Season is changing. Take a good care of your violin!

Hope you're feeling good and not catching a cold. I am just getting over from a cold..

Yes, it's getting chilly outside. Your heater is on. The air is getting drier. 
Your body is adjusting to the season change and so is your violin.

It's the time of a year to watch carefully how your violin is doing. Especially, the proper humidity is important to your instrument. Dryness can make damage to your violin and the result would be cracking or the seams of your violin to open. When this happen, you have to go to a professional luthier to fix it and it can be expensive.

So, let's try to avoid that to happen!

What you can do:

1. Use a room humidifier.  Keep the humidity in between 40 to 60%. It doesn't have to be fancy. I have this one. If you don't have one, just hang a wet towel or place a pot filled with water on your radiator.
   
   
2. Use "dampit". The green tube has yellow sponge inside that can hold the water, and you insert it into your violin's f hole. Make sure that the outside of the dampit is dry when you insert it.
   
   
3.  Use case humidifier. Some violin case comes with this. Or you can put one inside your case.
   
4.  If the pegs are slipping, use this.  It's a peg compound. You can put it onto your pegs.
   
   
5.  Keep your violin in your case when not playing. With a dampit or case humidifier would be better.
6.  Keep your violin away from your heater! This is a must.

And the good news is that it doesn't cost much to do these things. Let's keep your violin happy!

Enjoy the colorful autumn,

A new twitter account!

I just started a new Twitter account and there I am sharing some inspiring quotes from the masters, the violin practice tips, interesting articles, etc for your everyday inspiration.

Follow @bkviolinlessons
https://twitter.com/bkviolinlessons

Happy playing,

Great practice tips from D. C. Dounis

There was a great violinist and a teacher whose name was Demetrius Constantine Dounis (1886-1954).  He studied violin privately in Vienna with Frantisek Ondricek and also was a medical student at the University of Vienna. He was a touring violinist after the graduation in Europe and Russia, then after World War I, he became a professor of violin at the Salonika Conservatory in Greece. It was then he devoted all his energy to violin pedagogy and the publication of his famous violin studies.

His books are pretty challenging for beginners and it can be overwhelming even for the advanced students. But if you're a serious learner (and not an absolute beginner), I would recommend to pick a few exercise from this book everyday and spend about 15~30 minutes the most.

On his book, "The Artist's Technique of Violin Playing" op. 12, he states his philosophy about practicing as Foreword and I would like to share it here:

 ***

"TO KNOW HOW TO PRACTICE IS AN ART."

This is a well-known fact.

Most violinists believe that the 

solution of the problem of "HOW TO PRACTICE"

lies in repeating, everyday, various finger exercises,

scales, arpeggios, bow exercises, etc.

But this supposition is a fallacy.

No one will ever learn how to practice by

repeating day in, day out, finger exercises, scales, or,

in fact, 

the whole compendium of daily exercises for the violin.

The result of such monotonous and arid study

is usually worthless.

This procedure explains why after years of intensive study, 

there are few violinists, very few indeed,

who acquire an infallible technique.

The oblect of this work is to indicate a method of

solving all the problems of higher technique of both hands,

with the least possible expenditure of time and energy,

and to provide definite suggestions for

mastering all technical difficulties.

In other words,

this book aim to teach

THE TRUE METHOD OF

PRACTICING.

-D. C. Dounis

*If you would like to download his book, "The Artist's Technique of Violin Playing" op. 12, you can download from the link. You can purchase the whole book (like the photo above) online, too.

It is very inspiring to just read his words in between these exercises. I highly recommend it!

Have fun,

How to properly choose the right size violin for kids

This is one of the most frequent questions that I get.

 Which size should I get for my child?

Here is a chart that helps you to find right size violin for your child.
When you measure the arm length, follow these steps.

1. Spread the left arm parallel to the floor with palm facing up to the ceiling

2. Bring the arm very slightly to the front (About or less than 45 degrees, 
    just like the pose of playing violin with arm extended.

3. Measure from the bottom of the neck to the middle of the palm. 

4. Write down the length.

Hope this helps finding the right size for your child. Kids grow so fast, so it's good to check the size once in a while.

Happy playing,