Birmingham Violin Studio believes that:

Everyone has the right to make music. No matter who you are, you have the right to make music. And if you learn to play an instrument even a little or just sing a song, you are a musician! So pick up that bow and play!

Playing music is a skill that has lifelong benefits. For this reason, it is important that we find a way for our students to have fun with their practice time while still getting a solid technical base. These two things will help fuel a violinist’s passion for continuing their studies.

Anyone can learn. While it is true that some people have an innate talent for violin, (or something else like singing or math!) it is not a necessary thing to have to learn the instrument. With daily practice, a willingness to learn, and a good teacher, anyone can learn.* Whether you are 9 or pushing 70, we’re here to help you learn! 

Speak the student’s language. Every student is different. They come from different cultures, know different movies, read different books, eat different things. Students don’t fit in a cookie cutter, so why should their music lessons be formulaic? Answer: They shouldn’t. Students and teachers have to come up with their own communication style so that the student can learn.

Let students learn at their own speed. Students are individuals. They not only communicate in different ways, they also learn in different ways and at their own speed. It’s important that whatever teaching method is used, allows students to learn however fast or slow they need to. This means that if a student needs to take a longer time learning a specific technique, the teacher needs to have the ability to keep the student’s attention for the length of time required to learn the technique. (This could mean having a variety of teaching styles and pieces at the teacher’s disposal.) If a student learns very quickly, they need to be allowed to move on and be fed more challenging work while keeping a balance of having a couple of pieces being performance ready.

 

 

 

 

*The only thing that is truly necessary to learn is that the student’s body must be flexible enough to be able to perform the postures required to play the violin. (If this is a worry for you, contact us anyways! The amount of people we’ve met that truly can’t do it are few and far between. Let us see if we can help.)