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While there are many options for free sheet music online, giving us near instant gratification when we hear a melody we love on a movie or TV show or hear our teacher mention that we’ll be trying a new concerto or sonata soon, it’s usually worth it ...
If you use a tuner or tuning app, you might have wondered why there are often little numbers next to the letters. Maybe you’re seeing something like G3, F#4, or A5?
There are several octaves the human ear can register yet we only use 7 letter ...
It's been a pleasure to do some remote recording sessions through the stay-at-home-orders this year. Most recently I arranged and recorded violin and viola on a handful of tracks for fingerstyle guitarist Doug Young's new Christmas album, "Forever ...
The latest article I’ve written for Strings Magazine isn’t just for violin family instruments. Enjoy it here.
Violin methods like Suzuki, the Solos series by Barbara Barber, and exam systems like UK's ABRSM, Canada’s The Royal Conservatory, and Australia’s AMEB offer graded repertoire intended to systematically prepare students for the major concertos of the ...
As of Thursday afternoon no further damage had been made by the CZU forest fire on the property where I live, but no one could get past the CHP blockades yesterday so we don’t know what has transpired in the last 36 hours, except reports that the fire ...
The fire in the Santa Cruz mountains became an imminent threat to us late on Tuesday night and we evacuated to a friend’s house in Santa Cruz. We got all the instruments out and most of the very important stuff. I’ve been kicking myself for forgetting ...
Please email me at laurel@laurelthomsen.com if you have a violin, viola, fiddle, music biz, or practice related question you’d like answered in the blog or on a podcast, have a story or insight to share, or if you’d like to inquire about violin, viola, or fiddle lessons with me, in-person or online via Skype, FaceTime, or Zoom.
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