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!
Understanding Bow Direction and Why It Matters: A Fiddler’s Guide
The bow sets the fiddle apart from all other instruments. With the bow, a fiddler can emote like a vocalist and groove like a drummer. Bowing styles can help listeners identify the musician from a single phrase- perhaps even a few notes. On the flip side, the bow can be a source of aggravation and keep fiddlers from unlocking their full potential.
How to Start Improvising on Fiddle Tunes
I’ve always been nervous about improvising solos. If you’ve been in a band with me or perhaps been a particularly observant audience member, you know that I usually pass on the opportunity to step up to the mic and bust out a dazzling solo. But, something shifted when I had kids…
How To Improve Your Groove
Groove is such a difficult concept to pin down in words. And I already knew this because I try to talk about it on a regular basis! I talk about it with my bandmates, with my students, and with my musician friends, and we often find ourselves struggling to articulate what exactly we want to say. Groove is mysterious. Groove is what makes music and people dance.
How To Play Music At A Faster Tempo
When you are ready to move up a level and begin to increase your tempos, it’s an exciting time. Whether you’re going from slow to mid, or mid to performance and jam speeds, this post should have some helpful suggestions for your time in the woodshed.
5 Ways to Jam Without a Partner
We might have just experienced a move, a change in employment and schedules, you can’t make the weekly jam at a local dive bar, or you live in a place where you don’t know anyone to jam with. In the meantime, I’ve put together some ideas on how you can simulate a jam all by your lonesome.
Let’s be honest, we’re never alone if we have our instruments.