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Is Talent Enough?

"Eric, you're talented. But, talent is not enough"

Those words have defined who I am and how I wanted to be portrayed for the last 8 years.

Nowadays it's important to know that playing the violin very well isn't enough to have a sustainable music career. 

Here are some of the things I think about as a violinist:

Building Relationships

For musicians, building relationships are something outside the practice room that we need to get comfortable knowing how to do. We practice countless hours…

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Why I don't practice for 7 hours a day

Well, I used to practice 7 hours a day in my youth. Although back then I didn't really know how to practice efficiently. 

In high school, I was practicing hard and not getting the results I wanted. It was until I reached college where I realized that practicing smart and establishing a daily routine can be better for me in the long run than playing mindlessly for 7 hours. 

Here's why I don't practice 7 hours a day

It's physically exhausting

It's physically…

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Conceptualizing Sound

 

Sound. What do you think of when you think of sound when you play the violin?

We listen to music and sound differently then we used to 40 years ago. I bet you watched a bunch of different violinists on YouTube and thought,
"Wow, I want to sound like that."

Every musician on the planet has their opinion on sound. This leads me to a question on my mind, what determines a good sound from a bad sound? 

Is it their violin, bow, or strings? Perhaps it's a combination of everything? 

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Finding The Special Sauce

(2 min. read)

The picture above is EXACTLY what I'm looking forward to eating when I step off the plane. Some fresh tomatoes, basil, and pasta from the town of Piobicco. Also on the to-do list, drink a quality cup of Italian espresso every morning no matter what! 

While all of this sounds amazing, my duo partner and I are working hard to make sure that we perform well at the festival in preparation for our tour to Italy,. We talk about making sure that we perform at a high…

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I'm heading into the summer with a lot of new repertoire to learn and trying to learn this violin rep as well as I can so that it's performance ready. 

There are many ways to learn rep but I hope that this post will help you get an idea of how to reach our violin goals faster. 

Click Here to check out my practice tips

Before we dive in, I want to address that not all of these things may work for you. But I hope some of them will and get to use these in your daily violin practice.

Stick to a system

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As you can see from my previous post, a lot of music came way recently. 

I'm  thankful that I'm a part of many great projects that include a lot of great music. But I really want to emphasize one thing that we forget about when we approach a busy performance and teaching schedule:

Rest

Recently in the past week I've been coming up with some pain in my right forearm. Most of it has to do with adjusting my technique to accommodate different styles, and long hours in rehearsals from quartets, to orchestra…

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(2-3 min. read)

Ahh...the leaves in New England are starting to change colors, and the air is getting crisp.

Fall is upon us!

Many of you will be going back to school with lots of ambition and goals. 

Great! I'm so glad to hear this.

But here's what I want to tell you, folks. Your goals will not be achieved overnight, and you won't reach them unless you put in the work.  You need to ask yourself how much time are you willing to put into practicing. Are your goals so far out there that they almost…

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