Flex your pinky with this set of 4th finger exercises! Make sure it lands perfectly in tune every time, don’t let the other fingers lead you astray … naughty things!
Flex your pinky with this set of 4th finger exercises! Make sure it lands perfectly in tune every time, don’t let the other fingers lead you astray … naughty things!
A galopede is not a type of fast-moving insect, but an especially energetic English country dance!! See how fast you can gallop the galopede, but practise slowly first!
A march fit for a king … a 10th century High King of Ireland, no less … Brian Boru of the Dalcassians! Brian must have been a fan of dotted rhythms and string crossing!
Dvořák wrote his set of Humoresques in the summer of 1894 when he must have been in a pretty good mood! The 7th one is probably the best known and probably the best!
John Eccles wrote this achingly beautiful music for a stage play by John Fletcher, a tragicomedy called The Mad Lover. It’s also a really good string crossing exercise!
These two-finger scale exercise are fantastically useful for improving shifting and intonation and a great way to warm-up at the start of a practice session.
If you always know how to improve then you'll always be getting better and better! And this Practice Menu helps provide a clear structure for your violin practice.
Largo' is the opening aria from the 1738 opera, Serse, by Handel. It's sung by Xerxes I of Persia as he admires the lovely, sweet shade of a plane tree!
This rousing melody by Henry Purcell was written to accompany the dramatic and tragic late 17th century play, Abdelazer. You'll need agile fingers to play this one!
You'll need some violin-playing friends for this one! Each piece is a canon (or round), which means you play together but starting at different times!
Ain't this an oddity! Bizzarie by Ancelotti is a quirky duet with many chromatic twists and turns. Bring out its eerie, dance-like qualities with vibrant bow strokes!
Stay up to date with the repertoire that you have learnt. What are you learning now, what's still 'active', and what are you going to learn next?
Keep a record of what you have achieved in each of your practice sessions, as well as discoveries and new insights that have occurred to you whilst practising!
Use this Practice Plan template to help clarify your goals, and what you're going to achieve in each of your practice sessions.
Allegro Diabolico is a highly virtuosic study by David Worswick, featuring some devilishly difficult double-stops and rapid string crossings. Not for the faint-hearted!
ViolinSchool’s Variations on the popular Carnival of Venice tune are full of devilish trickery and highly virtuosic violinistic hijinks. Enjoy!
Violinists often play portato (slightly re-articulated notes) instead of legato (smooth and connected). This study will help you to play as legato as possible!
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!
Is this the ultimate workout for advanced players? If your left hand can survive this, it can survive anything! To prevent cramps, keep your left thumb relaxed...
Practise lots and lots of different combinations of tones (whole steps) and semitones (half steps) to create some fabulously evocative patterns!
This study is jam-packed full of violinistic nutrients … scales, arpeggios and lots of string crossings! And, there are 72 bowing and rhythm patterns to choose from!
The tide rises ever so slowly as you move up and up the chromatic scale to 3rd position on each string. Remember, a rising tide lifts all notes!!
This famous Viennese Waltz by Johann Strauss II was inspired by the river Danube, one of the longest rivers in Europe.
This famous sea shanty from the 1800s tells the story of sailors hunting whales near New Zealand. Here's an exclusive ViolinSchool / Violin Orchestra version!
Flex your pinky with this set of 4th finger exercises! Make sure it lands perfectly in tune every time, don’t let the other fingers lead you astray … naughty things!
