We know we can't stop to fix mistakes during a performance, so why don't we ever seem to spend time in the practice room practicing how to recover? In this episode, host Laurel Thomsen shares why "recovery practice" might be the missing factor ...

Today we speak with violinist, educator, and Violin Class podcast creator and host Julia Reddy about making time for practice. We discuss how to ramp back up after a hiatus, how to make the most out of limited time, how to effectively divide up our ...

No, this isn't an article about crawling around the fingerboard of our instrument, yet I hope readers will find value in my recent ruminations about perspective and subtlety, and ways to apply these ideas to their life and in the practice room.

Listen ...

In this episode, we talk to Rachael Ridge, an Indiana based violinist and violin teacher, and the creator of "The Adult Violin Academy," a self paced online, video based course geared towards adult learners and their unique needs. We discuss ...

Why do performers in some situations stand, while others sit? And is it better to sit or stand when we practice?

Traditionally, violin and viola soloists stand, but sit as ensemble members. Standing helps the audience identify the soloist and ...

When I upgraded to a new phone few years ago, every Sunday morning it started popping up with a weekly usage report, detailing the apps I'd spent the most time on. I quickly saw I was spending way too much time on social media! Granted, I was touring ...

This is a very good question, and a tough one! Though it might seem obvious at first - yes, of course we want to play with good technique, the answer is actually much more nuanced. This question was posed by the mother of a very young child, who, although ...

If the metronome inspires fear, dread, or frustration in you, if you're not sure how to even use it, or if you find practicing with it is getting a bit stale, this Violin Geek Podcast episode is for you! Join me as we explore the goals of metronome ...

Intonation has been a hot topic for the blog and in the lessons studio lately. Besides the challenge of getting a pure tone on a violin, viola, cello, or bass, it’s hard to cover up a note that’s just not in tune. In my recent post Improve Your Intonation ...

You’ve just perfected a difficult passage of your favorite concerto and grab your smartphone to capture this monumental practice achievement. You run through the passage again and while not perfect, you still feel pretty good about your progress. You ...

One of my violin students shared this inspirational message with me today. Though the day to day activities of an aviation technician are obviously quite different from a ...

This question was posed in my Complete Vibrato Mastery online course recently: Is wrist or arm vibrato better for violists?

I personally don't believe that one style of vibrato is better for ...

As the account goes, someone once asked child prodigy and virtuoso violinist Jascha Heifetz: “How are you able to play so well in tune?” To that, Heifetz replied something to the effect of: “I don’t. I adjust before anyone notices.” Although playing ...

This seems to be the topic in my lessons studio lately. Especially as the Covid-19 pandemic wears on, the days and weeks seem to run together and many of us are looking to create some memorable success. With many other aspects of life sidelined, ...

Beginning and intermediate students often worry that they’ll never be able to play their songs, scales, or etudes as well as the recordings they hear, their teacher, or people they see playing on YouTube. And if not, does it mean they should play the ...

I’ve written a number of posts over the years discussing effective ways to practice and ideas for helping create better practice habits or reinvigorate a practice routine. With my students, I prefer to focus on the quality of practice over stressing ...

Periods of overwhelm are common at any stage of learning to play the violin, viola, cello, fiddle, or any instrument for that matter. The technical aspects of any instrument, but especially violin family instruments, can be unforgiving, yet we all ...

We should never underestimate the power of foundational exercises. I really can't stress this enough in fact. In her YouTube series, “With Nicky,” violinist Nicola ...

My latest article for Strings Magazine focuses on some of the challenges of my favorite violin concerto. Check it out here: https://stringsmagazine.com/tips-on-nailing-tricky-double-stops-in-mendelssohns-violin-concerto/?mc_cid=2ba968c6f0&mc_eid=a5cf24edb5

I laughed when a colleague once told me: “It's all fun and games until someone gets a gig.” Whether it’s music you’ve enjoyed playing casually with friends, or an instrument or piece that hasn’t yet seen more than your practice room and maybe your ...

When we move beyond the beginning stages of learning to play the violin or viola and our basic major and minor arpeggio patterns, we quickly start to encounter scale books with more elaborate arpeggio sequences. If you’re a violin geek like I am, you ...

No matter our playing level or age, clean playing and fast playing are often at odds. Over my years of teaching the violin and viola, I’ve noticed that students tend to fall into two camps - those who try to play near tempo from the start, often with ...

It happens to all of us. We get impatient with our musical progress and suddenly we start questioning whether we should bother playing music at all. We start wondering, are we really cut out for this? Are we ever going to get any better? Have we reached ...

Performers and athletes often talk of being “in the zone.” Some might describe it as being in a place where they loose themselves in the activity or music and it appears as though it is happening all by itself, smoothly and automatically. Some might ...

I often receive emails and calls from parents and grandparents, wondering if their child is ready to start lessons or looking for advice about how to encourage their child to take more of an interest in music. First, I gather more information about ...

Darker days can lead to darker thoughts. It’s usually this time of year that I start to see more of my students struggling with negative thoughts about their playing and progress and I wear the hat of the cheer leader and therapist a bit more often ...

Yet again a new school year is in full swing and with practice questions floating around my studio, I thought I’d take some time to add on to a blog post I wrote about the topic last year. If you’ve read that post you’ll notice that some sections are ...

I received this message from a fellow string teacher recently. It’s the BIG question isn’t it!?

In my experience, it’s worth taking some time to ask questions about the student’s day to day schedule and practice set-up at home. Sometimes it’s ...

It’s September again and with an influx of new violin, viola, and fiddle students as well as many longterm students getting back into the swing of lessons after vacations and time off over the summer, there’s been a lot of talk about practice lately ...

While all of us have experienced the dreaded memory slip, some people seem to have the easiest time memorizing their pieces and tunes, others can't have the hardest time making the parts stick. If the latter sounds like you, in this episode Laurel ...

A student’s first lessons with a new private music teacher are usually a mixture of excitement and possibility, nerves, and often a bit of overwhelm. Over the course of a few lessons, a perceptive teacher will identify certain areas of technique, posture, ...

If you feel like your music practice has you going in circles, in this Violin Geek Podcast series we cover several tips that can help you improve your practice and performance, including the importance of taking care with phrase endings, ideas for ...

Improvising and listening go hand in hand, so don't separate them! I understand, but am still always a bit surprised when I hear an improviser running up and down the fingerboard, disregarding the phrasing (and sometimes tempo) of the group, articulation ...

Ok, we did the HOW. Now it's WHAT should you practice? In this episode Laurel Thomsen offers a range of elements you might need to add to your practice ...

Join Laurel Thomsen and special guest Dr. Noa Kageyama, the Performance Psychology Professor at Julliard, for a talk on learning to become not just a better player, but a better performer. If you want to develop a successful pre-performance routine, ...

In this episode of the Violin Geek Podcast I share tips on how to practice for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. From building technique to polishing repertoire and preparing for performance, make sure you're covering all your bases and setting ...

Every day we are offered choices. This food or that food. This activity or that activity. Every thing we decide to fill our time with means that we are choosing not to fill that time with other things. How do we decide what interests to devote our ...

In this Violin Geek Podcast series I cover all the most important elements of good practice, including the need to create a dedicated practice space, and to consider how we schedule practice and think about practice when we're doing other things. We ...

Never heard of Parkour? I hadn’t either until a few weeks ago when a friend tried it. Wikipedia describes it, based on the original French name, l'art du déplacement (the art of movement), as a “physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle ...

If you’re a string player, have you ever thought about left and right side independence? Perhaps not. The violin family instruments require such asymmetrical positions and motions, I suspect that many string players have never considered how interconnected ...