Learning and Practicing the Violin
From the monthly archives:
“Violin lessons are so expensive!” I often hear that argument when it comes to the decision how to learn this instrument best. Well, being a professional violin teacher I’m probably a little biased but I can assure you: this is complete nonsense. Have you ever consulted a lawyer or even a notary? Then you know [...]
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The air conditioning was humming, there was some sumo wrestling on TV and occasionally hotel guests passed my door, talking mutely because it was late. I was lying on my bed trying to get some sleep. In a room nearby I heard the snoring of one of our cello players. Lucky guy. I considered practicing [...]
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“Ladies and Gentleman, welcome onboard our flight Air Kasawumbu 714 from Washington to Ovagombo. We hope you’ll enjoy your flight with us!” The traveller who managed to get to his seat without trouble asks himself if this announcement also includes his violin lying a few feet beneath in the cargo compartment. During check-in he watched [...]
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Have you ever been on a three week holiday on some remote island or in an RV somewhere in the Yukon Territory? Did you leave your violin at home? Well, I did. Big mistake. I mean, leaving the violin behind. At that time I was concertmaster in an orchestra playing for an audience of about [...]
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As you will have noticed I’ve changed the design from scratch. I chose a theme which is much more optimized for search engines and the blog is online for just three days now. Therefore – please be patient since it’s not completely finished yet. I still have to adjust some minor things, but I think [...]
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In the first part we looked at four-note-patterns, today we’ll see what we can do with six-note-patterns, a problem occurring very often as well. For our example I took Bach’s Presto from his Violin Sonata G minor: We have an almost endless chain of sixteenth notes, an excellent example how Galamian’s rhythm and bowing patterns [...]
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Probably you have already noticed – the software I use to print my music was written shortly after the Stone Age. Does anybody have a recommendation which software I could take? I need it for Mac OSX, preferably freeware (hey, I’m a poor musician). I really can’t afford a few hundred bucks for it. If [...]
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How do we practise fast notes? Very slowly. Well, it’s not that easy. Sure, the first and most important premise for playing fast is to play right and in tune. That’s only acquired by playing slowly. But sometime you have to increase speed and many people fail during this process. How can we get to [...]
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Have you ever tried out carbon fiber bows? I’m still looking for people having some experience with this kind of high tech stuff. If you happen to have played one or even own one of those, just drop me a line or post a comment. I just found an article about carbon fiber bows, although [...]
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A weblog created for people who are keen on playing the violin - of course not only for Canadians! Written for people who want to improve their skills on this great instrument.
If you have any comments or questions feel free to contact me!
Have fun!
