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Teaching beginner violinists is an incomparable, stimulating and enjoyable occupation. Each child is uniquely individual; every day produces new challenges and rewards. The last four decades have seen great improvements in beginners
Professor Jan Sedivka, who had few peers in his knowledge of the workings of the left hand, left an important legacy of thought on the subject. Here are some of his ideas on tackling the problem of left hand asymmetry. Gleaned from my experience in teaching as his assistant for ten years and also from the video tapes he made in the early eighties, this brings together at least some of his ideas in what I hope will be an ongoing set of articles. In playing the instrument, we are required to reach a note or a group of notes…
The teaching of stringed instruments in groups is both well established and widespread in Australian schools as in many other parts of the world. There are a number of reasons for choosing to teach strings in groups such as budgetary constraints, timetabling and staffing efficiency, integration into the school curriculum, as support and extension activities for individual tuition, ensemble experience and as broad based recruitment for orchestral programs to name but a few. However most compelling are the many benefits gained by the participants when group teaching is carried out efficiently by specialist staff. Instrumental music programs have burgeoned in…
