A Review on Violin Lab

I still have not found another violin teacher but I did find Violin Lab . It is a paid service by a woman named Beth Blackerby.These are the prices:

1 year $ 78.00

Best Savings! Equal to only $6.50 per month, (about 1/10 the price of a private lesson)Definitely the best rate for the committed violin student :)One time payment of $78.00. No automatic renewals. International currency conversions done for you via Paypal.

 6 months $ 53.94

Equal to $8.99 per month.One time payment of $53.94. No automatic renewals.International currency conversions done for you via Paypal.

 3 months $ 38.97

Equal to $12.99 per month.One time payment of $38.97. No automatic renewals.International currency conversions done for you via Paypal.

 1 Month $ 22.50

One month access. No automatic renewals.International currency conversions done for you via Paypal.

I myself signed up for a year because that only made sense considering the pricing. What you get for that year is access to over 550 videos on playing the violin. Beth is a Suzuki teacher so you need those books and there are also videos based on books called Super Studies. There is also a "Community" where you are supposed to be able to get answers to all your questions.

I will say now that most of the videos are quite good. She spends a lot of time doing videos on bow hold, violin hold, straight bowing, etc. before you even get to play which are so important. I think if I had gotten this kind of instruction from my teacher I would have been so much better off. I suggest you watch them all even if you have been playing for a while. I will say though that it seems like she has a certain time she wants to reach with each video and this causes her to repeat exactly what she said in the previous videos just over and over and then she give you  just a little bit more in the new video. It is tiring if you are watching a lot of them. Her extra practice videos are wonderful. It is practices that aren't in the books and is really helpful for learning to change strings well. I do wish she had those written down though, so I don't have to keep stopping the video to write them myself but once you have them written down they make great warm ups.

The videos on the Suzuki book tunes are a bit short and sweet but if you have followed along with the other videos, you should do just fine. However, the videos on the Super Studies books leave a lot to be desired. She doesn't want to show you too much because she wants you to buy the books.....keep in mind the whole purpose of this website is to make money. My suggestion is that you skip the Super Studies part of this until you have learned other positions. The second piece in the book has you using two positions (can't tell you which ones because I only know first position) and she doesn't even mention this in the video she does. She just kind of ignores the fact that her fingers are down the fingerboard. The key here is that "SHE WANTS YOU TO BUY THE BOOK".  Just skip it unless you want to keep it for later because as a beginner, you can't use it.

The Community is where all your questions are supposed to be answered. I found two problems with this. When I asked about the Super Studies book and why we had videos on it before we had even learned the positions needed....no answer...5 days...no answer (keep in mind that I paid for a whole year here). Also I had a terrible time actually finding my post. There is a search engine but it only give your a summary of your post and does not bring you to the actual post. I had to actually reply to my post to find it (you can bookmark your post but it only keeps a list of ALL bookmarks so if you want to go through over 6000 of them....).

Was it worth the $78?...yes, so far it has definitely been worth it. My teacher charged me $20 a week and I didn't get nearly as much instruction and I am not even out of the beginner videos yet. Is it the only things you need? No, you would still do better having a good teacher but it definitely will help you continue your studies if you don't have one.

Things that might make it better would be a community with actual separate boards instead of just one board for all discussions, putting the Super Studies videos where they actually belong instead of in the beginner section, and a profile page for each member where you could get to know a little about them and a place on it where they could look up their discussions.

A Tune A Day

I have seen this book in my search for good violin books but I had never bought it because I thought it just had a tune for every day of the year. Right? A Tune A DAY! I only finally got it because it turned up on my paperbackswap list. It is now the book I have decided to use and I wish I had bought it before this.
I have to say that I don't think I could teach myself with this book if I hadn't already had a good bit of knowledge on what fingerings to use for the keys it uses because it doesn't focus on finger placement very much but it does focus on technique a lot and since my violin teacher never taught me any technique, it is a wonderful book for me.
I have stopped going to my violin teacher. I am sad because I miss seeing her but I am not unhappy that I don't spend all that money every month for someone who really wasn't actually "teaching" me.
Anyway, this book is great. I have learned what so many things mean that I didn't know before. It starts with "piano" and "forte" and moved you through mezzo piano, mezzo forte, pianissimo, crescendo and diminuendo. I had no idea what these meant or what the signs for crescendo and diminuendo were. It goes through ties, slurs (these I knew) and now I am trying to do spiccato. It gives you several good example tunes for each lesson it teaches you.
The next lesson has hooked bowing, eighth note rests, pause signs, and ritenuto (no idea) and still a few more lessons after that. Each lesson has a little quiz after it so you can tell if you missed something and need to go back.
In the back of the book are some extra tunes for you to play plus a fold out fingering chart (I really don't understand the chart but it is nice) and the book comes with a CD which is great for those of us, like me, who need to hear and tune we don't know before we play it.
Anyway, I am in love with the book. I have only had it a few weeks and feel like I have learned more from it than I have in the last year of lessons! I am definitely getting the next Tune a Day book.

How many instruments can you learn to play at once?

The answer is simply, as many as you have time for. I want to play my violin, viola, tin whistle, keyboard and mandolin....and I do hope to learn them all eventually....but there just isn't enough time. Learning an instrument takes an incredible lot of time. Right now I think it is absolutely essential that I at least get an hour a day practice on my violin...but I do better when I get two hours a day in two different sessions. Of course that just makes sense. If I get an hour in the morning and an hour after work, I have essentially doubled what I can learn. I don't always get that much practice in though. There are days when I come home from work and I am just plain too tired or my back hurts too much but I do try to put in as much time into practice as I can. If I am not too too tired or I have enough time in I will get out the viola and do a little practice on that and maybe as I am really starting to drag I might do a little piano on my keyboard.
What this means is that progress on the viola and keyboard are very very slow. When I had two weeks off at Christmas some progress was made on the viola and keyboard but after that I couldn't find time for them for a week. I have to get back in the swing of things again.
There are times though that I think, "Other people don't have to come home and practice, they get to just sit and rest after their hard days work....."

But then I never was meant to be like other people....

A Violin Maker's Perspective

Sizzle & Depth from Chris Morgan on Vimeo.

Artist Works

So I decided since I can't afford my violin lessons this month and she really isn't worth what I am paying her anyway, that I would look for an alternative and I came upon artistworks.com  It sounded pretty good. For $35 a month you get: access to hundreds of video lessons, you get to send in a video of your playing (any time you want!) and your instructor will reply with suggestions and advice, you get access to a forum, chat and blog etc. etc. and so I did it.

It was disappointing. I signed up for Darol Angers fiddle lesson which go from beginning to advanced.

I now feel sorry for the people who are real beginners because there is no way you can learn to play the violin from this man. My violin teacher is not the worst, this man is. The videos are horrid. You sit there just hoping Darol will actually come up with his next word before the video ends. It is OBVIOUS that he put no thought into any of these videos. He is just making it up as he goes along  and sometimes his videos don't even look like he can do the exercises himself (and the exercises, when there are some are really not all that helpful). The way he talks on the videos is just really terrible. I can't even explain it but he just doesn't teach you anything. He apparently does not know what a beginner is and does not know that someone learning needs lessons that progress in an orderly fashions. It looks  like he just picked a song and said, "We'll do this one today" whether you are ready for it or not.  I actually watched him do a horrible interview with Casey Driessen (I have no idea who this actually is, a good bluegrass player apparently---oh yeah, to Darol apparently bluegrass is the only fiddle playing too as he doesn't get into any other fiddle playing in his lessons). It was just plain hard to watch. I felt bad for this Casey. It wasn't really an interview because Darol never asked any questions. It was stupid, really. They played a tune then Darol told about what Casey was doing (he did not have all the information and Casey filled him in where needed) and that was it.
There are 23 videos before he even gets to the key of G, then he has one song for the key of G and then move on to the key of D and then one song, and the key of A and then one song but in those 23 videos there are several songs in these keys. It is like someone mentioned to him that people couldn't do the songs without having a basis in what the keys were so then he made some videos on each key.

Anyway, other than the video lessons, students make videos of themselves playing and then we get to see their video and Darol's response. He ALWAYS tells them they are doing great (even when they are so bad that I have to shut off the video) and he almost always tells them to do long bow exercises to get better...yeah. Plus a lot of the video exchanges are not matched up with the right video lesson.

The study materials sometimes don't match (according to key) with what Darol is playing. The forum is a joke. Very, very few entries and the administrators don't even answer.  The chat...I have never seen anyone on it and I have tried several times.

There is something  called Shout Outs which is like a chat but right on the board. It hasn't changed for two days now so that gives you an idea of how many people use it.

It is 9:30 at night and right now only 3 students are online. Not exactly a popular place.

So for my $35 what am I getting...well, I printed up some of the music in case I need it later...that's about it.

However, there are sample videos to every teacher and the classical violin player looks really good, speaks well and seems like he has a plan to his teachings although it looks too hard for a beginner but the mandolin player looks even better on his sample video and I actually learned  a lot from it so maybe when I get to playing my mandolin he will be a good teacher.

In other words, it might not be all bad, just don't go there trying to learn to play from the fiddle player Darol Anger.  :(

My Music Room

Phil was nice enough to clean up the spare room some. It mostly holds...junk and spare food. Phil cleaned up enough space so my new keyboard could go in there and I could use the old computer chair in there to sit in. So now all my instruments are in there and I enjoy practicing so much more. It is so nice to have a place where I don't get interrupted and nothing bothers me. As you can see my big fish tank is in there too. I also cleaned it up so that it is something nice to look at again. It only has two fish in it. I definitely need to get more.

Anyway, my violin, viola, the keyboard and my mandolin are in there now and I'll be moving the tin whistles in here as well. I have a heater and a fan and a little trash can. Everything I could ever need.

Violin Playing Videos

I have now almost reached a year of taking violin lessons. Phil took a few videos while I was practicing today from his phone and I got them uploaded tonight. Merry Christmas everyone. I hope to have better videos next year.

This first one is Rosin, the Beau (Ireland) or Acres of Clams (US)

This one is Ashokan Farewell.