How To Use This Web Site

Fiddlehub.com is really a fiddle LEARNING site, so I've designed and organized it with that in mind. On this page I'll discuss the technologies used to present information, and give you a little guided tour through the menu structure.

Text, pictures and graphics:

Most people are comfortable learning from text on the internet, as long as there isn't too much of it. I try to keep it to a minimum.

When possible I use a photo or an image rather than words. Almost all the graphics are pictures of tablature, and you'll find them mostly in the tune lessons.

Audio:

I use audio a lot to explain a point, or add something to the info covered in the text or a video. You'll find green rectangular buttons mixed in with the text all over this site. Whenever you see one, you should click it to play the audio file.

When you click a green button, the audio starts and the "play" arrow changes to a "pause" until the audio is finished. If you have a slow internet connection, there might be a delay of 2 or 3 seconds after you press the button before the audio starts.
You can start and pause the audio whenever you want, and the button doesn't force you to leave the page. This serves two purposes:
- It keeps you from getting lost on the site; and
- If the audio is talking about an image on the page or something that's happening in a nearby video, it allows you to keep viewing the image or watching the video while you listen to the audio.
All but a couple of the audio explanations last less than a minute; and most run between twenty and forty seconds.
I also use the green buttons to play music files; and they work the same way.

Video:

This is the primary method for teaching the tunes and providing demonstrations.

The tune lessons have two videos for each phrase of the tune. One shows the bowing, and the other is a close shot of the left hand fingering.
The videos don't start automatically; you need to press the play button.
Some of the videos repeat themselves (loop) until you hit the pause or stop button. All the videos in the tune lessons work this way, so you can play along and practice with them as many times as you want without having to put down your fiddle.
All videos on this site play right where you see them on the page. They don't take you to a new page just to view the video. This is especially important in the tune lessons because you'll need to see the tablature as you watch and play along with the video.
All videos have a volume control in the lower right corner. You might want to use it if you're listening to a separate audio (green button) file while playing a video.
All of the videos in the tune lessons are relatively short, so if you wait a second or two after the page loads you'll be able to play the full video with no problem, even if you have a slow connection.
In the fingering and bowing lessons, however, some of the videos run for three to five minutes.
- With these longer videos, to watch the whole clip without interruption you might need to wait several seconds before pressing the play button. This will certainly be true if you have a slow connection.
- You can watch the progress of the download (dark gray fills in from left fo right) by looking in the center of the control bar. Even if you have a slow connection, it's OK to press play once you see that maybe fifteen to twenty percent of the file has loaded.

The menu structure:

The "Free How To Lessons" and "Free Tune Lessons" buttons in the green menu at the top are expandable. When you put your cursor over them, you see more "drop down" options.

When you select one of the drop down menu options, you go to the first page for that item. For example, if you select the "How To" lesson on fingering, you go the first page of that lesson.
Most of the "How To" lessons, and all of the Tune lessons, have several pages. At the top of every page you'll find links to all the other pages in that particular lesson or tune.

Of course, you will always have the main menu at the top of every page, no matter where you are in the site. You can always click the "Home" button to get back to the home page.