I've been teaching myself fiddle for about eight months, and I can play dozens of tunes at a reasonable speed and mediocre level of quality. I have gotten into the habit of always using open strings when open strings will do the job.

Just this week I went to my first fiddle lesson (from a self-taught Cape Breton fiddler of many years) and he told me that I should learn to play the D, A, and E with my little finger instead of using the open strings.

I'm torn as to whether or not to adopt this advice. On the one hand, I don't want to do it because it would mean going back to square one; I would have to relearn all my fingerings because I would have to hold my hand differently in order to reach the little finger notes, and I would have to start again with all my tunes. On the other hand, I plan on playing the fiddle and playing it well for the rest of my life, so I don't want to limit myself with a short-sighted approach.

What do you think? Is it necessary to give up my open strings in order to become a good fiddler?

Thanks, Marion

PS You may want to say that I should do what the teacher says because that's necessary in order to stay with this teacher, but I don't think that's true in this case... maybe because he's self-taught himself, his approach is quite informal and his attitude seems to be "This is what I would suggest, take it or leave it."