5 Music Collections Every Advanced Student Needs
As a violin student goes from cute-for-playing-for-neighbors-and-relatives to serious advanced student, the music he or she needs increases. Below, I give you the five absolutely essential sheet music collections that every serious violin student needs. There are no elite violinists in the world that haven’t studied these works or learned these etudes. If you want…
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violinguy
Arranging Music for Any Ensemble
With the advent of music editing software like Sibelius or Finale, I have had a renewed interest in composing over the last 10-15 years. Composing is more of a hobby for me, but arranging music has become more than that. I have started making serious money by arranging different music for different ensembles and now…
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violinguy
How to Stay Healthy and Keep Playing
As the summer wound down this year, I had a really hard time staying healthy. I had the stomach flu at the beginning of August, followed by a cold later that month. Then came the stomach flu again (this time without the fever and chills) in September. Had I been more busy, I would have…
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violinguy
Advice for Youth and Student Auditions
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post giving advice to professional violinists doing orchestral auditions. Well, now it’s time to get the kids involved. Student auditions happen many times during a child’s violin education. There are auditions for school orchestra seating, all-region orchestras (in the US), all-state orchestras (again, US), and other various…
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violinguy
Audition Advice for Orchestral Violin Players
I have (update: had – it was cancelled, sigh) an orchestral audition coming up in a few weeks so I thought I would share some of the audition advice I have learned over my many years of playing the violin. I have scoured the interwebs for audition advice and have found some great stuff. There…
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violinguy
Back to School Violin Supply List
It’s time for the kids to go back to school which means it’s time for violin lessons to get started again. Every violin student needs certain supplies for his or her lessons. Read on for the best back to school violin supplies updated for 2016. Instruments Every violin student needs a violin and bow. Duh. …
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violinguy
The Practice Room is Your Laboratory
Let’s be honest, no one likes to practice. The best violinists in the world don’t love getting into a room and working for hours on little snippets of repertoire. Unfortunately, the practice room is where we work and improve. Practicing is necessary, but if you’ve read anything else I’ve written here, you’ll see that I…
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violinguy
The Care and Feeding of your Violin Teacher
Choosing a violin teacher is an important process in finding the perfect match for your abilities. A good teacher will work with what you have, not engage in a futile attempt to get you to do something uncomfortable. A good teacher will be patient most of the time, but tough when called for. Finally, a…
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violinguy
5 Violin Showpieces to Motivate Young Violinists
It is well known that children are easily motivated by someone doing what they want to do, and doing it very well. When I was a young violin student, my parents bought a record (you know, those big black vinyl discs) of Itzhak Perlman encores. While many young students today look up to Joshua Bell…
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violinguy
5 Violin Practice Tips to Do More in Less Time
Practicing. I doubt there is a single violin student who can’t wait to lock himself in a tiny room and hash out scales for hours. Successful violinists practice violin for upwards of 6-8 hours per day. That’s longer than some people spend at work. Below are five practice tips to help you get more accomplished…
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violinguy
How to Make a Violin Mute Out of a Dollar Bill
Today I’m going to tell you (and show you if you watch the video) how to make a violin mute out of a dollar bill. One of the tools you must have as a string player is a mute. Showing up at rehearsal (or worse a performance) is very unprofessional. Orchestra music routinely calls for…
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