GET THE RIGHT TEACHER
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Getting the right teacher is really important. My first one really wasn’t experienced enough to teach an adult and it took me about 2 months to realize that. I’ll never forget my first lesson with Ron. OMG, pretty much threw out everything I had picked up from the previous teacher. The first thing to go was the white finger board tape. I have to agree relying on taped markers was a crutch that would be hard to let go of later. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone on stage with white tape on their violin. Ron has his violin or guitar out for the whole lesson and we often play together even if it’s only scales. This is good training for later playing with others. Make sure your teacher can really play, that’s a plus. My teacher has played his whole life and plays both classical and bluegrass fiddle. And he’s really good at it.
He’s tough, sometimes I feel really drained after class but he’s also very patient and supportive. Can you imagine the patience you’d have to have to teach violin? I can hardly tolerate hearing my own screechy out of tune notes. A good instructor comes prepared to teach and each class will include a combination of playing technique, learning to read music, site reading and playing by ear. We spent quite a bit of time actually getting the violin to fit comfortably so it was nice to have a teacher knowledgeable about the instrument.
I recommend interviewing several teachers and when you find one that clicks stick with him or her. In this case I have to drive over an hour one way to get the quality instruction I’m looking for and I go once a week. Ron is $40 an hour. I’ll post a video of him playing next week.
