SO, YOU WANT TO PLAY THE VIOLIN

Introduction

This volume is a guide to the resources and materials available and is intended for the serious enquirer who has gifted musical children, the teenager who perhaps started to have violin lessons at school and gave up for whatever reasons but would like to start again, or the adult who is considering tuition on the violin. It is not meant to be an instructional manual – for that you will require the services of a good professional teacher and pedagogue, and this book deals with how to find one. As the distinguished violin pedagogue Frederick Hahn says: “To teach is no haphazard, hit or miss affair; it is a science, requiring absolute adherence to set principals…The idea that any teacher will do in beginning the study of the violin is fast losing its popularity. Wrong teaching, carelessness, and inattention to detail have too often resulted in the necessity of again starting from the beginning. The pupil who has been carefully advanced along proper lines from the beginning will reach his goal more surely than the unfortunate one, who finds that, after years of toil, he must return to the starting point.”
Talented children need the stimulus and friendship of other gifted children and access to specialist teachers; this guide takes the pilgrim from the very beginning through every stage of the learning experience from how parents can become aware and recognize exceptional talent in their children, choosing the right teacher, the choice of instrument, bow, case and other accessories, and the choice of the correct strings. Chapter two discusses the various traditional and modern violin methods available for the beginner while the central core of the book analyses and discusses the intermediate technical stage with selected etudes of Kreutzer, Rode and Dont. Again selected etudes are used analytically from the Concert Etudes Of Wieniawski and Paganini for advanced techniques.
The book proceeds to discuss the ‘Finishing Specialist Schools and Music Colleges’ for the opportunities they offer advanced students, examinations, music festivals and violin competitions.