Life of a violin-maker

For some of you, the idea of practicing without actually touching your instrument may seem weird. Every teacher in the world (well, at least 98% of them) will tell you – the more you practice, the better. And I can’t disagree with that. But here’s what I have problem with: when you practice only by playing, you teach your muscles simultaneously with your brain. It’s a fairly good method, but not the best. When you truly understand a piece, it’s excessively easier to teach it to your muscles. That’s why if you’ve heard the piece thousands of times it’s a lot easier to sightread it. And that’s why I’m in love in the idea of practicing before actually playing.

How much do you care about the quality of sound in your daily life? Every day I meet people from the music industry and I want to say just one thing – maybe you care, maybe you don't. But you definitely should. With quality comes clarity and understanding. Manufacturers of our common products know that communication is the most important thing in the world. Without it, there's no relationship and no business. They invent good speakers and put it in your smartphone so you can hear not only what others have to say but how they say it - a slight difference in tone makes a huge difference in substance. You choose a laptop with good built-in speakers to clearly hear the dialogue from a favourite show. And I know people who love music so much they can spend hundreds – or maybe even thousands of dollars on a sound system that allows them to listen to high-quality music.   There's a saying that music is a language we all understand. It doesn't speak words, it speaks emotion...