violin tutors

As you learn more about learning to play the violin, you will begin to understand its history and traditions, and you gradually will become fluent in its special language.  The violin comes with its own unique vocabulary which describes everything about the instrument and what it does.  The special language of the violin represents and specifies the instrument’s different parts, its different sounds, its different roles in an ensemble or orchestra, and the different modes of instruction which help you master this unwieldy musical contraption.  In the violin’s unique language, your everyday understanding of “teacher” turns to special respect for a master, your everyday knowledge of lesson becomes special appreciation for rhythm, harmony, and teamwork, and your ordinary knowledge of what “violin tutors” are changes from expecting a person to intense engagement with a book or website.

Remember that the violin originally was designed and built for the musical elite—dedicated “professional” musicians from society’s upper classes, people who could devote themselves to nothing but their passion for their soprano stringed instruments.  In the violin’s history, the “tutor” stands-out as the tool which extended the instrument’s popularity to the middle class, the ordinary folks who just wanted to fill their difficult lives with a little music and entertainment.  A book rather than a person, “violin tutors” guide the apprentice violinist step-by-step through the process of mastering the instrument and the music.  The book serves exactly the same purpose as an in-person music tutor: it individualizes instruction, and it helps the novice violinist perfect all the basic skills.  And a book knows no tight time schedule, requires no hourly wage, and refuses to wince and squirm when the violin makes hideous sounds instead of beautiful music.  The book remains a lot more accessible and reliable than even the best violin tutors ever could be.

Most violin tutors either demand or come fully equipped with the fourth essential tool in a violinist’s toolkit: In addition to a violin, a bow, and a pitch pipe, a violinist absolutely must have a metronome.  The metronome maintains the music’s pace and rhythm even when the musician bogs down, gets stuck, throws a tantrum, and wants to cry.  The metronome’s relentless tick and tock reinforce the music’s urgency: the music cannot start and stop according to the violinist’s mood and whim. The metronome keeps the music and the musician going from start to finish.

In the 1700’s, the first violin tutors were like workbooks: they included little bits of instruction with words and pictures, and they delivered a lot of pieces for practice.  The more an eager and willing student studied the words and pictures, and the more she practiced the exercises, the more proficient she became.  When the developing violinist finally worked her way through the entire tutorial, she became eligible to practice and perfect “real” violin music, hoping eventually to earn the privilege of performing for family and friends.  Of course, she continued her work with the tutor, but she branched-out into the world of solo performance; and, with a lot of skill and a little luck, she could earn a place in a string quartet or a small orchestra. 

The traditions still prevail among learning violinists.  You still will spend ten times more practice hours on your tutorials than you will devote to real music and your desire to work your way up through the ranks will keep you practicing patiently and persistently.  But, now, your tutor probably will appear on the internet, giving you voice along with text for your instruction, and giving you video instead of precisely drawn diagrams.  Your violin tutor still will stress proper posture and wrist position, and your tutoring sessions still will build your skill with rhythm and notation, but they probably will be more fun and engaging because the computer allows for more interaction than you generally feel when you work with a book.  Some internet, learn to play the violin, tutorials also come with provisions for performance and feedback via webcams, so that you get some of the benefits of private instruction as you practice your fundamentals.