Is it a Bird? ... Is it a Plane? ... No! ...It’s a Jumping Jelly Bean! Jump across the strings very rapidly indeed ... with single, double, & triple string crossings!
Click here to download Jumping Jelly Beans from the ViolinSchool Library!
A delicious, nutritious piece for newbies. Choose which string is peanut butter and which one is jelly! Cross strings smoothly for a succulent, gelatinous combo!
Click here to download Peanut Butter and Jelly from the ViolinSchool Library!
Time is of the essence! Keep a steady pulse as you practise your pizzicato (plucking). Try it first with a real metronome, then use your ‘inner metronome’ to stay in time!
Click here to download Tick-Tock, Tock-Tick from the ViolinSchool Library!
Hello everyone!
Here are two Christmas treats for you!
We've updated some of our favourite Christmas Carols for you to download and play at Christmas time!
Need the lyrics so your friends can sing along whilst you play? Click here: https://www.violinschool.com/carols/
And here's a Christmas video that our director, Simon Hewitt Jones, recently recorded for Classic FM in the UK. It's a sparkling Christmas mash-up of lots of great Christmas Carols... enjoy!
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eLearning: Learn.ViolinSchool.com
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Hi everyone! Our CHRISTMAS LIVESTREAM with the Violin Orchestra is now taking place in London!
Join us here on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/violinschool/
Here's the programme:
v1.1 Concert Programme – Violin Orchestra 9th December 2017
We’re dotty about this lovely piece for beginners! It's full of delightful dotted rhythms and smooth, slurred string crossings, gently swaying from bar to bar ...
Click here to download Polka Dot, Polka Dot from the ViolinSchool Library!
What goes up must come down! Aim for fluid, graceful arm motions and land the bow smoothly onto the string. Make nice big circles with your arm during the rests!
Click here to download Ups and Downs from the ViolinSchool Library!
Um cha cha … Um cha cha … Join us for a waltz, a delightful dance in triple time … try to feel the pattern of three beats - strong-weak-weak - in each bar … Um cha cha!
Click here to download Time for a Waltz from the ViolinSchool Library!
Practise your counting and subdividing (cutting the cake!) and make sure you’re being fair! Each bar has 3 beats, so that’s three equal slices of cake! Mm … mmm!
Click here to download Cutting the Cake from the ViolinSchool Library!
Ooh! … Ow! … Oh! … Ouch! … Oof! … Owwww! Not for the faint-hearted … see if you can make it to the end of each line, dancing along the scorching hot stave!
Click here to download Firewalk from the ViolinSchool Library!
Ready ... Steady ... Gooooooooooo!!! These fun rhythms will keep you busy while you wait for the green light! Try clapping them first, then play with the bow.
Click here to download Traffic Lights from the ViolinSchool Library!
This great beginner piece features open string notes and rests (the silences in between). Practice your halves (minims), quarters (crotchets), and eighths (quavers)... as both notes and rests!
Try it in 4/4 and then, twice as fast, in 2/4! Open-and-shut ... case closed!!
Click here to download Open-and-Shut from the ViolinSchool Library!
Merry-Go-Round could be the tune for an actual carousel! Like the music that blares out from old-fashioned fairground rides, this melody is a happy, upbeat melody, that repeats around and around.
Imagine the horses bobbing up and down on the Merry-Go-Round itself, as the rising quarter notes (crotchets) and the falling eighth notes (quavers) imitate the up and down motion that each rider enjoys!
Click here to download Merry-Go-Round from the ViolinSchool Library!
New sheet music today: the famous nursery rhyme, Old MacDonald!
Old Macdonald had a farm, and on that farm he had some accents, a crescendo, a forte, a fortissimo, and lots of lovely notes in the key of G major!
If you're new to music note reading but you know the tune to Old MacDonald Had a Farm already, then knowing the tune will help you with reading the notes. But on the other hand, you need to be sure that you're playing it in the way it's written on the page... so be careful to look at all the details (dynamics, articulation) to be sure you're playing it right!
Click here to download Old MacDonald Had a Farm from the ViolinSchool Library!
Hi everyone!
Autumn is in full swing, and here at ViolinSchool we've been busy beavering away behind the scenes, making preparations for three BIG ViolinSchool projects, which we're about to unwrap...
Look out for news about ALL of these over the next month or so! In the meantime...
**
London Ensembles - 21st & 28th OctoberIf you're here in the UK, come and join us! The Orchestra will now begin on Saturday 4th November, but before that, we're running two sessions for everyone who'd like to join the orchestra, on these dates, in London (Victoria/Pimlico):
Click over to our London School website for all the details.
Not in the UK? Keep an eye on your email and our Facebook page for news about the new Library and Online Courses!
Happy practising!
- Simon
For the new academic year, we're transitioning all our Online Courses to a more robust digital platform at https://learn.violinschool.com/. This will allow you to track your learning as you move through all our video tutorials and online tuition.
You may see a few changes around ViolinSchool in the next couple of days. If you run into an error, just let us know at [email protected] and we'll fix it straight away.
Existing ViolinSchool members - you may need to reset your password or have us update your account details in order to access the online courses. Please follow the instructions you see on the site. If there are any issues, just contact us.
Enjoy!
So... we went away for the weekend and accidentally left our 5 Minute Workout Generator (David) switched on... we came back on Monday morning, and there were 350 workouts waiting for us! We're becoming addicted to practising the workouts here at ViolinSchool HQ, and by the sounds of it so are many of you! Here's the next batch, then...!
In this new video series, Setareh Mood will be taking you through a whole program of useful body exercises, that will get your muscles and joints warmed up and ready to play. Follow along with the first video, as we open up the chest and stretch the arms. We'll help you get your body flexible and supple, before you start to play!
Summer is in full swing, and there's plenty going on at the London branch of ViolinSchool! Check out this new video from Simon to hear all about our new Violin Ensemble Sessions in London, as well as One to One Lessons and our popular Beginner Violin Class. And don't forget the biscuits!
Hi Everyone!
Wherever you are, I hope you're having a great summer! Here at ViolinSchool HQ, we're pushing forward with our video production, and rolling out the long-awaited Learning Guide which will soon be available to all our members.
Every week we'll now be releasing new video tutorials. Core content will be published in the Learning Guide and in our Online Courses, and our free tutorials and other special video content will also appear on our new Youtube Channel.
Here's a video from the 'Essentials' course, which explains how to practise the 'Circles' exercise:
As we move through into the autumn, we've got many many video tutorials coming your way, to guide you sequentially through all the most important topics that will help you to play the violin the way you want to! So stay tuned to this blog, as well as to our Facebook page, and we'll keep you updated whenever there's a new video for you to enjoy.
Thanks for watching!
These incredibly useful new left hand exercises will help you to get really familiar with the placing of your fingers in the first four positions.
We've written a set of 11 variations - unashamedly designed to "show off" your violinistic prowess! - on the oh-so chirpy and insanely catchy folk tune, Carnival of Venice. There's a great tradition of writing virtuosic variations based on this tune, such as those by Jean-Baptiste Arban, Del Staigers, Herbert L. Clarke for the cornet, trumpet, and euphonium, Francisco Tárrega and Johann Kaspar Mertz for classical guitar, Ignace Gibsone and Louis Moreau Gottschalk for piano, Giovanni Bottesini for double bass. And, of course, the great Niccolò Paganini, the demonic virtuoso himself, wrote 20 variations in his Il Carnevale di Venezia, Op.10. And, the great piano virtuoso, Frédéric Chopin, dedicated his own variations to Niccolò, in his Souvenir de Paganini.
ViolinSchool's version is a veritable bag of violinistic tricks, featuring rapid scales and arpeggios, rapid string crossings, left-hand pizzicato, double stopping, tremolo, natural and artificial harmonics ... and, as if that wasn't enough, we've included the popular novelty song, "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?" ... itself a variation on Carnival of Venice!
We did it! We made it to 100! Our 5 Minute Workout Generator (aka David) has been working hard to reach our target of 365, a workout for every day of the year! Enjoy the latest 20 workouts - Nos. 81 - 100.[wcm_nonmember]
Remember that if you're not yet a member of ViolinSchool, you'll need to join to download the 5 Minute Workouts!
Click here to become a member and get full access to all our learning resources![/wcm_nonmember]
We’ve written a majorly melancholy melody called Lament in D minor, and it’s really really really sad! Give it a go … and try not to get the violin wet! ?
Our final day of workouts features another 10 great workouts for you to enjoy. Have a great workout![wcm_nonmember]
Remember that if you're not yet a member of ViolinSchool, you'll need to join to download the 5 Minute Workouts!
Click here to become a member and get full access to all our learning resources![/wcm_nonmember]
