A Barcarolle is a traditional folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers. The Barcarolle (“Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour”) by Jacques Offenbach, from his final opera, The Tales of Hoffmann, is surely the most famous Barcarolle there is!

If you're a practically minded violinist, the idea of learning to maintain and repair your own instrument can be an interesting diversion. Those interested in cars who buy a vintage classic model would naturally learn how to improve the engine and fix things up when repairs are needed. Surely, just like the keen motor mechanic, […]

Joseph-Hector Fiocco is best known for his virtuoso showpiece ‘Allegro’, arranged here for TWO violins! Fiocco was born in Brussels in 1703 and died, tragically young at just 38, in 1741. The Allegro was originally written for harpsichord – part of Fiocco’s Pièces de Clavecin – and later popularised as a violin piece being a staple […]

When you're first starting to read music, you'll quickly come across different types of notes. The rhythm of each note is represented by the SHAPE of the note-head and the stem. This PDF shows some of the most common note values that you'll see. The words on the right of each note represent the rhythm names for each note. The exact timing of notes will depend […]

Frolic is a lovely new piece of music written exclusively for ViolinSchool! Get your fingers warmed up with some G major scales and arpeggios, then try playing the piece through with lots of energy and a nice, lilting feel to the phrasing. Think of some little lambs gambolling in the countryside! Watch out for the 'ritardando' (gradually slowing down) in bars 15 and 16; you'll need […]

Metronomes, mirrors and tuners are fantastic tools for a violinist. Metronomes can help you to keep time. Mirrors can help you to see whether your bow is straight. And tuners - not least the all-singing, all-dancing digital tuners that are now available as smartphones - make it easy. Just follow the device, no? If you can play […]

Here's the main theme from Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin. The Caprice itself is one of the most ferociously difficult pieces ever written for violin, and it includes quadruple stops, left hand pizzicato, tenths, and other fiendish techniques... However, the first part of the piece - the main theme upon which the rest of the variations […]

If you're a vegan, can you keep to your principles as a committed violin player? If you're conscious of your impact on the environment, could violin playing be a problem? Information about food production, sustainability, recycling and issues such as deforestation is commonly available, sought out by many of us to enable informed choices. Many people choose a vegetarian […]

The Radetzky March was composed by Johann Strauss Sr and premiered in Vienna in August 1848. Strauss was commissioned to write the piece to celebrate a victory in battle by Austrian Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. The march became popular as a piece of marchinig music for soldiers, and has a celebratory, up-tempo feel […]

If you've been around ViolinSchool any length of time, then you've probably heard us talk about the importance of checklists. For years, we've been making the point that the purpose of a checklist is to systemise your behaviour, ideally to the point that it can become automatic. And when you're dealing with something as complicated as violin playing (or flying a plane, […]

'She's a Pirate!' "I'm living proof that if you just follow what you're passionate about in life and ignore the negative people who try and bring you down, you can create something really meaningful for yourself and others to enjoy" - Taylor Davis (via DailyDot) Last year, just before our Christmas Violin Orchestra, I went to a […]

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that over the Easter weekend, our content goblins and our tech wizards have been beavering away with some very useful updates to the ViolinSchool learning platform! Practice is such a critical violin-playing skill that we felt it needed its own section! So you'll now find Practice in the top menu bar, […]

David and I once came off stage in Switzerland after a concert, and as we were returning to the dressing room, a man approached us with a big grin on his face and said, in possibly the strongest Irish accent I've ever heard... "Tell me boys ... why do you use those partitions?" "Erm, sorry, the […]

How to Choose a Beginner Violin Outfit Buying your first violin will probably seem a bit overwhelming. Before you have had a chance to really learn about the instrument, what you want from it and what you need, it is necessary to purchase a whole raft of equipment that may be totally unfamiliar. There is also […]

Intonation and Using a Violin Tuner as a Practice Aid A common question asked by non-violinists is, “How do you know where to play the notes when you have no frets?” Violin intonation is one aspect of playing that is challenging for players of every level. Beginners often start learning with stickers over the fingerboard […]

Pyrography, or wood burning, a craft dating back to ancient African and Egyptian cultures, is done with a wood-burning pen. The term means "writing with fire", from the Greek pur (fire) and graphos (writing). Heat is applied to the wood, and different effects created by varying the type of tip or the temperature. When we […]

This traditional English piece is probably best known for its interpretation by Simon & Garfunkel. We've arranged it for you in four different keys or 'transpositions', so that you can choose which note pattern to play!

Cheeky Pizzicati is an exclusive ViolinSchool piece that's a really fun way to practise left hand pizzicato. In this video we'll learn how to pluck the strings using the left hand, and where to place the hand in order to make a good sound. If you're a member of ViolinSchool, you can download and print the sheet music (below). Then […]

Here's a new video (from our forthcoming Setup online course), explaining all about Mutes and Practice Mutes. There are two main types of mute you can use with the violin – standard mutes, and practice mutes. They dampen the vibrations of the bridge and the strings, which softens the sound. We use standard types of mute to […]

This sublime melody was first published in 1853. It was written by French composer Charles Gounod to fit with the Prelude No.1 in C major from J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, written over 130 years earlier. Try playing the melody along with a recording of the Bach Prelude! [wcm_restrict] Click here to download Ave Maria by Bach […]

Violin finger charts are a quick, visual way for beginner violinists to understand the geography of the violin fingerboard. Learn how to use them, and how to create your own.

Learning the violin is a life journey. Whatever attracted you to start, whether it was a particular performance, the uniquely beautiful sound of the violin, a desire to learn a new skill or the fact you had always wanted to play an instrument, there’s a lot of fun ahead. For more advanced students too, as […]

If you want to find a topic about which most violinists will disagree, the subject of shoulder rests should be high on your list! Every violinist has their own preference about which shoulder rest to use, if at all. Shoulder rests have only been in mainstream use since the 1950s, and some players still view them […]

Sheet music shops, like bookshops for the avid reader, are a wonderful resource for the violin student. Since the advent of online shopping, they are also becoming a rarity. The tactile and satisfying experience of looking through shelves of crisp, new music has given way to a search engine, a click of the mouse and […]

Happy New Year from everyone here at ViolinSchool! We've got some exciting news to share with you for 2017... Sheet Music Publishing Partnership We're really happy to announce that the ViolinSchool team is taking over management of Musicland Publications, a leading publisher of sheet music and educational materials for string instruments. Musicland itself is a family business, established in […]