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
    Apr
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Posts


Being There
12 Sep 2021
When I teach violin lessons, I love getting to the point where I no longer have to correct a student’s finger placement because they are out of tune, or remind them to bend their thumb on their bow hand to maintain proper posture and control. In short, when I no longer have to focus on facilitation, we can delve into musicality. Excellence begins to emerge. A song suddenly becomes personal.

The same thing applies to ensemble playing. In fact, I realized something about my previous post. The songs I posted are NOT my favorite classical pieces! Not one of them is on my playlist on my phone. In fact, I didn’t even watch the entire video for any of them after the post was published (with perhaps one exception). Why? Because it just wasn't the same. I wasn’t there for those concerts. They weren’t MY people performing.

There’s something amazing that happens when you personally rehearse live music over and over with the same group of people—something that you don’t get from watching a recording. As part of an orchestra, you feel the musical elements together. You try to spread a unique message with your rendition of it. You feel unity (more on this in a moment).

So why did I choose those compositions? I WAS there when I learned these pieces. I was involved. They have value in my memory.

It’s not about the notes on the page. It’s about being there, experiencing everything as if for the first time. It’s feeling the rumble of the timpani crescendoing. It’s smelling the rosin dust as you prepare to lay into the frog on that initial explosive bow stroke. It’s knowing what comes next before the audience does, and getting ready to milk that gorgeous, unexpected melody for all it’s worth. (Show biz.) It’s feeling the electricity in the air when, as concertmaster, you’re about to get your six-note solo. It’s glancing over to your secret crush in the other instrument section and noticing they’re enjoying their impressive passage of sixteenth notes just like you are. It’s noticing the conductor getting expressive during a particularly challenging portion of music for the ensemble: a portion that crashed and burned the week prior, but now sounds pretty good!

It’s about repetition. Here’s a strange, compelling concept: repetition can actually be meaningful! Classical musicians will embark on a journey and “wrestle” with a difficult piece of music. Making improvement after drilling a short section or after multiple grueling rehearsals is relieving. In the orchestra I currently direct, there’s a platitude on the wall in big red letters that reminds the students they can do hard things . . . and have fun at the same time!

There will always be something special to me about Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, because it took my high school orchestra an entire school year to get it to the point where we were ready to give a decent performance. I didn’t just learn the music backwards and forwards. I learned to count—not just all the measures of rest before I came in, but count on those around me. We were making something memorable.

And there’s something else . . .

For those into spiritual matters, I would argue that classical music is a spiritual matter. The Bible says we are all part of one body, and one part is not more important than the other. Could you imagine living life with only two fingers or no nose? Or no tongue? Every person is important to the whole. Including in a symphony! The Savior said, “If ye are not one, ye are not mine.” I would submit that being in a symphony where everyone is there for the selfsame purpose—namely, honoring the inspired music that came before—has a profound way of unifying the musicians. Especially when the quality of playing is excellent.

Some of the groups I’ve played in have been top notch. Players have dedicated their lives to their craft. When all the players have mastered the facilitation on their instrument, they can start to throw their emotions into it. They’re no longer playing notes. They start to feel the music . . . and they feel it together.
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