Kids (usually) want to grow up quickly. That’s normal and healthy and good.

But it also leads to parents texting me on Sunday morning asking if they need to get a full-sized violin this week because little Johnny insists he needs a bigger violin.

(No. Johnny’s current violin is exactly the right size for him.)

#ViolinLessons #ViolinTeacher

@PinkColl

Best face-2-face ask a professional from an orchestra or school/university nearby.

#violin #violinbeginner #violinlessons

Practicing success stories from the violin studio today! Student who was only practicing 5 min per day [sic] upped that to 20 min per day and their folk reel sounded like they knew it!

Other student—the one where I wasn’t sure if it was how they were practicing or *if* they were practicing—came into their lessons OWNING their scales in several different rhythm patterns.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ to you both, dear students of mine. You rock!

#Violin #ViolinLessons #ViolinTeacher

One of my students recently got a sewing machine, and they sewed me stuffed eighth notes! #ViolinLessons #Violin #ViolinTeacher

So I have a group of students who have some intensive auditions coming up in a couple months. We’re working on their three-octave scales like beavers, sometimes spending 1/3 to 1/2 of their lessons on scales.

What this means is that I’m rapidly getting sick of listening to/teaching scales, so my students who *don’t* have imminent auditions are often getting off without having to play scales for me at all. This is neither sustainable nor wise. 😅 #Violin #ViolinLessons #Violinist

Hanging out in instrument-specific forums, I see a lot of young violinists & violists asking basic questions that they should be asking their teachers. I’ve been feeling a bit judgy about that, but today it’s occurring to me… what if they don’t feel free coming to their teacher with that question? What am I doing to create space in my studio for students to feel like they can ask whatever they want to ask? #MusicLessons #ViolinLessons #ViolinTeacher

Things found in students’ notebooks, exhibit A. (My orchestra was sadly unicorn-less, so I’m glad to see this student’s orchestra is better equipped.)

#ViolinLessons #Orchestra #OrchestraLife

It would include arpeggios and scale exercises, and it should teach chord theory in a way that makes it easier for string players to take that knowledge and apply it outside Common Practice Period repertoire #ViolinLessons #StringPedagogy

Waiting until late HS/freshman year of college to teach chords & inversions is counterproductive, but my #violin students shouldn’t have to learn piano to understand how music works on their own fingerboards. #ViolinLessons #StringPedagogy

Things that’ll make your day:

Student packing up at end of lesson, turns and says “I really like coming for lessons every week.”

🥹🥹🥹

#violin #ViolinLessons

Shared the Maud Powell recording of Dvorak’s Humoresque with a student. I’m never sure if they’re going to like it or think it’s super weird because of the style and the ambient sound of the recording equipment. #violin #ViolinLessons #MusicLessons https://youtu.be/fXNhfEhzMgc

Had to introduce sautillé to a student yesterday and… it was easy???? They got it nearly right away. I was expecting some kind of struggle, and instead it was just “lean your hand into the bow like this,” and they got it! Of course we did some fine tuning, and talking about how sautillé is a circular motion while spiccato is a U motion, but… it was so simple!

Now if only my own sautillé stroke would behave 😶

#violin #ViolinTeacher #ViolinLessons

Bless perfectionists parents. Y’all want the best for your kid, and you’re supportive, but that behavior you’re worried about? It’s because your kid is nine. It won’t still be there when they’re 11. They’re a good kid, you’re a parent who’s doing your best, it’ll be ok. #ViolinLessons #MusicEducation

Teaching elementary kids is a hoot.

Comment from student yesterday: “Remember when I was younger and Etude was so hard for me?”

Me: flips through their assignment notebook to see when they finished Etude. It was July.

💀💀💀

#Violin #ViolinLessons #MusicLessons

“Oh look, your second finger is scared to be away from your third finger! Can you talk to it and tell it where you want it to go?”

This does three things:
1. Makes the student laugh
2. Engages the brain to focus precisely on the movement needed
3. Removes any sense of personal failure and replaces it with attention to their body movements (*they* didn’t mess up, their finger did something weird)

#ViolinLessons #MusicEducation #ViolinTeacher

While I’m thinking about teaching this morning, here’s a tool I love using with younger students especially: talking about parts of their hands and arms as if they were independent entities with minds of their own. #ViolinLessons #MusicEducation #ViolinTeacher

So, there’s a parent who keeps thanking me for being so hard on her teenage son. I’m not sure she realizes that I use practically the identical approach with him and a six-year-old: laser focus and a persistent, non-judgmental “ok, let’s do that again.” Like, if you’re really focused on something, the student will focus with you, and there’s a lot of power in that group attention. I don’t think it’s “being hard” on a student: it’s just paying attention and being determined. #ViolinLessons

Happy things: my student pointing to a pic of Florence Price on one of my books: “That’s Florence Price!”

It’s a small victory, but at least one of my students can recognize on sight an important composer who isn’t a white male. We’ll take the win for today! #MusicLessons #Violin #ViolinLessons

🤬🤬🤬 Motherforking violin shop… you know PERFECTLY WELL that no violinist buying a step-up instrument should be purchasing it the day they try it out!!! You KNOW I want to check over my students’ prospective instruments before they purchase them. And yet you STILL let one of my students walk out of your shop without telling them they could take it out on approval or that they SHOULD have their teacher see it before they make a purchase!!! #violin #ViolinLessons #MusicLessons

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

In my vivid dreams of a string-centric #musictheory resource for young string players, it would be formatted similarly to the ubiquitous Essential Elements. It would introduce chords in arpeggio form first, b/c that’s how string players first meet chords.

It would include arpeggios and scale exercises, and it should teach chord theory in a way that makes it easier for string players to take that knowledge and apply it outside Common Practice Period repertoire #ViolinLessons #StringPedagogy