I covered some Rhythm Exercises in today's Q&A. Had a few conversations on here about how to get more rhythmically diverse and free and this one way that I have found can help. The whole recording of the Q&A is available in the classroom for Premium and VIP members. Upgrade Here

Here is a little example of how you might use lines that you have learned when practising improv. Using one of the lines from the new course "46 Simple Lines in G"

A few members have been chatting in the comments about technique. Technique is a really interesting subject for jazz players because the world of jazz violin is inhabited by players from different places, musical backgrounds and varying technical ability on the instrument. I know when I first started jazz, my technique basically didn’t exist at all. I practised jazz HARD, and over that time I think I practised some weird points into my playing. Issues I’ve come up against time after time since playing professionally. Over the years Iv worked at it and had lesson with different teachers to help fix my issues. I would implore jazz violinists who haven’t had a solid technical foundation in violin playing to do the same; alongside you work on improv, take lessons with a good teacher in your area who understands your jazz goals (they can be hard to find) People who have a decent grounding should try to keep this up too but I always suggest that they start to use different material to work on their issues or technical goals. Find a way to work on jazz language whilst focusing on your violin playing. This is where my weekly exercises can come in handy. Rather than schradiek, if you know what you are working on, try to use enclosure and scale exercises to push your left hand. Better still create your own exercises out of lines that you like, that’s literally what I do! Btw, just 48 hours left of my 20% discount on all stand alone courses in my classroom. Those 46 lines could be a great place to start with the above!

https://www.anytune.app/ This is the programme I found for transcription. Good for Mac, PC or as an app for phone or tablet. They give a month's free trial and then ask if you want to purchase for around 40€. It's really easy to use with great looping options, and also speed and pitch controls. What I really like is that when you loop, it automatically clicks to the nearest beat, so it repeats seamlessly in time. Great bit of kit if anyone fancies trying it out.

What’s one thing that you think the violin can offer to jazz that hasn’t been explored enough in your opinion? I’d say double stops. Oscar Peterson always said that pianists should play like pianists and use the instrument for what it’s good for. The context being that when bebop first appeared, many pianists were focusing their playing mainly around single line work, emulating sax players, not exploring their left hand as much as in previous periods of jazz. Whilst the violin doesn’t have the same chordal possibilities as the piano, I think we should try to use the two note possibilities of the violin more. In both our arsel of improvisational techniques and our practise when we are trying improve our playing as a whole. In my 10 tunes course I incorporate it as an integral part of learning chord sequences. Using double stops two note chords as a way of learning the changes for tunes. If you can play through a tune using simple shapes for each chord, you will know the tune a lot better! Tcha Limberger is a great proponent of using double stops in his playing, I learned a lot from his approach to practising improv and technique.