Just watched the first Blues lesson? Here's your task. Have a go at soloing over the Blues in F backing track using the five lines and the sounds we work on in the video. Take a couple of the lines, play around with them, and record whatever comes out. Post your video below, or just let us know how you're doing and if you have any questions. Getting the first one down is the hardest part 🎵

I just spent the week at Tim Kliphuis’ camp in the Netherlands. It was great to spend some time with a huge group of professional and amateur jazz violinists. I think I realised a few things about us. 1. We are all quite driven “path finders” We don’t like to follow well trodden paths. It’s obvious of course, we have picked an extreme niche to devote our lives to. But it’s interesting that most jazz violinists don’t like to just study violinists, so many violinists I met spoke of how they like Grappelli but really want to find their own way of playing and don’t want to emulate him too much. 2. We aren’t a bunch of “Gatekeepers” we have spent our life dealing with gatekeepers, either classical violinists telling us we shouldn’t bother with jazz, or jazz musicians treating us in a certain way because we play the violin. I think it means that we don’t stand for this sort of thing, everyone I met at the camp was extremely excited to talk to each other about their playing, ideas or path and were extremely supportive of each other. 3. we are all “doers” As jazz violinists, we don’t get booked easily to do the thing we love to do. There aren’t many jazz musicians calling for a violinist. It means you often find violinists running gigs, bands or even spaces like this. By picking jazz violin, we are often forced into the organiser role. (I’m naturally very badly organised but through doing what I do, I current organise so many things) Anything you think I’ve missed out or gotten wrong?

Hi jazz violin legends! I’ve been deep into a big house move this past week, as well as performing at the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s meant I may have been a little slack on here. If I’m behind with anything that you need from me, just send me a message and Il get back to you. I’m actually going to be out of town again at the end of this week too but back at it all next Monday. I hope everyone is having a great August so far!

Lets play a game. Here's a simple melody you probably all know (see my video). I'd love you to post your own variation of it in the comments. Then, based only on what you hear, have a guess at the musical background or influences of the person who posted above you, and the person below you. Classical? Folk? Blues? Something else? Do more than two if you're enjoying it. The idea is to show how everyone has a unique voice, and how even the simplest melody comes out differently depending on the music we each know best. Your version says something about you, whether you mean it to or not. Have fun with it!