Violin with John E.

Helping someone achieve a goal or learn something new is my passion! As a teacher I've taught students just starting out on violin and viola as well as experienced players looking for tips on how to improve and everything in between. Music is my life and sharing it is my passion. I graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a degree in Viola Performance and hope I can help you achieve your dreams!! As an instructor I like to use my experience from playing with chamber music groups, solo performances, listening to rock and roll and pop music with my family, and performing with orchestras to shape how I train classical and non classical music to my students. Depending on your level, we can cover from the basics of holding a viola or violin and bow, to playing scales and becoming familiar with the instrument, to playing pieces written by me and others to improve your skills. We will also learn (or improve on) how to play by ear! All levels will learn how to or improve on reading music. For players with some experience we will improve on scales and arpeggios as well as exercises designed to train your hands to work with harder pieces and how to create different sounds. We will work through learning the music you want to learn as well as staples in the classical repertoire like concertos, sonatas by Bach and others and more. For experienced classical players, we will work on well known viola and violin concertos and repertoire as well as advanced techniques and left and right hand exercises. We can also cover the required for repertoire for any audition or competition. For non classical styles we'll cover the basics of playing the instrument, then work off of arrangements of any song you want to learn. I will be arranging the songs which will allow for any and all levels to play any song!