History of the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition: The International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover has been a highlight for me since my childhood in the 1990s. Every four years, the atmosphere at the University of Music, Drama, and Media Hanover transforms magically, with the local...
Violin Maintenance: What You Can Do Yourself Keeping your violin in top shape will help your violin produce the most beautiful resonant sound that it is capable of. Some aspects of violin maintenance are best left to a competent violin maker, but there are many things...
To develop a smooth and even sound on the violin, the movement of our fingers holding the bow plays an important role. The two functions of the fingers are to control the bows direction and to absorb the raw movement of our bow-arm. The fingers...
Vibrato Dynamics When performing vibrato on the violin, we manipulate the pitch by rolling our finger up and down the fingerboard. However, several factors, beyond just pitch change, characterize the vibrato’s sound. The changing structure of the finger’s skin - rolling from the softer pad to...
First Exercise: The Son Filé: The son filé exercise is a very basic but also effective bow exercise that any violinist regardless of their level can integrate in their practice routine. Son filé is a french term and it translates roughly as "never ending...
Before we can start to tune our violin, we need to know the correct names of the open strings. In this graphic you can see the notes and their names in order from the lowest to the highest string: Names of the open strings on the...
In this Video you will hear my opinion about the new Larsen "Il Cannone" Strings. The Larsen "Il Cannone" strings have to stand their own against other brands of new strings, like the Jargar Superior or the slightly older Thomastik PI. They certainly are a different...
The third position on the violin is for every violinist a big step forward. I will give you together with the video a full instruction on how to play your first notes in the third position on the violin. First let me list you the benefits...
In this lesson I give you some vibrato tips and exercises and show you how to effectively practice vibrato on the violin When you want to free your vibrato, you have to keep some key factors in mind: You need the right finger pressure! Pressing too...
Learning double stops on the Violin is a big step for every violinist. In the video I break down the different types of double stops, that exist on the violin. 1. Two open strings (very easy) 2. Upper note fingered, lower note open string (easy) 3. Lower note fingered,...