Upcoming Performances

Doug & Alex Cameron

Hope you’re all getting ready to enjoy the upcoming Holiday Season. This Friday, December 17th we’re headed to El Dorado, Arkansas to perform our Christmas Show with The South Arkansas Symphony under the direction of Maestro Kermit Poling. He’s a great guy and a fantastic conductor and musician. Looking forward to working with him again. The last time I performed with his orchestra I didn’t have a family, so I’m proud to be performing with them. If you’re in the area we’d love to see you there!

After that, we’re all flying from Arkansas to The Canary Islands off the coast of Spain to join The Azamara Journey to perform our Christmas show for them. Since cruising has come back, I’ve taken three contracts. It’s good to be back performing. It’s in my blood and I’ve missed it.

It’s been an interesting year for all of us. We have taken this time during the pandemic to concentrate on music. Alex & Sean have both made some great strides. Sean is doing great on the saxophone and has won the lead alto position in the Florida Allstate Big Band. There are only 5 saxes (2 Altos) in a big band, and from the whole state of Florida, he was chosen for first alto after playing the sax for only 2 years! His background on the violin certainly helped. Alex has been winning and placing in concerto competitions playing The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. He will also be in the Allstate Orchestra this year. Here are a few fun links. Alex dueling with guitarist Tom Voli on Carol of The Bells and Silent Night at First Assembly of God and a duet with Alex, Johnathan Sawyer and, Me on Oh Holy Night at last year’s Christmas Eve Concert. Alex is six feet tall now and is taller than me!

Doug Cameron

Master All the Fundamental Skills of String Playing

At this moment I am fortunate to be amongst sixty or so string-playing colleagues recording music for the soon-to-be-released Pixar film “Lightyear”. As many of you will know, Warner Bros scoring stage is hallowed ground for many a film music aficionado and it has figured prominently in my life as a recording artist in Hollywood for several decades.

Over the years there have been many changes in this business, yet one thing has remained constant; to be successful here you MUST be a master of all the fundamental skills that comprise string playing.

Rudolphe Kreutzer

And if you asked each and every violinist on this session where they equipped themselves with these skills, what studies they learned from, I bet that the 42 Etudes and Caprices of Rudolph Kreutzer would be at the top of virtually everyone’s list.

What is incredible about this is that they were written for students at the Paris Conservatory more than 200 years ago!  Of course, violin playing had had over a 200-year history at that time, yet these masterful studies put it all together. Today they are commonly referred to as ‘the violinist’s Bible’.

Way back in 2006, when I created my first instructional course for motivated self-learners, I began with Kreutzer. There simply is no better training tool for amateur and aspiring professionals alike to hone their skills. Yet as with all skills, it is essential that a player understand completely what the purpose of a given study is, this is why, after all, why most players seek out teachers and coaches.

But what about those without access to a qualified, master teacher?

It was for these folks that I dedicated one year of my free hours; to build a progressive program that would usher an intermediate player through these extraordinary studies, in the process illuminating all the technical details that lead to mastery.

Now this program, many, many hours of instructional video, sheet music, written notes and, accompaniments, is available as digital downloads at a terrifically reasonable price.

So, if you are resolved to raise the level of your violin playing game, and you either don’t have access to a top-drawer teacher or want for the big bucks to pay for one, there simply is no better course for you to take. Please come take a closer look at what this exceptional program can do for you!

All the best for a wonderful Holiday Season,
Clayton Haslop