funny improvising ... sometimes I do the heavy metal temporal melodic displacement version of this.

Beautiful violin love the finish!

Thank you, Darol!

Thanks Darol, I do this sort of fun with my scales practice, and just let it go where it wants to!

matur suksma Darol

You’re awesome! You’re the BEST! Alright, I’m gonna get on with my fiddle and get brave and start my first improv ! How about “Twinkle, twinkle…”….?

Thank you!

Funny!

Boil ‘em folk tunes down.