It's Violin Orchestra time! If you're in the UK, then come to our London School and join in with The Violin Orchestra! The first rehearsal takes place this weekend - Saturday 15th June!

Registration for our new Online Beginner Violin Course is now open! We've recorded a video to tell you all about it - check it out here!

Shifting big distances on a single string, like in this shifting exercise, really does require a leap of faith! But that faith will come from repeating the movement slowly lots of times, and being aware of your arm movement (especially the elbow movement) during the shift.

Offenbach's famous 'Can-Can' is a classic of the genre... a high-octane dance that's full of energy, and sure to get your feet tapping! Here's an easy version in G major for Beginner violinists to try!

These new Scale Acceleration Exercises from Online Beginner Course A will help you to drill in your scale patterns in G, D and A major. Repeat each scale with increasingly short note values, until you can repeat the finger placements accurately at high speed!

To use time efficiently within your practice, you need to know *what* to do. Which types of exercises and activities are guaranteed to get you results? This checklist of Practice Techniques will help you to make a great start!

This nostalgic piece of music dates all the way back to the early 1800s. It became well-known in America by the mid 1800s, and has remained popular ever since!

Play an interval on one string, and then play the same notes in a different place on the violin, by moving to a different string and a different position... but be a careful copycat, and aim for the same pitch, wherever you climb!

For woodworm, a violin makes a tasty lunch! Let's explore how woodworm can damage violins, and what you can do to avoid woodworm problems in your violin!

One of the most important skills any violinist can have is knowing how to practise! This one single skill can transform your progress, because if you always know how to improve then you'll always be getting better and better!

We've updated this piece, which you can find in Beginner Course A or in the Library, and added a playalong video! Can you play along with the music... in time, and in tune?

In this intonation exercise, 'anchor' your hand in the 3rd and 4th positions, then practise tuning the stopped notes in relation to the open strings.

New in the Library... all Level 1 Music Theory is now live on the ViolinSchool Library for ViolinSchool members to download right now!

When we begin learning a piece of music, and find that it contains tough challenges, it's time to break down what's going on and understand the individual elements of each problem...

A lot of learners ask us how to improve their rhythm skills, so we've put together some really useful Rhythm Exercises with playalong videos to help you keep time. Plus a new lesson about how to use them for rhythm and pulse training!

Legend has it that William Tell, a Swiss marksman, was able to shoot an arrow into an apple on his son's head... at 80 paces! This famous melody is his 'theme tune'... and we've just added it to the ViolinSchool Library for you to download!

Here's a new video from the most recent VIOLIN ORCHESTRA concert in London. The Violin Orchestra plays Rondeau from Abdelazer by Henry Purcell, arranged by ViolinSchool's David Worswick. Filmed at St John's Waterloo in London, on Saturday 8th December 2018.

Violin Sight-Reading is the process of playing something whilst you're looking at it for the very first time. It's a learnable skill, and the more you do it, the better you'll become. Enjoy the freedom of playing music - the first time you see it!

One of the loveable characters in our early stage tuition is the cool, ice-cream-loving tortoise George! He recently had his sheet music upgraded, and a great new playalong added too! So plug him into your earphones, and try playing along with the accompaniment!

I taught a lesson today to a very experienced folk fiddler who could to play at a reasonably advanced level.He could read music, albeit a bit unsteadily, so I initially assumed he knew the key signatures and other musical theory too...

What is a key signature? It's the group of sharp or flat signs written at the beginning of each stave. Read on to discover what that means, how it works, and why it matters...

It’s official... we’ll be launching a completely new Online Beginner Violin Course on 30th May! Registration opens today, and you can read all about it here...

Can you survive the 10 Beat Challenge? It's a great exercise for warming up your bowing action, and for making clear and consistent sounds on whole bows. As well as improving your bow control, it will help to get the instrument really ringing and resonating.

For this intonation exercise, play an open string whilst stopping notes in 1st Position. Work out the name of each interval, then compare the stopped note to the open string to make sure it is in tune.

Sometimes in violin practise, you've sorted out all the obvious things. You're unsure exactly what you need to do next. So what do you do?