“When students practice without observing and criticizing themselves,
they merely develop and perfect their faults.
They are worse than wasting their time.”

- Leopold Auer, violinist

What to expect in your weekly lessons

Be prepared to show the work you have accomplished in your daily practice. Your lesson is not the place to practice! Your teacher is there to help you to build upon the work that you have done during the week.

In your lesson, you can expect to:

learn new practice techniques
learn new technical skills
have your questions answered
work on intonation and rhythm with your teacher
learn how to improve your sound
learn how to phrase music
learn how to be expressive in your music
learn how to prepare for performances
play through pieces as a preparation for performances

The better prepared you are for your lesson, the more you will get out of it. If you fix everything you can by yourself in your practice, you will perfect your skills even further in your lesson. On the other hand, if you are unprepared, don’t be surprised if you hear the “same old stuff.”

Guidelines for the right lesson length

30-minute lessons are fine for very young beginners. As soon as you are working on scales, technique exercises, etudes and pieces, 45-minute or one-hour lessons become a requirement to ensure proper progress.

How much to practice

You must practice every day. Your teacher gives you weekly assignments assuming that you will practice every day. For young beginners, 15-20 minutes of daily work (preferably supervised by a parent) is enough. By the time you are playing pieces in book II of the Suzuki method, 30 minutes a day becomes necessary. When you are working on more advanced pieces, you won’t achieve much progress if you practice less than 45-60 minutes a day. As a general rule, one third of your daily practice time should be spent on technique, another third on etudes, and the rest on repertoire (pieces).

What to practice and how

Have you ever wondered how some people play so well? It’s no secret: you can only play as well as you practice! Maybe you have heard the saying “practice makes perfect”…the truth is: “practice makes permanent”! When practicing a passage, think through the difficulties. What is it supposed to sound like? What needs to be fixed? How are you going to fix it? You need a goal, a solution and a method. Repetition can be a good practice method, as long as you don’t repeat mistakes. Always think before you play. If you make a mistake, find out why you made it, fix it, and then repeat the passage. A difficulty that you don’t fix today will still be there tomorrow! After your warm-up and technique routine, start by practicing the most difficult passages in your music. We all have a tendency to play through passage that are easier and neglect those that really need attention…remember, you have to be efficient in the way you work in order to accomplish anything. Don’t play through pieces until you have mastered all the difficulties.

Warm-up and technique routine

Playing a musical instrument involves many physical skills. In that regard your daily practice is similar to an athlete’s workout. Just as ballet dancers, gymnasts, swimmers and figure skaters warm-up their muscles before training, you must warm-up your muscles before you begin your practice. The best way to do this is to start with scales. Practicing scales daily is a requirement for all violinists! It is basic violinistic hygiene. It is also the best way to secure good intonation and to check on your set-up while improving your tone. You will also become familiar with common rhythms and the different bowings.

All scales and arpeggios must be memorized as soon as possible (right now).
There is enough to concentrate on while practicing scales; you simply cannot afford to be reading them off the page!
Always use your metronome to practice scales in détaché and slurred bowings
Practice scales standing in front of a mirror.

What to look for:

a good violin set-up and healthy posture (no slouching)
a straight bow, parallel to the bridge
your sounding point: bow close to the bridge
good bow division in different bowings
your bow hold: relaxed and flexible wrist and fingers
a relaxed left hand (no squeezing of the neck of your instrument)
left hand fingers close and ready to play above the strings
an accurate and articulate placement of the left hand fingers
Keep fingers ON during string crossings

What to listen for:

a clear sound
good intonation: check with open strings every time you can
a clean beginning of every note: start from the string
good articulation: completely legato in slurred bowings, bow clicks in détaché, articulate martelé, spiccato etc.

Why practice scales, exercises, technique and etudes?

Before you can play beautiful music, whether your instrument is piano, bassoon, flute, cello or timpani, you must first learn how to play your instrument. Maybe you chose the violin because you liked the sound of it, or maybe you heard a violin piece that caught your attention. Whatever the reason, you practice the violin to play music on the violin! In order to play beautifully, you need to master all the physical skills involved in playing music on the violin. Practically, this means you must practice scales, exercises, technique and etudes every day. It is the only way to achieve progress.