Violin Lessons in Alphabet City, NY

Instruments: Violin Electric Violin Fiddle

I have almost thirty years of experience. As a professional musician I perform, compose, and teach. I have extensive chamber and solo international performing experience as well as orchestra performing experience. I have taught young children, special education, adults and have classroom teaching experience as well. The most important principle I have learned is to recognize HOW each student learns. Everyone is talented and capable... my job is to find a way of making the student's talents shine! Read More

Instruments: Violin

When the students become advanced, they usually have a goal with what they want to do with music. I will do everything I can to help them achieve this goal and find a way to keep the lessons engaging. If I am starting out with an adult student, I would want to find out what they are interested in achieving and work with them towards their goal. For beginners and advanced students, I want to keep them engaged and share my love of music with them. Read More

Instruments: Violin Viola

For beginner students, I like to work on positioning the instrument, proper bow hold, and simple string crossing exercises. A great beginners book is the quick steps to note reading. I believe beginner students should be practicing with this book every day. When they are ready to start learning pieces, I really like to use the Suzuki books. This works for both young beginners and adult beginners. For students who are more advanced, I am adamant about them practicing scales and etudes. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice Violin Saxophone Bassoon

I like my lessons to be fun! I like to start my lesson with a "music swap": we each play one minute of a song that we found that week from youtube or spotify and take 30-60 seconds to say why we found it interesting or inspiring (it can be any genre). We then aim to discuss and practice a new technical skill and use exercises to develop it, we work on a song from the method series or a song that the student wants to work on (I often transpose pop/rock songs for my students), and then rhythm training, ear training, and music theory concepts are interspersed throughout. Read More

Instruments: Piano Violin Music

Depending on the goal of my student, the repertoire we play will either be standardized and intense, or personal with more flexibility. I encourage my students to not use a shoulder rest as this is part of my teaching methods. This is not a requirement that I will demand! My thesis, The Rest is History, explores the use and disuse of the shoulder rest. Theres a rich history of violin technique and fundamentals that can be traced back to the 1600s Baroque Italy. Read More