Alex Taylor - Violin Teacher
Learn to play Classical, Folk or Gypsy Jazz violin.
​Schedule a Violin Lesson today!
Call/Text: 07837 017391
Learning music early can help your child read better
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Neuroscience has found a clear relationship between music and language acquisition. Put simply, learning music in the early years of schooling can help children learn to read.
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Music, language and the brain
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Music processing and language development share an overlapping network in the brain. From an evolutionary perspective, the human brain developed music processing well before language and then used that processing to create and learn language.
At birth, babies understand language as if it was music. They respond to the rhythm and melody of language before they understand what the words mean.
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Babies and young children mimic the language they hear using those elements of rhythm and melody, and this is the sing-song style of speech we know and love in toddlers.
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Musically trained children are better readers
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The foundation of reading is speech and to learn how to speak, children must first be able to distinguish speech from all other sounds. Music helps them do this. Reading is ultimately about making meaning from the words on the page. A number of skills combine to help us make those meanings, including the ability to distinguish between the sounds in words, and fluency of reading.
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https://theconversation.com/learning-music-early-can-make-your-child-a-better-reader
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Notes on performing
When I was younger I imagined it was possible to find a place of perfect musical expression: some mode, or technique of bowing or fingering that would solve all my problems; physical limitations of the body would fall away and I'd become living conduit of the music. Of course, I know now that true perfection does not fall within the purview of the human experience, but this doesn't mean I stop trying for it!
This is the truth of performance stagecraft: you are always in the process of eternally failing to realise your most perfect self, and constantly learning and growing as a result. Thus an authentic performance is not the smooth and polished fake perfection of an actor, but the honest presentation of the human soul - as my old teacher used to say - "warts and all!"
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Making it up as you go along
At University I was considered a bit of a freak by some of the other musicians (especially the opera singers) due to my odd propensity toward improvisation. "Improvisation is rubbish," an extremely promising soprano singer once informed me. "The correct way to make music is to carefully work on, and improve an idea until it is the best it can possibly be, and only then present it to the public. Not just make it up as you go along!" At the time I considered her view to be a little harsh, but her point had some substance to it also. After all, it's hard to argue that something made up on the spot should be given as much intellectual value as a carefully composed Mozart aria - although Mozart was a keen improviser, so there is that...
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The point I felt she was missing was this: when you're improvising you enter into a place that is more intuitive, rather than intellectual, and in this place you can find seams of creativity you otherwise would not encounter ("I am become music!"). This is the difference between thinking, feeling and, finally, doing. In the place of action one may create something truly unique, perhaps the 'new sound' the world has been waiting for! The controlled creativity needed to compose a perfect piece of music is never enough to reach the rare moments of pure creativity a little bit of chaos can induce.
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Also, improvising is more fun!
When dreams get in the way
It is often said that we can be our own worst enemy, and this is never more true than when we are practicing. No-one really wants to practice, they would rather play perfectly all the time with no effort. There is the famous story of cellist Pablo Casals who broke his thumb on a hiking accident: the first thing he felt was profound relief he wouldn't have to practice for at least a month! Is it in any wonder then that when we are finally able to do a little practice the first thing we do is drift off in our minds to some other place and dream of this and that in order to avoid experiencing the full horror of addressing our imperfections? Well, it is not only normal, it is natural, and all musicians must compensate for this by working as hard as they can to practice with full grounded focus, instead of wafting away into their imaginations, painting castles in the sky while neglecting their scales and arpeggios .
Folk fiddle technique
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Generally speaking, if you want to sound more folky you can start by digging in a bit more with the bow ('taking' the string) and slightly stiffen the upper shoulder to allow more bounce. This process is very similar to early music technique, which makes sense as folk music is mostly from around the same time period. You can use this technique for gypsy music and jazz also.
It's also a good idea to back off a bit with the volume. A classical violinist is expected to fill a vast concert hall with his tiny violin; he needs to get every ounce of sound out of that thing, but a folk fiddler need only be heard at the back of a pub, or, if she's playing with a band there are special microphones that sit on the bridge and give a perfect sound.
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Also, you don't need to play perfectly in tune all the time! While it's definitely necessary to be aware of ones intonation it is sometimes nice to allow oneself the freedom to be slightly out once in a while, giving your performance a more 'human' feel. The best gardeners understand when it is nice to leave a few weeds growing in the flower bed, and it is the same with the violin.