First off I think private lessons are best. Less distractions when given a private violin lesson. 2. The violin teacher will adopt
to the child's learning pace instead of having to accommodate many students in a group.
When you have found a violin teacher interview them and ask some questions:
1. How many years of teaching experience do they have and are they an accomplished player? 2. Do they have a teaching plan, and what kind of teaching programme do they have in mind for the student? 3. How much do they charge? 4. How many students have they taught and how many were successful? It doesn't matter if the teacher is not a performer.
Things to Look For in a Violin Teacher1. Is the violin teacher patient, friendly and encouraging? 2. Are they observant and capable of finding new ways to teach. 3. Do they provide good feedback and constructive criticism; do you see an improvement in your playing? 4. Do they get on together?
There must be some measure of chemisty between teacher and pupil. They must be able to converse on things other than music. The teacher must look happy to see their student.
I had many teachers but not sure if I was a complete waste of time. I had Clarence Myerscough for two years and sometimes his daughter Nadia. She was so good looking that my violin playing was not going to improve under her, her tuition that is.
Her dad Clarence was the best well rounded guy imaginable. If he became impatient for a second he would happily bring you back to the spot by introducing some short conversation about food or wine. He was so lovable. He treated his students like his children. I think he must have had a philosophy; that music and life must stay together.
I have fond memories with him. He was such an eccentric with his corduroy pants and jacket and his diky bow.
He had two Maggini's and sometimes I spent ages looking at them while he talked about bacon and cabbage. He often brought fiddles to my lesson to show me and discuss. He was a fantastic teacher and a fantastic performer. He was violin professor at the Royal Academy at that time.
After that I had lessons with David Roth. A long standing member of the Allegri string quartet. All my teachers were lovely people. Totally humanistic. I learned a lot from David. He taught me about timing, not counting figures in my head but feeling it somewhere low down in the abdomen. I thought that was cool. I used to play
Thais meditation then and he told me that the first time I played it for him it was almost perfect. I was really struggling with the timing, cutting notes short etc. Years later I found that I had learned this thing of timing from the abdomen. You can imagine yourself swaying back and forth in time and then you can stop swaying and still keep time. David was the second teacher in my life that was so professional and so caring. After a lesson he would show me films of great soloists and he would come out to the car to speak with my wife. Such a gentleman and such a great player.
Next was Miriam Steyn, a pupil of Sevcik. In fact she wrote all his work, not him. She was his favourite pupil.
I must be honest, I learned very little from her. She was quite elderly and had an iron grip. During my playing she would grab my bowing hand with elderly pressure and I didn't like that. She was old school and I rememember our debates about music. She frowned on the traditional style of music I played and would argue that classical music was a superior art form. She was extremely boring but at the time I maintained her violin in good shape. A Mathias Albani 1705.
She sold the violin at Bonhams and was done out of thousands of pounds. Reason was she liked dealing with men in suits and would not take advice from me.
