Lessons are crucial to playing violin confidently, but there are other ways you can boost your violin skills outside of that one hour a week.
The most obvious is through practice. Half an hour a day is standard, but if you find yourself only doing that a few times a week, the problem may be your schedule. Try to play at the same time each day to stay motivated. That way if you practice every evening at 8 o’clock, you’ll feel like you’re missing something if you don’t. Another good way to get in the mood for your violin training session is by playing one of your favorite movements from that violin concerto that’s been stuck in your head.
Listen to violin music
The best way to get excited about violin lessons in NYC is to have a piece you really want to play. For those of you unfamiliar with violin concertos, here are a few of the best:
Any of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Bach’s Violin Concertos in A Minor and E Major
Mozart’s Concerto 3 in G Major, No. 4 in D Major, and No. 5 in A Major
Louis Spohr’s Violin Concerto 8 in A Minor
Beethoven’s Concerto in D Major
Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E Minor
Max Bruch Concerto No. 1 in G Minor
Vieuxtemps Concerto No. 5 in A Minor
Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major
Paganini Violin Concerto in D Major
Camille Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3 in B Minor
Edouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole Op 21
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major
Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor
Dvorak Violin Concerto in A Minor
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major
Other Tips to Prepare for Your NYC Violin Lessons
This list of 16 concertos should be enough to get any young violin player interested in learning a specific piece of music. Parents reading this should help their kids stay motivated by buying this music and playing it in the car so that it becomes familiar. Once a piece becomes familiar enough to hum, you’ll be surprised at how much more your kids will want to practice. That allows them to create the very music they want to play, while staying relaxed and playing with emotion.
Even before Antonio Stradivari made his first violin, violin lessons consisted of teaching the student proper technique and guiding him through more difficult pieces of music. Today, lessons may be in a different language, but not much else has changed.
Violin lessons primer
There are four strings on a violin: the G, D, A, and E. It can be plucked or played with a bow, played solo or with an orchestra. And because of its loud sound, the violin is the instrument that carries themelody in groups of musicians.
Otherwise known as the fiddle, the violin comes from a family of stringed bow instruments, originally from Persia. The first violin strings and bows were made of horsehair, and today’s horsehair bows show the legacy of those original violins. Although violins had their heyday in the baroque era, today the violin is making a comeback, and is used to play jazz and pop as well as classical music.
Violin lessons are good for beginners, intermediate and advanced players. But for those starting out, who aren’t sure if they want to keep playing violin, it’s a good idea to rent an instrument first. Keep in mind that violins come in different sizes for children and adults, so it’s good to have the person playing nearby for a fitting. Once you have an instrument, call our violin teachers, who have dozens of years collectively under their belt. They have played all over the world in different settings and venues and know how to play in a variety of styles.
Fundamentals of violin
As in playing any instrument, it’s crucial to have the fundamentals in place before progressing onto different and more complicated pieces. Good posture, square feet placement, and holding the instrument upright are important to reaching the next level of playing. This is why violin lessons are so important—instructors help students get into the right habits early on. Another potential pitfall young violinists face is resting the neck of the violin in their palm, which prevents proper fingering.
Handling the bow is just as important. The bow typically goes left to right, which is called a down-bow. Inverting bow-strokes, i.e. sliding down when it should be up, is another common problem beginners face. But with violin lessons these potential pitfalls can easily be corrected. The bow should also slide smoothly along the strings and not bounce over them, which can cause harsh, scratchy sounds. These mistakes and others like them can be easily avoided by booking booking a lessons today.