Motivation is a very tricky part of being a musician! Everyone has different reasons for not practicing/doing minimal practice, but personally I find that when I don’t feel like I’m improving I get into a “I’m the worst, practice is pointless” state of mind. How I fix this is going through old music and remembering how hard it was for me then and thinking about how easy it is for me now, watching videos of famous musicians and thinking about how they worked hard to get where they are, and that sort of thing. 

Also, how you practice helps motivate you. By sticking to a “routine” you get into the habit of practicing, so it almost feels weird when you don’t. For example, I start my practice with scales, then etudes, then solo repertoire, then orchestra repertoire. When I do these, I go over hard spots in some way until I see improvement and write down what I did to improve/how I can work to improve tomorrow. By making practice sessions detailed and organized and planning your practice for the next day, you can have an idea of how to focus instead of just practicing vaguely. This concentrated method has actually helped me improve quicker as well, and you don’t have to spend as much time practicing since it’s a small amount of strongly focused time instead of a large amount of mindless time!

Even if you don’t want to practice, you have to be disciplined enough to do a bit of work each day in order to see improvement. Even if you’re like me and you think “I don’t want to do this, I haven’t practiced in so long that it’s going to be awful,” just remember that it’s only going to get more awful if you don’t. Everyone has to start somewhere, and the sooner you start having consistent, focused practice, the sooner you’ll find that you’re improving and looking forward to spending time with your instrument again!

When having problems with intonation, it’s best to go back to basics to find the root of the problem. First, make sure your violin is precisely in tune while you practice, so tune once before you begin and then check our strings every so often during. Second, scales can be crucial in developing a good ear. Play scales slowly with no vibrato and listen for the interval between each note. Checking against open strings is also good to do. Playing your scales with a drone is enormously helpful as well. You can find some cello drones on iTunes that just play one note continuously that are great for practicing scales with. Before playing your piece, play a scale and arpeggio in its key to get the sound of key in your ear and make sure that you have the correct hand shape. Once you have done this, play your piece under tempo to focus both on intonation and tone. As always, don’t simply play the entire piece over and over, but isolate the problem spot and work on them until you can play through it smoothly. This way, you can know the exact root of your mistakes. Does a shift make you go sharp or flat? Do you have the wrong hand shape during a section of string crossings? Asking yourself questions like these make you more self-aware of what the problem is and how to fix it. If a shift throws of your intonation, practice shifting on the old finger slowly and then stop once you get to the correct pitch. Do this until you can land the shift without the exaggerated slide on the old finger. If it’s hand shape, know how far apart your fingers are supposed to be and play the section and a bit before it and after slowly paying special attention to each note so that it is in tune, beautiful, and you can practice transitioning to and from the difficult section. Overall, slow, mindful practice is the key to good intonation. Make adjustments, write down your tough spots so you can isolate them your next practice session, and write down how you adjusted to make the passage correct. You can’t change and improve without being conscious of yourself and your mistakes, so think of mistakes as learning opportunities instead of bad things!

Hello all! 

Although I may make a bow hold past later on, here is a great video for beginners to start learning bow hold!

I recommend studying the first 5 minutes for a week before using the bow. Practice it as much as possible with the pencil!

Happy Practicing!

Having trouble reaching that evasive G string? That E string super hard to play on? Well why not use your left arm and swing it either toward you or away from you in order to get to those pesky strings?

Use your thumb as an anchoring point for your arm to swing on by putting your violin in playing position and putting your left arm up on the finger board as if you are going to play a scale. Make sure your thumb is loosely touching the neck. Make sure your fingers are also directly over the string you are starting on (hovering for now). Your wrist should be straight in relation to the rest of your left arm. While not bending your wrist but moving it as a unit with the rest of the arm, swing your entire arm slightly in the direction of the desired string. Repeat going from one string to the other and back while moving your arm and wrist as a unit at the same time. This should get your fingers over the pesky strings and make it easier for you to reach them!

If you want a more explanatory explanation, click here (Coming soon)!

If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask!

Happy practicing!

Okay hello dear followers! 

I know, you literally never hear from me at all. All I reblog is One Piece lol, but that’s besides the point! 

I created a new blog called Treble Support (https://www.tumblr.com/blog/treblesupport), which is just a blog about gathering people who love the violin together in one place in order to give advice and share achievements and what not with others! It’s like a help desk for people to gather around and ask questions and get help from others. If you are interested, why not drop by the blog and give a follow if you like what you see. Since I made it today (5/21/16), there isn’t any posts on there yet, but it will get there!