About

My Story

My name is Kristin Campbell and I teach Suzuki violin. I grew up in a musical family where both my parents are professional musicians. We also have several extended family members who are professional musicians. You might say, I really didn’t have a chance not to be a musician. I had to love music. It is in my genes. When I was 5 years old, we visited extended family in Denver where I heard my cousins playing violin. After getting back home, I took a toy drumstick and the dowel rod from our sliding glass door and walked around the house playing my fake violin. This also included singing in a “violin voice.” My parents decided that a real violin would be more bearable and safer than the stick violin! Thus began my violin journey. 

Education

I studied Suzuki violin with Venona Detrick in Elgin, Illinois. After moving to Greenville, South Carolina, I studied with Betsy Fee Elliott for eight years. In college I studied Violin Performance and Piano Performance at Bob Jones University. Studying under Diane Pinner, I completed a Violin Performance degree. In 2003 I completed a masters degree in church music with a violin principle from the studio of Achim Gerber. 

Professional Experience

After completing my Masters degree, I traveled with Evangelist Steve Pettit for 2 years. In 2005 I married my husband Matt Campbell and we settled in Virginia Beach, Virginia where I began my private studio, and substituted in with the Virginia Symphony. In 2014 we moved to Denver Colorado for my husband’s job. While in Denver I continued teaching private violin and piano. I also taught at Children’s Music Academy in Centennial, Colorado and adjunct at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colorado. While in Denver, I played with the Stratus Chamber Orchestra and held the principle second violin chair. 

In 2018 my husband joined the military and they sent us to Shreveport, Louisiana. While in Shreveport I was able to play with the Shreveport Symphony, South Arkansas Symphony, and teach at Centenary Suzuki School. 2021 found us in Navarre, Florida where Kristin teaches and substitutes with the Pensacola Symphony. Most often you can find me teaching or arranging music for her students. You’ll find a lot of what I have written for my students here in the shop.

 

My Teaching Journey

My teaching journey started in high school when some I began teaching some younger kids at my church who wanted to play. I worked as a string teaching aid under my violin professor at a local elementary school in college. I began teaching private lessons after graduating. Thinking back to those first students I realize that I learned much more than the students did. Whether it was the interaction with the students or reading about teaching, I found that I loved teaching. Since finishing my degrees I’ve taken Suzuki teacher training classes in the summers through the Suzuki Association of the Americas. The teacher training classes changed my teaching and changed me. As I thought about returning to school to get a degree in pedagogy, I realized that I already had all the tools to learn. Learning is life long pursuit. And I don’t have to go to school to keep learning. With this in mind I began this blog and website to document my study. HorsehairMusic.com also provides a resource for teachers, students and parents.

Why the Annotations?

In my piano teaching I use and appreciate Dr. Jane Magrath’s work The Pianist’s Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature. While I love the Suzuki literature, some of my students have wanted to a variety added to their repertoire. I am a firm believer that student’s practice music that they find enjoyable. I believe that it is my responsibility as a teacher to guide my students in playing good repertoire. But I also want them to enjoy the learning process. I began researching repertoire lists from different associations (ASTA, Royal Conservatory of Music, Suzuki Association of the Americas) and master teachers (Mimi Zweig, Rebecca Henry, Mark Bjork, and Barbara Barber). Then I would search for videos on YouTube, scores on IMSLP, or sample pages time. It took sooooo much time. Often I ended up down a youtube or imslp rabbit hole. My hope is that horsehairmusic.com is a resource that saves you time.

Leveling System

Putting into words and systematizing violin teaching has been done by teachers much better than me. Inevitably you will have a different opinion or teach a piece differently, or use a different technique than what I have listed. I am anticipating that I will change and grow in my opinions of interpretation as well. I see these levels and a broad framework to communicate techniques. For example: Maybe you teach Humoresque in Suzuki Book 3 all in 1st position. Maybe you teach it with some 3rd position passages. Truthfully, I teach it both ways. It depends on the student. But I categorize it in the level that uses only 1st position. I realize everyone has their own teaching framework to teach technique and literature. I specified the techniques for each level to communicate my basic framework. This, with the hope that it helps you understand how my levels fit in your teaching framework.