I need your help planning activities for this year! I’m going to make 3 posts with 3 separate Qs for you guys. Let’s face it- there’s always some new mountain to climb on violin. That’s the beauty of it! (And can also be frustrating at times. 😅) So first I’d love to hear a little about what you overcame in 2025. Did you try anything new or meet any milestones large or small? If you’d like to do this exercise and give yourself some credit, please list those out and send over to me as a comment on this post.

What would be your words of wisdom or top tips to someone just starting violin or thinking about it? Do you have any secrets or things looking back that helped you keep from getting stuck? I was thinking there are 5 main pillars of adult violin learning. But after a little convo here with @Graham Acres and @April Ellis I think we may have just discovered #6. (The convo resulted in it appearing that while everyone else is playing Holly Jolly Christmas, both pirate and vampire music will be a focus here this December 💪🎻. Go us haha) This is my running list of main “pillars”: 1) Community (yay Skool for making this possible again) 2) Bite sized video lessons 3) Alternate working on techniques and songs 4) Play music you like 5) Asynchronous support (like VideoAsk or Skool so you can get feedback from a teacher and keep progressing without having to synch schedules for a lesson) 6) Do what you want 💥 I guess the new 6 goes together with 4 but it can be expanded to more than just song choice. Violin learning is notoriously rigid because it was designed for children in a high stakes time. Adults can figure out what’s working for them and not, and therefore can have total freedom in the approach. Mix and match systems, have more than one teacher, play a song that’s too hard, disregard any or all of my pillars etc, etc Then if you do get stuck, adjust. It’s not the end of the world. Anyway, now I’m preaching to the choir. Would you add anything to my pillars list?

Hello everyone ! I’m targeting you Americans here for knowledge!!! I have been kindly invited to my American neighbours for Thanks Giving. ( First time for this and I don’t know what to expect or wear ect… all advice will be taken in ) She plays the piano ( I would say she is a pro) and wants to duet with the violin for Xmas , she is eyeing the Michael Buble stuff. I’m an introvert performer and only play with an audient ( my son), whom has no choice but to listen, haha. So I would love some song suggestions to play for these two occasions or even practice ( I’m not expected to play for Thanks giving !) All advice is appreciated !! Thank you for your time !!

Nothing to do with violins, but this just happened in my back yard, so I thought I would share it with you guys. You could actually see it with your own eyes and without a camera 😊 ( most of the time you can only see it through a lens) Just a quick edit for those who want to visit and see this :- In the summer months here, it doesn’t get dark until at least 2am in the morning ( even then it is lights due to the sun rising at 4am) So no good for the aurora viewing

Howdy all! I have been working on the Alison Sparrow arrangement of LOTR Medley. I pulled it out of the 'not quite experienced enough yet' vault. I give you In Dreams, and Concerning Hobbits. Allllll feedback welcome! @Jenny O'Connor your little padawan is growing in the force!! 🥺🎻🎻🎻