Your first violin lessons, what were they like? It all depends on the teacher, but what was the first types of things you got instructed on?
See, my teacher wants to take me to tunes immediately. Like, just show me Twinkle Twinkle and the fingerings and let me go.
Just wanted to compare how different we learn(ed).
I did scales.
I’ve had one lesson.
My teacher checked that I knew how to hold the violin and bow and then coached me in relaxed stance and grips. She checked my knowledge of mandolin and how it might translate to violin.
She had me familiarise myself with the feel of the instrument by doing something I understood in principle - G and A Maj scales - then she did pretty much what yours did, and started me on Twinkle Twinkle Little star to get used to string changing and bowing to a familiar rhythm.
The way it panned out made sense to me and has left me feeling encouraged and motivated.
There are good reasons for maybe learning a tune or two to start. It is more motivating than scales as you get a recognisable tune to show off! Also, if the tune is one you’re familiar with, you know what the results should sound like.
hi Derkk an all
I don’t know if this counts but here goes anyway.
I suffered from earache as a young child and the only thing that would stop me from whining and crying was music, so family members were given the task of “soothing” me. Singing diddling (mouth music) playing the squeeze box or my uncle Jimmy “scraped” at the fiddle. When I was about four he got a small tin fiddle made for by one of the family, hence the name tin-ker which I took to like a fiend and used to “scrape away” with uncle Jimmy, I took it every where I went and busked at every opportunity, people gave you money!. It eventually fell apart and I moved on to a mandolin my mother had you didn’t need a scraping stick just the (thick) end cut of a crows feather. Also the penny whistle.
But I don’t remember any lessons maybe that’s why I’m still learning to play.
yours Un.
Oh the avatar is me aged about four with Montie.
For my first ever violin lesson, my teacher plopped down a copy of the Seitz Concerto No. 5 on my stand, sat at the piano, and said, “OK … one, two, ready, go.” Seriously. Over the ensuing weeks came the stuff about posture and position and bowing, and rapping of my knuckles with a pencil. I remember the Wohlfahrt Foundation Studies, too. No wonder that today I’m a pretty good … whistle player. 
I played a jig for my teacher so he could see where I was at. We went over bow hold and tone production for a bit, and then on to the music. I was given the Sligo Jig (Lilting Banshee?) and instructions to learn it by ear and to single bow it. No slurs allowed. Also went over how to accent and where to accent in a jig. Somewhere in there he played my fiddle to see if it was acceptable. I’d already been playing for a few months on my own, and my teacher recognized where I needed to focus.
IMO, nothing wrong with learning tunes right off the bat. After all, this is supposed to be fun, and scales are not fun. As long as the tunes match your skill level, you’ll be fine. Twinkle Twinkle sounds about right.
My first fiddle lesson was at Old School of Folk Music in Chicago. It was a group class. A couple of the other students carried up a beer they’d bought from the bar/food counter in the lobby of the school.
The goal of the fiddle curriculum seems to be to learn a tune by ear each week if possible. All technique was taught in relation to the tunes learned.
(I’ve since heard some teachers review scales with students but it was always lightly addressed and learning the tunes by ear has always been emphasized in any class I’ve ever taken there.)
If you want to learn music theory and how to read music, there are separate classes taught at the school for that.
During the first semester of eight weeks the tunes were taught two or three notes at a time.
At the end of each class the teacher played the lesson’s tune very slowly and a bit faster for us to record and turn into an ear worm at home.
The he’d write the tune out in simple tab to jog our memory farther.
The next week most people had resorted to only playing the tune from tab. (It might be different now because recording devices have improved a lot since then.)
In the second level/eight week semester some of the teachers stopped handing out tab at the end of the class. You could repeat a class for as many semesters you felt you needed to be at that level.
The third level of fiddle playing is where Classically trained violinists are suggested to enroll. Some teachers might write the tab on the black board if a lot of people are struggling but its up to the student to copy it if they want it.
The forth level of fiddle playing is where you decide if you want to take a class that specializes in Irish, Oldtime, Bluegrass, Cajun, Canadian, or cross cultural twin fiddling techniques.
That’s also the level where people are invited to take an ensemble class like Irish ensemble, Oldtime ensemble, Bluegrass ensemble, Grateful Dead ensemble, Jug band ensemble, et cetera.
Scales? Could someone explain this? Is it multiple fingerings?
I take my first lesson on the 5th, so I’m kind of excited.
OK…
You know that sort of practice tune people sing or play that goes: do re me fa so la ti do ?
Well that’s a Major scale. If you were to sing or play that so the “do” started on a G note then you would have a G Major scale. If you did it with “do” starting on an A note then you’d have an A Major scale. If you start on a D you have D Major, and so on with all the other note letters.
The majority of Irish tunes are probably in D Maj or G Maj, and bluegrass tunes are mostly G Maj or A Maj. So, if you learn the scales of A Maj, D Maj and G Maj, you should find them helpful in locating the notes you need to finger when playing most ITM and bluegrass tunes.
A tune in G Maj - “The Kesh Jig” - for example will be made up from the do re me etc notes of the G Maj scale. That means that when you try to figure out the notes for that tune, you’ll be able to make good estimates of where to put your fingers if you know where the notes from the G Major scale fall on the fingerboard.
Would an example of a scale being playing Mary had a Little Lamb just using A string? I forget the notes, but I’m trying to understand what a scale is.
A scale is a series of 7 notes(8 if you count the starting and finishing points) that is the building block of most Western music. Western civilization, that is. A tune is not a scale, nor vice versa. The notes of a scale are building blocks for tunes. Scales transcend any instrument. This has nothing to do with a strings or g strings, but frequencies and ratios. Liken a scale to building blocks, and a tune to what you build with those blocks.
Example: C major scale = c d e f g a b c
A c major tune will consist of those notes, and resolve to the c note.
Any major scale will have the same distance between notes, but a different starting note.
Example D major scale = d e f# g a b c# d
A d major tune will consist of these notes, and resolve to a d note.
G major = g a b c d e f# d
A major = a b c# d e f# g# a
I’d recommend playing a G major scale to start. On the lowest string, start with G and play G A B C | D E F# G | A B c d | e f# g| Make sure to change strings at the bar lines. Play the scale up and down several times. There are 12 corresponding scales for every interval(or 11 more?).
Ah, I see now!
Most of the things I practice involve notes in the C major and D major scales. Are those beginner scales or something? There’s not a lot of sharps/flats in those.
sharps and flats are just labels. they are only used as a common reference point and to make sheet music make sense. When somebody plays a f#, I don’t think, “Gee, that’s an f#” I only hear how it fits in relation to the notes surrounding it. The only reason those notes are labeled as sharps is because sheet music is based around the C scale, as is the piano. Everything not in C has sharps or flats. The fiddle keys that sit easiest on the fiddle are D, G, and A. Hence, they happen to have sharps.
This is delving heavily into music theory. I’m sure there are lots of other threads that have already covered this. You should do a search and see what turns up.
I take my first lessons this Wednesday, I’m pretty excited.
Any tips??
Check the length of the finger nails on your fiddle hand. You’ll be playing with the very tips of your fingers. If you don’t know how short you’ll need them to be, put a nail clipper in your fiddle case now.
If you can tune your fiddle already, have it tuned before the lesson starts so you don’t waste class time tuning.
If can’t tune your fiddle, buy an electronic tuner that clips on.
Yes, the teacher will show you how to tune your fiddle by ear but that takes practice to get accurate. In the mean time an electronic tuner that clips on will get you in the ball park so to speak. Down the road you’ll use it to tune in noisy rooms. They run about $20 -$30. Don’t bother spending more for one. They tend to walk off.
Bring something to record the lesson on.
(I use an MP3 kind of recorder with a microphone.)
If nothing else, be sure to record the teacher playing the tune you’ll be working on. Turn the melody into an ear worm when you get home, even if you’ll be reading printed music while practicing.
Bring something to write notes on so you can list all the things your teacher wants you to focus on for the next class as you get told.
It wouldn’t hurt to have a list of favorite tunes ready if your teacher asks you what you want to work on in the future. If its the kind of music you know you already enjoy, you’ll find yourself practicing it more even if its an ultra simplified version.
Mrs. Regina Morin, Oak Hill Elementary school, 4th grade, viola.
Group class, but it got you out of math cards or whatever else stupid 70’s educational-theory crap we were supposed to be doing. We were always several steps less cool than the band kids. Seriously. They actually named off all the students in all-county band on the morning announcements and completely ignored all-county orchestra. (I was a first viola. woohoo.)
Well, I’m a biter, so fingernails are not a problem.
I cannot tune my violin, but I don’t think it would
be a waste of valuable time for him to teach me to.
Is an electronic keyboard(some cheap Casio) accurate for violin tuning?
I planned on getting an electric tuner, as soon as I can afford it.
That’s a really interesting idea, I never thought of recording.
Did you do it in the open or did you keep the mp3 in your pocket?
Uh, explain ear worm reference.. please.
Is it alright if I can’t read musical notation, but use letter’s for notes?
(GDAE, etc) Or is that frowned upon or something.. I hope he doesn’t
expect me to know how to read them.
I have one tune in particular that I want to play the violin for,
and I’m going to ask him to gear my lessons toward being able to play it.
Teaching you how to tune isn’t the waste.
I usually attend group classes. Its amazing how many people who do know how to tune their fiddle wait until class starts to attempt to tune it.
That’s the waste of time.
Is an electronic keyboard(some cheap Casio) accurate for violin tuning?
They usually are.
But to be honest, its surprising how many people can’t hear when their fiddle is out of tune at first
or if they can detect that, they still haven’t a clue if its sharp or flat.
A clip on electronic tuner not only can usually give you a note to tune to, it will read the note on your fiddle and tell you what it is, sharp or flat and to what degree.
My Deaf friends could tune a fiddle with a clip on electronic tuner.
Did you do it in the open or did you keep the mp3 in your pocket?
I put it smack dab in front of the teacher.
In a group class there’s usually a pile of electronic recording toys running.
Uh, explain ear worm reference.. please.
An ear worm is when you know the tune so well that you can’t get it out of your head.
Is it alright if I can’t read musical notation, but use letter’s for notes?
(GDAE, etc) Or is that frowned upon or something.. I hope he doesn’t
expect me to know how to read them.
If you know the notes by the letter, learning to read them in musical notation isn’t very difficult at all. You’ll pick that skill up fairly fast.
Learning to recognize a note, or more likely a series of notes without the music in written form is another challenge that isn’t impossible to accomplish either.
If you can sing a song you learned by hearing it, you can learn to play fiddle by ear.
I just had my first fiddle lesson last Thursday. Largely, I learned I needed
a shoulder rest and a different bow. Once I bought those, practice was fun!
I can already play The Butterfly (mostly). But the lesson was all bowing
technique. Nothing about fingering yet (I figured some of that out from
mandolin experience). So I spent 20 minutes learning the correct position,
wrist-elbow-shoulder movements, and pressure to get even sounds from
each string. This is exactly what I was expecting, and I was not disappointed.
We’ll have to see how it goes past that, though.