Two months of Vibrato Dojo in the books. 🎻✨ No matter how much you’ve been able to follow along, you’ve planted important seeds - awareness, new brain pathway construction underway, and the beginnings of your own vibrato voice. For May (still very much Spring energy 🌱 it's raining hard here in Austin as I type!), we’re shifting into the music side of vibrato. (Spoiler alert - this Summer we will pivot into bow skills!) This is where vibrato stops being an exercise… and starts becoming your one of a kind expression. - How do we use vibrato inside actual music? - When and where do you place it? - How do we not panic when the bowing and rhythm go sideways the moment vibrato enters the chat? We’ll be starting with something fun and intuitive: vocal-inspired playing. Over the weekend, think about this: What songs do you love that are sung with lyrics… that you’d want to play on violin? Or maybe something you already know and play, but want to make more expressive. That’s our entry point for applied vibrato. If you’re a Dojo student: New application videos are dropping in the Jenny's Daily Lessons portal next week 👀 If you’re here for community and base training courtyard exercises: You’re still completely welcome to explore this idea with us here. Try it, share, experiment. And lets be real, the time has been flying especially quickly this Spring, no? For anyone who feels like they want more time with the training reps - you can absolutely continue your vibrato training alongside this month. No rush. This is your timeline. Tell me in the comments some favorite emotional songs with lyrics that could be good on violin. See you there! :)

With improv

Maybe your brain will like this format! Take a look at the attached PDF. See what I mean? With familiar lyrics separated line by line - you might find it's much easier to learn and memorize a song. And then play it from your heart. To prepare, activate the part of yourself that finds jigsaw or crossword puzzles fun. It's a very similar feeling, only a tad more rewarding imo. Steps: 1) First find a piece of sheet music and confirm it's in a good violin key. Cheat code for this is look at key signature. If there are three or fewer #'s (sharps) or two or fewer b's (flats) you are probably in a good key. If you see tons of sharps or flats, look for another version with fewer. 2) Tab the sheet music. This is a free tool I offer to help with that: https://www.jennyoconnor.com/violinigma/ 3) Then sit down with a blank page and write the lyrics line by line in a way that feels even and right to you 4) Carry the tab markings from your music sheet over to the lyrics sheet. It may help to have your violin in your lap and pluck a few notes as you hum along to confirm what goes where If you try this, please feel free to share your song cheat sheets here! 🧩 Jenny

I apologise to your ears first !! This was a much harder than I remember . I know I’m flat in some spots but honestly, this was my best take in about a 1000. Last week, when I was playing and recording, it sounded like I never held a fiddle before !!!!!

Another violinist sent this to me today. We agreed we hadn’t thought much about Hot Cross Buns being an actual food item. Happy Easter! 😋🎻