Winnipeg fiddle player posts 365th video of herself playing a new tune, completes year-long goal

A Winnipeg musician has accomplished a New Year's resolution of sorts from 2015: On Thursday, she posted the 365th video she took of herself playing a fiddle tune. 

On Jan. 1, 2015, Patti Kusturok made a goal to post a video of herself playing a new fiddle tune every day for one year. The project allowed Kusturok, a professional fiddle player, to connect with musicians around the world.

She sat down with CBC's Sarah Penton to talk about meeting her goal and the challenges that came with it.

How do you feel now that you've posted the last video of the year?

It is so bittersweet. I'm so sad to not be playing a tune every day now and posting and interacting with people but I'm relieved that I don't have to do a tune every day and that I can just do as many as I want, whenever I want.

Did it feel like a burden sometimes?

I wouldn't say so much a burden but more of a stress just to make sure it got in before the end of the day if I got busy. The hardest times were those lazy Sundays when you're … in your pajamas all day and 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. rolls around and you realize, 'I haven't done my tune yet.'

You have more than 1,000 views on average on every video. What has the process been like for you?

It started out as just a whim. A Facebook friend of mine … had done it in 2013 and I thought, 'That would be kind of a neat project to do,' and 2014 went by and I thought, 'Well, 2015's here and I better do it if I'm going to do it.

My first video I made on … my MacBook Pro and I made it on iMovie and I edited it and put captions and then I thought, 'Okay, this is going to get old real quick.' So, the iPhone came out and that's what I did the rest of the videos on … I just wanted it to be a snippet of me. It's my personality coming through and … I love playing on stage, I love meeting people and what better way to do it than online?

You're a professional fiddle player. What kind of people have you met through this process?

Over the years I've met a lot of people but by doing this I find that I've met other fiddle players from all over the continent, really, who have sent me tunes. Actually, one gentleman from Australia sent me a tune that he thought that I'd like and that was … a couple days ago. People that I've known of for years I've met and got to know a little better through his project, rekindled old relationships with people that I used to know. It's just opened up a whole new world and I can't be more happy that I've taken this project on.

What kinds of songs have you been playing?

Some are originals. I haven't written a whole lot of fiddle tunes but I've thrown in a couple of my own originals. I've done originals of people who are aspiring fiddle players and have written tunes and have said, 'I'd love to hear you play this.' I mean, if it's the kind of tune that strikes me and that I think that I would like, I did record them. There's unfortunately a lot that I couldn't get to but a lot of them are the old standards, you know, stuff that you'd hear every fiddle player around the country play. Stuff like St. Anne's reel and Big John McNeil and just whatever I felt like playing, I played. Sometimes I'd turn it on and start talking and I wouldn't have a clue what I'd be playing yet. Those were in the early days when it was easier to remember what I've already done.

Who was watching these videos?

It's fiddle fans all over the world, really. I've been getting emails from people across Canada, from people down in the states … Europe, pretty much everywhere. Mostly Canadian, older demographic people. I'm not going to say senior citizens but this kind of music appeals to the older demographic for sure because it takes them back to the Don Messer years and it brings back memories.

What's next for you?

People have asked if I'd do another year and I actually considered it for about 10 minutes and then I thought, 'I'm just going to do it for a year and see what happens …' I'm hoping to do some networking and get some more gigs. I'm going to be involved in a project based out of Oregon. This friend of mine runs a fiddle-teaching website that I'm going to be part of so that's going to happen in the spring and probably out in the summer so just more fiddling and I'm going to still be posting tunes. Everybody is saying, 'Oh, I'm going to miss you and good luck to you and all the best' and I'm not going anywhere. I'll still be here, just not every single day. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.