Sharing my kid’s violin teacher journey

Just want to share in case it’s helpful for parents looking for a violin teacher for their child.

My daughter is 6 now. At 4.5 she expressed interest in the violin at 4.5. 5 min away from us there was a Suzuki teacher that focused on young kids so without much more research, I enrolled her.

I’ll preface with saying that I don’t know what is Suzuki vs is what is specific to this teacher. But I feel like bad habits were made:

1. She was taught a “preschool”bow hold with her thumb under the frog. While I understand this is the easiest way to get them playing as fast as possible. I would have preferred her learn the right way, as long as it takes
2. So much tension. She was taught to clench her neck/chin to the violin and practice holding it up without her arm. Even the older kids in her studio look like robots when they play.
3. There was no ear training whatsoever. She got tapes on the violin and was told her which tapes to press on for the note. I noticed her students playing for a few years still had tapes and use the preschool bow hold.
4. No rhythm training, not even a mention of the importance of pulse.

After a year, and looking at the older kids with this teacher, I knew something wasn’t right. Not to mention my daughter was bored and getting disengaged. After a lot of trial lessons and connections from friends, we landed upon the most wonderful teacher. Retired ex faculty of a well known conservatory. We have been with her for about 6 mos now. I want to share her approach and how it is so different.

1. Pulse. So fundamental. This has been drilled into her since her first lesson. Clapping out rhythms, “feeling” the pulse of a piece.
2. Tension. Untraining her full body tension that she had learned. So many different strategies including playing while walking, moving her head side to side, talking while playing.
3. Bow hold. This is still a developing but again, untraining this super tense Suzuki bow hold she learned. Lots of exercises with a pencil. It is still very much a WIP and something her teacher spends a lot of time focusing on.
4. Note reading. She was taught how to read music immediately. Not surprisingly, kids this age can learn this so naturally with little effort, it was so just easy for her. Her sight reading at 6 is very fluid. She now reads, writes, and plays her own music.
5. Ear training. Actual ear training. No tapes. She has to find the right notes. She has to correct if she’s out of tune. Her teacher will play a simple melody (daughter closes her eyes) and my daughter will play it back to her, then write it, then replay. We do this everyday in practice.
6. Sight singing. She is also taught to sing the notes in tune before she plays and keep the music in her head.

There is a lot more but you get the gist. It is very different from Suzuki. Not to mention, she is so much happier and more engaged and happily practices for 45 min a day (with me). The lessons and repertoire are highly personalized to what she needs to focus on. Obviously we got really lucky with finding the most wonderful teacher. But as I will soon embark on the journey of finding a cello teacher for my son, I now know what to look for.