First Weeks Learning Violin, What did you learn first? Options

[jojo]

Flossie, sorry, I am totally lost, maybe because like you have said a post has been edited??

[Flossie]

Flossie, sorry, I am totally lost, maybe because like you have said a post has been edited??

Yes, the entire contents of the post were changed and bear absolutely no resemblance to the previous version... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) That's why I came back and added the edit to the post that I'd written in response. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[jojo]

Flossie, sorry, I am totally lost, maybe because like you have said a post has been edited??

Yes, the entire contents of the post were changed and bear absolutely no resemblance to the previous version... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) That's why I came back and added the edit to the post that I'd written in response. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I think I'll give up trying to understand then (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Pixie*Porsche]

I'm an adult learner so not sure this is relevent as the musicianship is already there I suppose.

My first viola lesson consisted of holding viola correctly, bowing open bows and first position, G major and D major scales, lots of pieces in Abracadbra. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[ellie_the_little_elephant]

I started the violin when I was about seven. I was taught how to hold the violin, and then after the first week my parents were told they had to buy me a shoulder rest as the violin didn't come with one and we didn't know that one was needed! I played pizzicato open strings for the first few weeks then moved on to bowing, again with open strings, and then just plodded through A Tune A Day for Violin very, very, very slowly.

Then again, I was truly terrible at the violin - I was so awful that my (completely un-musical) parents would tell me off every time I tried to practice as they were "sure it shouldn't sound that bad"! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blush.gif) I had lessons for about three or four years from the nun at my prep school - I promise I'm not making this up - who kept trying and failing to teach me vibrato despite me still being nowhere near Grade 1 standard. I was still on about Lesson Ten of the A Tune A Day book after three years! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Terra]

I just had my first violin lesson today. So I can comment a little. I had been teaching myself to play for a week and a half (when I got my very first working violin) and had my 1st lesson which was quite fast paced. My teacher wanted to hear what I could play so we did a couple of duets from abracadabra Eidlewiz (correct spelling?) she then skipped though several pages and had me sight read a piece which I managed just fine.

She asked me to play one of the harder exam pieces with piano. I managed to get though the first few lines. We also did scales and arpegios. She asked me to practice making longer and firmer strokes with the bow as my bowing technique was too small.

She then said she thought I'd be ready for grade 1 at christmas and that she wants me to practice my exam pieces for the week and she will play with the piano for me next week. She gave me one piece to work on in my learning book and told me to practice scales and arpegios with longer bow strokes.

So mainly we went over bowing, scales and exam pieces. But I had a genrally good lesson. If she had asked me to practice open strings or piz I'd of been quite board. But I have learned an instriment before when I was 9 and understand grade 1 theory so that might help.

[violincjj]

With my youngest beginners I teach violin hold, bow hold and then we do lots of work copying rhythms on open string E followed by A some time later. We have many games to work on posture issues and bow control. I love teaching little kids!

[mwl1]

I started when I was 23, so not a child, but I started with pizzicato on the open strings for a few weeks, then bowing open strings for a bit, and then onto using my fingers on the strings (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I was just the same. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I was 10 when I started though, so used "Red Parrot, Green Parrot" and was obliged to do the actions and colour in the pictures... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[maya3]

In my first lesson (I was 7) I learnt position, bowing and open strings. Then I added notes gradually and did my grade 1 after a year.

[STRINGMUM]

Ellie, it sounds similar to my friend's daughter's experience of being taught by a nun in a prep school north of Manchester. The said nun also had bad breath and the poor child almost passed out everytime the nun breathed on her.

[nova]

I started when I was 23, so not a child, but I started with pizzicato on the open strings for a few weeks, then bowing open strings for a bit, and then onto using my fingers on the strings (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I was just the same. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I was 10 when I started though, so used "Red Parrot, Green Parrot" and was obliged to do the actions and colour in the pictures... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

I feel short-changed - I was not offered colouring. If only I had had actions and colouring in I know I would be a better player.
N

[honeyb]

I'm sorry if I have cause some controversy here.

When I first tried to reply, I accidentally hit the wrong reply button - ie the one at the bottom of the actual post, rather than the one to add a new reply - does that make sense? I then became confused and hit add rep;y thinking it would fix it, somehow. I inadvertently posted the OP. I then edited the post, to try and fix my mistake, and post the reply I intended to post.

I have no objection to anything anyone said. The forum is just quite different to any I have used before and I made a posting mistake. I simply wanted to offer what way my daughter has learned, and share it withthe OP.

[all ears]

Hi honeyb, and welcome to the forums!

Since I live a bit off the beaten track compared to most forum members, I'm particularly interested in what's "normal" in different parts of the world...I'm just as interested, regardless of age.

I think there are more adult beginners in violin in Japan, as in other well-off countries, but there must still be many more child beginners, some very young indeed.

As a parent, having young children start violin meant that these were about the first lessons of any kind that my kids had received (I think they'd just started swimming lessons, as there was no way to use the pool without enrolling in a class), so I had no preconceived ideas about how lessons should be - certainly remember more about the plants in my piano teacher's garden than my own lessons, which started around age 7!