This is your daily practise check in. Either: 1. Tell us what you practised in the comments 2. Post a video or audio recording of what you're working on 3. Ask a question about something you came up against in your practise Or if you just want to let us know you showed up, comment "HERE". Today's question: First one! Whats you main goal at the moment?

Watched step 3? Here's your task. Play through the blues making choices: lick 4 over the F7, lick 1 over the Bb7, and then improvise freely over the last four bars. Post your video below, or just let us know how you're doing and if you have any questions 🎵

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!