Violin with Nisha H.

Hi! I am Nisha. I have been teaching the fiddle, violin & viola over 12 years, in both private lesson and orchestral settings. I have played in both orchestras and bluegrass and country bands over the years. I have done some studio work as well. I studied music education at the University of Utah. I like to think of my self as a "well-rounded" violinist and seek to share my knowledge and skills in multiple musical genres and environments with my students. So why do I use the O’Connor Method: A New American School of String Playing? Well, personally, my love affair with the violin developed as I was raised on a small farm, listening to 80’s & 90’s country music. I loved the sound of the fiddle player in George Straight’s Ace in the Hole band, and “sang” all of the fiddle parts louder than the actual lyrics in my favorite 80’s and 90’s country songs. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any private violin or fiddle teachers in my area to take lessons from. So, I began my violin journey in 7th grade orchestra, with the choir teacher doing her best to get me started on my violin. Thus my musical journey began. In 9th grade I got my hands on the Fairfield Fiddle Farm Fiddle Book and began teaching myself how to fiddle. I loved playing in the orchestra at school and fiddling around! I became trained in the Suzuki Method, which I highly recommend to any string teacher. I gained valuable teaching techniques in this training. I began teaching a blend of the Suzuki method, fiddle tunes and music notation reading for quite a while. My students especially loved the simple fiddles tune I started them on. However, over time I began to get bored of hearing the same Suzuki tunes over and over and over again. I also noticed my students struggling to stay interested in the minuets and gavottes. I would do my best to throw in more advanced fiddle tunes to keep their interest as they progressed. I began thinking to myself…“there must be a better way???” I wanted to give my students a well-rounded approach to the violin that would still give them a solid foundational technique, but also be fun and engaging. I began searching for an alternative, pouring through different violin and fiddle books, trying to find something that would fit the ideal I had in my head. I almost gave up. However, I finally stumbled upon the O’Connor Method and made the jump to switching all of my violin students over to these method books. I will let Mark O’Connor explain what this method is for you… The O'Connor Method for string teachers and students is a 10-Book series designed to guide students gradually through the development of pedagogical and musical techniques necessary to become a proficient, well-rounded musician through a carefully planned succession of pieces. Gradual development of left-hand technique, bowing skill and ear training as revealed through the study of beautiful music encourages a love of music-making in a slow, steady and natural way. The music that I have collected for the O'Connor Method includes some of the most endearing melodies in American music as well as some of the great folk fiddle tunes that have endured our 400 year-old history of violin playing. I have made it a specific feature of the Method to include musical literature that represents all of the Americas -Mexico, Canada and every region of the United States – and all musical styles – classical, folk, Latin, jazz, rock and ragtime. I have chosen and arranged material that will be both instructive and artistically enriching, and will help create the future classical violinist, folk fiddler, jazz musician - or all three! So there you have it! Just what I was looking for. Of course, I still use a separate method book and flash cards for learning to read music notation. I also incorporate a set of well-loved and simple fiddle tunes to teach basic fiddle style and improvisation training into my lessons combined with using the tunes in the O’Connor books in creative ways to teach shifting, half position and vibrato. Essentially the O’Connor Method is a spring-board that in combination with the other tunes and skills that I teach in my studio, is helping to create well-round violinist, who feel comfortable sitting in an orchestra and in a jam circle!