Rock Violin Foundations
CourseViolinContemporaryIntermediatePart 1 of 2
Part ofViolin

Rock Violin Foundations

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Duration2h 28m
Modules28
LevelIntermediate
LanguageEnglish

Lesson Plan (2h 28m)

About this course

Chris Haigh is a fiddle player and educator covering rock, country, bluegrass and jazz. Full bio on Chris's artist page.

This is Part 1 of Discovering Rock Violin. You'll learn how to accompany a rock band on violin (the rhythmic part the violin rarely plays in classical), then build improvisation skills through the pentatonic scale, blues vocabulary, chord-tone soloing, modal phrases, and full solo construction.

By the end you'll have the technical and harmonic vocabulary to play backing parts and improvised solos in a rock context - the foundation for the style-specific work in Part 2.

Who it's for

  • Classical violinists curious about rock and improvisation
  • Folk fiddlers wanting to branch into rock styles
  • Returning players ready to try something less formal

What you'll learn

  • Hold down a rhythm part behind a rock band
  • Improvise solos using pentatonic and blues scales
  • Use chord tones and modes to navigate progressions

What you'll need

  • A violin and bow you are comfortable with
  • A little music theory — reading notes and basic chords
  • A few minutes most days to practise and experiment

Explore the series · Discovering Rock Violin

  1. Rock Violin Foundations
    01
    Rock Violin Foundations
    You are here
  2. Rock Violin Styles & Performance
    02
    Rock Violin Styles & Performance

Meet the Guru

Chris Haigh

Chris Haigh

Chris Haigh has been a professional fiddle player for 25 years, with experience covering many different genres. He has played on over 75 albums, working with artists including Alison Moyet, Bob Geldof, All About Eve, Michael Ball, David Soul, Oumou Sangare, The Quireboys, Riverdance, Morcheeba, James Galway and Steps.

He has played swing jazz with The Kimbara Brothers, Diz Disley, Le Jazz, The Hot Club of London, and the Quecumbar Allstars, and leads a 7-piece Soviet swing band, The Kremlinaires.

Chris gives lessons and workshops on jazz violin technique and has taught jazz violin at Middlesex, Brunel and Newcastle universities and Truro College. His writing credits include nine fiddle books, among them The Fiddle Handbook.

He also runs Fiddling Around (fiddlingaround.co.uk), probably the most comprehensive and widely visited source of fiddle information on the web.

Published with

Schott Music

Founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz in 1770, Schott Music is one of Europe's oldest and largest music publishers, with a catalogue of more than 30,000 titles. Over its 250-year history Schott has issued first editions of Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner, championed 20th-century voices from Hindemith and Schoenberg to Ligeti and Henze, and today publishes sheet music, books and educational materials from offices in Mainz, London, New York, Tokyo and beyond.
Schott Music

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