Violin, Viola and Cello

Our violin and  viola students come to us to prepare for all-state competitions, supplement their orchestra classes, or to learn how to play a string instrument on their own.

All strings teachers customize lessons to individual student abilities and goals.

Beginner lessons focus on proper technique, arm position, and form to set good posture habits from the start. Lessons progress to include double stops, hand articulation, shifting, trills, and vibrato.

Our string teachers incorporate a variety of string pedagogy methods including Paul Rolland and Suzuki methods.

Weekly lessons include: ear training, note reading, scales, etudes/technique, repertoire, recital/performance preparation.

Students receive positive encouragement during weekly lessons and custom practice assignments to build skills between lessons at home. When all the hard work pays off, there’s no better feeling.

Technique and musicality are the foundation for every musician.  Students will study from a variety of various cello methods including Suzuki Method books Essential Elements, and Rick Mooney’s Position Pieces.  Beginning students start by learning how the cello works and how to properly care for their instruments.  Our focus will be on developing proper techniques and understanding the basics of music theory.  As students progress, they will begin to develop their skills of sight-reading music and memorization.  Students’ progress will be determined by their studies at home, and it is important that students practice daily.   In lessons, we will focus on the various ways in which to practice effectively to ensure students understand what is needed to complete weekly assignments. 

Progressive Repertoire for the Double Bass gets beginner students playing music right away with easy, recognizable tunes. It gets students moving into the upper registers of the bass at a faster rate than the traditional double bass method books. The book begins with musical intervals that are easier to hear and slowly increases the difficulty throughout. Progressive Repertoire is the first book in English to incorporate the division of the entire fingerboard into six different positions, a la famous modern double bass virtuoso, Francios Rabbath. This system allows the bass player greater efficiency and ease when tackling difficult musical passages. The student will be taught how to hold the instrument correctly, how to hold the bow, different styles of pizzicato (plucking the string), different names for the parts of the instrument, how to tune, how to produce a good tone, and much more. Strict adherence to the method books is not necessary. There is plenty of opportunities to break away from the method books for side lessons. There may be students that want to incorporate improvisational elements into their playing or even writing music. Our mini music theory lessons can get them started playing with musical harmony. We find that finding and incorporating the music that they are passionate about into their lessons can lead to a more positive relationship with their instrument and to their own musical goals.  

 We use Suzuki String Quartets for Beginning Ensemble Volume 1 book.

We use Suzuki String Quartets  Ensemble Volume 2 book.

  We use Suzuki Ensembles for Cello books