When do people change strings? Just when they snap? Otherwise it feels like a pretty random choice/ difficult judgement to decide when the sound is my technique or due to the ' hard wear'

We all have that achilles heel. The thing that we hear in recording so fourself that we dont like. Mine is my intonation. I can be in tune, when I practice slowly and with intent. However I often hear videos of myself playing gigs and I cringe. I have improved a lot with it over the years, even in the last few months. It's always there in the back of my mind though and if I had a magic wand, that would perhaps be the first thing on my list. There is no magic wand, just practise, which thankfully I do often enjoy. I work on it in small ways all the time, annoyingly, the ear improves much quicker than your fingers so I'm always chasing the next milestone in my improvement. This is an issue that I think we can all relate to, regardless of our goals. Whats yours? Let us know in the comments. If you fancy a little help with your own goals, Im taking on a few more 1-1 students. You can get hold of my 1-1 coaching programme in the classroom. Its a package of lessons with me with details lesson reports and plans with the aim of helping you achieve what you want to in your own playing.

It takes a long time to get good at anything. Jazz is no different. But here are a couple of things I’ve noticed about learning it. Firstly, jazz is based on improvisation. We’re trying to make the music come out naturally, which means we’re really working on our subconscious. If you’re trying to get a certain sound into your playing, make a movement between chords more fluent, or bring a line you love into your improvising, you’re repeating it until it’s so ingrained in your brain and fingers that it just comes out. A lot of the time it feels like the stuff you practise isn’t going to show up at all. Sometimes it maybe even doesn’t come out but usually it does, just sometimes in ways you weren’t expecting. Secondly, there’s always a steep learning curve at the start. You make a big jump early on, and then it suddenly feels like progress slows down. It’s that old thing, the more you know, the more you realise you don’t know. As you dig deeper, you start hearing more possibilities. You notice all the incredible things other musicians are doing. And sometimes that can make you feel miles away from where you want to be. It’s normal. That’s why I love this group, I want it to be a place that fuels our collective journey and keeps everyone (including myself) focused on learning and sticking with the things that excite us about jazz.

I think this was the first video I ever saw of Stuff playing. I remember being super excited to hear some things I was always looking for in a jazz violinist. Groove, grit and jazz melody.

Come join me on the Isle of Wight next October 2nd-5th for learning, jamming and hanging out! https://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/pages/django-weekend-2026