Two months of Vibrato Dojo in the books. 🎻✨ No matter how much you’ve been able to follow along, you’ve planted important seeds - awareness, new brain pathway construction underway, and the beginnings of your own vibrato voice. For May (still very much Spring energy 🌱 it's raining hard here in Austin as I type!), we’re shifting into the music side of vibrato. (Spoiler alert - this Summer we will pivot into bow skills!) This is where vibrato stops being an exercise… and starts becoming your one of a kind expression. - How do we use vibrato inside actual music? - When and where do you place it? - How do we not panic when the bowing and rhythm go sideways the moment vibrato enters the chat? We’ll be starting with something fun and intuitive: vocal-inspired playing. Over the weekend, think about this: What songs do you love that are sung with lyrics… that you’d want to play on violin? Or maybe something you already know and play, but want to make more expressive. That’s our entry point for applied vibrato. If you’re a Dojo student: New application videos are dropping in the Jenny's Daily Lessons portal next week 👀 If you’re here for community and base training courtyard exercises: You’re still completely welcome to explore this idea with us here. Try it, share, experiment. And lets be real, the time has been flying especially quickly this Spring, no? For anyone who feels like they want more time with the training reps - you can absolutely continue your vibrato training alongside this month. No rush. This is your timeline. Tell me in the comments some favorite emotional songs with lyrics that could be good on violin. See you there! :)

Okay… I’ve been quietly building something. First, thank you for all the honest posts lately about what you’re working on and where you feel stuck. The path from intermediate to advanced has some very real challenges, and I’m super into taking that on with you. So this spring, we’re trying something new. It’s called Violin Dojo. Instead of everyone floating in different directions - and instead of you having to constantly decide how to fit everything into your practice - we’ll move through a shared seasonal focus together. Not to compete. Not to be intense. Just to have our heads in the same game, while leaving space for whatever songs and things are most calling to you on your individual hot violinist journey at the same time. Spoiler alert - our first focus will be Vibrato. The real goal? To feel less alone in your practice. To build some friendships here. And yes… to gain some serious skill along the way. More next week. 🎻 Meanwhile tell me in the comments. What fun projects or things are calling your name this spring? Violin or otherwise. For me: Violin: New Dojo videos and visual guides for advancing students Not violin: Repotting my poor neglected plants that I may have saved from the freeze, but definitely cut it a little too close. 😬

Still working on The Star Spangled Banner for our high school graduation. As John Calvin would say "Wish me luck!" Gandalf

Sorry about the intonation. I’m practicing for 4 vibrato wavers at the moment . But confident enough to post up to 2 wavers on this 😅

Simple message today. If you're training vibrato this Spring... keep going. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of how to do that effectively and without going crazy. To keep going: spend the first and last 5 minutes of every practice playing reps in the sweet spot of your training process. To not go crazy: add one fun, slightly challenging song to your practice. --- Here’s a bit more on how to keep going on your main goal (vibrato if you’re following the current Dojo focus), and why reps are where the magic happens. Quick reminder of the steps: White Belt: prep for movement Blue Belt: lock in one technique Purple Belt: reps Brown Belt: formed brain pathways Resist the temptation to try vibrato in songs (that's a black belt activity) until brown belt is feeling easy, or keep it to a minimum. Since I’ve been working with adult learners for over a decade, all my best tips have come straight from you. One student said something I love: It helps if I change from thinking- “I’m practicing violin” to “I’m training my brain to play violin.” Ok if I get a little nerdy? When we do reps, we’re building new matter and connections to the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for automatic movement. It's crazy - it's a small mini brain looking thing way at the back of our head. (Take a look at the brain diagram attached.) Meanwhile, the parts of the brain we rely on for everyday life like planning, logic, memory... don’t help much here. Which is why this can feel so frustrating. It’s like we’ve spent our whole lives building a beautiful boat… and suddenly we’re dropped on dry land. 🥴 Everything we usually rely on doesn’t help us here. The cool part is, this is exactly why playing violin is so good for the brain, no matter where it leads. One more thought: Remember texting on flip phones with T9? Or pressing the 2 three times to get a C? Then smartphones came along with full touch screen keyboards, and it felt awkward at first. Now look at us go! 😅