Aaron Weinstein’s Intro to Jazz Violin live workshop is designed for fiddlers and violinists who have never played jazz or swing before. No prior knowledge of theory is required. In each session, Aaron will present a pre-composed solo for a popular jazz and swing standard that will focus on one device used for improvising. Each subsequent session will incorporate the previous session’s tools and the final sessions will include solos that use all the improvising tools he has introduced. 

Songs covered in the workshop include “Honeysuckle Rose,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” and more. Aaron will use backup tracks during the workshop that participants can use on their own to practice the solo they’ve learned and try improvising their own solos. Topics covered will include using melody as an improv tool, finding motives, arpeggios, harmonic entry points, and more. 

Each session will include notation (downloadable PDFs) for the solo being taught, along with an analysis of the solo and rephrasing ideas. Mandolinists can also benefit from the course, and separate PDFs that include mandolin tab will be part of the course materials. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn to play jazz violin (or mandolin) from the ground up with Aaron, who was named as one of Downbeat’s Rising Stars in the venerable publication’s 2019 critic’s poll.

Aaron Weinstein

Called “a perfect musician” by jazz guitar legend, Bucky Pizzarelli, Aaron Weinstein “is rapidly establishing himself as one of his instrument’s rare jazz masters.” (Don Heckman, International Review of Music). Aaron is a respected violinist and mandolinist, widely regarded as one of the mandolin’s leading exponents in the jazz idiom, and author of the jazz mandolin book Mandolin Chord Melody System (Mel Bay Publications). 

As a featured soloist, Aaron has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, Blue Note, as well as at jazz festivals in England, France, Iceland, Israel, and Switzerland. He has performed and recorded with an array of jazz icons including Les Paul, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Dick Hyman, Dave Frishberg, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross, as well as musicians as varied as New York Pops conductor Skitch Henderson and rock guitarist Jay Geils. He has written arrangements for vocalists such as Christine Ebersole, Linda Lavin, and the Manhattan Transfer’s Janis Siegel. Aaron is a recipient of both the New York City Bistro and New York City Nightlife Awards. 

With the release of his Arbors Records debut, A Handful of Stars (heralded as “the rebirth of the hot jazz violin” by Nat Hentoff of the Wall Street Journal), Aaron became the youngest jazz musician to record for the prestigious label. He is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, where he was awarded a full four-year talent-based scholarship. He was recently named as one of Downbeat’s Rising Stars in the venerable publication’s 2019 critic’s poll, and his recent album 3x3 features Aaron on violin, Peghead Nation instructor Matt Munisteri on guitar, and Tom Hubbard on bass, and is the perfect illustration of the beauty of simplicity. 

Workshop Schedule:

Sessions will be held every other Tuesday on Zoom, from 5 pm to 6 pm PST (8 pm to 9 pm EST), starting on March 5, 2024, with the exception of the final session, which will be held three weeks after the seventh session.

After the workshop is complete, students will continue to have access to workshop recordings and materials when signed in to their Peghead Nation account.

Session #1: March 5

Session #2: March 19

Session #3: April 2

Session #4: April 16

Session #5: April 30

Session #6: May 14

Session #7: May 28 

Session #8: June 18

Join Zoom Meeting - Intro to Jazz Violin with Aaron Weinstein, all sessions
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86268875032?pwd=WDNVc002T2FrYjdRMnVlWmxIYnd4dz09

Meeting ID: 862 6887 5032
Passcode: 505560