Teaching violin lessons can be grueling. It’s easy to get into a rut. Say the exact same things over and over. Teach the same songs over and over. Many of us work long hours away from our families. We spend the after school hours with our students and not our children. Most of us don’t […]
Technique
Violin Teacher Book Club: How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids will Talk… Edition
Key Points from the Book for Music Teachers… For those of you who are new to this blog, Brecklyn and I are trying to set up a world-wide violin teacher book club for music teachers to study teaching, child development, and business skills. It has been a little slow to get started as we have […]
5 Things I’m Loving This Week: My Favorite Violin Shoulder Rests and Chin Rests
My Favorite Violin Shoulder Rests and Chin Rests… If you are anything like me, you love setting goals. New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday, I love a fresh start. I always have a list of goals on my desk, on my phone, on my computer. So it makes sense that I would have studio […]
How to Improve Your Students’ Violin Posture
5 Ways to Say “Stand Up Straight” Without Saying “Stand Up Straight” Yet Again… I’m still waiting for the day that teaching the violin becomes easy for me. It has definitely become much easier than it used to be, but I still struggle. Last week I wrote a blog post, “Are You a Strict Teacher […]
When Transfer Music Students Come Knocking
What To Do With Your Transfer Music Students With Serious Technique Issues…. Have you ever sat in your chair during a first lesson with a new student and struggled to come up with anything positive to say? Their posture is sinking into the ground, their tone is crunchy (or wispy), their shifts and vibrato are tight, and […]
Do You Need a College Degree to be a High-Quality Violin Teacher?
Does your success and the success of your students depend on how much money you spend to fill out your violin-teaching pedigree? I think the answer to the question, “Do you need a college music or pedagogy degree to be a high-quality violin teacher?” used to be a resounding yes. Now, times have changed. What hasn’t […]
Common Shoulder Rest Mistakes
And Why You Should Fix Them! by McKenzie Clawson When I went to institutes as a young Suzuki student, I came up with a theory that you could tell who belonged to what teacher by their shoulder rest. It seemed like every student in a particular studio would have the exact same shoulder rest to the […]
How to Keep You AND Your Students Happy
It seems like every time I get a new student, my excitement is tempered with a sense of impending doom. Is this student going to actually stick with it? I warn these potential students that technique is important to me, and I tell them why. They always act on board and eager to play the […]
10 Cures For Stiff Bow Arms
Free up tension and let the bow sing! We all know that the most important ingredient for good tone is beautiful right arm technique, yet so many of our students saw away at the fiddle with locked wrists, elbows and shoulders. This has something I have struggled with time and time again. How can I […]