Education
The Psychology of Improvisation: Jazz Fiddle Wizard, Martin Norgaard
What happens in the brain during improvisation, and how do we use this to get better at improvising? This is exactly the thing Dr. Martin Norgaard researched for his doctorate in music education. Now a professor at Georgia State...
Learn MoreJazz Violin-an intelligent conversation
Jazz Violin- an intelligent conversation The excerpt below comes from a real conversation on Facebook. I found it on my daughter’s wall (I wasn’t snooping, honest). If she finds out that I posted this, I’ll...
Learn MoreRoar Like a Violin Monster
Legendary jazz drummer Billy Hart once told me, “You’re more than good enough to be a star”. Just before he said that I had asked him, “what should I be working...
Learn MoreDevelop Your “Thing”, Whether or Not It’s “Jazz Violin”
Are classical musicians creative? Any musical activity is creative, but we can all agree that there is a difference between performing a piece of music from the page on the one hand and improvising, arranging, or...
Learn MoreCreative String Teachers inspire generations of string players
I’ve always loudly maintained that classically trained instrumentalists (particularly string players) lag far behind musicians trained in jazz, rock and other traditions when it comes to improvisation, composition,...
Learn MoreThe #1 thing you can do to become a better musician
I’ll tell you the easiest thing you can do to improve your musicianship. The single best thing you can do to improve as a musician is to listen back to recordings of yourself practicing or performing. The key...
Learn Morestructuring creative practice to avoid overwhelm
Seems like I’m constantly working on new content in response to user requests, (keep them coming!) which raises an interesting point, i.e., “how to avoid overwhelm”. Since my goal is to provide tons of...
Learn MoreAmplifying your acoustic violin with acoustic violin pickups
Hi Chris, how are you? I have a question which I don’t think is the best subject for the webinar tomorrow, but is very important. I recently broke my Fishman pickup, and I need a new one asap. I was wondering which...
Learn MorePerformances set for the 8th annual Creative Strings Festival
Here’s the press release for this year’s festival. We’ve got 20 performances listed this year, and for the first time, we’re spilling over into comfest. Fun times. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Violinist...
Learn MoreJazz violin give-aways; improvisation secrets revealed
I’m giving away lot’s of stuff today. To receive even more presents, enter your email address into the form on top of the right sidebar on this page! On to the first wave of gifts: GIFT #1) this...
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