Violin Junior - Advice for Parents

Advice for Parents

Your child should ideally use an instrument that has been correctly set up so that it is playable and easy to tune. Buying or hiring from a specialist music shop is recommended. Please ask your child’s teacher for further advice.
Encourage your child to play their violin every day, even if it’s just for a short time. Learning a musical instrument is a bit like keeping fit. Playing little and often is better than only playing once or twice a week. Of course, the more practice they do (within reason!) the faster they will progress.
Watch the tutorial videos together. These are as much for parents as they are for children – they are designed to help you help your child with their practice between lessons.
Encourage your child to sing their pieces as well as play them – this will help them develop their musical ear. Many of the pieces have words to encourage children to sing. Listen to the audio tracks to hear how the pieces go and have fun singing together.

It's important for your child to spend some time working on rhythm away from the instrument. Help them with the clapping exercises and encourage them to clap any rhythms in their pieces that they find difficult. Saying the words of the music while clapping the pulse is a great way of learning the rhythm of a piece.
Encourage your child to read the technical tips (or read them together) and spend some time focusing on technique in each practice session – the violin is a lot easier to play when it is held correctly!
Give your child opportunities to perform – for example playing their pieces for friends, in a family concert or school assembly, or joining an orchestra.
Listen to violin music with your child: it could be folk, world, classical music or jazz. Show them videos of professional violinists performing and take them to live performances.