Learn the Violin and Play
In Your Local Community Orchestra

copyright 2008 by Janice Tucker Rhoda

Finding a Violin Teacher
One of the first steps in learning or relearning to play the violin is finding an appropriate teacher. When searching for a teacher, you will want to take these qualities into consideration. The best violin teacher for you:

• will enjoy teaching adult beginners, and express his/her enthusiasm
• will have a patient and positive attitude
• will be organized and goal-oriented
• will support your goal to play in a small chamber group ensemble or community orchestra
• will use excellent teaching materials that provide a solid foundation.

Your Violin Curriculum
What is an excellent adult violin student's curriculum? Here are the materials I most recommend and use with my adult violin students:

• The ABCs of Violin Books 1 through 5
  includes solo pieces, exercises, etudes, scales, double-stops, trills, shifting exercises, duets, 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions
• The ABCs of Violin for the Absolute Beginner DVD and CD
  used by students of all ages, parents of students and new teachers as their very first step in violin training.
• The ABCs of Duets book
  excellent duets for your first ensemble experience.
• Suzuki Books 4 and 5
  includes solo pieces, complimentary CDs
• Wohlfahrt Etude Books 1 and 2, Op. 45
  includes 1st and 3rd positions
• Whistler "Introducing the Positions," Volumes 1 and 2
  includes 3rd - 7th positions
• Hofmann Double-stops, Op. 96.

I continue with more student violin concertos, solo pieces, etude books, advanced scales and easier movements from Bach Unaccompanied Partitas and Sonatas. Students who play in their local community orchestras bring their orchestra music for review at lessons. They find plenty of fiddle tunes throughout the ABCs of Violin series to satisfy the thirst for this genre. If they want more, they will find other fiddle books on the market to add to their repertoire.

Keep in mind that the ABCs of Violin books will provide a solid foundation for technique and reading capabilities that will last for years to come. Students may easily branch out to other materials after completing all five violin books.

Conclusion
In my 25 years of teaching experience I have found that adults learn to read music quickly and readily assume the correct posture in a matter of weeks.

At the very first group violin class of each semester at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, I ask the students if anyone tried to discourage them from pursuing the violin because they were an adult; everyone says "YES!" After 3 group classes, I ask them if violin is easier than they ever thought it would be, and everyone gives a resounding "YES!"

Janice Tucker Rhoda teaches Violin for the Absolute Beginner courses at the Cambridge Center of Adult Education and has 20 plus weekly private students in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the author of The ABCs of Strings method series for violin, viola, cello and bass, published by Carl Fischer.