💥New💥 Practice Along Accompaniment Tracks Available

I created a Playlist on my YouTube channel where I upload Practice Along Accompaniment Tracks for my students. 

I recommend you'll make your own practice playlist for yourself out of these accompaniment tracks and make it your daily routine. So, whenever you start your practice session, you know what to practice and can get on it right away.

Click to see the YouTube Playlist.

 

 

Update from the studio, plus an exercise for releasing the shoulder tension

 Hello, there! 

It's been a while since I post here. Lots of things happened to the studio. On the night of the hurricane Ida on Sep. 1st., the studio got flooded very badly that we needed to evacuate. We'd been moved to a temporary location for a while and, just recently settled into the new apartment in the same building on the 3rd floor.

I appreciated all the support messages from my students.

We'll be continuing to do in-person and online lessons.

--

Here's my new violin lesson video. 

I've been noticing that some students play a song and soon after take their instrument off their shoulders and put their hands on them to ease the ache and soreness. 

That's a lot of tension on the shoulders. 

And playing the violin in that state makes you feel dreadful. I know it because I've gone through the pain before. And I want to shout out that that shouldn't be the way it is. Playing the violin can be fun and easy on the body. With the right body stance and the movement. 

I hope this exercise in the video helps to release the shoulder tension.

Violin Tutorial | Puzzle Plank Galaxy (Super Mario Galaxy 2)

 Here is a song from Super Mario Galaxy 2. I didn't know this song, but one of my students brought this song to learn, so I made a tutorial for it. Hope you'll enjoy!

I strongly believe that learning and playing the music you are enjoying listening to is one of the most effective way to get better and stay motivated for violin playing. It doesn't always have to be violin music, either. When you listen to music with the intention of wanting to play it on the violin requires your a lot of imagination. And it strengthen your musicality and gives you deeper understanding of music. 

Irish Jig bow exercise

 St. Patrick's Day is coming up. Here is a tutorial of how to play "Irish Washer Woman" Part 1 of 2.

 

Jig has 6 eighths notes per measure. 

To get a good feel, this warmup bow exercise will help to get ready for learning the melody with the Part 2 video.

Have fun jigging!

Easy straight bow exercise. Good-bye sliding bows!

 

 

 [written version] 

When we run, we swing our arms and keep our elbows more like a square shape. 

We feel more comfortable to keep that way. 

When you just started playing the violin, a teacher would say “Keep the bow straight.” 

But at first, almost everyone struggles to move the bow in a straight line. 

The most common issue is the bow is moving in a reversed C shape. 

Because the elbow is keeping the square shape. And the bow slides over the string and you cannot make a good sound. 

In order to move the bow straight, we need to open our elbow around the middle of the bow to the tip. 

But even knowing these facts, moving the bow straight might be pretty challenging at the beginning. 

Also, in general, “straight lines” don’t feel so natural to our body. 

 So, the next exercise might help you if you’re having the issue. 

Imagine to draw a C shape, instead of the reversed C. 

And see if the bow is more straight. 

 I hope this exercise helps you. 

Happy practicing!

How to practice scales efficiently | for Beginner Violinists

 

 

[written version]

 

At every stage of violin practice, we practice scales.

Because scales are the fundamental of all the melodies and extremely beneficial.

This is a tip for the very beginning of the violin study.

Just because it’s written in your book, 

I don’t recommend  jump into playing one octave scale immediately. 

If you are still new to move the bow down and up, 

changing notes at every bow change can be challenging 

and also because the notes pass fairly quickly that 

you might not recognize when you are not playing in tune. 

This ends you up practicing the wrong intonation. 

So, here’s my suggestion.

I use this App, Cleartune.

Click the right side button and you will be able to hear a note of your choice continuously.

Ideally, put your phone connected to a speaker so that you can hear it well.

Let’s play D major scale for example.

Set the note to D. Adjust the octave.

Repeat each note, let’s say, 4 times, and move on to the next note. 

You can do it at your comfortable tempo.

When you are done with 4 times cycle up and down, 

Move on to 3 times per note.

Then, 2 times.

Then, finally, once per note.

During this set, you’re also working on your bow. Make sure the bow is parallel to the bridge.

And the bow is placed in the middle of the bridge and the edge of the fingerboard. Aim to get a beautiful tone.

 

When you complete this, you’re nicely warmed up and ready to dive into whatever you’re working on.

Happy practicing!

A creative approach to practicing Bach

 

[written version]

I improvise on the violin as a jazz violinist and am always looking for good devices and phrasings that I can use in improvisation. 

And I sometimes use Classical pieces to get these devices.

For example, I wanted to get better at odd meters,

So here’s how I’ve been practicing odd meters;

Using Bach solo violin pieces.

Let’s take Partita no. 2 D-minor, Giga.

Originally written as 12/8. 

I’m gonna try to play this piece as 5/8 

by shortening the last two beats of every 6 beats into one beat.

You can still look at the original score, but change of the meter should be done in your head.

I recommend using a metronome and setting to 5/8 so that you can keep track with a 5-beat cycle. 

Through this exercise, 

I can develop the stronger sense of the 5/8 feel in my body 

and find out which bowing works well and not.

I can also discover some nice melodic lines and rhythmic motives I can incorporate in my improvisation.

This also helps when I feel stuck with fresh ideas or imagination when I play written music. Changing meters gives a fresh look of melodies that you’re already familiar with. Just like it’s done so many times in jazz.

Try with other pieces. You can also do 7 or 9 meters. Or even 3. 

ex.)

4/4 reduced to 7/8 

6/8 reduced to 5/8 

4/4 reduced to 3/4

I hope this exercise also helps you in some ways.

Let me know how it goes for you in the comments below.

Happy playing!

 

Reality Check?! Practicing scales? Do it the right way!

 

 

 [written version]

I want to talk about the importance of practicing scales.

Well….., 

You might have heard that a million times.

And yes, it IS important to practice scales. 

BUT, 

I want to tell you about a danger that comes with it.

If you practice a scale a million times with wrong intonation, 

Your ear will get used to the wrong intonation.

 

This actually happened to me.

After years of not taking lessons and practicing on my own,

I took a lesson from a person who is a notable violinist whom I respect very much.

He told me straight up, my intonation is off on this note and that.

And I didn’t notice right away.

I went back home and had to listen to the recordings, and I realized that he was right.

Then, I realized that I played the note out of tune so many times

That I couldn’t perceive it as out of tune anymore.

This was a big reality check for me.

And I’m not the only one here,

I’ve witnessed from years of freelancing that

this happens quite a lot among string players.

So, I highly recommend you do a reality check for yourself sometimes.

 

How?

I do that by practicing scales with play-along tracks. 

You can tune in to the play-along’s reference pitches which is a great way to train your ear.

I recommend all my students to practice scales with play-along tracks that I have in this channel. It’s all available for free.

So, please check them out and practice with it and let me know how it goes.

Happy playing!

 

NEW: Playalong videos on the YouTube channel

Dear my students and the readers of this blog;

I hope you are all safe and healthy in this COVID-19 pandemic.

I have been teaching online exclusively since this March and had to do some adjustment to my teaching method. It was necessary to do something about it to make it as productive as when we were doing in person.

I found it extremely useful to have some play-along videos available online so that my students can listen to them and play along at home. So, I created some videos and posted on my YouTube channel. I will be making and posting more, so subscribe and stay tuned!

There are no advertisements on these videos, so no wasting time for you and are safe for kids to watch. 






If you are interested in taking lessons with me online, please contact me via the contact form and I will be in touch with you shortly.


Happy practicing!

Happy new year! Updates and a message.

Happy New Year!

It has been a while to write a post. My new year started with a tour in Japan for my music and I have been absent from teaching for a few weeks. The tour was successful and I am ready to start the new year back in Brooklyn, working on music and teaching.


The end of last year, we had a student concert in a beautiful church in Sunset Park. I was very proud of everyone who attended! Congratulations, again to all of them!

Here is an inspiring message from Anne Sophie-Mutter, a legendary violinist that I admire.



"You better become a real human being before you want to become a musician."


Happy playing in 2019!

The magic of playing the music you love.

Today, one of my student played the piece she wanted to play for long time. In the past, we practiced the scale she needed to know beforehand to play the piece, but it had been long time passed since she mentioned about the piece. Today, I gave her the transcription that I made for her and we finally started to learn the piece. With a big smile, she said, "I can't believe I'm playing this song now. I'd listened to it so much for long time, but never played.". I love watching my students having the sparkles in their eyes and they just can't wait to learn more. Yes, that's passion.


It is challenging to pickup the violin to practice when you are busy in general. How much time do you really have? If you're kids, you have school to attend, homework to do and playing with friends are also important. If you're adult, you have bills to pay, laundry to do, endless things to take care of. On top of that, on your free time, you have so many other pleasurable things available with one click. Especially, nowadays, YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook or any other social media, online shopping, HBO Go, etc... And they would easily take away all of your free time that you were originally planning to practice the violin.


I think the key to successfully keep playing the violin is a lot to do with one's mental discipline.
But when we say "mental discipline", somehow it feels torturous. It doesn't sound fun. But it doesn't have to be.

The first step is to keep the positive attitude towards violin. Yes, you have to have passion.

As a teacher, I cannot give students passion. I can be passionate myself and that can be inspiring to students, but students have to have their own passion.

To own this passion is actually an important part of practice. You have to have a positive feeling and have almost like a burning desire when you think about violin playing. And if you don't have the feeling right now, you can still have it, but have to make an effort and "practice" for it.

How?

We all have the music we love.
It doesn't have to be the music played on the violin. Anything you like.

Think about the music you love.

Feel the music.

Sing it with passion. (If you don't want to sing, you can do it in your head.)

Imagine yourself playing that on the violin.

And now, play it on the violin.

If you don't know how to play it yet, decide that you will someday and,

Stick with the desire.

If you can, find the easier version of it for now.
Nowadays, it's very easy to find sheet music for anything.

And while you work on the easy version, you work on the technique that you need to own to play the music.

But don't forget about the music you love during the process.

Generate the good feeling and keep the feeling.


Here is my story...
As a kid, I had a bad attitude towards violin, hated practicing. My mother was yelling at me (she was my teacher), I was not playing well and I was thinking myself as a failure of being disciplined and not talented enough and it was emotionally painful. And I was playing the music I was given and didn't really love at that time. I had a passive attitude. And I didn't even try to play the music I loved that moment. It didn't occur to my mind to do it because I was dealing with stressful feeling and also, I didn't know if it was an option. Simply, unmotivated and uninspired. I was not playing as much and almost quit.

And one day, I decided to play jazz on it. I discovered jazz a few years before and fell in love. And all of sudden, I had so much excitement and inspiration and playing the violin more than ever. It took no efforts to pick up the violin. And the inspiration never went away. I am happier than ever. I found the music I truly love.


If you haven't, you have to find the music you really love.

It can be a song, a simple melody or a fragment of a riff that you heard from a  movie that's stuck in your mind.

You can play any music on violin. And it is you who can decide to do it and make a move. Be active. Be passionate. Make practicing the violin as pleasurable as possible. You don't have to play the music you don't really like. Play the music you love.


To me, that is the key to success.