Although I am not a full-time member of a professional orchestra, I have been fortunate to perform with a few over the course of my career so far. Here are some things that I’ve learned that you may not know about playing in a professional orchestra.

The two most common styles of violin bow hold are the Russian and the Franco-Belgian. In my experience, the vast majority of players nowadays tend to lean more toward the Franco-Belgian style, which is also what I personally use as well. The Russian bow hold was much more common in the 1900’s than it is today. Some of the greatest violinists of the 20th century used the Russian bow hold rather than the Franco-Belgian. Let’s dive into the differences between the two.

In this article, you’ll learn how to become a Suzuki trained teacher in 5 easy steps.

Paint it Black is a song first recorded by The Rolling Stones in 1966. It has since been covered by many other artists but rose to fame with the release of Netflix’s show Wednesday. In this tutorial, you will learn how to play the Wednesday Addams version of Paint it Black note-by-note on the violin.

Crystallize is an epic EDM violin piece. Crystallize was written and performed by Lindsey Stirling, who rose to fame by playing the violin while dancing. She has since become one of the most well known pop violinists of all time. In this article, I provide you with a tutorial and sheet music.

In this article, I share Eva Slong’s course: The New Way to Learn Jazz Violin.

The third movement of Vivaldi’s Concerto in G Minor (aka Summer) is such a fun piece both to play and to listen to. Vivaldi composed "The Four Seasons" between 1720 and 1723 while employed at “El Pio Ospedale della Pieta,” which was a girls school dedicated to orphaned girls. He worked as the Maestro de Violino (violin teacher) there and wrote some of his most famous works during that period of time.

Staccato, spiccato, and sautille are violin bow strokes. They are all notated with dots above or below the notes (as seen below) and sound extremely similar (both the words and the bow strokes themselves!). In this article, you’ll learn how to play each one of them, what their differences and similarities are, and how to determine which one to use.

Spiccato is a violin bow stroke where the bow bounces off the string between each note. In this article, you will learn how to recognize and practice spiccato.

Sautille is a violin bow stroke. When performing sautille, the bow hair stays completely on the string while the stick bounces up and down. Sautille is an advanced bow stroke that should be learned after spiccato.

The scale acceleration exercise is the most common way that advanced players practice scales. This exercise is accredited to Ivan Galamian, one of the greatest violin pedagogues of all time, and is typically used to practice three-octave scales, although it can be done with four-octave scales as well. In this exercise, the scale will be played 6-7 times in a row, increasing the speed and the number of notes per bow each time. This helps the player work on speed, shifting, intonation, and smooth sound during long slurs.