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.

Tell the group in 1-3 words, what your current goal is for your playing. mine: learn more tunes

Go on, let’s hear it! My favourite living jazz violinist might be Ola Kvernberg https://youtu.be/ktVELUG8OKk?si=lR9AXKZSyQOXB6X9 My favourite jazz violinist from history is Stuff Smith. https://youtu.be/-yWnOCy3_qY?si=aeRaIy-ht3Zrrvuq

Hi all, There are two main streams into jazz violin: Classical and Folk. I’ve spoken a bit about how you can use your classical mindset to excel in jazz, but I wanted to see if anyone wants to weigh in on what folk music can bring to the table in terms of transferable skills for jazz. I find that learning folk music is extremely beneficial, as it’s often about learning tunes and focusing on style and small musical intricacies. The way I learn a folk melody is similar to how I approach a transcription, looking at the small details and trying to replicate them. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Over the years I’ve gone through a lot of different stages in my amplification journey as a jazz violinist. In an ideal world, I wouldn’t amplify the violin at all. We spend so much time practising to get our sound from the instrument itself, and when we practise, we’re not plugged in. So it can feel weird when we have to amplify, like it’s not quite the sound we’re used to. I went through a phase of always using a microphone, trying to find a way to get the most natural sound possible. But as we all know, you just end up feeding back all the time and struggling to play. It only really works in the right setting. Nowadays, when I do a gig where a microphone is going to work well, like a concert with a sound engineer and a decent PA, they usually have something for me anyway, like a DPA or a live condenser mic on a stand in front of me. If I’m not in that kind of setting, I use my pickup instead. I set it so the amp is just a bit quieter than my acoustic sound. That way I can still play how I play, without having to change my bow pressure to suit the pickup sound. If I’m in a really loud environment, with a loud drummer, a big band, or playing background in a busy bar, I just embrace the pickup sound and turn it up. I’ve spent a long time working on playing in these situations, practising at home using less bow and getting used to that sound and feel. With that said, these are the current products that I have: - Schertler Stat V - Thomann Violin Microphone What’s your current setup?