Hardly anyone would argue against the merits of traditional classical training as the foundation of good string playing. Yet for string players wanting to venture beyond classical music into jazz, rock, fiddling, and other genres, there’s an entire spectrum of essential licks and grooves not accessible in the classical curriculum.

“The fact that many classical violin players feel humiliated around fiddlers and improvisers, and vice versa, is a sign that some people can do some things but not others, and there’s room for everybody to learn,” says jazz violinist Matt Glaser, who heads the string department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

But how to begin? Before you can get groove-based music into your fingers and bow arm, warns Glaser, you have to get it between your ears. Start by exploring recordings of Stéphane Grappelli, Regina Carter, Boyd Tinsley, and others. “The ability to sing the lines and mimic the phrasing is important,” Glaser says, “Then you have to bring that to your violin and solve the technical stumbling blocks. It takes constant revisiting and revision. People should tape themselves playing these lines, and listen back and make an honest appraisal: Does that sound right, does it sound natural, does it sound organic in that idiom, or is it forced and unnatural in some way?”