Welcome to the JamWithLauren Blog
Many of these articles are inspired by questions from our JWL students. If you can’t find a post that digs into the issues that are plaguing you, consider signing up for lessons with Lauren. When you sign up you will gain access to her amazing curriculum and she’ll be able to answer your questions during our bi-weekly LIVE Lessons. Who knows, maybe your question will inspire the next post!
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Life Lessons Learned Through [Teaching] Music
We listen to music because we want to feel things; we play it because we want to feel things ourselves and because we want to make other people feel things. This means that it is crucial for musicians to feel like they can be themselves, and safely express whatever it is they have inside that reflects who they are. This is all about acceptance and making space for people. Creating music with or for other people is a common goal, but this doesn't mean that there is one way to go about it. In fact, there are endless ways.
How To Approach Learning as an Adult: Play Like a Child
One aspect of my studio that will always interest me is seeing how differently our brains process new skills as we age. My students range from 5 to 75+, and the physical, mental and emotional abilities are always unique to each individual.
Major Scale Lesson
After teaching with this book for over a year, I realized that these diagrams do indeed help foster independence and confidence in my students. They are, however, more helpful with my repeated explanations and guidance, and perhaps possibly overwhelming without my talking you through the fingerboard maps.
How To Prepare for an Anxiety-Free Performance
We’ve all been there. That moment before or in performance where things start to crumble and fumble out of your hands. Not because you’re unprepared - quite the opposite really, you’ve been practicing and sounding great. It’s just that right at that moment you’re not sounding your best. And then you start to get upset that you’re not sounding as great as you like/could/‘should’ and that exacerbates the problem.
I am here to strategize and make a plan so your next performance opportunities (either on Zoom or on stage or at your family gathering) are filled with more joy and less anxiety. Let’s get to work.
How to Use Source Recordings for Inspiration
I want to talk to you about listening to old recordings. These days there are many incredible resources available to us—a big one being YouTube. For example, this great video popped up a few days ago of Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham in 1971. If you have only a few spare minutes, check out their rendition of “Cluck Old Hen” just after 9 minutes in.
How To Know When to Move to the Next Tune
One of the most common decisions I make as a teacher is when a student should move on to new repertoire. When one of my JamWithLauren subscribers asked me how he’ll know when he’s ready to set one tune aside and start working on another, I thought it might be helpful to outline some general guidelines and share them.
How To Practice Your Fiddle Efficiently and Effectively
What should you practice?
It’s kind of a silly question, but it’s the most important. I mean, there are SO. MANY. THINGS. You could practice; new material, old material, technical facility, foundational building blocks like scales and arpeggios, improvising, composing, arranging, the list is endless.
Can You Sing It?
I’m a firm believer of the ‘if you can sing it, you can play it’ mentality when it comes to ear training. Correctly singing a phrase, or the entire tune, before you attempt to put your hands on the notes saves valuable practice time, which promotes efficient learning and good muscle memory.
A Pep Talk, Peppered with Fiddle Practice Tips
Why did you choose the Fiddle?
I’m sure all of you have a story- maybe your parents picked the instrument and it stuck, or your child abandoned it and you decided to give it a try, or you heard someone play around a campfire or on stage. But often all these stories can be boiled down to this: you love the sound of the instrument, and the feeling you get when you make the sound.