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Baroque style is by far my favorite style of playing.

My violin teacher, second chair in a baroque orchestra called the Washington Bach Consort (one of the premiere baroque orchestras in America) has a good friend who sits first chair. I he a amazing baroque violinist named Timothy Haig, who was playing in Tafelmusik when he was 19! He is definitely better than many soloists today i.e. Manze, Kuijken, etc. He will sadly be retiring this year thoguh to go into real estate although he is only 29.

Thanks so much for posting that, Laurie. The video clips were especially helpful. When I made the jump to no shoulder rest my teacher insisted on her method two. Fingers followed by thumb. Most people would think that it was simultaneous but the motivation starts in the fingers then the thumb quickly follows.

I noticed though that he frequently uses her method three of an intermediate thumb position and moves around it. I gradually adopted that for some purposes.

My understanding of period (Baroque) music
is that the violinists use no shoulder rests, no chin rests, and gut strings. I like this teaching; concise, fast, and not metaphysical. This would be well worth the $150/hr bucks people are apparently asking. Thank you so much for posting this! Many things make sense now. Thanks. Very interesting. Excellent blog, Laurie. Thank you for sharing the videos and a big thank you to your friend, Tricia, for demonstrating her techniques.

Happy Birthday to you as well!

Adding choreography and the Fantasia-like Tafelmusic "Wave" seem a tad effected. Auditioning behind a screen would seem pointless if form points are given for synchronized swaying.

Seriously, is this added body motion, which is personally distracting, an authentic, documented portion of Baroque performance practice ?