Violinists - please advise...

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My son quit his school's music program right before they had to learn third position. Now, he wants to go back in September when he starts middle school. I know NOTHING about the violin. I want to enroll him in private lessons over the summer to prepare him for the next school year. If lessons are just a half hour, how many will he generally need to learn third position and how many will he need to learn how to tune his violin? He learns quickly but has to really discipline himself to practice what he has learned over and over again. Can you help with some advice?

School music lessons are such c-r-a-p that he will go far beyond third position or tuning a violin within just a few private lessons from a competent teacher. If he enjoys it during the summer, consider keeping him in music lessons outside of school.

School lessons are so slow and awkward (too large a group being taught) and there is excruciatingly slow progress made. The teacher can't personally correct everyone's technique so their mistakes become ingrained and prevent them from progressing also. This lack of progress means a loss of interest and frustration for the poor students. In other words they never get any good at it, even if they practice a lot, because they are merely practicing making the same mistakes.

In private lessons with a competent teacher, a student progresses much more rapidly and with far less frustration, so their effort is rewarded and they can feel proud of their accomplishments. Effort that produces rapid and great results causes the student to become eager to study further, and that of course makes it less of a chore. In this way music lessons, done the right way, can teach the student more than just how to play the violin: they can teach him how to become a success in life through his own efforts.

However, if your son has no interest in music and really just wants to learn one finger position and how to tune the instrument, I think two half-hour lessons could accomplish that.

(I am a piano teacher who also plays violin.)

I'm a clarinetist-turned-piano-teacher who briefly taught violin both in the classroom AND privately. I admit to knowing only enough violin to just get by! But I'm interested (of course) in making sure my own kids study musical instruments.

Violin not being my major area, I took a risk teaching it because, well, no one else in my area was doing it and I feel strongly that we need more kids playing strings. My last violin student before I stopped teaching strings (after 2 years, and FINALLY a "legit" violin teacher in the area picked up where I left off) moved out of the area but LOVED playing and was just developing a good ear and good intonation for all you can accomplish in two years.

Here are my observations and self-evaluation of the experience: NO DOUBT kids do better studying privately than in a classroom. They progress so much faster because more attention is given to their specific weaknesses. I believe every single child studying an instrument, no matter what the instrument is, really needs that one-on-one instruction in addition to playing in groups. Beginning groups have to progress at the average pace, which means your higher-level kids don't get challenged and your lower-level kids get left behind--either settling for where they're placed or just giving up. I've learned that "smart" kids who take up music because it's "easy" and less challenging than their other subjects get discouraged when someone of seemingly lower intelligence but greater level of musical ability force them to work to stay ahead (I was never an "easy" student!). I really do wish that EVERYONE in band or orchestra could be required to study privately, but this simply just doesn't happen in beginner classes.

When I was in high school, I was a strong competitor locally, but I didn't start making it into the more exclusive ensembles until I started taking weekly lessons. My own teacher absolutely WOULD NOT help, so I had to drive out of town to find someone to study with. That made all the difference because my band classes simply just weren't enough of a challenge. The more competitive and higher-ranking schools had easy access to private instruction, and taking lessons helped me move in those kinds of "elite" circles in high school--something that just didn't exist where I lived.

And even though I'm not really a qualified violin teacher, I had much more success one-on-one than with a once-a-week, 30 minute class. My class wasn't AWEFUL--I made sure they used the bow correctly and weren't just sawing on it. But one ought to be past "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" after 6 months! But neither could I convince any of them to take privately in addition to what they were doing in class, and neither were they practicing outside school.

There is one tremendous positive about group instruction, though: When done right, it puts a lot of pressure on less mature players to read music more aggressively. At my school, there was no intermediate group--beginners went straight into the varsity group after one year. While I think it is best to wait before going into an advanced class, it really did go a long way to helping me learn to perform under pressure and how to find my place in an ensemble. Sitting next to mature players who can help you with a part and learn complex musical patterns at a fast pace (which you DON'T do in lessons) helps develop sight-reading skills (as does small-ensemble work and playing duets in lessons).

What I do NOW is play keyboards both in a rock band and at church. The high-pressure of playing with a choir, conductor, and worship band has gone a long way to improving my sight-reading ability on the piano (which I couldn't do before I took the job!). Playing with a rock band has helped me with improvisation and playing by ear. Working one-on-one AND participating in bands/ensembles has really made the difference. Without both, and even now I'm always going to workshops and asking performers (and my old piano teachers) for advice, you really miss out a lot on building on a student's potential.

My advice: Keep your son in the school music program. He'll catch up, and he can always get help from more experienced students in addition to the class teacher. I teach 30 minute lessons, but only because my situation leaves me little choice and it really isn't a problem with my youngest students. HOWEVER--30 minutes is NOT ENOUGH. If I have time between students, I might just "lose track of time" and go 45 minutes to an hour. When I teach lessons at my k-12 studio, I have to escort my students to and from their classrooms and verbally review the lessons, ask about practicing, problems, etc. along the way, which gets me another 5-10 minutes of lesson time between students. I write my own material and email it; I have them watch Youtube videos--anything I can to squeeze a little bit more instruction time out of them.

IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, have your son take lessons for an hour at a time--even better if you can go twice a week. I advise my youngest students to practice no LESS than 15 minutes a day, and with maturity and skill I'll ask up to an hour. If they're REALLY serious I'll demand no less than two hours a day, with 4 hours a day being optimal for preparing for a career. If at all possible, see if you can put together a small group of 3 or 4 students for small-ensemble work, which is typically more difficult than large class work. Violin is tough because of all the ear-training involved in developing a sense of good intonation, and all the technical exercises on violin mean nothing if a student can't tell how far apart in pitch two notes are.

Molly has really nailed it in her response, I think!