blog

For a while now, I’ve given occasional violin masterclasses and workshops in London, and there seems to be such an enormous demand that I’ve decided to offer them regularly.

If you’re in London, UK and you want to learn the violin, the violin workshops I’ve created are all about getting the basic principles of violin playing right: the relationship between the violin and the body, how to hold the instrument and bow and how to stand, and the fundamental ways of serving the music to create great performances (playing the right thing, at the right time is a large part of it!). It’s perfect both for total beginners or as a refresher for more advanced players.

There are also new weekly group violin lessons on a Saturday which I’ll be directing myself in Central London. You can check out the programs here: www.londonviolinstudio.com

To analyse the affect of technology on music, I’m going to need to examine areas where there is plentiful evidence of change over a long period.

I’m thinking of, for example, (more…)

For someone who’s actually a trombonist, you don’t get much better violin playing than this…

Incredible, no? OK, it’s not the most refined playing (indeed, it’s a ‘vaudeville’ act), but the level of virtuosity is quite extraordinary. Apparently this was Willie Hall‘s main novelty trick – the rest of the time he played the trombone in Paul Whiteman‘s orchestra.

The clip is taken from the film King of Jazz.