Hey violin friends! Here’s an exercise that can help with a very important skill that can be one of the main things that can really help take your playing up to the next level, enable you to perform with different kinds of musicians, and discover new ways to express your musical voice confidently – the…
Tag: music theory
The sheet music reader’s guide to chord charts
Music is, in many ways, is a language. It has its own grammar (structure for melody to follow) and vocabulary (motifs, “riffs” or “licks” that cluster sounds together). Also like music, language (with the exception of signing) is first and foremost aural communion. (What matters is one person’s mouth reaching someone else’s ear). However, that…
How to play “I’ll Keep It With Mine” (or the string parts for any pop song)
Here are a few string players you might not have heard of before, but have probably heard their music. John Cale of the Velvet Underground, Scarlet Rivera with Bob Dylan, David Ragsdale of Kansas, Boyd Tinsley of the Dave Mathews Band, Miri Ben-Ari with a variety of hip-hop artists, including Kanye West. All these artists…
Four musical approaches…
When I first walked down this path of using strings to create sound, I was unaware how versatile it could be, or how the same instrument could make me comfortable in a huge variety of settings. I have inserted my voice into all kinds of situations – sometimes projects involving many hours of rehearsal, and…
