Just watched the first Blues lesson? Here's your task. Have a go at soloing over the Blues in F backing track using the five lines and the sounds we work on in the video. Take a couple of the lines, play around with them, and record whatever comes out. Post your video below, or just let us know how you're doing and if you have any questions. Getting the first one down is the hardest part 🎵

I just spent the week at Tim Kliphuis’ camp in the Netherlands. It was great to spend some time with a huge group of professional and amateur jazz violinists. I think I realised a few things about us. 1. We are all quite driven “path finders” We don’t like to follow well trodden paths. It’s obvious of course, we have picked an extreme niche to devote our lives to. But it’s interesting that most jazz violinists don’t like to just study violinists, so many violinists I met spoke of how they like Grappelli but really want to find their own way of playing and don’t want to emulate him too much. 2. We aren’t a bunch of “Gatekeepers” we have spent our life dealing with gatekeepers, either classical violinists telling us we shouldn’t bother with jazz, or jazz musicians treating us in a certain way because we play the violin. I think it means that we don’t stand for this sort of thing, everyone I met at the camp was extremely excited to talk to each other about their playing, ideas or path and were extremely supportive of each other. 3. we are all “doers” As jazz violinists, we don’t get booked easily to do the thing we love to do. There aren’t many jazz musicians calling for a violinist. It means you often find violinists running gigs, bands or even spaces like this. By picking jazz violin, we are often forced into the organiser role. (I’m naturally very badly organised but through doing what I do, I current organise so many things) Anything you think I’ve missed out or gotten wrong?

Comment “day 4” on this post to keep up your streak! Use this thread to ask any questions and post your progress video! Hopefully by now you are starting to see two things; How a jazz musician thinks and practises. The benefits of showing up for yourself regularly and practising something new! Today is all about “jazz language” and how we use pre prescribed melodic material inside an improvisation. Enjoy!

Comment “day 3” on this post to keep up your streak! Use this thread to post your progress videos and ask any questions you have about the challenge. Well done for making it to day 3! Today is all about creating small two note motifs from the chord tones and using them to improvise with. It’s an exercise that I think anyone at any level can learn from. Forcing yourself to stay simple can help you find inspiration a lot easier than a blank canvas. Looking forward to your videos!

Comment “Day 2” on this post to keep your streak! Congrats for making it to day 2! Progress starts with consistency. Little and often is the best way to learn anything new! Today is about trial and error with the sounds of the major scale over the A section of “Lady Be Good”. You will be improvising with rhythm and using your ear to see what sounds good to you. Get to the classroom and start the video, show us what you come up with by posting a progress video on this post or use this thread to ask any questions you have about the challenge today. Happy practising!