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Below you can purchase educational worksheets and videos, transcriptions, or any of my albums. The Creative Strings Academy is my comprehensive guide to improvisation and alternative styles. Creative Strings Academy members receive some of these products FREE with their membership!

Literature

Violin Harmony Handbook
Violin Harmony Handbook
The Violin Harmony Handbook is packed with practical theory, practice exercises, conceptual, intuitive, and analytical tools as well as chord glossaries, and even solo violin transcriptions and charts. There is no guide more useful for beginning to advanced students of jazz violin.
Price: $34.95
Price: $29.95
Electric Violin Training Kit
Electric Violin Training Kit
NAME YOUR PRICE! (limited time only!) Learn everything you need to know to plug in start jamming on electric violin, viola, and cello! Everything from the basics to his personal secrets, Christian Howes shares how to begin to rock out on your violin. Learn what gear is a must have! From amplifiers to pickups, you will find out the advantages and disadvantages of all types of gear setups. Anyone from beginners to experienced violinists will benefit from this informative ebook.
Price: $19.99
Price: $1.00
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Video Lesson Downloads

Check out our Special Bundle Packages and SAVE!

Improvise with Pachelbel's Canon!
Improvise with Pachelbel's Canon!
Improvise to Pachelbel's Kanon with the Pachelbel Kanon Chord Stacks series! This easy-to-use course includes eight instructional videos, five "play-along" accompaniment tracks,  a worksheet including the easy-to-use "chord stacks" diagram, and instructions for completing the module. Great for ALL levels of classically trained instrumentalist (with basic reading skills! Through this course you will learn to improvise easily within the first five minutes! By using innovative "Chord Stacks" diagrams, Christian gives you ready-made "training wheels", which allow you to glide easily through chord progressions. "Connect the dots" to select chord and scale tones that naturally form coherent and flawless melodies in many styles including classical, bluegrass, waltz, reggae, rock, and more!
Price: $25.00
Free Improvisation Master Series
Free Improvisation Master Series
Christian Howes shows you his secrets to improvisation! This bundle contains 5 lesson videos that show you everything you need to know. A great lesson that teaches the basics of improvisation, so you can effectively unlock the key to many of the other lesson videos. Take your improvisation to the next level!
Price: $25.00
Price: $18.00

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Teaching Improvisation Series
Teaching Improvisation Series
Christian Howes shows you how to teach improvisation in a clear and easy way! This series contains 7 lesson videos that show you the secrets to Christian Howes' unique approach to teaching improvisation to people of all ages. Step up your teaching game and even gain a different insight on the nature of improvisation!
Price: $24.95
Price: $18.00
Diminished Scale Master Series
Diminished Scale Master Series
Learn the diminished scale and how to use it in your playing and improvising! This bundle contains 3 lesson videos and an mp3 to give you everything you need to master this scale. Boost your musical vocabulary with the Diminished Scale Series!
Price: $15.00
Bebop Scales Master Series
Bebop Scales Master Series
Learn how to use the bebop scale in your playing and improvising! This bundle contains 3 lesson videos, a score of the bebop scale in all keys, and worksheets for each video. Make this scale part of your musical vocabulary!
Price: $15.00
10 Ways to Improv
10 Ways to Improv
For beginning improvisers. This lesson shows how to begin improvising only by using different methods and patterns of continuous 8th notes.
Price: $4.00
More Improv
More Improv
For beginning improvisers. This lesson shows how to being improvising with methods such as changing the melody to familiar songs, changing motifs in common exercises, and improvising techniques to cure technical playing problems.
Price: $4.00
Chord Inversions
Chord Inversions
For intermediate improvisers. This lesson demonstrates the importance of knowing how to arpeggiate chords from all four chord tones, the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh
Price: $4.00
Bebop Scale 1
Bebop Scale 1
For intermediate improvisers. This lesson shows how to create fast streams of 8th notes using the bebop scale.
Price: $4.00
Bebop Scale 2
Bebop Scale 2
For advanced improvisers. A continued lesson of the first lesson of bebop scales, this video shows more advanced ways to use the bebop scale to create fast streams of 8th notes while improvising.
Price: $4.00

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Music Charts

Maria, Maria
Maria, Maria
(intermediate) Billy adapted this tune for a swing arrangement, and he takes an amazing solo. The cello alternates between walking quarter notes and playing in a two feel. The accompaniment violin/viola should be sensitive to the cello by sometimes chopping and sometimes playing legato or syncopated double stops, but always being careful to keep the groove and leave space for the soloist.
Price: $15.00

Groove Merchant
Groove Merchant
(advanced difficulty) Get ‘yo groove on! Billy plays an amazing intro alone on this tune, showing just how funky the violin can be. Cello can try alternating pizzicato and arco and seeing what’s comfortable. Don’t be thrown off by the notated “chopping” parts in this arrangement. You might be better off simply listening to the recording and emulating the chopping as you hear it.
Price: $15.00

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Turkish March
Turkish March
From the European acoustic trio’s second album, Klazyc (2004). This is another flashy, and sometimes wacky, piece to add for an encore to your set. Audiences always love it because it’s so familiar and sounds very virtuosic. The version recorded on “Klazyc” should be self-explanatory. Instead of a “free” piano solo at the end, we’ve made some motific suggestions for a “free” string quartet solo. (Please note, this arrangement is formatted for string quartet, but could be easily adapted by you for trio).
Price: $15.00
The Oracle
The Oracle
(Intermediate) This is a fun, modal tune, in 6/4 meter with straight (not swung) rhythms. The main vamp in d minor should be comfortable for everyone in the group to solo over, while more advanced soloists will want to play over the form. Billy uses a great off-beat-based, double stop accompaniment style, and the melody lies easily on violin. Watch the temptation to use too much vibrato!
Price: $15.00
It Never Entered My Mind
It Never Entered My Mind
less difficulty) This ballad features a simple ostinato bass line in the cello, legato double stop accompaniment in the second violin (which can also be divided between viola/violin or 2nd violin/3rd violin), and a simple melody which can be interpreted by the 1st violin very broadly. This also works well with a freely improvised cello solo as an intro to the tune.
Price: $15.00

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Albums

Song For My Daughter
Song For My Daughter
Song For My Daughter album, featuring Christian Howes, Bobby Floyd, Matt Perko, Jim Ed Cobbs, Dwayne Dolphin, Frederico Lechner, and Tony McClung!
Price: $12.00

Klazyc
Klazyc
All Star group Klazyc, featuring Christian Howes, Federico Lechner, and Pablo Martin, play classical melodies treated with a modern twist on jazz improvisation. Hear melodies of Mozart, Bach, and others spun into new jazz compositions.
Price: $12.00

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 Ten Yard (Download Only) - Christian Howes (1998)
Ten Yard (Download Only) - Christian Howes (1998)
1. 'S I Am 2. 'Trane's Maiden 3. Laughing Tango 4. Sock's Groove 5. Ten Yard 6. Vito's Melody 7. Ode to Sco' 8. Song For Tony 9. Laughing Song 10. Here's That Rainy Day
Price: $12.00
Jazz On Sale (Download Only) - Christian Howes (2002)
Jazz On Sale (Download Only) - Christian Howes (2002)
Tracklist: 1. Amorr Case Imposible 2. Blue Monk part 1 3. A Child is Born 4. Blue in Green 5. When She's Like Water 6. Jazz on Sale 7. Very Early 8. Falling Grace 9. Blue Monk part 2
Price: $12.00
Jazz Fiddle REVOLUTION (Download Only) - Christian Howes and Billy Contreras (2004)
Jazz Fiddle REVOLUTION (Download Only) - Christian Howes and Billy Contreras (2004)
Tracklist: 1. Doxy 2. The Way You Look Tonight 3. Sunny 4. Maria, Maria 5. Merchants Groove 6. Untitled blues jam 7. Fugue in G Minor for solo violin 8. It Never Entered My Mind 9. Traditional Fiddle Tune 10. The Oracle
Price: $12.00
Heartfelt (Hardcopy) - Christian Howes (2008)
Heartfelt (Hardcopy) - Christian Howes (2008)
Self-described post-bop violinist Christian Howes may shy away from comparisons to Stéphane Grappelli or Joe Venuti, but the young violinist certainly shares those artists’ melodic and lyrical gifts. On his newest outing, Heartfelt, Howes performs ten tracks with a healthy bent in the direction of mainstream accessibility, emphasizing romanticism, conventional performances, and arrangements with a pop sensibility.
Price: $15.00
Out of the Blue
Out of the Blue
Christian's newest release. Blues master guitarist Robben Ford meets virtuoso jazz violinist at the crossroads! The follow-up to the Resonance recording, Heartfelt. Also features acclaimed pianist Tamir Hendelman and drummer Joel Rosenblatt.
Price: $15.00
Christian Howes Plays Yamaha the Silent Electric Violin (Download Only) - Christian Howes
Christian Howes Plays Yamaha the Silent Electric Violin (Download Only) - Christian Howes
Tracklist: 1. On Green Dolphin Street 2. Ode to Billie Joe 3. Felonious Thunk 4. Jazz for Sale 5. Honeysuckle Rose 6. Skylark 7. Bernie's Tune 8. We'll be Together Again
Price: $12.00
Christian Howes & The Horatio Icasto Quartet: Live in Madrid (DVD) (2008)
Christian Howes & The Horatio Icasto Quartet: Live in Madrid (DVD) (2008)
Among the selections included in this network quality production are Jazz classics such as “Nuages" and “I’ve Got Rhythm;" and stunning originals such as “Song For My Daughter" and the scintillating “Waltz For Katherine." Featuring the Horacio Icasto Quartet (Horatio Icasto, Piano; Santiago Reyes, Guitar; Victor Merlo, Bass; and Noah Shaye, Drums), this program is guaranteed to entertain Jazz aficionados and music fans alike. 1. I’ve Found a New Baby 2. Pent Up House 3. Waltz for Katherine 4. Song for My Daughter 5. Madrid Blues 6. Nuages 7. Adios Nonino 8. I’ve Got Rhythm 9. Conejitrami PLUS! This DVD includes a picture gallery, alternative endings, instant access to songs and solos, and more!
Price: $19.98
Jazz Fiddle EVOLUTION (Download Only) - Christian Howes and Billy Contreras (2009)
Jazz Fiddle EVOLUTION (Download Only) - Christian Howes and Billy Contreras (2009)
Tracklist: 1. Walking on Broadway 2. By the Bay 3. Detective H 4. Sweet Soul Music 5. Voyage 6. Tristeza 7. Buddy’s 8. Riggs in the City 9. Amanda 10. W.S.
Price: $12.00

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Creative Strings Workshop Registration

CSW Youth Registration
CSW Youth Registration
Coming soon: 2012 Registration. Study improvisation, composition, and non-classical styles in an experiential learning context throughout this week long workshop! Work with world class artists every day learning RnB, bluegrass, free improvised music, and more.
Price: $159.00
1 Month FREE Trial!
1 Month FREE Trial!
Gain access to all Christian Howes's lesson videos, the Tonal Improv multimedia series, the Harmony Handbook, Chord Glossary, live group calls with Christian, exclusive interviews, and more for FREE! Subscribe for your FREE 1-month trial below! (Your free trial will last for one month after which your credit card will be billed the locked-in, discounted rate of $29.95 per month. Join today, download tons of free content, and if you're not happy you can cancel without paying a dime!) Basic Members can also request the addition of any video content they wish to study. Cancel anytime.
Price: $0.00

CSW Adult Registration
CSW Adult Registration
Coming Soon: 2012 Registration. Study improvisation, composition, and non-classical styles in an experiential learning context. Showcase your talent in over 25 concerts and performances in various venues in Columbus, OH throughout this week long workshop!
Price: $750.00