Violin Lessons

Welcome to my live and online violin lesson page!  I am excited and honored to be able to work with each of you!

On the violin, it’s posture, intonation, and the proper motions. Playing the violin is difficult enough!

I use a wide variety of repertoire and methods, including scales, arpeggios that are appropriate for the students’ level, and Suzuki and Mark O’Connor. Mark O’Connor has some great fiddle tunes and American folk songs in his method books. I also use the Master Theory series for the violin; I find it to be pretty comprehensive, and it can be applied to most any instrument, including the violin. If the student needs more advanced theory books, then we use more advanced ones. It is very important to me that the students are educated to be well-rounded musicians, not just violinists.  

Also, I work on balancing the focus on right and left hand technique, and how to integrate them into your everyday playing. The main three methods I use for beginners and up to the intermediate level are the Suzuki method, Mark O’Connor, and All For Strings.  As the student gets more advanced, there are the concerti and sonatas, and a wide variety of repertoire to choose from that help the student progress in an incremental way. 

I also teach outside the realm of Classical music, and include Broadway music, American composers such as Gershwin, and the like.  As long as it is good quality music; it helps keep  the student interested, and make progress. 

I work on sightreading with the student every other week, once they get past the 6 month-one year mark. I think this is so important, and few teachers work on this aspect of music-making.  Sightreading means that you are having a student play 1 or 2 lines of a simple melody, or a duet that I play with them, that they are playing for the very first time.  It tests their note-reading skills. So many students study for up to 5 years, and if you put a piece of music in front of them, they can’t read it. That is my job, to give the student the joy of being able to play just about any piece of music, and be able to read it and learn it on their own in the future.  

My philosophy has always been to offer all the same serious training, whether the student’s study was career track or avocational, a philosophy I keep in the studio to this day.  Also at the core, is the altruistic belief in the self-esteem, value and purpose which comes from doing something well, with discipline, enthusiasm, and most of all, cultivating a love for music to the world with integrity, and that will last the rest of your life.