Frequently Asked Questions:

Am I currently accepting new students?

Yes! I accept all ages and levels. I offer free trial lessons to students who have played before, and “meet and greets” for new beginner students so that we can all feel comfortable before the first official lesson.

Things to consider while looking into lessons…

Learning the violin is a challenging yet deeply rewarding adventure. String instruments take a lot of time and patience to learn. Here are a few things you will need to do before committing to lessons:

1. Find a violin to rent or purchase. Please contact me if you need help with this! It is a headache when students come to the first lesson with the wrong size violin, or one from Amazon!

2. Establish a daily practice routine. Developing this discipline is a great life skill, even outside of playing the violin! All beginning students must practice with a parent (the same parent who comes to the lesson) for at least the first 3 months, or until I decide that they’re ready to come to lessons and practice on their own.

3. All beginners participate in weekly group classes.

4. All students participate in bi-annual recitals.

Note: For new beginners, I ask that parents commit to at least three months, or until the student has graduated from the Twinkles. These first important months are what build the foundation for anything your student ever learns on the violin and will determine how quickly they progress from then on. This stage can be frustrating for parents of little ones, because it requires a lot of small steps and patience. This stage is also my favorite to teach!! I love seeing their faces light up when they get to play with their bow for the first time. It is quite magical.

How long are the lessons?

I offer 30 minute, 45 minute, and 60 minute lessons. Choosing completely depends on the student’s age, their concentration threshold, how much time they practice at home, and how much repertoire we are working on. After our trial lesson, I can advise you on what I think would be the best lesson length for your child.

What do we do in lessons?

Lessons look completely different depending on the student’s age and level. I start young beginners with games and songs for how to hold the violin and bow, how to create rhythms, how to stand still while holding their violin, how to put the bow with the violin, and how to put the fingers on the fingerboard. Once they pass the “pre-twinkle” stage, we begin Suzuki Book 1 by ear. After learning the twinkles, we will add I Can Read Music book 1, with which I’ve had brilliant success in teaching students how to read music intuitively. All my students LOVE this book. Young beginners who put in 15-30 minutes of practice a day progress very quickly and have the most fun in their lessons.

For my beginning middle school students who learned how to play from orchestra class, we will start with Suzuki Book 1, work on posture, technique, and scales. Usually there is a lot of unlearning bad posture and bad habits for these students. However, these students progress rapidly if they put in 30 min to an hour a day of home practice.

For my intermediate to advanced students, we will progress through Suzuki books 1-5, mixing in selections from Barbara Barber’s method book 2, Solos for Young Violinists, then continue through the standard repertoire with an equal mix of Baroque, Classical and Romantic composers. We will spend about 15 minutes on scales and etudes and the rest on solo repertoire. If we have time at the end, we may sight read a few fun duets or work on their orchestra music. Depending on how much they practice at home, these students will usually be working on multiple solo pieces at once as well as orchestra and ensemble pieces. For this much repertoire at this level, these students practice 1-3 hours a day.

I try to keep lessons as enjoyable as possible and will occasionally ask the student if they have any pieces they want to learn outside of their books (like pop songs, fiddling, ect!). The whole purpose of these lessons is to develop the student as a competent musician, curious learner, and confident individual, and I’m always looking for new ways to make that process fun!