Cami Shaskin

Violin Blog


About


This blog is about all things violin. It is meant to educate, inspire, and provide resources for parents, teachers, and students. The author takes full responsibility for the viewpoints expressed here. In instances where she quotes ideas from others, she pledges to cite her sources as fully, responsibly, and accurately as possible. Topics will include book reviews, technique tips, entertaining anecdotes, quotes, jokes, educational findings, instrument care suggestions, violin in the news, repertoire lists, etc.

Cami J. Shaskin graduated with her master's degree in Music Education in 2008. Violin has always been her primary instrument, since beginning private lessons at age five. See camishaskinviolin.com/info for her music résumé, or click on Spotlights for historical recordings. Cami has enjoyed an array of experiences in writing, from penning award-winning articles as a journalism staff writer in high school, tutoring peers at BYU's Writing Center, earning a Writing Fellows scholarship and a minor in Language and Computers, and later becoming a published author. She recently picked up web programming as a hobby, earning a certificate in Web Programming and Development from the local community college. This blog has been a collaborative effort between her and her husband, who is a Web Developer by profession. Together, they designed and coded this blog and its original content "from scratch."

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Link: Welcome Post


Archive


2021
    Jan
        16 - Welcome to My Blog
        23 - Violin Teaching Kits
        30 - The Power of Inspiration
    Feb
        06 - Valuable Techniques
        07 - From the Top
        13 - In Honor of Valentine's Day
        20 - Violin Jokes
        28 - Beginning Orchestra Teaching
    Mar
        06 - Singing in Orchestra
        13 - Nurtured by Love
        21 - Helpful Websites
        27 - Unique Case Uses
    Apr
        02 - Favorite Music Quotes
        10 - All About Tone
        17 - Unique Composer Stories
        24 - Teaching Values
    May
        02 - Believing Teachers?
        15 - Violin in Art & Architecture
        23 - A Solo Repertoire List
        29 - Our Quartet
    Jun
        20 - Theft and Other Lessons
        26 - Violin Bridge Tips
    Jul
        07 - Clever Violin Memes
        20 - Horses and Lions
    Aug
        04 - Music During Covid
        16 - Favorite Music
    Sep
        12 - Being There
    Oct
        16 - Sight Reading Tips
    Nov
        05 - Why It's the Frog
    Dec
        20 - Bach on the Brain
        30 - Impact for Life
2022
    Jan
        23 - Tendonitis Helps
    Feb
        21 - An Old Performance
    Mar
        23 - Cars3 & Coaching
    Apr
        28 - Buying a Violin for Dummies
        29 - Preferred Brands
    May
        27 - Love: A Calling
    Jun
        20 - Gratitude for Idaho Shop
    Jul
        19 - Violinist Interviews Books
    Aug
        08 - Music Opens Doors
        23 - Top Classical Tunes for Violin
    Sep
    Oct
        11 - 100 Days of Listening
    Nov
        27 - Useful Analogies
    Dec
        28 - A Humorous Anecdote
2023
    Jan
        14 - Favorite Concertos & Sonatas
    Feb
        15 - Our Commonality
    Mar
        10 - Extras
        18 - Autopilot
    Apr
    May
    Jun
        06 - Motivation
        07 - Starting Lessons Again
    Jul
        08 - A Tale of Three Cloths
    Aug
        26 - The Ink
    Sep
        23 - Raw and Real Recital Reactions
    Oct
        18 - In Honor of Halloween
    Nov
        26 - Music Copyright
    Dec
        13 - Memes: Fun Facebook Finds
2024
    Jan
        15 - Fame and Fortune
    Feb
        05 - Details and the Big Picture
    Mar
        14 - Intermission
    Apr
        18 - A Day in the Life
    May
        02 - Oops!
    Jun
        14 - A Science or an Art?
    Jul
        15 - A Difficult Post
    Aug
        01 - Character Transference
    Sep
        20 - Anxiety Interview
    Oct
        02 - Sounds of Italy
    Nov
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    Dec
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Posts


Welcome to My Blog
16 Jan 2021

Hi! Thanks for your interest. An introduction to what this blog is about is over on the left sidebar. Some of the things I didn’t mention in the "About" section are as follows:

First, I need to thank those whose influence will definitely be felt throughout this blog. Thanks go to the countless friends, acquaintances, teachers, and strangers who taught me many of the things I plan to share in this blog. Most of my favorite teachers were not famous—most were very respected in a small area, but some were not even well known in their community for their craft, which makes their contribution to my education all the more wonderful and miraculous. I studied with one teacher because he spoke English, in a country that spoke another language, and yet he was very diligent about giving me a good traditional music education. Another teacher in the United States came out of retirement to work with me. Oh, I appreciated her!

Yet another, Janet Anderson, the one who started my violin education, is sadly no longer with us, and yet I owe her the world. I’m sure I wasn’t exactly an easy student as a child, because I was intelligent, and so I thought that equated to me being competent automatically. You know the type—the kid who thinks she knows better what needs to happen and who doesn’t listen because she’s “noodling” when the teacher tries to explain. At one point, this particular teacher nearly threw in the towel and my mom had to beg her to continue teaching me. Gratefully, she did. There are others who were a light to me in an otherwise dark world. Thanks go to all my teachers.

Thanks go to the amazing photographers, Laura Bunker and Lindsey Jackson, respectively, who took my portraits you see featured on the homepage of my website and my blog. I don’t know if Laura remembers me, as her particular set of pictures were taken nearly ten years ago. But her excellent work has been a blessing. And thanks go to one of my former adult students, Dean Eliason, who paid for them as part of a recording project he co-sponsored.

Thanks go to my incredible husband, Nathan Shaskin, who put in so many countless, patient hours, not just coding much of my website himself, but teaching me how to assist in the process.

Secondly, for those who don’t know, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ideally, it’s a complete way of life, not just a Sunday religion. Sometimes we’re referred to as “Mormon” (an old nickname with reference to the Book of Mormon) or “LDS” (for Latter-day Saint). So if I throw around the term “LDS,” you now know what that refers to.

In writing my posts, I operate under the assumption that my readers have an understanding of basic violin terminology (like what a fingerboard and frog are, or who Heifetz was). If not, there’s always Google.

Thanks for reading!

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This content has been proven to be completely dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, and made from code not treated with rBST. No animals were harmed in the making of this blog. The views presented do not necessarily represent the views of Ms. Shaskin's neighbors, kin, the U.S. government, or a mysterious worldwide network of musicians. Any reproduction, retransmission or reposting of content without crediting the author (basically me) is prohibited. Free Wi-Fi not included. If this is a life-threatening emergency, close your browser and dial 911.

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