I Can Play Violin

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I Can Play Violin Become a life-long, self-taught learner by playing the violin. Since 1990.

https://tekleed.com/now-christian-children-can-learn-to-play-violin-at-home/

Hanes' programs have been purchased by students around the USA and the world.

Update: I'm playing violin at church still--as I have since the 1980's. And, teaching a handful of choice students. The ...
09/15/2026

Update: I'm playing violin at church still--as I have since the 1980's. And, teaching a handful of choice students. The announcement is that... I'm opening my (In-person, Online Live, and Self-paced video) violin studio to 2-10 more students. If someone you know is interested--and want a Minnesota HOMESCHOOLING dad/grandpa teaching them...
..would you mind putting "me" in the comments or DM me here on FB?

THANK YOU!

100% Human Generated Content Below...How to help yourself (or your child) learn to play violin faster and without frustr...
09/07/2026

100% Human Generated Content Below...

How to help yourself (or your child) learn to play violin faster and without frustration...

Step FOUR of PEARLS:

RESTRUCTURE FORM

Change something about how you played your small part of the music in the "P" step.

Change your left hand palm angle.

Change your bow angle or position between fingerboard and bridge.

Change your right hand grip on the bow.

Adjust the location of your left elbow (bring under the violin more, for example).

Tip: You are your own best teacher! Others like I Can Play Violin simply unlock your potential to help yourself!

(Is this new to you? Leave a like and comment "PEARLS" and I'll send you my free guide!)

If you want the rest of PEARLS, like this post and comment "PEARLS" and I'll send you the rest, free.

Brooks

100% Human Generated Content Below...How to help yourself (or your child) learn to play violin faster and without frustr...
09/04/2026

100% Human Generated Content Below...

How to help yourself (or your child) learn to play violin faster and without frustration...

Step THREE of PEARLS:

ASSESS SELF

How can you specifically do that small "P" portion better?

Did you play flat? Sharp? Did you use the right bow up/down? Did notes have good tone? Did you follow all the markings? Are you playing with the correct dynamics?

Tip: No one else will make you a better violinist. It's up to you.

(Is this new to you? Leave a like and comment "PEARLS" and I'll send you my free guide!)

CHECK BACK MONDAY: Step FOUR of PEARLS...

100% Human Generated Content Below...How to help yourself (or your child) learn to play violin faster and without frustr...
09/03/2026

100% Human Generated Content Below...

How to help yourself (or your child) learn to play violin faster and without frustration...

Step TWO of PEARLS:

ENGAGE CRITIQUE

Critique yourself. Did you play it the best way?

Does it sound like a professional recording you've been hearing?

Tip: Be hard on yourself, so others do not have to be.

(Is this new to you? Leave a like and comment "PEARLS" and I'll send you my free guide!)

CHECK BACK TOMORROW: Step THREE of PEARLS...

How to help yourself (or your child) learn to play violin faster and without frustration...Step One of PEARLS:PERFORM A ...
09/02/2026

How to help yourself (or your child) learn to play violin faster and without frustration...

Step One of PEARLS:

PERFORM A SMALL PART OF the MUSIC

A measure... a phrase... a line... even TWO NOTES...

Tip: do NOT play too much music.

(Is this new to you? Leave a like and comment "PEARLS" and I'll send you my free guide!)

CHECK BACK TOMORROW: Step Two of PEARLS...

NOW AVAILABLE: Our private Farmington, Minnesota beginner-to-advanced violin studio has six 30-minute FREE assessment le...
09/01/2026

NOW AVAILABLE: Our private Farmington, Minnesota beginner-to-advanced violin studio has six 30-minute FREE assessment lesson spots available -- IN PERSON or ONLINE -- now through September 30. Like and comment "ME" before September 10 if you'd like one... we will message you the details.

OUR GUARANTEE: You will receive swift, professional, and gracious training and advice to play with more tone and skill, or to simply begin playing.

THE BIGGEST UNSPOKEN SECRET TO SUCCESSFUL VIOLIN MASTERY(100% Human-Generated Content)Part 4 of 4The world will watch pe...
09/01/2026

THE BIGGEST UNSPOKEN SECRET TO SUCCESSFUL VIOLIN MASTERY
(100% Human-Generated Content)

Part 4 of 4

The world will watch people forever drop the violin normally not due to lack of work but lack of desire to work.

And the rest of their lives will reflect the same kind of lack of desire to work.

Let’s be plain and simple about dedication.

Dedication gives you the patience to get better.

Getting better at the violin is very easy if you work at it a little bit at a time.

I won’t go into little stories about the best way to eat an elephant (although my kids are full of jokes about it. OK, I guess I will: how do you eat an elephant? First you open the refrigerator and take out the elephant...)

In all seriousness, (sarcasm layered thick here) and I’m sure you love seriousness more than having fun—I will say that we all know little pieces taken daily makes it easier to do anything.

If you are a subscriber of my newsletter in 2016 you would have seen a photo of some of my kids (Solomon, Kinsley Kinsley Newbrough, Ethan, Lily, Eva, and Judah in case you were wondering) and my nephew John at the Mall of America.

I emphasize stress the importance of taking a break and celebrating.

I know you may not have the Mall of America, the world’s greatest mall, near you.

I am a bit biased because it is so close to me.

But you will have some place where you can get away and say, “Kids, I would love to celebrate the fact that you’ve stuck with violin for a little while.”

(Note to my subscribers. To you—and thank you for subscribing to a membership to my stuff—you’ve gotten a newsletter. You’ve done the Sudoku. You’ve done the mazes.)

(And I’m excited for you that you’ve kept with it. Tell your children you are going such-and-such-nice restaurant and order dessert because we never do or even go a little bit less expensive if you need to. Or, stay at home and throw a little popcorn party. Rent a movie and have the kids pick it out, those who have been practicing, not to put down those who haven’t but to encourage them. Make a goal. Set a goal and keep it.)

But of course the greatest reward, as I’ve said many times, is intrinsic.

It comes from inside when you’re able to play and work at something hard and reap the rewards.

It’s a little bit like going out to the garden and picking raspberries. Knowing that you put those raspberries in three months earlier makes the raspberries a little bit sweeter and the thorns a little bit less prickly.

That’s what it is to play violin. It takes hard work.

It’s summer, currently, and I am enjoying time with my kids.

I hope that you are too.

It’s really a time not where everyone stops working.

I have to work a lot.

But it’s a time where you can say, “Let’s do this and that on this day knowing that you’re taking a break from schooling.

"This fall, here’s what we’re going to do.”

--- You made it to the end!

What are your thoughts? How do you help your kids learn violin?

THE BIGGEST UNSPOKEN SECRET TO SUCCESSFUL VIOLIN MASTERY(100% Human-Generated Content)Part 3 of 4If you've been followin...
08/31/2026

THE BIGGEST UNSPOKEN SECRET TO SUCCESSFUL VIOLIN MASTERY
(100% Human-Generated Content)

Part 3 of 4

If you've been following--I'm Brooks and I've been blessed to help hundreds of people learn violin around the world (over 13 countries). The photo is me, my wife, and one of my children, Eva...

continued from part 2...
..In a garden, work pays off with growing plants.

If there’s no work put in, the weeds will overcome and the plants will not be able to survive, and that is the situation in our world.

It is tough and it takes sweat and tears and even blood to keep going with something if you want to see any results.

And so violin is a lot like gardening in that situation.

If you are a gardener who goes out to just do no work, you can have fun watching your garden be overcome with weeds.

If you are a violinist who is in violin to not work and to just relax, well you can be sure that you will be able to relax while
you listen to the sound of your own music being annoying and screechy and everyone else will hate you for it.

They will hope that you put it away soon because you’re unwilling to work and garden this beautiful sound.

You will never be able to pull up carrots out of the ground without keeping the rabbits away, and you will never be able to perform a vibrato without working on vibrato, and you will never be able to play Spring from Four Seasons by A. Vivaldi (like my students did in our Gold Membership class) because you will never be able to work hard at it.

So the real problem is not that there’s difficulty but there’s lack of desire to work at that difficulty.

And that’s what happened when I was in high school.

I won’t mention the tens of people surrounding me in junior high school that weren’t able to stick with the violin for even two years.

Let me be crystal clear.

I am not looking down on people who don’t stick with violin.

The violin requires investment.

Work.

Hard work.

Dedication.

Time.

Money.

All of the above, violin requires it.

It clearly is not for some.

And I do look slightly askew at people who believe that there is no work involved.

Some may see the work involved and say, No, I don’t want to work so I should be done practicing.

Others may see the work involved and say, like for some reason I was able to and you will be able to, and say, I want to work not because I love working so much, although it is enjoyable at times, but because I want to hear a great sound come out of this piece of wood, string, horsehair, and mother of pearl.

(By the way, that’s on the bow frog in case you were wondering.) to be continued... Part 4 coming tomorrow!

The Biggest Unspoken Secret to Successful Violin Mastery (100% Human-Generated Content)PART 2 of 4.. Cont'd from Part 3....
08/29/2026

The Biggest Unspoken Secret to Successful Violin Mastery

(100% Human-Generated Content)

PART 2 of 4
.. Cont'd from Part 3... A side note about proficiency and excellence: my orchestra director who gave the private lessons was not a violin teacher.

He played cello.

And while he was a great director, he did not have many specifics which leads me to another point and that is that it’s not so important that you are surrounded by people with specific details on every single little point, but it is important that you are surrounded by people who want excellence from you and who also are trying to achieve excellence for themselves.

I think this is one of the reasons that the people do not stay in violin or in orchestra in general....
..they were bored.

They were filled with a sense of laissez-faire.

It was an attitude of “I don’t really care. I am in this class to just fill up another hour of my day where I don’t have to work so hard.”

Violin was not even a habit or hobby but it was likened to that of how to spend some time doing something where I didn’t have to work.

They were not dedicated beyond quitting.

What do you think the result was for those people who took violin and put it in their high school schedule in order that they may avoid other “more difficult” work?

Do you think they worked?

No.

Violin requires hard work.

And when there is no hard work, there is discouragement and there is quitting.

It is a garden.

(I was going to write it’s not like everything else that’s a hobby, but it is very much like gardening I would say.)

My wife Jennifer Glomski Hanes is out in the garden because she’s found that it is relaxing and enjoyable, but it requires hard, strenuous labor.

The reason it is relaxing is knowing that there is no way planting, cultivating, and protecting seeds from rabbits will NOT result in a culinary dream come true.

It’s a unique sort of relaxation because the work always pays you back with harvest.

In a garden... (To be continued Monday morning)...

The Biggest Unspoken Secret to Successful Violin Mastery (100% HUMAN-GENERATED CONTENT)Part 1 of 4There really is just o...
08/28/2026

The Biggest Unspoken Secret to Successful Violin Mastery
(100% HUMAN-GENERATED CONTENT)

Part 1 of 4

There really is just one key to mastery of any instrument.

In fact, this applies to mastery of anyone idea, concept, company, relationship, etc.

There is popular right now a theory that if you work on something for 10,000 hours, (the 10,000 hour rule) you will achieve success. In part this may be a valid rule, with a few exceptions.

The backstory to getting 10,000 hours in, however, is another concept.

It is dedication.

You’ve gotta be dedicated to get those hours in.

You’ve gotta decide that even when the world collapses with criticism around you, you will remain on the ball!

Let’s talk for a little while about dedication and how rare it is.

I find it very interesting that when I was becoming better and better at violin, I saw many people dropping out of violin even before they discovered potential in their own lives for
what could happen if they would stay dedicated to one thing for any amount of time.

For example, when I was in high school, we would have orchestra rehearsals about every other day.

This would then be followed on the opposite days, say Tuesday or Thursday, with small practice room gatherings of two to three violinists or whatever the instrument was for those people.

I remember getting into those rooms and realizing I was always with the same people over and over.

It was partially because my skill level was the same as those around me, but it was also because many, many individuals in the orchestra did not take private lessons even at the school—when they were provided for free.

In those days, there were no people like me creating memberships to help others remain dedicated and to help others learn more and more on their own, but we did have public schools giving free lessons.

(A side note about proficiency and excellence.... TO BE CONTINUED on SATURDAY)

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Farmington, MN
55024

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