Violin Teachers Blog
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Violin teacher with more years of experience than Eloise Hellyer would like to admit.
Violin Teachers Blog
1y ago
Maturity can teach you a lot of things. So can experience. When you put the two together, some remarkable things can happen. Maturity teaches you that so many things you had thought mattered don’t really matter much if at all, which allows for what’s truly essential to percolate up in your mind when faced with ..read more
Violin Teachers Blog
1y ago
“How do you teachers deal with Helicopter or Tiger Moms? It seems that honesty about their roles ends badly.” A really good question for instrumental teachers of all stripes. The answer? First of all, of course “honesty” in the situation ends badly. Why? Because they feel judged. They don’t just feel it — they are ..read more
Violin Teachers Blog
1y ago
A very dear friend who left us far too soon was a learned philosopher, lawyer, and eloquent writer. A line from one of his articles on his long-defunct blog struck me: “Nobody knows as much as he thinks he does, and to whatever extent anyone bases a decision on facts, the facts are always incomplete ..read more
Violin Teachers Blog
2y ago
I have a new transfer student, a preteen, who has tons of technical problems. How do I work on all these technical problems at once? I have been separating these problems, but I am worried that even though she and her mother have a great attitude, she will be discouraged by all this technical work ..read more
Violin Teachers Blog
2y ago
Can you hear the difference between a major and a minor chord? If you’re a musician, of course you can. However, in a post on his Facebook page, Mark J. Blechner¹ cited the research that he did for his doctoral thesis² where he found that one-third of the human population cannot hear this difference! He also ..read more
Violin Teachers Blog
2y ago
I participate in Quora, an online forum. When you can overlook the ridiculous political rantings and ravings, there are lots of interesting questions and answers on a vast array of subjects. One question I saw recently was: “Did you ever say something very simple that had a profound impact on someone in an unexpected manner?” That made ..read more
Violin Teachers Blog
2y ago
All musicians (I hope) live for the love of music. The problem is that we can’t live on the love for it, be it performing or teaching. Therefore, the following post on a forum may give us cause for concern: I want people to love my instrument and learn to play it and love it ..read more
Violin Teachers Blog
2y ago
When writing these articles I often “quote” teachers. Actually, I try very hard to disguise the original question. In this case, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t. There’s nothing I can leave out or change that isn’t pertinent to her anguish as a teacher. So I got her permission to quote it in ..read more
Violin Teachers Blog
2y ago
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Albert Einstein Recently I read an article by a violin teacher talking about perfectionism being dangerous. She believes we have to teach our students to listen to the positive voices in their brains instead of the negative ones that perfectionism seems to ..read more
Violin Teachers Blog
2y ago
I have a high school student in Book 6 and need tips to get her to play in tune. I’ve tried everything: listening to her Suzuki cd, scales, double stops, etc. Help! Before trying any more technique, perhaps we should ask ourselves why indeed would any student be having such severe intonation problems. In this ..read more