JULIA'S VIOLIN BLOG

The fourth violin position is a valuable tool when playing scales and orchestral repertoire. The third position may already feel so high up that you don’t want to think about anything that is even higher. Certainly the fourth position has some difficulty and it’s not for beginners, but by mastering it, you have another valuable [...]

Carl Flesch was a legendary violin teacher who created a scale system used by most classical violinists today. His books and teachings have had a huge influence on modern violin playing because they directly help us learn difficult repertoire. If you're advancing on the violin and would like to dive into scales, read on to [...]

“Range” in music, when talking about an instrument’s or a voice’s range, is the distance from the lowest to the highest note. In short, how many notes and at what pitch an instrument can play. If you think of the string instruments from the violin family as a choir, the violin would be the soprano as [...]

Even though the violin is mostly used to perform solo pieces or to play in an orchestra, we can play chords on it. Sometimes in a higher level solo piece there are chords written in, or you may want to play chords as an accompaniment for another instrument or a singer. Depending on the context, [...]

Because violins are made mostly of wood, violinists need to make sure that their precious instruments are properly protected by maintaining humidity levels. If the air around the violin is too dry, the wood can crack. Ensuring that the proper humidity levels are kept can be done by purchasing a violin humidifier. Read on for [...]

Looking at a violin, you’ve probably noticed that long, black stretch that the strings sit on top of - that’s called the fingerboard! Adhering to both the neck and the nut, it stretches over the body of the instrument and ends just a few inches before the bridge. The strings float over the fingerboard, until [...]

Today I'm sharing Pirates of the Caribbean violin sheet music with you. He's a Pirate is the theme song you know from this iconic Disney movie. It's so much fun to play, even if you're just a beginner! On this page, you can watch my tutorial for this song, get a few tips for playing [...]

Double stops are very common in music, so today I'm sharing with you the booklet with a violin double stops chart for every interval up to the octave to help you quickly learn how to play them. Free Violin Double Stops Charts and Exercises DOWNLOAD PDF What are Double Stops? A Double stop is an [...]

Are you looking to purchase the perfect gift for a special violinist in your life or a violin teacher you know? Lucky for you, you won’t have to look any further because I have put together my recommended violin gifts. Getting violin-related gifts is great because they are thoughtful and personalized to their hobbies. The [...]

Tips for how to counter stage fright and have an energetic stage presence Have you ever been to a concert where you loved the music but didn't find it easy to connect to the performer due to boring or awkward stage presence? Having a good stage presence is a crucial skill for all violinists to [...]

Learn the violin vibrato technique in a few easy steps! Learning violin vibrato is a huge step in working towards playing more musically and adding to your musical expertise. After you have learned the basics of posture, playing in tune, counting rhythm well, you will likely want to learn vibrato next. Vibrato is the small [...]

Western music is defined by the way notes are placed inside of an octave, or how the notes of a scale are positioned in relation to each other, and we can call these distances half steps and whole steps. They are also called semitones and tones. What is an Octave? An octave is an interval [...]