[MUSIC]
Hi and welcome to the beginner
curriculum here in my violin school.
This is a wonderful place to, to play some
truly great songs.
I personally selected every one of these
tunes or songs or
pieces because I love hearing them and I
love playing them on the violin.
Very few of them were written for the
violin originally, but
as you know by picking up an instrument,
you can play any piece.
Play any song and you can play with others
and
that's really what this is about, taking
you from zero.
Wherever you're coming from to being able
to play songs with some confidence.
Some people think that you can't start
violin and other instruments late in life.
And of course, that's not true at all.
You can start any instrument whenever you
want as long
as your expectation is to make music to
have fun and
to get something out of the work that
you're putting in.
Nobody knows exactly how fast you'll
progress or
if your progress will be steady or in
little fits and starts.
But the great thing about playing music is
that you can enjoy every step of the way.
You have easier songs, you have more
difficult songs.
But the reward is there when you play a
song for somebody and they never knew
that you played an instrument or you have
a friend that plays piano or guitar.
And suddenly, you can play something
together,
whether you're reading from music or not.
And that's a wonderful moment that you can
look forward to,
no matter when you're starting.
You don't have to be able to read music
although I do include the music here and
so that you can see my bowings and
fingerings and, and see the notes and
the rhythms.
But in fact, the way I started and the way
most people start, we didn't read music.
I was took me four years, I believe until
I even started to try reading music.
Everything was by ear and by imitating and
thankfully here,
you can see and hear what I do to play
these songs.
So, it's hard sometimes as an adult to
remember how I learned as a child,
but it's worth remembering that children
are pretty fearless and
they make lots of mistakes and they keep
going right back at it.
And in fact here on my site,
you can see a clip of a recital that I
played when I was seven years old.
So, I've been playing for something like
three years.
And when I go back and look that,
I'm pretty astonished at the bad habits
that I have.
[LAUGH] The way I kinda just slash around
with the bow the way that not every note's
in tune and I thought to myself huh, if I
were watching that now of some other kid
I, I might say I'm not sure if they're
really gonna, gonna make it.
They've got a lot of wrong things going
on.
But of course, that's me.
I know what happened.
And thank goodness I had teachers that
were patient,
that knew what was important and what
wasn't.
What they valued was my spirit of just
playing playing through songs,
playing in front of people, playing with a
piano.
And here at my school, I can certainly
help you with that spirit.
Playing through the songs, we've got
backing tracks for
you to play with and what I can't directly
do is make you play for other people.
But just by being here and submitting
videos to me, you're performing for me and
that's such an important part of your
development.
It's a little bit like cooking where you
can tinker around,
you can make recipes and try to little
changes, but it's all for
real isn't it when you cook a meal for
people coming over to your house and
that's when you really see what works and
what doesn't.
And you get those compliments, you know,
people come to your house and
eat your cooking, you feel like, hey, I
made this, this is mine.
And that's how I want this music, these
songs to be for you.
And so you can stay in this beginner
curriculum for a long time,
kinda savoring each song, you can skip
around, see the songs that speak to you.
I've tried to order them, so that the ones
that come in beginning use the,
the smallest number of skills, the smaller
number of challenges at once.
Because of course,
as you get toward the end of the beginner
curriculum, many things get combined.
So, it's best if you've worked on each one
of those challenges separately.
But there's nothing wrong with diving into
a tougher song if you like the tune and
you wanna play part of it.
And as always, I'm happy to hear any songs
that you submit,
whether they're from this beginner
curriculum or
any other songs that you just happen to
like and you want some help with.
So, I'm really glad you're here.
I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing
you get better.
And thanks for being part of my school.
[MUSIC]