Violin Learning Methods
The best way to learn the Violin
The ‘Beginner’s Guide To Learning The Violin’ selection was created to provide the absolute best possible start with your brand-new musical instrument. This article helps you figure out the best learning methods for you and your violin.
Primary forms of Learning Methods for Violin
Humans learn differently. Some have got photographic memories; some can speed read, while some can’t read in any way. We are all different, and for that reason, there isn’t one ‘correct’ method of studying a musical instrument.
The four key learning strategies that exist are:
- Traditional, face-to-face, one-to-one learning
- Traditional, face-to-face, group lessons
- Video Tutorials
- Apps
If you’re a beginner or have been playing for years, one of those four options will be perfect for you. It’s just a matter of finding out which be is most suitable.
Traditional, face-to-face, one-to-one lessons
If you think of Violin lessons, the initial impression is most likely something like this…
Having private, one-to-one instruction is definitely an incredible experience if you find the right teacher. There truly is no substitution for taking in all the knowledge of your teacher.
Our Founder, Robert Emery, was educated by Ruth Nye at the Royal College of Music. She really was among the finest teachers across the world, and the fact that Robert could soak up her experience in four years ended up being a precious gift.
There exists a dilemma, however:
Not every coach possesses the experience of Ruth Nye.
In reality, the scary thing is that to become a music coach, you actually don’t require any accreditation in any way. Nothing at all. Zip. Being a complete newbie, you could be getting income from people and pass yourself off as being a professional. And this, dear viewer, could be the main downside to a traditional coach:
Quality control.
You must find a really knowledgeable coach whom you connect with. Who realizes both you and your requirements. Who makes you giggle. Who you look forward to going to see each week. Provided you can find this person, you have then achieved a little something plenty of people is unsuccessful at. Simply being encouraged because your teacher is the miracle dust which will keep you learning for years.
Of all the alternatives on this page, this is actually the costliest. But as always with things in life, you often get what you pay for…
PROS
- Personalised feedback
- Lessons Adapted To Your Style Of Learning
- The Most Efficient Way Of Learning
- Can Be The Most Inspiring Option
CONS
- Expensive
- Difficult Scheduling
- Finding Right Teacher Is Difficult
- Requires You To Travel
Classic, face-to-face, Group sessions
Depending on where you live, you may be able to find group lessons. The ethos is similar to one-to-one sessions, but the cost is lower as the teacher has to divide their time between pupils.
For orchestral instruments, such a violins or other string instruments, group lessons can be a good idea to start with. After all, the majority of professional violinists end up as one of many violins in an orchestra.
PROS
- Personalised feedback
- Can Be Fun Learning In A Group
- Cheaper Than One-2-One Lessons
CONS
- Difficult Scheduling
- Limited Choice Of Teacher
- You'll Learn At The Speed Of The Group
- Sharing The Teacher With Others
- Requires You To Travel
Video Tutorials
Free Courses
YouTube is needless to say the international superpower in regards to movie content. There is a substantial amount on this platform for Violin Lessons and it’s not possible to review them all.
Like the majority of mass appeal platforms, 95% of the content is total garbage, with the other 5% no cost gold dust. Discovering that 5% however is tricky!
We can give you a head-start though. We like Nicola Benedetti and Yushan LI.
One word of warning: If you want to learn classical violin, we would strongly recommend having real-life human teaching you, in the same room!
In case you would prefer to not commit your money and to take advantage of the totally free content on YouTube, you’ll need to invest a decent amount of your time looking for a well-respected coach that you like.
Paid Courses
With millions of paid programs on the internet, it’s totally out of the question to examine every one of them. So we thought we would simply provide you with the two most widely used alternatives:
Udemy is popular the world over for online learning in thousands of different disciplines. It can provide beginner, intermediate and advanced bassoon tuition, with an average cost of approximately £49.99 for a course of lessons.
PROS
- Low Cost or Free
- Huge Amount of Content
- Learn Whenever You Want
- No Travelling To Lessons
- Great For Popular Material
CONS
- So Much Choice It's Difficult To Find Great Content
- Quality of Content Is Questionable
- Not Great For Classical Playing
Zoom Lessons
If you’re looking for that one-to-one setup, but don’t want to trek around to a teachers house every week, then online lessons can work really well.
There are A LOT of companies out there that do lessons over Zoom, so you have to be ultra careful the quality is up to scratch. But the service we have found that has consistently great feedback is www.lessonwithyou.com. We like that they offer a half-hour lesson completely for free so you can try out the service and that they offer flexible scheduling with no contracts. They have teachers from Julliard, Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins – so the standard is high. Lastly, we LOVE that they don’t as for your credit card details for the trial lesson.
Violin Apps
We learn best when the teaching is tailored to our personal needs. Apps are a hybrid between standard videos and a real-life teacher. They adjust their teaching based upon your response on the app. For this reason, if you aren’t able to have face to face lessons, we would always advise dedicated apps over generic YouTube videos. There are many apps out there. The three we recommend are:
VIOLIN SCALES TRAINER
Violin Scales Trainer is an app for teachers and learners to increase their fluency with ABRSM scales and arpeggios requirements. It has been designed to tackle the repetitiveness often associated with scales practice.
TRALA
This app has been developed entirely by professional violinists. It has a feature that allows you to play your violin to the app, after which the app provides instant feedback. This bonus feature allows you to amend or correct yourself, and your tuning, before you develop bad habits.
MY ONGAKU
This is a free app designed with the Suzuki method in mind. It has over 500 video lessons and has been developed by several teachers and performers. It includes note-by-note annotations and introduces concepts of rhythm, fingering, posturing, and bowing.
PROS
- Best Cost Effective/Quality Ratio
- Can React To Your Level Of Learning
- Great For Popular Material
- No Travelling To Lessons
CONS
- No Personal Feedback On Your Playing
- Not Great For Classical Playing
Bonus Courses...
Itzhak Perlman Teaches Violin
Masterclass is the premier tuition service currently available. None of the classes is designed to make you an expert. They are designed to help you ‘dip your toe’ into your genre of choice, and then use the platform to jump off into more specialised learning.
Violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman has created this Masterclass. And if you are looking for inspirational videos, from a world-class performer, look no further.
Irrespective of your level, the course is a complete package, designed for everyone. Featuring 25 video lessons, the topics range from beat by beat instructions, through to basic theory.
There is a really useful downloadable workbook that helps you repeat lessons until you master the ‘trick’ that Herbie is teaching.
As a 15 time Grammy award winner, £170/$180 for an annual membership (including all their other courses) seems a bargain. It won’t make you the best pianist in the world, but you’ll certainly love playing. And surely that’s the whole point…
Violin Learning Methods - Summary
Let’s keep things easy…
If you want to play classical music, have a fantastic technique, and learn to read music, then getting a face-to-face, one-to-one violin teacher is by far the best option.
Of the other three options, group lessons are by far the most sociable, while the online courses and apps allow learners to work at their own pace.
Hopefully that helps you make up your mind about what method of learning is going to be best for you. Now you’ll need to do some research over which exact option to go for. Lucky for you, we do just that!
About the Author
Fiona Gibbs
Fiona Gibbs is a violinist and academic based in London. After reading Music at King’s College, London she commenced doctoral studies at the Royal College of Music. Since graduating in 2018 Fiona has worked as a freelance violinist and academic across the UK. She has performed at the Royal Albert Hall with Cinematic Sinfonia, and for members of the Royal Family during her time at the RCM. Aside from music, Fiona loves to travel and explore new places in the UK and abroad, visiting Australia and Cuba in recent years.
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