My friend sent me this video of me playing a blues 13 years ago. It taught me a few things about myself and progress. Firstly, I don’t love it. It was difficult to see my technique, plus hearing my sound and intonation was a tough one. But it is great to see that the many hours of practise that I have done since then have really helped. I didn’t start out from a young age with good technique, I was a terrible violin student as a child and teenager, most of my work on this has been as an adult. Small amounts of practise consistently and a “long game” approach has helped me develop a lot as a violinist. This is something I believe in so much for all learners, there is no quick route to success with any instrumental practise. Some good things… It did remind me that I’ve had a good sense of swing for a while, I grew up around my jazz musician grandfather and spent summers when I was visiting going around with him to his gigs, playing “trad” jazz. Listening to this has really helped me take stock of what I could already do from a young age which in turn has helped me really think about how I help others who might not have had this exposure to jazz early on. I have some fun plans for helping others get themselves around jazz rhythms on here. There is a new course in the works! Please be kind in the comments...

I created this quick version of Coquette for @Valeria Fabbri out of our 1-1 lesson today talking about hearing, feeling and playing offbeats. I'm trying to show different offbeat variations of the melody focusing on different strands of the melody.

I've been mucking around with this today, trying to find context to apply yesterday's PC motif. Here are short repetitive phrases over Coquette again. Ive targeted the 1st, 3rd and 5th of some of the chords. Not sure if it all works though. Also today, I tried running the motif through the modes in a few different keys (including G flat. That was painful!). However, it's amazing how well that works to really absorb the material. When you get back to 'easy' keys it flows so much better.

About to get on a plane for a family Christmas in Poland! No session tonight for our Christmas Break but there’s the first part of my new Etude on Coquette up in the Études course (classroom), for anyone who wants to get some practise in over the holiday period. Also today is the last day of $100 for my Jazz Violin Starter Pack. Combined with the free bowing course in there it’s the perfect setup for becoming a jazz violinist. Get hold of it for the next 12 hours at this low price. Merry Christmas!

Why is sometimes not the easiest question to answer. I know that I got into playing jazz because my grandfather helped me at the start. However I think the “why” is that when I was a teenager I played the violin, but I wasn’t great at reading music and I naturally preferred learning by ear and just sort of playing around with music. I went through lots of music obsessions when I was young. Metal, hip hop, classic rock, country, folk. I remember being at youth orchestra rehearsal across town with a bunch of kids who I didn’t know and not really feeing like I fitted in with anyone. I wasn’t really interested int he music we were playing at the time, I was the worst violinist there and I didn’t really feel any motivation to become the best. I played drums at school too, I would give up my lunch break to go to a rehearsal room with my friends and make noise. Learning to improvise on the violin gave me the opportunity to use my natural skills in learning by ear. It meant I could jam with other people and made me feel like I could really CREATE, but I could do it with the violin this time. I still feel out of place in an orchestra but I’m at home in a rehearsal room trying to work out a nice arrangement for a jazz tune. What about you?