It takes a fairly serious commitment to learn the violin. What kind of training you get and how you utilize it will determine how quickly you gain skill. Today, you'll find out how to get the most from the time and money you invest in your violin education.
You can learn violin through several different mediums. There are manuals, books, videos, and courses that you can learn from. You can also learn from an instructor, either in a group or privately. Which you should go for depends on your skill level, personality, and budget.
In the initial stages, you can use almost anything to learn. The basics are, after all, basic. You can often learn basic bowing technique and how to place your fingers just through images or basic descriptions. You don't need to invest a lot of money at this stage, but you do need to invest a fair amount of time to get this down.
When you reach intermediate skill level, you'll need something more comprehensive. It isn't always clear where to go after the basics. Your main options will be video courses or teachers. Group lessons or private lessons are fine. It won't take that much time to find an instructor until you reach the advanced stage, but try to find one whose style compliments your own.
At advanced levels, you're going to need to learn from someone with a lot of experience to make any progress. Private lessons will be very expensive. Some master violinists teach courses that you may purchase far more cheaply. For those that need more personalized tips and feedback on their technique, the big price tag isn't something that can really be avoided though.
To clarify where you should go for your lessons, take a good look at what is important to you and what your personality is like. If having a lot of freedom in your learning is a big thing for you and you have plenty of motivation, you'd likely do better teaching yourself. It also helps to be patient and to keep a close eye on details, should you be choosing to teach yourself.
Having a private instructor is necessary if you lack confidence. Lack of confidence will lead to less effort put into your practice as you aren't sure if you will reap any rewards from your time investment. This problem is overcome by personalized feedback on your technique and progress.
As far as money is concerned, online violin lesson courses give you the most bang for your buck. Violin Master Pro, for example, costs around $27 at the time of this writing and is taught by a world famous violinist, Eric Lewis. It is a very in-depth course covering a wide variety of techniques and skill levels.
Self taught options are cheaper, but learning from paper is very limiting. Choose materials with video demonstrations. When it comes to learning from others, group lessons tend to be easiest on your wallet, while private lessons can vary in price quite a bit.
Don't feel limited to one path or the other. There are benefits of mixing self-taught resources together with normal lessons.
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