Set Up Steps

I thought today might be a good day for videos. Here are some of my younger beginning students demonstrating various aspects of getting set up to play.

I asked one of my students to model the set up steps we like to use in the studio to prepare to play. Here is the video. Enjoy:

In this video, I show a teaching technique that helps the teacher to set up the student's violin in a way that encourages good elbow placement:

And another video with one of my wee ones:

And finally, a cute little bow from the youngest member of the studio. This little fellow is the younger brother of one of my older students. He started asking for a violin, so here is how we started. We began lessons with the bow. Then I place the instrument on his shoulder and teach him to stand still looking at a little rubber toy that I put on the box violin. This little fellow is an active one. It was a challenge to get him to stand still initially, but at this point he can concentrate his gaze at the toy for a minute and more. And we have added a few more things to his lesson. We started with lessons of less than a minute; currently we can go about 5 minutes. We are making progress. I believe that he is a very active two year old. Note the inhalation he makes before doing the bow. I teach this as preparation for playing in orchestra and working with a conductor. Breathing and phrasing are important musical concepts. A student is never too young to start learning these skills:

Happy Set Up Steps!