Archived Articles

How to improvise easily, with confidence- for classical string players

Posted May 28, 2011 in Education

Cut through the fog and learn the secrets of easy tonal improvisation!

This is a (free)video for classically trained string players who have struggled with harmony and want to begin to learn improvisation. This is one video in a series of 8 with accompanying worksheet and audio backing tracks.

You can get the whole series at the shop

OR you can get access to this plus DOZENS MORE videos, the 75-page VIolin Harmony Handbook, and instruction by signing up now for my new Video Lessons (30 day money back guarantee, cancel anytime) at the member purchase page
(Hint- this is a really affordable way to for players at all levels to study directly with me !):)

Get more free stuff here:

For anyone who wants to learn jazz violin, blues violin, jazz cello, blues cello, how to improvise on violin, etc….

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Claudio Peña, jazz cello innovator and 2011 CSW faculty

Posted March 18, 2011 in Education, General Blog

Watch the video below this post.  You’ll see 2011 Creative Strings Workshop and Festival faculty member, Claudio Peña, conducting nearly 100 improvising cellists at the Botanical Garden in Buenos Aires.  Using predetermined hand signals, Claudio leads the musicians through a beautiful and haunting musical arrangement composed in real time.  His conducting can initiate or modify harmony, melody, rhythm, articulation, phrasing, or form, allowing for the composition to be collectively and spontaneously developed.

Claudio has won numerous awards in Argentina for jazz and avant-garde, as well as music for theatre and children’s shows.

You will be able to take classes from and play along side with Claudio, as well as many other noted creative string players, such as Marcelo Vieira, Billy Contreas, Jason Anick and myself, at this years Creative Strings Workshop and Festival, being held June 21-26 in Columbus, OH.  Click here for more information and to register.

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Rufus Cappadocia- world cellist- from a night of Creative String Music in Brooklyn

Posted November 28, 2009 in General Blog, Performance/Press

This is the first part of a series covering the Creative String Music scene in New York City. This particular evening found many of us performing together at Jalopy in Brooklyn. I hadn’t seen Rufus in a while, and it was great to capture some of his solo performance and check in to see what he’s up to these days. In a soon-to-follow blog I’ll showcase the performance which followed Rufus, by Joel Harrison‘s String Choir, performing the music of Paul Motian. It featured myself, violinist Sam Bardfeld, violist Mat Maneri, and cellist Choi Fairbanks as well as guitarist/composer Joel Harrison and guitarist Liberty Ellman. The videos below give a glimpse into the amazingly original playing of Rufus and a peek into his current activities and interests, as well as his explanation of “roots music”, a term I had heard often but never really understood.

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