It's time to take our trill preparation from the last video to the next level, with what I call "Trill Drill"! It's part of my daily warmup, and here I've spiced it up with a deck of interesting …
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Master violin trills with all finger combinations
If you think that trills are just decoration or ornament, then I have exciting news for you! You're about to build a much stronger left-hand foundation on the violin through daily trill work. It …
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Pinky power: tame and strengthen a flat fourth finger (VIDEO)
I was always proud of my fourth finger as a teenager. I'd use it all the time for high notes, finishing arpeggios, big shifts, you name it. So it dismayed me to discover, when I was in my early …
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Tired of losing practice battles? Wage a practice campaign
There’s an old brainteaser about a frog stuck at the bottom of a well. The well is thirty feet deep, but the poor frog can only jump five feet high. There’s good news: he sticks to the wall at the end …
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Purity practice: find the phrase by losing your vibrato (VIDEO)
Vibrato is a good thing. I like it before shifts, after shifts, during tremolo, on pizzicati, over open strings, and even (gasp!) in baroque music! But vibrato, if left unchecked, tends to take over …
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Rid yourself of damaging left hand tension: find your MVP
I recently got an email from a longtime reader and friend asking for help with one of those fast and loud pieces that never seems to give you a break. He said his arm was getting tired, and I assumed …
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