Cami Shaskin

Violin Blog


About


This blog is about all things violin. It is meant to educate, inspire, and provide resources for parents, teachers, and students. The author takes full responsibility for the viewpoints expressed here. In instances where she quotes ideas from others, she pledges to cite her sources as fully, responsibly, and accurately as possible. Topics will include book reviews, technique tips, entertaining anecdotes, quotes, jokes, educational findings, instrument care suggestions, violin in the news, repertoire lists, etc.

Cami J. Shaskin graduated with her master's degree in Music Education in 2008. Violin has always been her primary instrument, since beginning private lessons at age five. See camishaskinviolin.com/info for her music résumé, or click on Spotlights for historical recordings. Cami has enjoyed an array of experiences in writing, from penning award-winning articles as a journalism staff writer in high school, tutoring peers at BYU's Writing Center, earning a Writing Fellows scholarship and a minor in Language and Computers, and later becoming a published author. She recently picked up web programming as a hobby, earning a certificate in Web Programming and Development from the local community college. This blog has been a collaborative effort between her and her husband, who is a Web Developer by profession. Together, they designed and coded this blog and its original content "from scratch."

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2021
    Jan
        16 - Welcome to My Blog
        23 - Violin Teaching Kits
        30 - The Power of Inspiration
    Feb
        06 - Valuable Techniques
        07 - From the Top
        13 - In Honor of Valentine's Day
        20 - Violin Jokes
        28 - Beginning Orchestra Teaching
    Mar
        06 - Singing in Orchestra
        13 - Nurtured by Love
        21 - Helpful Websites
        27 - Unique Case Uses
    Apr
        02 - Favorite Music Quotes
        10 - All About Tone
        17 - Unique Composer Stories
        24 - Teaching Values
    May
        02 - Believing Teachers?
        15 - Violin in Art & Architecture
        23 - A Solo Repertoire List
        29 - Our Quartet
    Jun
        20 - Theft and Other Lessons
        26 - Violin Bridge Tips
    Jul
        07 - Clever Violin Memes
        20 - Horses and Lions
    Aug
        04 - Music During Covid
        16 - Favorite Music
    Sep
        12 - Being There
    Oct
        16 - Sight Reading Tips
    Nov
        05 - Why It's the Frog
    Dec
        20 - Bach on the Brain
        30 - Impact for Life
2022
    Jan
        23 - Tendonitis Helps
    Feb
        21 - An Old Performance
    Mar
        23 - Cars3 & Coaching
    Apr
        28 - Buying a Violin for Dummies
        29 - Preferred Brands
    May
        27 - Love: A Calling
    Jun
        20 - Gratitude for Idaho Shop
    Jul
        19 - Violinist Interviews Books
    Aug
        08 - Music Opens Doors
        23 - Top Classical Tunes for Violin
    Sep
    Oct
        11 - 100 Days of Listening
    Nov
        27 - Useful Analogies
    Dec
        28 - A Humorous Anecdote
2023
    Jan
        14 - Favorite Concertos & Sonatas
    Feb
        15 - Our Commonality
    Mar
        10 - Extras
        18 - Autopilot
    Apr
    May
    Jun
        06 - Motivation
        07 - Starting Lessons Again
    Jul
        08 - A Tale of Three Cloths
    Aug
        26 - The Ink
    Sep
        23 - Raw and Real Recital Reactions
    Oct
        18 - In Honor of Halloween
    Nov
        26 - Music Copyright
    Dec
        13 - Memes: Fun Facebook Finds
2024
    Jan
        15 - Fame and Fortune
    Feb
        05 - Details and the Big Picture
    Mar
        14 - Intermission
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Posts


Why It's the Frog
05 Nov 2021

I learned this treasure in grad school. I was a graduate assistant for a String Techniques class at the time. The lady who was responsible for teaching the class was a talented musician around my age, and we quickly became friends. The students were studying to become teachers themselves, in some type of K-12 school setting in the future. Most of them had a background in band, not orchestra. They were in our class to learn the ins and outs of working with a string section. One day in class, one of the undergraduate students raised their hand and asked, "Why is the frog called the frog?" I chuckled. It was a question we all wondered, even as experienced string players. But I was surprised when my friend actually had a response instead of a shrug! One of her hobbies was caring for and riding horses. She knew her horse anatomy. She also knew her world history. And she had an educated theory as to an answer to that question. The violin, she explained, dated back hundreds of years, and even nomadic cultures had these instruments. These nomads raised horses on the plains. It's common knowledge that the bow hairs for a violin, viola, cello, or string bass, are made from real horsehair. Well, she said, why would it be a stretch to imagine that these nomads referred to other elements of their musical instruments based on horses, something they knew and understood?

She then told us that the bottom of a horse's hoof is called the "frog." Interesting! As we violinists know, the frog of the bow makes up the base or bottom of the bow (where the hand holds it). The correlation is clear! The bottom of the hoof and the bottom of the bow, both responsible for movement and grounding, in their respective ways, were called by the same name! I felt like a light bulb had just turned on. This experience occurred a while ago. More modern blogs (2013, 2020, etc.) on violin-making also corroborate this fascinating theory as a legitimate one. Click here for an example. (In addition, that particular article explains that the frog of the bow used to be called the "heel," a similar comparison . . . . )

You're welcome.

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