My new classical duet - Pleyel Op4 No 3. First thing I encounter is interesting triplet phrases with enclosures. I’ve played these before but without connecting mentally to how they work as enclosures. I’m off to try these rhythms on some jazz lines….

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?

One of my 1-1 coaching students @Nick Cheetham just sent me a recording of their playing that really made me happy! It’s not really pertinent for this post to go into exactly WHAT we are working on together, my main point is this… I spend a lot of time working on my teaching, either the content I create for social media, the free challenges on here, the courses in the classroom, the weekly practise club and my 1-1 coaching. I do it for two reasons, One to make some sort of living based on my passion (jazz violin) But the main one is because I get really excited when I get to help someone make any progress in their musical journey. When I received that video today and listened through it really lifted my mood, it was a big “win” for me because I can hear a real “win” happening in Nicks playing. A big thanks to all of you on here for letting me in on your learning journey! Anyone interested in working with me either in my weekly practise club or 1-1, book a call with me via the link below. https://scheduler.zoom.us/matt-holborn/jazz-violin-chat

Drop a comment telling me what you are up to! I’m doing a little brushing up of some difficult melodies for a gig playing Djangos later music at Pizza Express Jazz Club coming up tomorrow Ever tried this one?

Il be honest, I’m doing nothing jazz violin related. I’m at the Islay Whisky festival in Scotland this weekend. Today I’m at the Lagaluvin distillery day and sampling the distillers edition bottle… However I’d love to know what people are working on this weekend I’d that’s how you are spending this weekend.