101 Secrets to Playing the Violin

I am a violist by trade, but sometimes I find books where I can use the information across instruments and this book does an amazing job!

Jo Nardolillo's Violin Secrets: 101 Strategies for the Advanced Violinist is an incredibly well written collection of little tricks and not so little concepts to understanding how to play the violin and, more importantly, how to improve playing the violin.

Each page in the book is a "secret" where the information is concise and formatted so cleanly that you can open the book up to any page and comprehend the information without having to read from the start of the chapter. While reading, I have been taking notes on specific "secrets" that I personally need to work on in my own playing.

Beyond my own playing, I have come to the conclusion that this book would be very useful for orchestra teachers in the U.S. because she gives step by step instructions for multiple concepts that could be used in a classroom. Jo has also included other websites that provide information about teaching violin-so within her resources she gives even more resources!

Even though the information in the book is supposed to be for 'advanced violinists' I could easily argue introducing this information to students on all strings at even the beginning level would improve their playing. A really great example of this is Secret #13 Don't Slap the Puppy on page 24. In this secret, Nardolillo explains how to train a puppy to sit. She then connects that our lefthand fingers are the puppy, and when we do something wrong in our playing we usually get upset and we metaphorically "slap the puppy." Jo then gives examples to use when practicing how not to slap the puppy. An example of this is she explains how to mentally coach yourself by giving feedback out-loud after practicing a specific task like when you overshoot a shift to "laugh and say, right direction just too far." She also gives a set of practice rules:

1) Be Aware. No negativity-only encouraging thoughts

2) Be Helpful. Give self tangible feedback. Give specific goals

3) Be Reasonable. One task at a time

4) Celebrate. Every success needs to be rewarded.

5) Pace Yourself. Take breaks-walks, stretch, chocolate. Try again.

These practice rules are concepts students should learn when just learning how to practice. They encourage a growth mindset that will help practice become a regular positive experience of learning. Her positive commentary should also be a lesson to teachers in general. Positive feedback and phrasing helps and encourages students to learn. Negative feedback and phrasing creates tension, leads students to thinking negatively about themselves instead of how to fix the problem.

I am still reading this book and plan on adding other favourite secrets later!

Nardolillo, Jo. Violin Secrets: 101 Strategies for the Advanced Violinist. Rowman&Littlefield, 2015