Greetings to all music enthusiasts!

In our latest content release, we bring you an instructive video featuring the talented James Manuele. The focus of this tutorial is on the bass string of your Antonio Giuliani Dreadnought classical guitar.

Dive into Bass String Exercises

James takes us through a series of carefully curated exercises for the bass string, each designed to hone your skills and bring out the best tonal qualities of your instrument. These exercises are not only useful for practice, but they also help deepen your understanding of the classical guitar’s bass capabilities.

Tailored for Antonio Giuliani Dreadnought Classical Guitar

While these exercises can certainly be applied broadly, they have been specifically designed with the Antonio Giuliani Dreadnought classical guitar in mind. This guitar, known for its rich and resonant bass tones, stands to benefit greatly from the exercises presented.

Questions? We’re Here to Help!

As always, if you have any questions about the exercises, your Antonio Giuliani Dreadnought, or any of our other products and services, we’re eager to assist. Our dedicated team at Kennedy Violins is committed to providing you with superior customer service. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at support@kennedyviolins.com.

We hope this video tutorial with James Manuele inspires you to explore the depths of your bass string and take your classical guitar playing to new heights. Happy practicing!

The post BEST Exercise for Bass Strings (Classical Guitar) appeared first on Education Center.

Today I’m going to be talking about the different kinds of violin bows and what you may decide is best for you.

The purpose of this video is NOT to offer an exhaustive list of all the different types of bows of woods in regards to genus, species, regions etc. I am intentionally keeping this video simple and very generalized.

When deciding on the kind of bow you should buy, you should consider:

1. Bounce characteristics
2. Sound production
3. Durability
4. Price

Generally speaking the primary question you are asking yourself is, how much compromise are you willing to make for a lower price point?

There are 4 different kinds of bows:

1. Fiberglass
2. Carbon fiber
3. High-quality wood (often referred to as Brazilwood)
4. Pernambuco wood.

1. Fiberglass bows are very good as rental bows or bows for school districts. They are very strong and inexpensive. The downside is that they sound, look and feel terrible. They also will often have fake horse hair, which is awful in just about every way.

2. Carbon fiber bows often offer the least amount of compromise when it comes to features VS price and have come a long way in the last 20 years or so. They used to be a slightly better option than fiberglass because they had a much better feel, and playability but the sound always suffered quite a bit. However, the modern carbon fiber bow has improved its sound quality by leaps and bounds. The most commonly known and probably the most popular brands of Carbon Fiber bows are made by the CODA company in the USA. The sound is very good on some of their models and the bounce characteristics are supremely hard to beat. I recommended these bows to my advanced students who could not afford a $3,000 pernambuco bow but wanted a bot that was 90% as good. A lot of professionals will use these bows as well as their back up bow or outdoor bow. The benefits to these bows are that they are durable, strong, bounce very well and are relatively inexpensive. However, I have never played on a Carbon Fiber bow that could offer the warmth of sound that a high-quality Pernambuco bow.

3. High-quality wood bows are generally referred to a “Brazilwood” bows. Many people think that these bows have wood that comes out of Brazil but is not as high quality as Pernambuco wood that also comes out of Brazil but the truth is most of these bows are made from a wood commonly referred to as “bullet wood.” It is a wood that is very high density and very stable. It is very similar to Pernambuco wood but is not as good. Most of it comes out of China. There are some inferior woods used as well on the cheapest wood bows and the wood is usually pretty bad. These bows “can” offer good bounce characteristics and can offer good sound. The best point of these bows is that they are generally less than $500 and if made properly, can offer decent bounce and sound. However, there is a lot of variability in these bows, so an expert should play test them to find the best bow. Often times, the price point does not mean anything, so you really have to test them out.

4. Pernambuco bows can offer the best bounce and probably will offer the best sound. Bounce characteristic is something that is somewhat subjective to the player but a pernambuco bow will almost always have a better sound than a synthetic bow. It is illegal to buy Pernambuco wood from Brazil, so the only way you’re going to get a true Pernambuco bow is if you buy a bow that was made in Brazil, you buy an older bow or you buy a new bow from someone who has a large stock of Pernambuco wood that they purchased years ago before it was illegal.

The post What Bow Should I Buy? appeared first on Education Center.

Tremolo on a bowed stringed instrument just means that you are creating a “trembling effect”. You will want to repeat the same note very quickly with very short bow strokes.

The concept of tremolo is not very hard to grasp. However, being able to move the bow as quickly as you’d like and being able to maintain the tremolo for longer periods of time can be much more difficult.

So are the biggest challenges of tremolo?

1. Being able to move your bow fast enough.

2. Being able to maintain tremolo for long periods of time.

The key to overcoming the biggest challenges of tremolo is to be RELAXED. Follow these 2 rules to be relaxed.

1. Do not use your whole arm. Only use the wrist when trembling. The less large muscles and joints you activate the better. Resist the urge to tighten up your elbow or bicep. As soon as you tighten your elbow or bicep, your whole arm will tighten up.

2. Only use three fingers: Thumb, 1st and 2nd finger. Your ring finger and pinky should be completely relaxed. Your ring finger will barely lay on the bow and your pinky will not even be contacting the bow. Focus on moving just the TIPS of your fingers. This will help you focus on the right muscle groups.

How to practice?

When practicing tremolo, isolate your entire arm by resting it on your knee. This will help you only use your wrist and train your mind to incorporate the only muscles you should be using.

GIANT CHEAT!!

When playing in an orchestra, you can rest your arm on your right knee for long tremolo sections. Obviously, this only works on the upper strings and it may be seen as “bad form”, so don’t get caught. But it works….

The post How to Do Tremolo on the Violin appeared first on Education Center.

Ponticello is an effect that is most often used in orchestral music to show danger or mystery. It colors the sound in such a way that it conveys a sense of coldness or starkness. There are varying degrees of ponticello but all of them are played near the bridge and produce this mysterious or scary effect. The closer to the bridge you play, the more of the effect you get. It’s also used in jazzy types of music to make the sound “dirty”.

To effectively play ponticello, you have to make sure that you keep your bridge straight and play right extremely close to the bridge. Usually, ponticello is played with a “tremolo” bow technique, which involves repeating very short bow strokes very quickly at the tip of the bow. My video on tremolo can be found here:

In an orchestra, you will usually see “Sul Ponticello” on a certain passage to indicate the use of ponticello and usually a marking that says “normal” or something like that to indicate that the ponticello effect has ended.

Do you have any more questions? Feel free to message me in some way or ask in the comment section of YouTube and I’ll get right back to you!

The post How to Do Ponticello appeared first on Education Center.

Hello Everyone,

Todays video is about learning how to bounce your bow. Bouncing your bow on a stringed instrument is more commonly known as Spicatto.

There are many types of Spicatto and today we are only going to focus on the primary mechanics of a simple Spicatto bow stroke. I will cover more techniques and practice exercises in later videos.

There are 2 primary things you can do that will pretty much guarantee your success in learning how to bounce your violin bow.

Remember, success with Spicatto = CONTROL.

1. You must practice with a metronome

—Practicing with a metronome will give you consistency from day to day on the speed at which you practice.
—Practicing with a metronome will provide you with a steady beat that will engrain in you an even stroke. This will help you be consistent, relaxed, accurate and clean.

2. You must have a relaxed bow hand.

— A relaxed bow hand is pretty much mandatory to achieve spicatto at higher speeds.
— A relaxed bow is only possible with a proper bow hold: bent thumb, bent pinky.

There are a few points to remember.

1. The faster the bounce the further up the bow you will bounce.

2. The faster the bounce the less vertically the bow will bounce. The bounce will height will become smaller as speed increases.

3. Turning your bow slightly away from you, so it’s on an angle will help with achieving a less scratchy sound.

4. The faster you bounce, the more the BOW is doing the bouncing. Conversely the slower the bounce, the more YOU will be controlling the bounce.

Here is how to practice bouncing your bow.

1. Practice the motion: Find a spot near the base of the bow (about 9-10 inches from the frog) and start bouncing. You can think of the bow as if it’s an airplane. The better it lands the better then sound. The worse it lands the worse the sound. How the bow contacts the string will determine your sound quality, so you are mostly learning how to control how the bow contacts the string. Start from a raised bow position ABOVE the string and let the bow hit the string and then lift.

Remember to strike the string in between the fingerboard and the bridge.

(There are techniques where you learn to bounce the bow FROM the string but this technique is much harder to learn and the results are less consistent without expert guidance from an experienced teacher.)

2. After you have learned the basic motion. Practice the motion with a metronome. Put the metronome at 62 BPM and bound each note 4 times. Each bounce is a beat on the metronome. Use a basic Major scale for the exercise. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 on every string.

3. Gradually build the speed with the metronome. A good goal speed would be 192 BPM.

4. After you are successful getting to 192 BPM or even a bit before, practice bouncing the bow 2 times times per beat and then once per beat. You can then Make it much harder with more advanced exercises. For example, you can do the same exercises listed above but with a two octave scale and then a 3 octave scale.

The post How to Bounce a Bow appeared first on Education Center.

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Mastering Guitar Techniques: Exploring Accidentals and Melodies

Welcome back to our guitar tutorial series! In this lesson, we will dive into the fascinating world of accidentals and explore how they can enhance your guitar playing. By incorporating accidentals, such as sharps and flats, into your melodies, you can create captivating musical arrangements. So, let’s pick up our guitars and embark on this musical journey together!

Exploring the Chromatic Scale

NOTE: In this article we use the notation for classical guitar fingering:

• Pulgar = Thumb (P)
• Indice = Index (I)
• Medio = Middle (M)
• Andular = Ring (A)
• Chico = Pinky (C)

To understand accidentals, we begin with the chromatic scale. The chromatic scale consists of twelve notes, each separated by a half step. It serves as a foundational exercise for mastering accidentals. As you follow along with the book, we will start on the sixth string of the guitar, using the I and M fingers of our right hand. Remember to maintain a relaxed hand position with a gentle arch.

While ascending the chromatic scale, pay attention to the transition from the third string to the second string. We introduce an additional note, G#, on the third string fourth fret. By carefully navigating the chromatic scale, you’ll familiarize yourself with accidentals and develop dexterity in your playing.

Applying Accidentals in Melodies

Now, let’s move on to applying accidentals in melodies. We’ll begin with the renowned “Minuet by Bach” from the notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach. This beautiful piece in 3/4 time will help us practice string crossing and melodic playing.

As we play the Minuet, we encounter our first accidental—a sharp note. Follow the written music and play the sharp notes as indicated. Focus on alternating the I and M fingers of your right hand. It’s worth noting that the melody includes the B note, which we can play with the open B string or the closed position B on the third string fourth fret. Both options offer different tonal qualities, allowing you to explore the expressive possibilities of the guitar.

Diving Deeper with Duet: “Brother John”

To further develop our musicality, we’ll delve into the traditional French folk song “Brother John” in a duet format. Playing duets is a valuable exercise for improving timing and coordination. In this duet, we’ll echo each other’s melodies in different octaves, creating a harmonious interplay.

As we embark on this musical journey, remember to pay attention to the accidentals present in the melody. In particular, there’s a C# in the first measure. Begin with your right hand’s thumb for this note, and then continue to echo the same line. The inclusion of accidentals adds depth and complexity to the overall sound, giving the piece a distinct character.

Expanding Horizons: High A Note

In our final chapter, we explore the high A note. Located on the first string fifth fret, this note is considered an extension as it moves beyond the first position. While we’ve focused on natural notes in the first position so far, the high A introduces a new tonal dimension to our playing.

To familiarize yourself with the high A, we’ll engage in exercises and melodic patterns incorporating this note. Embrace the challenge of playing beyond the first position and notice how the guitar’s timbre changes. This extension opens up exciting possibilities for creating melodies with a violin-like quality, enhancing your overall musical expression.

Conclusion:

Congratulations on delving into accidentals and expanding your musical horizons on the guitar! By incorporating accidentals into your playing, you’ll infuse your melodies with richness and versatility. From mastering the chromatic scale to exploring melodies with accidentals and embracing higher notes, each step in this journey brings you closer to becoming a proficient guitarist.

Remember to practice regularly, focusing on finger placement, string crossing, and maintaining a consistent brand voice as you develop your unique style. Stay tuned for our next tutorial, where we’ll explore new techniques to further enhance your guitar playing skills. Until then, keep strumming and let your music soar!

The post BEST Exercises for Practicing Accidentals on the Classical Guitar appeared first on Education Center.

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By Joel Kennedy

In today’s video, I’ll be talking about how to bow smoothly like a professional. In other words, how to learn the collé bowing technique on the violin.

Bowing smoothly on the violin takes a lot of practice and even if you learn the colle’ technique properly, it takes years before it truly feels comfortable and fluid.

collé is French for “stuck” or “glue”. The collé technique will have a glue effect to the frog of your bow that will make the bow seem stuck to your violin strings. Collé is important because if it occurs naturally in your violin bow hand, then many other bowing techniques on the violin will work better because colle is only possible when your bow hand is relaxed. Proper collé will enable you to play smooth bow strokes like a professional and enable you to learn advanced spicatto techniques, like sautille.

There are 4 exercises I teach you in this video. Practice them every day and you’ll have a smooth violin bow in no time!

The post Collé Technique or How to Bow Smoothly appeared first on Education Center.

Hi everyone, today I give you 3 easy steps to practice, in order to make sight reading in auditions EASY!

The 3 steps are:

1. What is in your foot? Just look at the time signature and ask yourself if you have a quarter or 8th note in your foot.
2. What is in your hand? Practice at home memorizing the first hand pattern for up to 4 sharps and 4 flats. With minimal practice, you will be able to memorize these patterns very quickly.
3. Rehearse. Finger through the first 2 or 3 measures as many times as you can until they tell you to begin. Remember to ALWAYS, follow the beat in your foot!

Quick tips:

• Don’t start before they tell you to. Use all your time!
• Pick a slow tempo that will provide you time to think ahead.

Good luck and happy practicing!

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