This, so far, has gotten a whole bunch of estimates. Fiddlers? Violinists? Amatures? Pros? Globally? Worldwide? Am I one in a million? Are you? Are we? How many? Spose we should count off?
Someone asked this in 2010 on ff. So . . . . .
Edited by - farmerjones on 11/19/2023 16:31:06
Are you wondering how many fiddlers exist on Planet Earth? Ya know, I have no idea
quote:
Originally posted by Lonesome FiddlerAre you wondering how many fiddlers exist on Planet Earth? Ya know, I have no idea
How 'bout a guess? A free kick. No penalty. 
Interesting .....AI says .1% -.2% of world population, or 7.8 to 15.6 million folk play the violin.
Edited by - pete_fiddle on 11/19/2023 23:51:55
One too few..
Play Happy
Swing
First, you would have to define what a fiddler is, or a fiddle for that matter. Go!
Let's have a show of hands...!
As I get into it more, there is a niche of fiddle/violin players in almost every town. Just have to know where to look. Just joining this site when I started I have gotten to know a few more players in our area that I had no idea about. Not everyone likes getting out there playing in front of crowds.
I also watch a lot of YT and I've gotten to know a bunch of different players from all over the country and I start recognizing them and what's even cooler is, when random songs pop up on Spotify, I can tell who it is by their playing. That's a skill in itself that I didn't think was possible. Especially the festival jam circles and competitions. Seeing those folks everywhere!! I'm getting my first fiddle shirt for Christmas as well planning a fiddle inspired tattoo!
Seems to work out to approx 1 or 2 folk in every 500? according to AI ..... Which i believe in implicitly..
Well i believe it more than others i could mention
I read somewhere years ago that the number of people who play any instrument at some level of proficiency is less that 1% of the population. So, if the US population is 336 million, then this would mean that there are about 3.4 million people who play an instrument.
For a comparison, the population of Dallas, Tx is about 1.3 million and the entire MetroMess is about 7 million.
So, look at it this way, if you play the fiddle at any level of proficiency, you are among the elite! Congratulations!
Indeed, we don't help ourselves by being a subset of a subset, not being specific. And actually, from my point of view, I'd say there were fewer Classic violinists around me than fiddlers. But add another 100 mile radius, picking up a few metropolitan areas, and boom, violinists a plenty.
OK, so how many, instinctive fiddlers that only play tunes from 1863, to 1920?
But there's far from a million fiddlers, even at Clifftop.
quote:
Originally posted by FiddlerI read somewhere years ago that the number of people who play any instrument at some level of proficiency is less that 1% of the population.
What?? I feel like music is one of the bigger mainstream hobbies (and it's a profession too)! I seem to know so many people who play guitar...so, 1% is surprising!
Maybe higher in developed nations, urban areas, hmm.
I think those numbers on fiddle players is way too high. Classical players, well lots of schools have a string teacher and some form of orchestra, so higher if you include those players who at some point play/played violin. But if we are talking folk (old time, bluegrass, celtic, cajun and all the localized styles), my un-educated guess would be 0.01% or even a bit less. Meaning out of a thousand garden variety, household, average people, there would be 1 actual fiddle player. Maybe less. Probably less. And that's sad.
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