Professional Violin Tuition
Ambitious about Violin
Are you ambitious about learning the violin?
Learning to play any musical instrument is now shown by research to bring innumerable benefits. Here are ten excellent reasons! https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/reasons-to-play-a-musical-instrument/
My name is Sarah Greinig, and I have taught violin for more than 30 years – adults and children – all ages from 4 to 84! During that time I have watched pupils have a huge amount of fun, deepen their understanding and become inspired by all aspects of the violin.
I witness children from as young as 4 or 5 years old gradually gain a sense of purpose, make friends and improve their confidence, and by learning skills such as personal organisation, and dealing with setbacks and tricky patches of learning, they learn how to work towards goals and structure their learning. Together we celebrate their successes, from a simple performance to a parent, grandparent or friend to pupil concerts, public concerts and even collaborations with adult orchestras. They often choose to take part in local music festivals and other competitions, and if they decide to take a grade or other assessment, they achieve excellent results.
Pupils and their parents are often surprised to find how much learning the violin helps with school life and academic results. When they reach secondary school, pupils love the advantage they have in class music lessons. Many of my school-age pupils opt to take music for GCSE and A level; some go on to study music post-18, but all develop skills which can accompany them through life, whether as a career or a hobby.
Adult pupils can often feel that they are a sideline for the teacher, but I love the variety that adult pupils bring to my teaching practice and I value them just as highly as younger pupils! As an adult you may well have more strongly formed views of what repertoire you would like to work on, or which new genres you might like to explore. I also believe that it is possible to improve your playing at any age, and can select suitable etudes and exercises to work through technical issues and mental blocks, to identify and release tensions which may be holding you back, and to build violin self-esteem! It is always interesting to get to know the “violin journey” of an adult player, whether they are used to having lessons or have not had lessons for a few decades. And for an adult who has never played but decides to take the plunge and give it a go, it is always hugely satisfying to open the doors of music to them, and they often become better musicians than they thought was possible.
