So… here’s an example of something that started as a joke and has become a reality.
Ha! Actually, I can think of multiple examples of that right here, now that I mention it…
(After the original “Hot Violinist” vid filmed by Paul Michaels went viral, my comedian friend noticed and started the whole idea of having a website called thehotviolinist.com. His name is Kyle Cease. Blame him!)
I don’t remember how it came up, but several months back my Pilates teacher (highly recommend Pilates for fiddlers btw!) told me that she had in her possession a film-set grade Princess Leia costume from Return of the Jedi.
Yeah- the gold bikini.
I guess the story goes that Carrie Fisher had been complaining about her original Princess Leia costume.
I mean- it’s true… She was basically wearing a head-to-toe bed-sheet for the entire first two movies of the trilogy.
When Groupees.com approached me about doing a “Hot Violinist” bundle deal to spread the word and raise some money for Girls Not Brides Charity, I promised to film a tutorial of the Star Wars Main Theme WHILE WEARING Leia’s gold bikini.
This was IF the contributors to the bundle could reach a lofty goal of $5,000.
I didn’t think it would happen!
It did…..
The Star Wars Theme is super fun to play.
When you’re first learning violin, it’s tricky to get the notes right because there are no frets. It helps a lot to work on songs that you’ve heard a bunch so you can have each note in your head and kinda know what it’s supposed to sound like before you play it.
Scales don’t help if you don’t know what the scale is supposed to sound like. That’s just one of the many catch 22s about starting violin.
I got an email this week from someone who requested that I play Transylvanian Lullaby from Young Frankenstein while dressed as Elvira…
Please post me a comment below to let me know what songs are super iconic and recognizable to you. Bonus if there’s a costume suggestion to match…. 🙂
I want to teach you guys more songs and I have an idea that I think will be even more effective, time saving, and fun than traditional song tutorials like this one.
(Note: I live in a world where I was just able to teach violin dressed as Slave Leia and then actually call it “traditional” with a completely straight face.)
I’ll be sending some news about that to the email list only.
If you’ve found this blog post without being on the email list, please sign up now so you can be among the first to know when I host something exclusive!
Always a pleasure to hear from you. I was watching TV last night and a commercial for the PA RenFaire came on — they featured you playing violin. Iconic. Wish you’d return sometime.
Thanks Steve, I miss you guys and PA too.
Agreed Steve. Seeing Circa perform makes the faire much more enjoyable!!! Hope to see you again soon!!!
cheers Jenny for the email re star wars . look forward to the sheet music. Sounds a useful tune to play when busking. thanks again
Sheet music will be in your email this afternoon!
You carried off the costume well. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Pamela! 🙂
Oh, so steamy !
nice work!
but I don´t see downloadable sheet list.
I practice in a room with no internet connection, so it would be great to download and print it.
Hi Milan- Here is the link straight to sign up for the email list: https://www.thehotviolinist.com/subscribe/ I should clarify, that I send free sheet music via the list, but I haven’t transcribed my version of Star Wars yet– The first one that comes with the email list is Last of The Mohicans and then I send new music to the list whenever I do a new one.
What are you using to write out sheet music? NoteFlight? I tried using Muscore https://musescore.org/ but it was incredibly frustrating to clean up the last 1% of issues. And I don’t know of one that runs on IOS.
I’ve been trying Finale… Yeah, I’ve had the same issue with the last 1%. It’s almost good but then some detail is messing it up, and it drives me nuts not having full control. BTW- thanks for your comments about the swinged notes in the music sheets. I’m glad it doesn’t seem overcomplicated. That issue comes up a lot in Irish music because they swing all the time when they play but the sheet music is usually written like 16th notes. I would be interested in those classical sheets you mentioned.
Of the many versions at Musicnotes.com, this alto sax version goes far enough on the one page preview to show the descending scale in measure 15 as dotted quarter – 8th note pairs in triplets too, like you transcribed them. http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0102724 Don’t know why they chose to write the alto sax in A. The full orchestra movie house version is in B flat, so not a great key for simple violin, but great for alto or tenor sax.
Thanks for asking for sheet music. You inspired me to write it out over the weekend. Were you able to get on the email list? If so, keep an eye on your inbox this afternoon. I’ll send it to you!
Hi again,
thanks for sheet music, you´re great !!
And if possible, you don´t use sheet software Write it with pencil, it looks nice, clean and perfectly readable 🙂
Good to know! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. I get so much more enjoyment sitting down with pencil and paper than sitting at my laptop, blue light glaring in my face, tearing my hair out when Finale’s shape tools aren’t bending to my will… Thanks for letting me know that it works!
The only drawback is that writing takes more Jenny’s time…
Awesome
Really very nice thanks
Positively lovely!
And may the Force be with you, also! Love it!
Awesome. Now, how about a tutorial on Ed Sheerans “I see fire” dressed as an elf?
I’m gonna have to look that up!
Thank you very much for the full lesson of kindness and charm .You are the star violins 🎻
Thanks for posting the video!
While watching, YouTube flashed an ad for musicnotes.com which I clicked on and it appears to be the same arrangement. Before I buy, are there any other sources you would recommend for the sheet music? I don’t mind paying $3.99 for it, but musicnotes.com requires an account to purchase and I loathe creating yet another username/password.
They say some people learn by ear, and some by reading music.
But me I need both.
Actually it usually takes three things for me to learn:
1. knowing how the song goes (iconic).
2. having sheet music.
3. watching someone play it, their bowing and finger positions.
Hi Jacob! Thanks for asking for sheet music. You guys inspired me to write it out over the weekend. I’ll send to your email this afternoon. You’re on the email list right?
Hope you haven’t bought it yet- I just edited my first reply to you because I wrote out a version I believe is easier to follow than Music Notes. (I have no idea how they found my video so fast to post that ad!)
Yep, I’m on your email list. Was on business travel first part of week, just got back and printed your sheet music. Looks great!
Violin practice for me consists of ten or twenty minutes between supper and bedtime once or twice a week. I grab my fiddle from its String Swing and work on tunes while my three kids dance around me. Usually its Ashokan Farewell or The Last of the Mohicans or Black Nag. They’re almost old enough to start watching the Star Wars movies now, so I’d better introduce them to the music. Thanks!
Slave Leia is hard to follow but how about The Devil’s Dance from the Witches of Eastwick dressed in a witch costume? After all it is Halloween and I’m sure you can find an “interesting” witch costume to wear!
Somewhere over the Rainbow dressed as Dorothy!
Mario Brothers dressed as Koopa
or one of the many beautiful Zelda songs!
Love it….. 🙂
AN ANGEL
yes i love it, and you are very prety in princess Leia!
Brid Óg Ní Mháille (Brigid O’Malley) is a lovely tune, which I’m sure can be scored for violin. You could play it dressed as a beautiful lady. Oh, you already are…
🙂
Hi Jenny, greeting from Ukraine. I enjoy albums of Circa Paleo very much and consider Eleven Lives to be the most versatile one among others. You are a great violinist!
I was thinking about learning violin but I’m afrain I won’t have time to practice my harmonica then 🙁
I recommend EasyABC for making sheet music. Source code for this tune is:
X:42
T:Star Wars Main Theme
C:John Williams
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
K:G
(3uDDD | vG4d4 | (3vcBA g4d2 | (3ucBA g4d2 | (3vcBc uA4 (3uDDD |
vG4d4 | (3cBA g4d2 | (3cBA g4d2 | (3cBc A4 vD>D |
vD3D cBAG | (3GAB AE F2 vD>D | D3D cBAG | d2 A4 vD>D |
vD3D cBAG | (3GAB AE F2 d>d | (3:3:2g3=f (3:3:2_e3d (3:3:2c3_B (3:3:2A3G | d6 uDDD|
vd8|]
You can see how it looks in PDF here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7MC0HjOvtNEdHR6ZTMzdzkzNE0
Wow Andrei! Thanks for doing this. I love how the sheet turned out that you did, and I’ll check into EasyABC. How did you do that? Are you a master of this code language? Or did you play this with a Midi device to generate? By the way, you are right, harmonica is very demanding and I would never want to distract from that 🙂
This is ABC notation – the text-based music notation system and the de facto standard for folk and traditional music, described at http://abcnotation.com/. You can find many tunes around Internet, esp. on thesession.org. EasyABC can play that code using MIDI device or soundcard.
It’s a pleasure to watch your performances, I’m waiting for new videos!
Thanks Andrei! I’ve seen ABC notation, but haven’t played around with the great tools for converting ABC until today. I downloaded Easy ABC from https://sourceforge.net/projects/easyabc/?source=typ_redirect and got started quickly by copying in your ABC code and the software gave me the score and the ability to play back a midi with many voicing choices. Real fun. I was interested in testing how the triplets in measure 15 sounds compared to writing the measure out in dotted 8th -16th pairs, but in the play back of your ABC code, the measure 15 triplets came out half speed. The notation looks the same as Jenny’s. Here’s the descending scale in measure 15 from your ABC followed by my conversion to dotted 8th -16th.
| (3:3:2g3=f (3:3:2_e3d (3:3:2c3_B (3:3:2A3G | d6 uDDD|
vd8|g>=f _e>d c>_B A>G | d6]
You may be right – I don’t remember the tune exactly. Any collaboration and improvements are welcome!
Hey, Andrei, have you used TunePal for iOS? From the description, you not only get a ABC Notation tool, but also a system to search the internet for traditional tunes. Only two stars though.
I’m using Linux. EasyABC is completely satisfying for my newbie needs 🙂
Wow, it looks like The Craic does all this and has better reviews. http://thecraic.co/ I think I’ll try it out in a bundle with SideBand.
Oh I found the problem with measure 15! You should drop the dot on each quarter note in the triplets. Otherwise, when you think about it, you have the equivalent of three eighth notes for the dotted quarter plus one eighth note for the flagged eighth for a total of four eighths under the triplet, when you really want three. That’s what throws Easy ABC for a loop!
The sample version from Musicnotes.com doesn’t have those dots. http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0102724
My piano teacher spotted this right a way this morning. She also said the flags on those measure 15 eighths are going the wrong way. Even on a downward pointing stem, they should be on the right side.
Maybe this fixes it. Changed the triplets to the form (3:2:2g2=f. Also changed the first two Ds in measures 9, 11, and 13 to E.
X:42
T:Star Wars Main Theme
C:John Williams
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
K:G
(3uDDD | vG4d4 | (3vcBA g4d2 | (3ucBA g4d2 | (3vcBc uA4 (3uDDD |
vG4d4 | (3cBA g4d2 | (3cBA g4d2 | (3cBc A4 vD>D |
vE3E cBAG | (3GAB AE F2 vD>D | E3E cBAG | d2 A4 vD>D |
vE3E cBAG | (3GAB AE F2 d>d | (3:2:2g2=f (3:2:2_e2d (3:2:2c2_B (3:2:2A2G | d6 uDDD|
vd8|]
Whoops, just need a (3 in front of that final uDDD to make it a triplet.
Now I can get back to my original idea to write out the measure 15 descending scale as triplets and as dotted eighth – 16th pairs to listen to the subtle difference:
X:42
T:Star Wars Main Theme Triplets Comparison
C:John Williams
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
K:G
| (3:2:2g2=f (3:2:2_e2d (3:2:2c2_B (3:2:2A2G | d6 (3uDDD|]
|g>=f _e>d c>_B A>G | d6 (3uDDD |
Yes!! That’s great, Jenny, thank you for the video and the music sheet! I haven’t watched yet but I will watch today later when I’m home. You make a great Leia by the way! =D
About other songs, you could perhaps make a Lord of the Rings medley dressed as an elf? I have a book with arrangements for violin for the most iconic songs from LotR if you want some inspiration I could share them with you.
Hugs,
Isabelle
Thanks Isabelle! I love that idea and thanks for the offer to share the LotR sheets! Can you email me about them?
Loved the video and your costume! If you could show close ups of your finger placements and change that would help me. Your sheet music sent by e-mail printed well. I set my printer for landscape and fit the image to the page. I wish I were not so grounded in reading music and would make myself play more by ear and watching others instead of reading sheet music. Alas, we must have goals, eh? Thanks for all your help!
Oh great! I was hoping it would print that way so you could have the larger version. I know what you mean- reading sheet music really well can be a blessing and a curse. I was pretty shaky at reading sheet music when I first started, and now I’ve realized that was kind of an advantage. When you learn by ear it forces you to memorize as you go. It also frees up a lot of mental energy for coordinating your playing. Once I got better at reading sheet music and learning tunes that way, it took way more effort to commit them to memory and get off the page. You’re right, it might kinda feel like making yourself at first and it’ll be out of the comfort zone. I support your goals and would love to help!
Thanks for the support. I honestly haven’t played my violin for a year, so many other excuses. Unless I’m taking lessons weekly (paying for them motivates me!) I can let it slide. Oh, yes, I long to play slides on the violin. You are very inspiring.
I love the sheet musice. But I just want to know if you have any of the sheet music from your band circa paleo
I believe these songs are copyrighted and Jenny cannot publish sheet music for them. Musicians always have an option to learn by ear and with aid of slowdown and spectral analysis software without rights violation.
i can’t go for long w/o listening to the jennygirl – but this piece was a must for today. the force is strong with that one.