I work hard to break complex musical tasks into very small parts.  Music is made of many individual sounds or notes that occur in a specific space of time.  Any of us could play the most complex musical pieces if we were able to spread them out over a long enough time period - and if we had a way to accurately measure the spaces between the notes - like if we could take a week to play a Paganini violin concerto VERY SLOWLY! :)     But really - on all instruments, and especially on the violin, its important to focus on playing one note at a time. 

Beginners, like all of us, will play better music if we learn to play one note well, then another, then another - rather than always trying rush the process and play through the tune!!  Consequently, in my teaching I try to stay focused on the little things - small parts - sometimes just one note - that can be practiced and learned and then combined with other notes to make short musical passages.  With practice, this will eventually lead to an experience of true musical expression of a complete song or tune.   Playing lots of notes and having highly developed technique is one way to be expressive, but by no means the only way:  music doesn't have to be complex to good - it just has to be musical.  A few notes done well can be fun to play and sound really good - and it's a great way to start experiencing the joy of making music.

USING QUICKTIME VIDEO

Recorded music of all sorts is wonderful of course, but I have found that using QuickTime video can often be more helpful than using audio recordings of lessons.  QuickTime videos are easy to manipulate on your computer so you can see and hear the section of a song, or a particular technique that you are trying to learn. In the video, its easy to focus on either hand to capture particular techniques.  This is especially helpful for learning fiddle or 5-string banjo because there are so many specific techniques to learn for each hand. Wherever possible I suggest using music notation or tablature  that can be used in conjunction with video clips.  For 5-string banjo I use a tablature system called "TabLedit" that can actually play the tablature on your computer using a midi-format.  Click here to learn more about TabLedit

We can record video of me playing very slowly through the components of your lesson.  I put the quicktime file on a CD for you to take home and put on your computer.  Here are some samples of Quicktime videos I have created for my students

Angeline the Baker - Banjo

A double stop in Golden Slippers - fiddle

Drop thumb style in Cluck Old Hen - banjo

A little piece of double stops in Festival Waltz - fiddle  (note that this is very short because it is part of a higher resolution video)

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