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.
In this intonation exercise, 'Pitch Perfect', you need to move the same finger from the same place on one string to the same place on the next (and the next, and the next!), to create a series of Perfect Fifth intervals.
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?
To play this piece, you’ll only need your first finger! Make sure it’s always landing in tune, exactly a tone (two semitones) above the open string.
For this lovely, lilting piece, you’ll only need the second finger of the left hand. Each time, it should land at the interval of a major 3rd above the open string.
In this intonation exercise, 'Pitch Perfect', you need to move the same finger from the same place on one string to the same place on the next (and the next, and the next!), to create a series of Perfect Fifth intervals.
This gorgeous Scottish folk song is several hundred years old, and it's been passed down the generations with good reason... it's a gorgeous piece of music! Today it's well known around the world, from recordings that have been made by artists in many different styles.
Summer Term Beginner Violin Courses are now open for booking at our London School, with new courses on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays!
A comprehensive, step by step guide to changing a violin string safely, securely and efficently ... and so that it stays in tune!
‘Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht’, Op. 49, is a bit of a mouthful, so let’s just call it ‘Brahms’ Lullaby’! Lull yourself to sleep with this beauty! We've added a new MIDI playback, so you can practise playing the piece whilst listening to the music.
In this NEW version of Coconut Milk (complete with new partition and MIDI playback), we've added lots of slurs, so that you can practise smooooooth string crossings back and forth between the different strings. Keep your upper arm moving steadily as you move it up and down between the string levels.
A ViolinSchool favourite, the beautifully lyrical Weeping Willow is a tear-jerker of a piece... and it's now updated with a new, refreshed 'partition'!
We've also added a new MIDI playback, so you can practise playing the piece whilst listening to the music.
Over the next few weeks, we'll be featuring a series of Intonation Exercises from the ViolinSchool Library - one per week, for you to improve the accuracy of your left hand placement! We start today with Go The Distance, a very useful practice exercise for familiarising yourself with intervals in 1st position.
One of the most common questions we get about tuning and intonation is ‘which tuning app should I use’? We like Cleartune on Android and InsTuner on iOS, but we'd like to know what YOU use, so that we can test every single one properly, and make the very best recommendation for all our learners... […]
We've received a lot of good feedback about the G Major and D Major scale exercises (Level 1/2), so we've now added similar exercises for A Major as well! You can find them in the ViolinSchool Library in the Scales and Arpeggios section.
Everything you need to know to get the strings of your violin to the correct pitch... and keep them there! In this feature, you'll learn... How pitch works on the violin How to use a 'Reference Pitch' How to turn the Pegs and Fine Tuners to get the strings in tune Pitch First we're going […]
Hello everyone! Here in London, the new term is starting, and for the first time ever we are synchronising our online and offline tuition. Regardless of whether you're learning with us here in London or from anywhere around the world, you'll have access to exactly the same course content, learning resources, exercises and learner support. The […]
We've been busy over the Christmas holidays! Here’s a sneak preview of what’s about to launch at ViolinSchool... New Digital Library To coincide with the start of New Year Term at our London School, we’re opening up our new and improved Digital Library to all existing members. If you have an active subscription to ViolinSchool.com, […]
Click below to play a Christmas Greeting from The Violin Orchestra! Coming up in 2019... We'll be back in early January with all-new online courses, our upgraded digital library and weekly updates of everything that's new in the world of violin! Have a wonderful holiday season and we'll see you in a couple of weeks! And now, some CHRISTMAS […]
There's a fascinating moment in many of our Beginner Violin Classes where I shout 'FREEZE', and everyone suddenly stops moving. Then, to much hilarity, I point out that every single person in the room is bending around to the left! Faces are turned towards the violin, eyes are locked down in an intense stare, and everyone is […]
Where are you at with your learning? A common problem when learning the violin is understanding where you’ve got to in the learning process. This is important, because if you don’t have any reference points with which to measure your progress, it can be hard to know whether what you are doing is working. And […]
Our new Beginner Violin Courses at ViolinSchool London have been growing in popularity over the past year, so we've now introduced three levels - A, B and C - to help first-time adult learners to reach a good basic playing level on the violin! Until 10pm on 9th December, learners in the UK can save […]
This is one of the busiest times of year here at ViolinSchool, but I'm going to take a moment out to show you some of what's coming up here at VS towers! The overhaul of our Digital Library is nearly finished, and if you're a member of ViolinSchool, you'll be getting an email soon to […]
ViolinSchool’s String Crossing Exercises – eight pages of rhythm and bowing patterns – will help you get really really good at crossing strings!
Tricky Trills will help you to practise double-stopped trills. Trills in thirds … trills in sixths … trills in octaves … and more … Very tricky trills indeed!
