Joel Kennedy

Author's details

Name: Joel Kennedy
Date registered: January 11, 2011
URL: http://www.kennedyviolins.com

Biography

Joel Kennedy is president and global strategist for Kennedy Violins Inc. He has played viola and violin for over 30 years. He attended the Eastman School of Music in New York, where he earned a Bachelors in viola performance and completed Graduate studies in education there as well. He has played professionally in orchestras all around the U.S and has students attending top conservatories in the U.S and abroad. He is currently a section violist in the Portland Opera in Portland Oregon.

Latest posts

  1. How to Return to The Violin After Years of Not Playing. — December 11, 2011
  2. Deliberate Practice Makes Perfect — October 22, 2011
  3. How To Buy a Violin — September 12, 2011
  4. Auto Racing and Stringed Instruments — June 19, 2011
  5. Practicing Rhythm — May 21, 2011

Most commented posts

  1. How to Prevent Slipping Violin Pegs — 2 comments

Author's posts listings

Dec 11

How to Return to The Violin After Years of Not Playing.

At Kennedy Violins, we get calls all the time from people who want to get back to playing after taking a hiatus of several years.  The one thing that these individuals have in common is that they regret not keeping up with the violin.  As a side note, if you are a current violin student …

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Oct 22

Deliberate Practice Makes Perfect

Everybody knows that if you want to be better at anything, you need to practice. Most people would also agree that while practicing is good, practicing more is better.  It’s also quite obvious that more accomplished musicians practice more than the people who are not accomplished musicians.  However, what many people are not aware of, …

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Sep 12

How To Buy a Violin

For an experienced violinist, the path to finding your “new best friend” may be somewhat simple in it’s initial approach.  Go to a violin store, play several violins that fit into your budget and buy the violin you like the most. However, figuring out how to buy a violin when you’re not the most advanced player can …

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Jun 19

Auto Racing and Stringed Instruments

Ok, you may be thinking “what does auto racing have to do with playing a stringed instrument?”. Before I started driving Spec Miatas at the Portland International Speedway, I had the vague opinion (as most probably do), that driving a car fast around a track, is mostly a matter of talent, a love of going …

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May 21

Practicing Rhythm

Article by Clayton Haslop Over the past two nights I was treated to two very special musical performances. The first courtesy of the Manhattan Beach California Middle School string ensembles, the second featuring the MBMS bands and percussion ensembles; all led by Denise Haslop and her gifted second, who also happens to be my next …

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Apr 24

How do you find a violin teacher for your child?

Where do I find a suitable instructor for my child?  Once parents decide that they want their offspring to learn a stringed instrument, they are immediately faced with this often challenging question.  For most parents, it’s very difficult to know where to start because most are not active participants in the world of stringed instruments …

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Mar 27

Humidity and Your Stringed Instrument

People often call Kennedy Violins and ask about how to take care of their violin. My response is usually to tell them that there is not a lot they have to do, other than wiping off the excess rosin after every practice session, so it doesn’t have a chance to build up.  However, where a …

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Mar 20

Violin Nerd or Athlete?

Article by the World Renowned Violinist Clayton Haslop. A few years ago I read a little article having to do with repetitive movement injuries and instrumental playing. In the course of it the writer made the following observation. Musicians are the athletes of small muscles. Certainly true. Yet, if the whole truth be told, we …

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Feb 28

Maintaining your violin

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Violins are pretty simple and there isn’t really a lot that you have to do maintain your violin, other than wiping it down every day and making sure you don’t expose it to extreme temperature/humidity conditions.  However, there is one aspect of maintaining your violin that many people miss and that is, looking at your …

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Jan 30

How to Prevent Slipping Violin Pegs

I was originally going to entitle this blog “how to install violin strings”. However, after a brief perusal of the Internet, I found a disturbing amount of misinformation about the problem of slipping violin pegs and I decided to write about that instead, since this is a pressing problem that we hear about everyday at …

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