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Hello, how are you all doing? I would like to ask for some advice, if you don’t mind, in the area of teaching methodology. But first, I need to give some context so you can better understand the situation. Context: I learned to play the violin at church. I’ve been playing in church since I was 9 years old (I’m 23 now). By the way, the church is called Congregação Cristã no Brasil (Christian Congregation in Brazil). And obviously, since it’s all done on a voluntary basis (in our church, no one gets paid), both for those who teach and those who play, the teaching methodology may not be the best. Basically, we had a general violin technique book (Schmoll, Lambert, Laoureux, Suzuki) and a book with the church hymns (Hymnal). I went through all those books and a few more, mostly because I spent a long time learning. But nowadays they want to stick to the Schmoll method (they’ve made some modifications to it and added some Hans Sitt pieces — I’ll add a link below in case you want to check it out). The general approach is to start with the method book (teaching material), and once the student begins to understand notes, they start learning hymns. Unfortunately, there are very few instructors (we don’t call ourselves “teachers” because we are not formally trained), and most of them don’t assign anything to study outside of these two sources. Now that I’m an instructor myself, I really want to help my students in the best way I can. I teach students of all ages — from little kids who can’t even read yet to older brothers who are married with children — though most of them tend to be children and young people. I’ve never had face-to-face lessons with a professional teacher — just a few tips here and there. I even tried online lessons, but they were too expensive for my financial situation, and the teacher would mostly just ask for videos and then reply with written feedback. It helped, but not as much as I’d hoped. Still, I was able to get an idea of what a methodology looks like, because he assigned Sevcik and some beginner-level concertos to practice. The Problem: At church, the teaching works like this: for example, in my case, on Saturdays at 2:00 p.m., our musical study group starts. Ideally, all students should arrive at the same time, and then I go over their lessons in the order they arrive. I usually spend about 30 minutes with each one to really help them. To avoid having them come in “cold” when it’s time to play their lesson for me, I usually ask them to do: stretching, a right-hand exercise and a left-hand one, open string exercises, then to review what they’re going to play, and also, after the lesson, to briefly(15min) review at church what I just taught them — to help them retain it. But I’d like to improve all of this — I just don’t have a solid foundation to build on. I thought about changing it so instead of doing the full 30 minutes with each student right away, I’d spend the first 10 minutes checking what’s missing in their current study and then ask them to work on that while I check on the others — and then later come back for 20 minutes to work on what’s left. But when I tried that, it felt like I ended up taking more time overall. I’m open to any kind of advice, links, videos, books related to technique, methodology, or anything else you feel might be important. Also, I’m about to start giving private lessons today. I have some idea of what to do, but I’d appreciate any tips on that as well. I’m already very thankful to anyone who’s willing to help me — may God bless your life and your family! In anex: Actual book used for teaching violin Book of Hymns that we play at church. List of things that i suggest my students to do at home, i created it. www.CCBemPDF.com _ Hinário Nº5 CCB para Cordas.pdf MÉTODO de Violino - CCB Schmoll.pdf SchedueleViolin.pdf
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Hello Guys, since here, for me, looks like has more people i would like to share my topic of teaching if someone has anything to help im very grateful. God bless us all!
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At the end of lessons I always ask, "Do you have any other questions?" Almost all of my students always say, "No." But, I have one who usually has a good question either about repertoire, posture, technique, or practice. Today he asked me, "What should my mindset be while practicing?" Obviously, it's a very general question, and, as I told him, mindset shifts throughout a practice session, but what would your answers be to the question? I rambled for a while while trying to answer his question, but I think the heart of my answer was to "trust in the method, don't allow frustration to dictate how you practice."
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I have played the violin for a few years strictly on a recreatonal basis. But a time came when I felt I had to step back and try to decide on how far I've come and what I might expect for the future. I became my own critic. Well, I decided that I did not like what I was hearing and the key word was "sloppy". I've had some successes along the way playing for other people or in a group so I hoped some work on basic techniques would help a lot. I adopted a policy of "zero defects". Whenever I hit a snag while playing/practicing a piece, I made it a big deal to understand the problem and work it out during practice. I may have spent a few practice sessions just focussing on minor details. I practically came to a halt from dealing with all my flaws. By being so fussy I found that I really couldn't play anything anymore! This went on for several weeks and I seriously wondered if I would ever survive as a violin player? About the 3rd week I started a usual practice session and somehow, all my issues seemed to come together. I had definitely hit the "next level" almost like a lightning bolt. I know that I have never sounded better but even that leaves me as an "average" player who is now better to listen to. Actually, I am mostly impressed at what was achieved when I "raised the bar" and stuck to it.
