Just starting the violin and need some help

Question

I'm 22 and I've taken an interest in playing the violin. Its an instrument I've always liked. I already own a very nice (in my opinion) violin and bow. I work a full time job 5 days, sometimes 6 days a week, and I have a son. The lesson I've scheduled myself for are only a half hour long once a week. I'd really like to get the most out of the free time I do have to learn the violin more efficiently. I've thought about learning to read music on my own time to waste less time during my lesson. Would it be worth the time and expense to find a different teacher who can hold 1 hour or longer lessons? It seems like 30 minutes isn't enough time to learn much of anything.

Answer 1

Well i am younger then you I'm 13 ive been playing for 5 years. Its a complicated instrument that needs a lot of work. You need a lot of time for it. You have to really like to play it. You have to have passion and be willing to put time into it. Im looking to play on broad way when i get older and i have 2hr private lessons 1 time a week to get personal improovement so it is worth it

Answer 2

Well, in middle school when you start at seventh grade, you get 42 minutes a day learning your instrument. But for learning sightreading, do something the elementary school teachers would do.

Hold out your hand with your fingers seperate. So your pinky would be the bottom line of the staff and the thumb would be the top line of the staff. The spaces in bwteeen your fingers are the spaces in the staff.

The lines would go like this:

Pinky: E

Ring: G

Middle: B

Index: D

Thumb: F

And the spaces in between your fingers would be F, A, C, E, if you started from the bottom up.

So, if you were to do all the notes at once, you would play E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, and so on.

Notice how the musical alphabet is only A, B, C, D, E, F, and then G, then repeats.

Other than that, the strings on your violin from smallest to largest go E, A, D, G.

You could google some tutorials on playing the violin, also.

Answer 3

I think for children learning to play a musical instrument, half hour lessons make sense because most younger kids tend to have relatively short attention spans, especially if Mom and Dad are making them take lessons while they'd rather be playing video games or whatever.

For adults and teens who are motivated and want to learn, I think a half hour lesson is too short.  By the time you get your instruments tuned up and go over any questions you might have had about the previous week's practice assignment, it seems the lesson is half over. An hour gives you a lot more time to go over new material, maybe spend part of the lesson on music theory or reading notation, maybe spend part of the lesson playing a duet with your teacher -- all kinds of fun and educational possibilities open up if you have more time to spend with a good teacher.

You might want to talk to your present teacher about booking 2 consecutive half hour slots with him or her to make a one hour lesson.  If he or she doesn't have the time available for you to do that every week, or if your budget doesn't allow for a weekly one hour lesson, you might want to consider a one hour lesson every other week instead.  A good teacher, who's well organized, should be able to give you enough new material for study and practice in a one-hour lesson to keep you busy practicing for the next 2 weeks until the next lesson.

If your present teacher simply can't accomodate a one hour lesson, then I would consider switching teachers.