When should my child start lessons?

There is no wrong time to start lessons, but earlier in childhood is when children are learning language, and music is a language. If you want your children to have the language of music, make sure there is music in the home, singing, dancing and listening to great music.

Early childhood is a wonderful time to begin lessons, especially, if you have the time and energy to participate with your child. A pre-school child needs more than a 1/2 hour weekly lesson to learn music, so the methods that work for young children (and they work very well), require the parents to be at the lesson, learning along with their child, and to assist in the daily practice, so that from the very beginning, the young student develops good habits of proper posture and playing in tune. This does take a level of commitment on the parent's part that should be considered within the context of your family and work life.

Many families choose to wait until the public school lessons start in 3rd grade. Third grade is a good time to start studying music, however, the school lessons alone are likely not enough to help your child develop true musical abilities. Assuming that a 1/2 hour weekly group lesson is enough to teach the violin, is like assuming a child could learn to read with only 1/2 hour weekly instruction, and no at-home help. While the teachers in the public school are excellent, they simply do not have the time to give the level of instruction needed for a student to go beyond a very beginning level.

The other difficulty with learning only through school, is that unless the lessons are supplemented, most likely, your child will practice playing on their own with incorrect hand positions, and often out of tune. This practicing cements these poor habits, so that if your child later decides to take the instrument more seriously, they will likely need to spend a year or two, unlearning the habits they developed without private lessons. Once they learn to hold the instrument correctly with a relaxed and supportive posture, they begin to play in tune, with beautiful tone, and able to play more difficult pieces. It takes much patience, and by middle school it may be harder to find the time and the energy to relearn (though my students have shown me it is very possible). It is much better, if they simply have the level of guidance they need right from the start.

I strongly encourage parents to start their children either in pre-school or in early to middle elementary school, and to have them work with a trained teacher who has studied teaching using a known method, such as Suzuki. Adding in group music classes on top of private lessons is ideal, as music eventually is a social and group activity.

There are people who start in middle school, high school and as adults, who also learn well, so if you didn't start your child young, and they still want to learn, it is not too late!

Practicing

A lot of students (or more often their parents) ask how much they should practice. I think that is not the most important question about practice. The real question is how do I practice so that I improve? If you practice an hour a day running through your assigned pieces, playing out of tune, with incorrect rhythms, what you will gain in those hours is solidifying how to play out of tune of tune and out of rhythm. If you are doing this with the added benefit of poor posture and a collapsed hand position you will have also helped solidify habits that hold back your progress. If this is your practice habits-more time at it will not lead to improvement.

It would be better to practice fewer hours, but fully focused on the areas you or your teacher have identified for improvement. If it's standing up straight with the violin up on your shoulder (not drooping the scroll in the front towards the floor), a week of 5 minutes a day in front of the mirror practicing placing the violin into playing position and then playing open strings (or a simple exercise or tune) while staying in good posture is likely to have more long term positive impact than playing your pieces without focus on posture.

While clearly eventually you will need to practice more, it is most important to have a goal for each practice and focus on noticing and fixing mistakes, intonation, rhythm and improving any technique you are currently learning.

Younger children will likely need their parents to help in this process (with teacher direction on what to watch or listen for). Older students will learn that they are their own teacher during practice.

To answer the question of how much practice time: it depends on age and level, as well as your teacher's recommendations. I usually recommend 15-20 minutes for beginners (less if they are very young), 30 minutes for advanced beginners and intermediate players, and 45 minutes to two hours for students who wish to advance. Students progress well with 45 minutes daily, but if they are looking to win auditions or go to music school more time will be required. If a student is only practicing 2-3 times a week (fairly common for kids with multiple activities), I do encourage at least taking the instrument out daily for a 5-10 minute practice, in addition to the few days of full practices. Even very short daily practice will lead to faster improvement than occasional long practices.

Practice is the key to success and enjoyment. It should feel like a creative and nurturing endeavor that engages your mind and heart. Seeing progress in your playing will make it worthwhile and make playing more fun.

Happy Practicing!

Begin with the end in mind

Often when I teach children and youth who are learning the instrument and playing in a public school orchestra and I ask what they listen to, they have never listened to classical music or any genres other than pop.

This means their entire exposure is what the school orchestra sounds like. I love public school orchestras- but most are not yet making extraordinary music.

Listening to the music you want to play right from the start is a critical and often overlooked part of learning.

What to listen to? Everything! Symphonies, Concertos, Bach Sonatas, Jazz, Fiddle, Tango...get a feel for what you like and the range of your instrument.

I recommend listening on YouTube where you can watch how the great violinists play. Your posture, bow hold and left hand should look like theirs more than your orchestra stand partner's (depending of course on your stand partner).

For a start: https://youtu.be/I03Hs6dwj7E?si=-FdvbsJCYa8xEny5

Ray Chen has many videos, is entertaining and also provides instructional videos and ideas on how to progess.

An example of his instructional work is here. https://youtu.be/tlUykdydhIQ?si=Wirv2sY50mhDqGWP

There are so many others to watch- Hilary Hahn, Anne Sophie-mutter, Augustin Hadelich...I'll post more in future blogs!

Start listening as part of your practice- so you know what great music sounds and looks like. Most of all, have fun!