Occidental’s Fiddle Club welcomes instruments including violins, guitars, banjos and has even used a traditional Irish bodhrán. The club accepts all levels of musicians and meets most Mondays at 6 p.m. on the Weingart Patio.
The club is run by Eden Sagarin (senior), who has been playing violin for 12 years. She said she started the club during her sophomore year at Occidental in an effort to create a space for student musicians to come together and play fiddle and folk music in a laid-back and supportive environment.
Sagarin said she was classically trained in the violin but developed an interest in fiddle music about three to four years ago, before starting the club. Sagarin said her interest in fiddle music began when she attended Maine Fiddle Camp, a multi-generational fiddle and folk camp where people bring different instruments to learn fiddle, folk and bluegrass music.
According to Sagarin, she wants to make the club accessible to people who don’t own instruments. In order to help with accessibility, Sagarin said she allows members to use her personal violin to play the tunes that she presents for the club.
Ella Bygrave (sophomore), who is a member of the club, said she heard about Fiddle Club during the iFair and decided to join, as she had prior experience playing bluegrass and fiddle music, in addition to classical music.
Bygrave, who is also a member of the Occidental Symphony Orchestra and a member of a Chamber Ensemble, said the Fiddle Club feels more relaxed and is a more low-pressure environment to learn new music and meet other musicians, as opposed to other Occidental ensembles.
“[The club] helps with ear training and being able to hear what notes are being played and playing them back,” Bygrave said, “It’s just a very comfortable jam setting, a very open environment for things like improv, which is great.”
Bygrave said the club feels more like a community of people learning together instead of a high-pressure weekly commitment.
According to Bygrave, the structure of the club revolves around Sagarin presenting a fiddle tune each week and breaking it into parts so that everyone feels comfortable playing it. Bygrave said the members usually spend around an hour learning how to play the tune, and at the end, everyone plays together and creates a recording of the song that week.
“We’ll just teach the tune to everyone else there, and we’ll spend an hour learning the tune,” Sagarin said. “Then we play it at the end together, and if people want, they can try variations and they can improv.”
Sagarin said that while she is usually the person who brings music and teaches the club members the tune, she also welcomes everyone to bring music that they are interested in learning and playing.
Nat Hogan ’25, who has been playing violin for 17 years, said he became a member of the club after hearing about it through Sagarin, whom he met in orchestra. He said while he no longer attends the club, it was effective in allowing him to improve his fiddle and violin skills.
Hogan said he was classically trained on the violin, but he developed an interest in fiddle and folk music growing up around his family, who played a lot of fiddle and Welsh music.
Hogan said while ensembles like the Occidental Symphony Orchestra required a lot more effort and consistent practice, the Fiddle Club provides a space for people to relax and have fun playing music together.
“[Fiddle Club] was much more like a meeting of friends who are doing something that they enjoy [rather] than a club meeting with any formal structures,” Hogan said.
Hogan said the simple, repetitive structure of fiddle music helps the group learn the pieces.
“The main structure [of the club] was [Sagarin] would play it, and through repetition, we would understand how the piece sounds,” Hogan said. “And fiddle music usually has an ABA system, which means that it’s a lot easier to learn through repetition.”
Hogan said the club helps members to develop skills such as practicing, listening and memorizing in a way that is different than just reading sheet music.
“It really doesn’t matter your level of experience or whether you play violin or a traditional instrument, [Sagarin] will have an instrument for you,” Hogan said. “She’ll be willing to teach you everything, and even if you’re completely brand new, it’s definitely super accessible.”
Sagarin said being part of the club has allowed her to improve her overall violin skills and her ability to play with others.
“I think it has helped me improve in the sense where I can hear other people, see how the music mixes together,” Sagarin said. “It also keeps me practicing, trying new things and learning tunes.”
Contact Amalia Rimmon at rimmon@oxy.edu
