For anyone in here who’s been wondering about my Jazz Violin Practise Club, I’m offering a free try. We meet Mondays at 6pm on Zoom. Each week we look at an etude I’ve written over a jazz standard, take a few small ideas from it, and then work out some clear, effective ways to practise them so they actually go into your playing. It’s relaxed, practical, and we do it together on Zoom. Just message me on here to get access Matt

I took a short bit of the line we worked on in the Practise Club yesterday and used it to explore different V7 → i minor progressions where the A diminished works. A diminished 7th chord can be used over a dominant chord that’s a semitone below its root. Because a diminished 7th chord is made up of the same interval stacked over and over, the same diminished chord works in four different keys. So A°7 can be used over G#7, B7, D7, and F7. I played the same basic line each time, just changing the ending slightly to fit each key. Here are the progressions I played it over: • D7 → G minor • F7 → Bb minor • G#7 → C# minor • B7 → E minor

So many people learning new musical skills go through the same cycle: Initial inspiration, a short burst of practising a lot, hitting a wall, then stopping and waiting for inspiration to come back. If you’ve ended up in a pattern of doing loads and then nothing, it’s usually because you didn’t have the right ways to keep yourself on track. For some people, this becomes an endless loop. Here are a few ways I try to help stop that from happening. 1. Listen to the music every day.Listening helps you feel connected to the music, which often leads naturally to practise. It’s also one of the simplest things you can do to keep moving forward. 2. Find a short, simple routine that you actually enjoy.If motivation is an issue, don’t practise things you hate. Only learn music you really, really love. Find tunes and exercises that make you want to pick up your instrument and turn it into a regular part of your life. Nothing long or exhausting, just consistent.(I offer 1 to 1 coaching packages here that help people set this up.) 3. Show up for yourself.Using my Skool, you can post your progress in the discussion board for free and get feedback and advice from others. Or you can join the jazz violin practise club. That’s my way of getting involved in people’s practise, helping you show up once a week and work on interesting jazz language and exercises together. It’s my most direct way of helping people stay consistent. These are just three ideas that might help you break the cycle.

Today I played a game.before going onto Coquette I thought how many of last months ideas can I include in an improv? Here I am playing on » how insensitive ». I think I start making my fingering really deliberate when I start on something recently learned which is quite funny ..I hope people recognise some of these ideas from Matt…ps helpful feedback appreciated. I have an injury which is keeping me away from much practice atm

Hi Matt, I paid for this on December 19. I have the receipt. I don't see that anything was unlocked as a result of this payment. I also don't know where to contact you about it. I'm sorry to use the Community discussion. Can you help me? Thanks and Merry Christmas, Barbara Williams