This was email only when I sent it out on Wednesday. Because of requests on YouTube, I’ve made it a blog post as well. Please sign up for the email list if you’d like to catch everything like this in the future. 🙂
Here’s a little about how I got bit by the music bug:
During my junior year of high school, I was lucky to fall in with a group of friends who were forming, of all things, a Greek band.
My friend Vanessa was a senior, and seniors were allowed to leave the school campus for lunch. I would smile sweetly from the passenger seat of her Nissan while she would flash her senior ID to the all powerful guard (teacher in a brown suit).
Boom. Freedom.
Then she’d turn the volume up on the tunes while we make our temporary escape from school.
One day the music was quite different than all the days before. Women with deep sounding voices singing with near anguish in an exotic language.
Long story short, she was going to start singing songs like this, with some guy I didn’t know, who was forming a band to play at local Greek restaurants.
The idea of being good enough to play for a real audience at a restaurant completely dazzled me.
Eventually I’d come to find out they needed a bass player.
I had played a little guitar, and enjoyed gyros, so I decided to try it.
The parts I learned were super simple, but hey, it got me in the band!
I was watching my new friends practice and get a lot better on their instruments in just a matter of a few months.
One day I came home and my Mom had a CD playing in the living room. Folky vocal music, Garnet Rodgers, and I’d heard it tons of times.
I think I was grabbing a glass of water, and just about to run up the stairs to my room, but then track 9 came on. I had never really noticed it before.
Totally different vibe from the rest. One violin, all alone and echoey.
I plopped down on my Dad’s lazy boy and reclined there until the piece was over. Then I looked on the back of the CD to find out that the piece was called “Farewell to Music” by O’Carolan.
I felt like an ancient voice had crossed time to sing to me. Sounds kinda woo-woo but that’s how I felt at the time.
Later that night I had a talk with my parents.
Mom. Dad. I’m going to be an Irish fiddler.
My parents were supportive, but looking back I can tell they probably had their fingers crossed it was a phase.
I was like, “Come on guys what’s the big surprise?”.
I mean yeah I did pretty well in the main subjects at school, but I was already big time artsy fartsy.
I finagled my schedule so that I could take art class, theater, photography, AND journalism. I wore tie dye dresses to school. (This was the late 90’s not summer of 69!)
But looking back I realize it actually was kind of a zany leap to choose music as a career path considering: I was not proficient on ANY instrument.
But by golly, I picked my instrument: Violin.
And I knew WHY: I wanted to play haunting old melodies. I wanted to travel and perform them for people. (And I wanted to impress a dark mysterious bouzouki player with dreadlocks, but that’s a story for another time…) On Monday you boldly completed my super complex and high tech exercise to pick your WHAT INSTRUMENT and WHY.
If you didn’t have a chance to do that, go ahead and go back and do it now. We will wait.
…….Welcome back! I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and considered quitting countless times.
I found out that you can make unlimited mistakes along the way, as long as you don’t make The Fatal Mistakes.
The Fatal Mistakes are basically anything that leads you to quitting before you really deep down want to move on for your own good reasons.
Since then I’ve had the immense honor to follow some of your journeys via my Hot Violinist blog.
I’ve seen some miraculous recoveries from Fatal Mistake Land that prove even big mistakes can be reversed.
So basically, I keep using the word fatal because I’m being dramatic.
But also because it’s true that once you’ve convinced yourself you can’t do something, it tends to become a self fulfilling prophecy.
In order to nip unhelpful ideas in the bud, I wanted to go over THE five big ones I’ve seen again and again.
Some of these are from my own experience and others are from my students or blog readers who email me.
Now I’ll be getting a little more violin specific but most of this can apply to other instruments as well.
(And I will be sharing more ideas on Friday and next Monday to help kick start start your journey even if you emailed me that you really want to learn guitar, trumpet, or even xylophone.)
MISTAKE #1 Bad Equipment
I’m not going into a ton of detail here because I’ve done it before.
Bottom line is:
Worst case scenario, bad equipment can have you convinced there’s something wrong with you when really the instrument is practically unplayable.
Best case scenario, it ends up costing you more money in the long run to either repair or replace the crappy first instrument.
I happened to notice this when I was looking for Yelp reviews of a violin shop one of my students wanted to visit. I’ve heard this story or a version of it 100 times. Unless you have time and money to burn, bad equipment can be a fatal mistake.
I’m begging you not to do this one.
MISTAKE #2 Go it alone
Nobody who gets really good at music does it all alone.
Most of the people who seem super “talented” have actually had tons of excellent training. Most people know that when they see Joshua Bell or some other virtuoso, but maybe we don’t always realize that this applies right down to your standard radio pop singer as well.
Coaches out the wazoo.
Some great musicians will say they have no formal training.
Take the amazing Irish fiddler Liz Carroll, for example. Word has it she picked it up as a kid and never had lessons. But then when you hear the whole story (and I did when I attended a fiddle camp she was teaching), you find out her parents took her to the Irish jam session every single week for years and years of her childhood.
So it turns out she had a TON of exposure, and surely a helpful community to teach her over the course of the first two decades of her life.
Adult beginners don’t have the luxury of that kind of time.
Everything is on YouTube, which is awesome, but it’s hard to tell what’s good and what’s bad. On top of that there’s no sequence to say:
-Do this first
-THEN do this….
It’s incredibly overwhelming and tends to be a breeding ground for nasty bad habits.
(Bad habits are not fun… the struggle is real!)
I get it that private lessons every week aren’t practical for everyone, but you’ve gotta find a way to get some personalized guidance or a collection of people you can ask for different kinds of help when you need it.
MISTAKE #3 Stay with a teacher who is majorly frustrating you.
The only thing worse than no teacher is staying with one teacher who isn’t working out for you.
I had to change teachers over 5 times before I started to get traction learning violin. It doesn’t mean the first teachers were bad. Sometimes you just need to hear something in a different way or try a different angle to get through times when you feel stuck.
Don’t stay with the same teacher for more than 6 months to a year unless you can tell they are helping you get better.
MISTAKE #4 The “Talent” Trap
Aye yi yi- I dunno why our culture is so charmed with the idea of people being born with innate ability.
We tend to be obsessed by extreme examples and outliers. No doubt there are supernatural stories of all kinds people can point to.
More and more scientific brain research tells us that:
-Basic musical skill is built into everyone’s DNA
-”Perfect pitch” is not a genetic accident but is developed with training
-Top performers ALL have the best training and smartest practice habits
But I’m not here to turn this into a research paper or try to negate that your sister’s husband’s friend’s son never practiced and didn’t take one lesson and is now composing operas at his college.
Weird stuff happens.
Do a quick google search on “music talent” and you’ll see wildly heated debates about nature vs. nurture. People get very emotional about this!
Based on my experience and first hand observation I believe that musical skill mostly comes down to good and consistent training.
You can decide for yourself what to believe on this spectrum.
Be aware that if you conclude early on that you don’t have talent, or worse yet believe it just because someone told you that once….
It’s a trap.
I’m asking you to keep an open mind and experiment on yourself a lot before deciding that you don’t have the talent required to play the music you want.
Consider the possibility that if you have the desire to play music, that may be all the talent you need. And having the desire is indeed a great gift.
DESIRE = TALENT
I made that formula up myself. (See Dad! Still good at math!)
I believe it wholeheartedly.
MISTAKE #5 Practice Makes Perfect (NOT!)
“You have to practice an hour a day minimum.”
Not true!
“Just keep playing through songs and hope to improve!”
Bad idea!
Bad practice can actually make you worse or keep you sounding bad.
If your practice regimen isn’t fun and/or you aren’t seeing good results from it, it’s likely an issue of practice quality, not quantity.
There are tons of great techniques for making practice more enjoyable and effective.
When your practice is fun and enjoyable you’ll naturally find more time for it. When it makes you miserable and isn’t working, it’s natural that you won’t happen to find time for it.
Have you ever beat yourself up thinking you just don’t have the discipline?
Consider the possibility that it’s actually your good instincts keeping you from repeating a bunch of stuff that deep down, you can tell isn’t working.
Spending that hour on Facebook watching cat videos may actually have been the best thing for you, considering there was a lack of good training and practice strategy. It’s a common saying: Practice makes perfect!
This makes us think that practicing more must be better. (Perfecter?)
It also makes it easy to beat ourselves up or feel behind if we miss a practice. Or it might make us feel somehow flawed if we’ve been practicing and aren’t progressing.
(I know I have been there! There was a while I thought I was born with a defective pinkie!) The truth is: Practice makes permanent.
Even small amounts. It has been scientifically proven.
So, it’s WAY more important to practice the right things when you can than it is to clock a bunch of hours every day.
Let me just step back here to say that the most important thing about practice is for it to be enjoyable. So rule #1 about practice is: If you’re not enjoying it, change it.
Find a great teacher or coach during times that you need to rework your practice strategy.
Breaking things up so that there’s a single goal for a 5 minute period is a great way to maintain enough focus to practice the right things. Or check out this book for some ideas: First Learn to Practice.
It’s good for any instrument. Really good!
A lot of people spend years, decades, or lifetimes waiting for the perfect situation, teacher and game plan to start working on a musical instrument.
Try to avoid these mistakes, but don’t let fear of them keep you stuck. It’s better to try and make a few mistakes than to do nothing at all.
I’ve discovered that every person’s musical journey is different, and the only way you’re going to find out about yours is to go ahead and start with both feet on the path. (And some quality equipment! And training other than random YouTube!)
People will help you along the way.
On Friday I’m going to show you one main secret for becoming really comfortable on your instrument of choice. It’s a huge advantage to have this in mind from the start.
Hope to see ya Friday!
Your homework for today is easy:
Step 1) Do a quick YouTube search for musicians playing some of your goal pieces on your goal instrument. Bookmark one or two that you really like.
Step 2) Create a comment below and share the links to your videos!
There will be prizes next week for those who do their homework! 😀
I’m not here to say that everyone should learn to learn to play an instrument.
Some people just want to listen, so if playing isn’t your thing, more power to you.
As my pal Jay used to say about things like this, “That’s why they make more than one kind of breakfast cereal.” I’m just sayin’ if you want to… you’ve gotta try it!
One of my students, Minni, never had the chance to learn music as a kid. She grew up in Northern Italy where classical music is the big thing.
At age 55 she decided to go for it.
She lives in Cremona, where the violin-as-we-know-it was literally invented a few hundred years ago by Mr. Stradivari and his pals.
Today there’s a skyscraper of a violin sculpture that welcomes you into the city, and you can find luthiers carrying on the tradition in just about every other store-front.
Pizza shop, violin shop, gelato shop, violin shop, farmacia, violin shop.
Children and teens with violin cases on their backs infest the piazza like cockroaches scurrying in every direction.
The heartland!
She bought a decent locally made violin, and called a few teachers.
They didn’t want to take her on.
My theory is that these teachers are more interested in a child who may make a name for them by becoming the next big thing. Or maybe they just don’t know how to teach adults- I admit it is way different.
When she finally found a teacher, he loaded her up with sheet music and etudes. Barely showed her how to hold the bow.
Great!! She found someone who didn’t know how to teach adults, BUT WAS WILLING TO DO IT ANYWAY. YAY!!!
Not yay.
It was frustrating, of course. She easily could have concluded she has no musical talent and deemed the whole project a huge disappointing waste of money and time.
Thankfully she did a YouTube search and found me!
😀
I’m not trying to brag.
I want to show you by Minni’s example that there’s power in seeking and trying different things when one thing isn’t working. I’m also gonna tell you in a minute where she has ended up with violin.
But meanwhile I am pretty dang proud.
She searched a bunch of videos on how to hold the bow and found mine easier to understand than the others she had seen in her native language of Italian.
Anyway that’s how we found each other and the rest is history.
I’ll never forget when she started to make her first truly beautiful sounds on the violin with long steady full resonant bow strokes. I get goose bumps every time one of my students feels that for the first time.
We were smiling at each other, big toothy ones, and she said,
“People are depressed. Because they don’t play the violin.”
I jotted that down in my notebook right when she said it.
I thought it was true. And important. Even if it’s just a metaphor and violin isn’t necessarily your thing.
So I did what every socially responsible truth seeking person would do…
And posted it as a meme on my Instagram!
I believe the ability to play music is one of the basic human functions that we all share. And that our world will change for the better if everyone who wants to play gets to, regardless of age or social background.
Better families.
More understanding and awareness among different cultures.
Less violence.
The way I see it, right now, some of our most creative minds, the ones that are born to make art and solve problems, have had to shut down their playful creative sides due to obligation or social pressure. It’s depressing.
I believe this is the # 1 cause of otherwise nice people slowly turning into ass holes.
(Pardon my French!)
In certain tribes in Africa there is not even a word for musician or dancer. It’s just understood that everyone is included.
“Only relatively recently, five hundred years or so ago, did a distinction arise that cut society in two, forming separate classes of music performers and music listeners.,”
writes Daniel Levitin,
“Throughout most of the world and for most of human history, music making was as natural an activity as breathing and walking, and everyone participated.”
That’s from his book, This is Your Brain on Music.
Civilization has brought about some comfortable perks, like hobbit movies and turtleneck sweaters, but we’ve also put our musicians up on stages at a distance above us.
If you wanna start playing the instrument you’ve always dreamed of to enhance your life and happiness, but have no idea where to start…
Check out this video!
Your assignment for today is…..
Create a comment below, and answer me these 3 questions from today’s class:
My top instrument I’d like to start (or explore more) in 2017 is _________.
The top three pieces or musical vibes I’d like to master are _____________.
I want to play _________________ because _________________________________.
There are a lot of things out of your control in life, but deciding to learn a musical instrument and get good at it, is in your control.
“There is only one reason that you ever fail at anything…and that is because you eventually change your mind. That’s it!…anything and everything you have ever decided to do, you have succeeded, or will succeed, at doing.”
-Victor L. Wooten, The Music Lesson
Only problem with instrumental music is sometimes you miss out on great Robert Burns lyrics:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?
CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
I never really knew what all that meant until a couple of my ViolinWOD students starting learning it for New Years. (Thanks Jami and Pete!) Then I realized what a great song it is.
Still love and relate to this little bit from Harry met Sally: Harry: [about Auld Lang Syne] What does this song mean? My whole life, I don’t know what this song means. I mean, ‘Should old acquaintance be forgot’? Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot? Sally: Well, maybe it just means that we should remember that we forgot them or something. Anyway, it’s about old friends.
Can’t you imagine Billie Crystal and Meg Ryan saying those lines?
Anyway, Kelly and I had fun playing a holiday web concert for you guys and whipped up this fun little version of Auld Lang Syne:
We’ve got another web concert on the books and hope you can join us!
It’s Saturday Feb 11 at 1pm PST.
You can sign up and get a “ticket” (for whatever you’d like to pay…) right here: https://www.concertwindow.com/3354-jenny-and-kelly-o-connor
In the meantime I’d love to hear about your New Years resolutions or goals.
Lemme know in the comments! 😀
Looking for gifts for violinists and fiddlers? This 2016 edition of my yearly list has some special ideas for some of the toughest-to-gift types of violinists on your list such as….
-Violinists to be
-Violinists with not enough time in the day
-Trad purists
And the previously impossible to gift…
-Violinist who has everything
I’ve gone cold turkey on the Amazon affiliate links this year. So, all of these links are sending you to small businesses that I simply like (Yay! Let’s send some Holiday cash their way!).
If you’d like to support thehotviolinist.com, you can purchase downloads of my music or tell your aspiring violinist friends about ViolinWOD 2017. Ooh look! The discounted pre-enrollment packages made it on this year’s list!! 😉
I’m proud of my 20 peeps who started violin in 2016 with me via my 5 minute a day video program. Can’t wait to see who I meet in 2017! Please send some more nice people my way for the next experience. Pre-enrollment is open with early bird discounts.
This year I’m making custom vouchers for gift giving. Just print, roll up like an ancient scroll, tie with twine, and send your loved one on an adventure.
For total beginners or anyone who wants to sound better using less practice time.
Here’s another way to give an experience instead of a thing!
Stress less, sleep better, love better…. practice violin better! Neuroscientists and monks agree. Practicing meditation helps everything. The Headspace program is really easy and fun and gift subscriptions start at $12.95.
Bring the pub home (or anywhere) for a more authentic fiddle learning atmosphere. It’s for the violinist on your list dedicated to the art and preservation of culture!
I would have thought this idea might turn out cheesy, but it’s totally not. These are beautifully tuned artisan wind chimes made by Davis Blanchard. He tunes using Just Intonation, which is what fiddlers use for the best sounding double stops.
The tuning of this set is reminiscent of the melody of Amazing Grace. You can explore the many different themes and tunings with the videos on his site to find something personal to the person you are shopping for.
Super practical for any fiddler or violinist you know who sometimes needs to play outside in chilly temperatures. They also look really cool, so hey… I say air conditioning is reason enough to perform in these.
It’s a nice thoughtful little gift you can find in a variety of colors and price ranges. I liked the ones on this Etsy shop because they are handmade, afforable (under 10 bucks?!) and come in a bunch of different colors and styles for men and women.
A very thoughtful Santa brought me one of these for Christmas last year and it has been by my side every day since. I really like my woodgrain one, and I think a lot of fiddlers probably would too. But they have tons of color options to personalize the gift. Keeps things hot or cold and doesn’t leak.
Vintage band gear is in. The more obscure the better. And the fiddlers in your life might appreciate being turned on to this band in particular, where the violin is the lead singer. The “dancing J” CP logo represents the connection between rhythm and melody. Meanwhile keeps head warm.
For the too-busy violinist in your life. (And who isn’t?) Maybe you can actually gift them with more time in the day to play.
This thing really works to get stuff done. It’s like a day planner, life coach (a good one not a woo woo one), and a time management workshop all in one little black book. It has definitely helped me to beat procrastination, but more importantly brings peace of mind.
Combine these with a candle from your local candle maker for a unique gift that would make a nice finishing touch to a practice space. It’s nice to have a routine to begin the set aside practice time, and lighting a candle is perfect for that.
One of my violin students gave this to me, and I’ve since sent copies to two young maybe-future-fiddlers I know. It’s a children’s book based on the social experiment when world renowned Joshua Bell played his Strad in the DC Subway. Cute.
Violin maker Andrew Carruthers first created these designs in linoleum blocks cut with his violin making tools. Now the bridge and crossbows is available in a locally screen printed version to keep up with demand. Once you’re on his site, take a stroll through the many shirt designs and posters.
WHAT?! Yes, this is a whimsical memorable treat to put a smile on the face of the violinist who already has everything else. Because I really don’t think they have one of these. Made fresh to order in white, dark, or milk chocolate.
And since this is one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard of, it made it in as number 12 on my list of 11.
Did I mention it is life sized?
So that’s my list for 2016! Please let me know the reaction if you end up getting any of these for your friends and loved ones.
And do you have any ideas of gifts for violinists and fiddlers? Lemme know in the comments below!
Wanna learn some new music to share with family and friends for the holidays, but already feeling the time crunch? This group is full but stay tuned for the next one.
You can still check out my version of King of the Faeries and read a bit about my group teaching style if you’re interested.
Clicking the vid thumbnail will open another tab and take you to YouTube. After you give it a listen, you can come back to this tab and read on.
Took me 15 years to figure this out, but the basic formula to tackle violin as an adult is really simple actually: Bite sized videos + Community + Live Q&As with me 🙂 Ok, yeah, there’s a bit more to it than that. You know, other violin teacher essentials like… COSTUMES! and… SHEET MUSIC! (I’m hearing your requests for this)
I had a chance to test this out with 20 adult violin beginners and my ViolinWOD program I hosted earlier this year. Here’s what a few ViolinWOD members had to say:
“This is important: it wasn’t overwhelming.” -Ken, Japan
“Jenny’s program was so well suited to my busy and hectic schedule!” -John, Texas
“Violin experience before Jenny = a nightmare, with Jenny = a lovely dream.” -Minni, Italy
In the meantime, we’ve created a nice little community of cool people who support each other as friends and fiddle players.
Now they are ready to learn songs. And I know you guys are too because you are asking for them! Now is your chance to learn King of The Faeries using the same tools that worked so well in ViolinWOD, and play this lovely tune for your favorite people around the holidays.
Here’s what you’ll receive:
Bite-sized videos sent straight to your email inbox
I’ll be sending short, bite-sized videos over the course of four (4) weeks directly to your inbox. Each video will teach you a technique, drill, or portion of the song.
Invite to a PRIVATE Facebook group for support and questions
You don’t have to go it alone anymore! Post questions and videos of your progress knowing it’s for us, not the whole web. Get feedback from the group, and I’ll be jumping in to comment on videos and questions to help you all through the learning process.
Live Q&A with me!
We will all get together via web conference on a Saturday morning in December and talk about all the finishing touches, ornamentation and variations. Ask me questions about the song, or anything else you’re working on (Lingering questions about Last of the Mohicans anyone??).
I’ll give you A TON of advanced notice in hopes that everyone can make plans to come, but it’s OK if you can’t make it. I will be recording the Q&A so you’ll have access to watch anytime you need it. And one more thing…
Just to sweeten the deal for you ambitious fiddlers out there, I’m going to be running a little contest. One lucky fiddler will receive a free private lesson with me! (via Skype)
To enter…
Post a video of you playing King of the Faeries at the end of the program. You can share your awesome version on YouTube (encouraged!) or just share to our private group.
This brave act will put your name in the hat to be drawn for a free lesson! I can’t wait to start this party! This group is full but stay tuned for the next one.
🙂 Jenny
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!
I’ve heard this story or a version of it 100 times. Unless you have time and money to burn, bad equipment can be a fatal mistake.
