Category: Fiddle news and fun

Vibrato – when and how much? Posted on October 26, 2010 by Fiddlerman Vibrato is one of the violinists greatest expression tool when used correctly. Many argue as to how much and how often one should vibrate. Basically we should vibrate more when playing romantic music and tighter when playing classical music. When playing baroque […]

Why do we play scales? One reason is to warm up. Playing scales nice and slow, even painfully so, where getting a good sound is next to impossible, is very good practice and warm up. We need to warm up both the right and left hand.  Play scales over the frog of the bow, not […]

Why Sherlock Holmes played the violin For me, one of the best things on the radio, apart from the World Service, is Mark Tully’s Something Understood. Quirky, original, imaginative, quite uninterested in the “ratings”, it is always a pleasure to listen to – even if it is broadcast at an awkward hour: 6.05 on Sunday […]

Violin playing improves childrens reading levels Playing the violin as an extra-curricular activity could help improve childrens reading levels, it has been suggested.Christina Patterson, writing for The Independent, said that not only does playing a musical instrument help to broaden a childs mind, it can also improve their performance in the classroom.She explained some 84 […]

Charlottesville violin maker crafts instrument worthy of ancient master The musician and the violin-maker endured the final agonizing throes of anticipation in silence.More than a year had passed since they hand-selected a slab of aged Engleman spruce with the hope of transforming it into a musical work of art. Now the moment was at hand […]

Scientists Learns Secrets of Strad Violin It’s likely that even Joseph Nagyvary doesn’t know exactly when the obsession began to take over his life. Perhaps it goes back to 1957, when as a young Hungarian refugee in Switzerland he was allowed to take lessons on Albert Einstein’s old violin. Or perhaps it was the first […]

Hilary Hahn – Favorites Slow Practice for String PlayersAt a recent Q&A session with kids and their parents, someone piped up, “My son likes to play through his pieces instead of practicing them. His violin teacher says that he should practice slowly. What does this mean?”As anyone who has taken private lessons is probably aware, […]

Londoner breaks violin speed record Oliver Lewis plays fastest ever Flight of the Bumblebee on live TV A violinist from London has broken the record for the fastest performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee. Oliver Lewis played the piece live on BBC children’s show Blue Peter in a time of 1 minute 3.35 seconds, […]

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