My daughter have this lovely violin teacher whom she adores. Has made quite a lot of progress, went through fiddle time runner is less than a year, was learning an average of 3 songs per week. She has made a lot of improvement in her intonation, bowing technique etc.

She hasn't entered my daughter for any exams yet, which I do not mind as long as she continues to enjoy her music and make progress. My daughter speeded through 4 songs in the grade 1 book, and the teacher felt that she should simply just move on.

What concerns me was over last 3 months, all she has been doing was her 3 Grade 2 exam songs and one study. The same 3 songs and 1 study. No aural, no sight reading. I understand she is trying to perfect my daughter's techniques, timing, dynamics, but my daughter has been getting good comments on her violin lesson note book, and her intonation sounded spot on to me (and my musical other half).

She was asked if she was thinking of entering my daughter for exam but she couldn't make up her mind. My daughter is bored, and could do with learning some other things as well.

I was thinking of discussing with the teacher, but I do not want to appear like a unreasonable, demanding parent. We just feel that if she is not thinking of entering her for any exams, why not let her increase her repertoire and her technique at the same time, rather than sticking to the same songs indefinitely.

Of course I will respect the teacher's opinion in the end, but I do not want to offend her; esp if we don't get to speak face to face, and only able to communicate via little notes we write on her violin lesson note book (she gets her lessons in school). Often written communication can be misread as "hey I am unhappy with you, you do what I tell you" which is not definitely not me.

If the Violin teacher is via the music service you may be able to ring their office and leave a message for the teacher to ring you. It might be better for your own piece of mind to have a chat.

Good luck!

Perhaps the teacher wants to make sure that your daughter has some pieces up to performance standard. I can see why you're concerned, though, and if your daughter is (not surprisingly) getting bored with these pieces, the teacher needs to know that.

I agree with notmusimum that the best thing would be for you to have a chat with the teacher explaining your concerns.

3 months is a lot longer than I spent on individual pieces at that level.

Nevertheless, you will find that as your daughter progresses she will need to spend longer on pieces due to their increased length and complexity - I've sometimes spent several months on a piece, but am working at an intermediate level (grade 8-ish repertoire). Three short pieces from a beginner's tutor book takes far less time to learn than an 8-10 page intermediate/advanced piece, sonata or concerto movement.

Sometimes I spend longer than I'd like on grade pieces because the pupil isn't doing enough practice. How much practice does she do, if you don't mind me asking?

The other possibility is that if she's in a pair or a group when she has her lessons she may be being held back because one/some of the others in the group isn't practising enough?

Either that or the teacher has lost the plot...

Firstly, if your daughter is having lessons through school, a lot depends on her lesson length. This seems to range from 20 mins to 45 mins, depending on what the school have agreed with the Music Service being used, and as another post has mentioned, whether it is a shared lesson or not.

From what you have said, I would say that this teacher will not be entering your daughter for her grade 2 for the Summer as entries have to be in very shortly and her not having done any aural indicates it is unlikely. It may be that next term she starts other repetoire away from the exam syllabus and maybe picks the grade 2 pieces up again and brushes them off for the Winter entries. Although she has, you feel, nailed the 3 pieces, you have not mentioned how scales are going. These tend to sometimes be a little neglected, and then again there is also the sightreading to consider.

As mentioned, drop a note into the teacher. You seem to have been happy with her until now, and am sure she will put your mind at rest.

When my daughters first started taking grade exams, I was completely oblivious as to what was involved. My youngest daughters violin teacher tends to enter her for a particular grade when she is, in theory, a grade above the one she is taking, ability wise. She is taking her grade 7 this summer, but worked on her pieces a couple of months ago for a few weeks and then put them away so as to work on other repetoire as well as Scales etc. She will start practicing them again next term and polish them up to performance standard. All teachers seem to have different ways of going about exams, but agree, they can become repetitive and boring for the student.

I find it is good to get one of the books with the accompanying cds to make practice time less boring at home. I think Fiddle Time Sprinters can be purchased with cd accompaniament and there are books like Discover The Lead which has a few titles in the range, which I think is suitable for your daughters standard. Dont confuse this with Take The Lead Books though as these are more for intermediate grades along with Guest Spot Titles. There may be others out there now, as it has been a few years since I looked at this area of the market for early grade repetoire. The Disney books can be quite good also. These seem to be a bit mixed re. capablities, but there are usually a handful of pieces which you can have a good stab at and the harder ones will come in handy as she progresses.

Good Luck

That is a long time to spend on 3 pieces...

But not as bad as an ex-student who got a place at a Junior Conservatoire in Sept 2009 and who, 2 whole terms later, has still not been given ANY new pieces. She has used pieces she studied with me for her various auditions and indeed for the re-audition at the institution concerned

In her lessons (1 hour weekly) she has been given only a few studies in 6 months. I THINK the idea is to perfect absolutely every last detail of sound and technique with these studies. Unfortunately it is making her miserable and I am struggling to defend the new approach in diplomatic terms the longer this goes on...

My daughter's Conservatoire flute teacher did pretty much nothing but technical exercises for the first term. She did do a grade exam after the second term though.
The piano teacher, second study, was determined to get absolute perfection and changed my daughters pieces in order to get it. That took 2 terms.
In our case my daughter is blissfully happy so no problems here.
Dora

I feel that perhaps there isn't enough time in the lesson to cover aural tests, scales, sight reading, studies and pieces.....and Theory! When I was teaching privately, I had a hard time trying to juggle each week to get everything covered in an hours individual lesson. From experience of my own daughters' music lessons via a Music Service at school a few years ago, it's very difficult when the child reaches a certain standard to keep moving on - either due to the lesson being too short or it's shared with another child/group at a different standard.

If your daughter is showing promise, I would say it's time to start looking for a private teacher.

Also, if you could encourage your daughter to practise her sight reading at home by purchasing some books (another poster has kindly listed some) this will help her improve and alleviate the boredom somewhat.
Teachers can only guide - the real learning comes from practising between the lessons.

My goodness. I haven't been on abrsm forums for a few weeks, and what a big number of replies and useful suggestions. Thanks so much. It is so useful to hear from other people who have more insight into the situation than poor clueless me.

My daughter has 20 min lessons, on her own, not shared withe another student. She spends about 20 mins practising most days of the week. Her scales is actually reasonably OK, although she rarely practises it.

I have followed Tracy's advice, and got her Fiddle Time Sprinters, which she is enjoying. She is learning about 6 songs from there now. She find the 1st to 3rd position shifting (and back) tricky, but enjoying it. I noticed when she is concentrating on her left hand with all these new things, her bowing suffers, as it is no longer parellel, nor in the middle between fingerboard and bridge. My wife has recently started doing aurals with her at home over the Easter holiday, hope the teacher won't feel we are stepping on her toes by doing all these extra without her permission.

The other thing for me to consider is whether she is ready for longer lessons? Is Grade 2 still too early for longer lessons? Despite her age, I think she has the capacity to concentrate.

Twenty minutes a day is hardly any time at all to learn a musical instrument (though twenty minutes of enjoyment, done with enthusiasm is better than an hour or two of misery, done because someone makes you do it).

People that do not play themselves have little concept of just how demanding it is to develop the physical co-ordination, train the ear, learn the notation, and acquire the theoretical knowledge that underlies our western system of music.

Other things being equal, and so long as you do not stupidly practice to exhaustion, the more time you spend on sensible practice, the faster you progress - and that is true at any age.

From the musical and technical point of view there is nothing wrong with spending absolutely ages on a few simple things as a way of developing sound basic skills. There is always more to learn about even the simplest pieces.

Also, what seems overly repetitive and boring to an onlooker can be intensely interesting and fulfilling to the aspiring musician that is doing the practice. In fact any aspiring musician that does not enjoy repeating exercises over and over until those around them are driven almost insane is not likely to progress very far!

Failure to move on to new pieces is only a problem if the lack of variety is discouraging or demotivating to the student.

You know your own child best and if you think she can cope with half hour lessons and there is scope to do that then go for it. My daughter had a shared half hour Oboe lesson until she had done Grade 1. She probably only practised for around 15 minutes a day, perhaps not even everyday as she started learning Flute a couple of months after Oboe. She moved to half hour indidvidual lessons after 7 months at the age of 10.

The one thing that's helped with progress other than practice and teaching is being part of various ensembles and bands. It might be worth investigating any beginner string groups that may be in your area.

Playing things of your own choice will help with sight reading.