Persevere.

 

 

This one is for all the students who whine about needing a better instrument, and for all the teachers who whine about teaching conditions in schools. Carpe Diem, baby!

 

 

per·se·vere

1. continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty or with little or no prospect of success.

   "his family persevered with his treatment"

   synonyms:

   persist, continue, carry on, go on, keep on, keep going, struggle on, hammer away, be persistent, be determined, see/follow something through, keep at it, press on/ahead, not take no for an answer, be tenacious, stand one's ground, stand fast/firm, hold on, go the distance, stay the course, plod on, stop at nothing, leave no stone unturned

Back on track!

Finally, I'm back. I've been freakishly busy for the last year or so, and for a while I totally gave up on the website because of me forgetting to update my google account. To make a long story short, I lost the .com website and now to get it back some company who bought the name wants me to pay $799.00 for it. And they act as if they were doing me a favor saving the name for me.
Since September last year I have been playing with the Flying W Wranglers. Even though the ranch burned down, there is still a band and we are having a blast. It's been great. Especially this Summer. We just got back from Branson and finished up a great little tour, including a stop by Ruidoso, NM, to play in the Chuckwagons of the West Jamboree. We got to jam with some great fiddle players and all around musicians. I was blown away by Matt Palmer's licks (Bar D in Durango, CO). He has got some great chops!
I am still teaching private violin and mandolin lessons in Colorado Springs, and planning on getting a once a month workshop together for young violinists who want to improvise a little and get there heads out of scores once in a while. Check out the profile button on the left or the info on the bottom left and shoot me an e-mail if you are interested in any of my work.
I'm going to go ahead and get started with posting some cool websites for violinists and fiddle players every time I write something. I'll start with a well known website that every musicians should know about. It has been by far one of the most useful tools for teaching that I know of. The Petrucci Music Library has an amazing quantity of free scores online. Many are scanned from the original manuscripts (like Bach's sonatas and partitas) and many are almost unusable. Nevertheless, the good stuff outweighs the bad by several tons. The link to it is below:

http://imslp.org/

Chords and Backup

Cape Breton - Nova Scotia

"The Worlds Largest Fiddle"

 

If you play only the violin and have little experience with improvising, you're most likely struggling with chord changes. I did. If you you're not, then don't worry reading this and go practice something else. If you are, then here is a simple way to get used to the chord changes on the violin.
Playing backup, or simple chord changes is what most guitar students first learn how to do, but fiddle players never realize how much they should get used to hearing those chord changes until it hits them in the head. Playing basic backup on the fiddle will not sound as full as a guitar, but by practicing it you will get used to hearing the moving chords, and therefore let your ear and instincts do some of the work.
Let's start with 2 easy chords, using two strings for each chord.
For a G major chord you need G, B and D, although any combination of 2 of those will work. For starters, use your open G and D strings. No brainer. Then try an open D and B first finger. Also... No brainer.
For a D major, let's place the first finger on the G string for an A note, and play the open D and A with it. We will then have the D and A from the D major chord which is D, F# and A. If you want, you can use the F# second finger instead of the open D. Any combination of those 3 notes will work. If you want you can use the F# on the E string
Choose two notes (double stop) for each chord and keep those handy. From here there are several options. You can play a standard shuffle using a quarter note and two eighth notes, keeping the bow on two strings (double stop), playing the two notes you chose for the chord you are playing. Good back up also involves using your violin percussively. Striking the strings and muting them for the 1st and 3rd beat and pulling off a double stop on beats 2 and 4 is a very common backup when playing bluegrass(You can also reverse it to imitate the Mandolin).
Practice the following chord progression with any of the rhythmic ideas above:
\G   \G   \D   \G   \ (Each section represents a measure)

Slow Practice = Fast Progress
Fast Practice = Slow Progress
No Practice = No Progress

Funny how that works.


 

Lessons

My name is Luke Tripp and I have been teaching violin for over 16 years in the US and South America. I've also been playing violin, fiddle and mandolin for what I consider to be "all my life". I absolutely love to teach, and I intend to do so as long as God allows. I teach in Colorado Springs in my home studio and if you or your kids are interested in violin, fiddle or mandolin lessons send me an e-mail. If I can't help we'll find somebody who will. If you want to learn a little more about my style of teaching, I can fill you in on the details. I also work together with the Black Rose Acoustic Society (www.blackroseacoustic.org) and the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony (www.csysa.com), two great places to get your kid more involved with music.

My e-mail address is wattatripp@gmail.com.

Improvising with a bow

I thought I'd get back to blogging with one of my favorite topics: Improvising on the violin. I could go on for hours about all the interesting things I've observed over the years learning to teach improv, but I won't. Neither of us have the patience. Maybe I can share a little bit of what I've learned over the next posts. That way you'll keep you coming back. Well, at least that's the plan.

The first thing to do is start thinking like a rhythm guitar player. Think chords.
Why? Everybody else is. Even the singer knows the chord changes. Heck, even the drummer does... (Most of the time... Ok, let's just hope he does)
Although this is not easy, nor quick, it is well worth your time.
Let's start with a real easy one: G major, or just G. It is made up of three notes: g, b and d.
Play these notes over and over, faster and faster, anywhere on the violin, one after the other. The order does not matter, just make it sound good.
Now play a D major (D) chord: d, f# and a. Play it the same way you played the G chord.
Now for the hard part.
Find all the notes in the G chord from the lowest note of the chord to the highest in first position and do the same for the D chord. Practice these note progressions the same way you did with the smaller ones and memorize the fingering, to the point where you can change from one to the other without messing up... You know what I mean.
I'll pick from here later. Don't worry, funner and easier stuff is coming up.

Happy things!

Ok, so after many, many complaints about german websites and file sharing websites across the Atlantic, I've decided to look for something better to share Kids Jam files. Today I'm here to inform you that I have! So by clicking on the link below, you will have access to all the Kids Jam files in one big online folder. ..."But which file shall I download!?" you might say. I would start with Kids Jam I,II and III, but we eventually play'em all.  Have fun and stock up on ink!

http://www.box.net/shared/1x8yqu8ogkr09x3ck316

PS: I've also updated the link on the "Kids Jam" post as well.

More Music

I've been so behind on everything these last few months that I've all but abandoned my blog... Not good. But I'll be back! It sucks to think of how long it actually takes to write an entry and I've been so behind on doing them, even with a million different things to share. Anyway, I'm running a quick post here to send out some music for any jammer who wants music that's a little more advanced and a few waltzes... gotta love'em. Most of the kids don't care too much for them, but they should know that they do win fiddle championships... and the ladies.
Well, here are a few waltzes and some other tunes that every fiddler should know. Don't forget, click on the link below and if they ask you if you want to create an account click "no" and then click on "slow download". http://rapidshare.com/files/449726148/Kids_Jam_Waltzes_and_more.pdf