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Violin Teaching Podcasts
Looking for some teaching tips or ideas as the school year kicks off? These podcasts are filled with conversations that get your creative juices flowing.
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Parts of the Violin
One of the activities I do at the very first lesson is teach the parts of the violin or viola. Both the student and I sit on the floor and we place their violin on the floor in between us. I will point to the violin and beginning on the same pitch as open A, I’ll sing, “Here is the violin.” The student then points and sings the same thing. Then moving up a step to B, I’ll sing, “Here is the scroll.” Going through all the parts of the violin. When the pitch gets up to the next A octave, I will then step the pitch back down until…
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Clef Coloring Page
Download a clef coloring page for your beginning string students. This is for students who are just being introduced to the staff and clef signs. You can download and print the clef coloring page for each clef from the links below each picture. You can listen to your Suzuki CD or any classical music while coloring. So, turn on your Suzuki CD, break out the crayons and have fun! Clef Coloring Page Treble Download here Alto Download here Bass Download here Suzuki CDs You can also check out other recordings such as, Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, or Peter and the Wolf. Students learn about intonation, musical phrasing, good ensemble playing and…
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How To Draw a Treble Clef
Drawing a treble clef can be a little bit daunting for young students. It looks like likes of swirls and squiggles. I’ve had more than one student give a horrified look when I ask them to draw a treble clef. If you break it down into smaller steps, it’s not overwhelming. Giving reference points to which staff lines gives guidance as to size and shape. So download the worksheet on how to draw a treble clef below. Before the advent of computers and even music typewriters (Yes! that really is a thing) music was hand written using a wide-nib quill. This caused notes and notation to look like it was…
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Learning the Staff
Through the years, I’ve sort of pieced together worksheets or drawing worksheets on blank staff paper for little violin students learning the staff. I’ve found some worksheets online that aren’t keyboard specific and used those. Since moving, I’ve had some extra time the past few months and I’ve just started a beginning student. The perfect circumstances to create some worksheets staff worksheets for violin students who aren’t reading yet. I’ve made the mistake of starting to teach note reading from the note reading book and I find myself explaining in one lesson, staff, line-notes, space-notes, treble clef, quarter-notes, measures… What was I thinking!!!! No awards for that lesson. It makes me…
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Learn the Music Alphabet
Learn the music alphabet this summer using ice cream. Who doesn’t love a dripping ice cream cone on a hot summer day? Summer arrived with a bang here in Louisiana and our temperatures are in the 90’s with the humidity level about as high, I’m using ice cream cones in my lesson today to teach the music alphabet. Today we are going to talk about skips and steps through the music alphabet. There are several activities you can do with or without the instrument. And we can celebrate summer with ice cream scoops. Stepping Activities to Learn the Music Alphabet 1. Music Alphabet Mix-Up – mix up the scoops on…
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Fingerboard Worksheets for Viola and Cello
Here are some fingerboard worksheets for violin, viola and cello. A couple months back, I got a call to substitute last minute for a theory class for our local Suzuki school. As I talked with the theory teacher, she suggested that I do some fingerboard mapping activities. Break out the fingerboard worksheets! Most of their classes focused on reading rhythm patterns and learning staff note. Several parents had asked how the staff notes corresponded to the instrument their child was learning. (The theory teacher was a non-string player, and as she is taking classes herself hadn’t had a chance to look up the fingerboard diagrams.) I told her I already…
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The Overlooked Violas
I was recently reminded about the overlooked violas. Especially the overlooked beginning violists. How often do they just have to play violin music transposed down a 5th. A friend emailed and asked if I knew of any hymn arrangements for a beginning violist, and I discovered there aren’t very many collections available. I actually had several hymns that I already had arranged, but hadn’t published or made available. This summer I’m working on making those available over at www.sheetmusicplus.com. I thought I would make available for free as a viola solo the one that I’m working on typesetting this week. Come Ye Sinner Poor and Needy It’s the old hymn tune ARISE…
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Fingerboard Scales for Beginners
Help your students visualize their fingerboard and know where notes are on their instruments. Here are worksheet fingerboard scales for beginners. Teaching and reviewing where the notes are on the fingerboard is something we do in every lesson. Mary Kay Neal taught in the Suzuki Book 3 teacher training class to have our students say the letters out loud while they are learning to read notes on the staff. As I have incorporated that in my teaching I am discovering how helpful it is to say the letters out loud from the very beginning. Saying it out loud forces the student to associate a letter with the placement of the…
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Teaching Skips
Steps and skips! Sometimes a visual aide helps students understand skipping and stepping with string crossings. I’ve been drawing this diagram over and over for a couple months now and thought I would create a worksheet. Some exercises in skipping up and down through the scale helps students understand how to skip across strings. Skipping from D to F# can be confusing or hard to grasp when we are skipping from 3rd finger to 1st finger, or skipping from C# to E. Skipping down can even be more confusing. So after students feel comfortable with the A scale and saying the letters up and down the scale, we play a…
