Problem with DD violin teacher

[MarkyMarky]

DD 7 started violin lessons in sept and I don’t feel she has made much progress. I encourage her to practise most days but the noise is atrocious. I contacted the violin teacher to ask why it’s so bad. The violin teacher basically said in not so many words that we must be patient and the violin takes time as it’s a very difficult instrument and implied that maybe she needs to practise more. This rubbed me up the wrong way as we are already practicing.

however DH is an accomplished cellist and said it must be the teacher as he’s musical and knows how to played stringed instruments. He said DD should be using her left hand fingers by now and making a ‘half decent’ sound.

I contacted the teacher again and said I’d appreciate more detail as what is covered in lessons as I wasn’t satisfied. She has ignored me so I contacted the local music service who basically said it’s down to the teacher to liaise directly with us, I explained that she was ignoring us.

I spoke with the school who said the same thing, the teacher needs to speak to us as there’s no-one else who will be able to help us.

AIBu to now make a complaint as we are not being listened to and we are paying a fortune for lessons?

My daughter, now 8, started a year ago, has only just started to use fingers towards the end of last year but was playing multiple tunes using just open strings, combination of plucking and bow for seperate pieces and within the same piece. She has a lesson with one other student.

The pieces they have done have introduced the different notes, rhthym, style, timing etc.

I also played the violin and how they have learnt is VERY different to how I learny many years ago (things do change over 40 odd years surprisingly). However by 2 terms in she was sounding good, rarely screechy as violin can be and more importantly enjoying it.

As others have asked has your husband helped with the practice, has he taught her how to read music - might help if he wants her playing tune.

6-8 lessons is nothing if she has only just started.

Just saw your post about the teacher's qualifications. Those are very highly regarded, cost thousands to do, and will be the result of many, many years of successful teaching.

Wondering if this is a reverse from some poor violin teacher who is being harangued by a parent because their child isn’t progressing fast enough

I’m wondering this too

A term covers more than 4 weeks so each class is every way cheaper than £10 a class.

She's 7 and started 2 months ago - give her and the teacher a bloody chance OP!

I pay £44 for a one hour violin lesson for 10 year old dd. She started with 20 minute lessons at age 6 and spent a lot of time balancing a Hulu hoop crisp on the top of her bow and keeping a plastic dangling frog on her pinky. She certainly couldn’t play hot cross buns after 2 months. I sat in on every lesson to learn alongside her and not once passed comment to her teacher who clearly knows a lot more than I do.

Professional player here.

Your DH is talking out of his arse. And he is not a violinist. BTW, an LRSM is a very advanced playing diploma, perfectly adequate to teach beginner players. Your DD's teacher sounds as though she knows her stuff.

Violin is DIFFICULT to learn PROPERLY, and open strings until after Xmas is perfectly normal.

Oh, and good luck if you think £68 per term is expensive. Wait until you see what private teachers charge

😳This is a wind up, surely? Did you read what anyone has written here?

OP, I think your H is being a bit unreasonable. FWIW, cello is actually far easier than violin, IME. If you are starting either with little to no musical experience (which is how it sounds for your DD, from your posts) then violin can be incredibly difficult. I struggled massively as a child, but I found violin far easier after learning another string instrument.

Oh you’re a troll!

Ok fair enough, they are reasonable qualifications but surely a teaching qualification is more relevant to the role of teaching within schools?

maybe I was a bit quick to jump to conclusions. It does seem from the responses that our expectations are unrealistic.

DD does enjoy the lessons. She says her teacher is fun and makes them all laugh by making faces silly faces while speaking on her violin (I assume intentionally!).

I think the group lessons are more suited for younger children. I think at 7 DD should be more violin focused and I think I’ll go down the route of individual lessons.

Wouldn’t bother wasting time giving OP any sensible advice.

Leave her and her DH to the cat wailing.

As for posture, your dh surely understands the importance of that. Getting it right now saves time and potential injury later. When dd went through a major growth spurt a few years ago she had to relearn posture because everything felt wrong to her. Any hint of any ache was straight back to her teacher.

I’m a violinist/violin teacher and you are my absolute fucking nightmare parent. Maybe, just maybe the trained teacher knows better than your DH? There such a thing as grounding technique before you start trying to introduce too many new things. It sounds shit because tiny violins sound shit, it could be Itzhak Perlman and it would still sound atrocious.
If you let your child give up now, what kind of message are you sending? ‘Oh, you didn’t do it brilliantly within two months so just go ahead and quit?’ The teacher should have explained that it’s a journey and you really need to stick at it for a year minimum to see proper results. Maybe I would have started LH fingers by now but maybe not. Your child is learning a whole new physical language with extremely fine coordination skills when she’s probably not even learned to write cursive with a pen yet. Keep practicing and you’ll see results-she’s had 4 hours of lessons total. And please bear in mind that that teacher’s profession has just been through two years of covid and swingeing cuts to the Arts and will probably be counting on the lesson fee to buy food.

DH says she should be playing Hot Cross Buns and Twinkle Twinkle by now

What a tool 😂

Ok fair enough, they are reasonable qualifications but surely a teaching qualification is more relevant to the role of teaching within school?

For GCSE, maybe, but this in effect is an extra curricular activity isn’t it? If she attended an after school football club, ran by an outside agency, would you expect the coaches to have the PGCE?

The violin is not a pleasant instrument to listen to for the first several years of learning

I think you are both being unrealistic about your daughters not. No matter how fabulous your DH is.

She’ll sounds shit for ages. Get ready for 3 years of the clog dance OP.

My PGCE wouldn't do much good at all if I tried teaching piano (I'm quite decent).

Does your DD actually want to learn the violin?

I agree with PP saying that if he is so good at music, why hasn't he been able to help her progress quicker when she practices at home?

Free you are OP, a step by step guide. Starting with Suzuki.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Hymn-Tiger-Mother-Chua/dp/1408822075/ref=sr11_1?crid=3OICM8IHBMNN1&keywords=battle+hymn+of+the+tiger+mother&qid=1667856032&sprefix=Battle+hymn+%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-1

Your child is telling you that she has fun and enjoys her lessons and you’re yanking her out? You have an extremely qualified teacher there who places quite correct emphasis on the basics. Looking in the mirror to see her bow will help her to move it in a straight line WHICH WILL HELP HER SOUND LESS SHIT. Send her to a private teacher by all means-a good teacher will charge £60 minimum per hour for a home visit (teaching qualification or not) You don’t need to have a qualification to be an exceptional teacher, you need to be engaging, highly proficient, passionate about music and your instrument and-most importantly at your DDs stage-kind and patient.

Nah. This is obviously a fake post

Dd really only started to sound good when she moved to a full size violin at Grade 4ish.**

OP - I hope your dd is getting more support and encouragement in rl or for her said she should give up now!

I started learning the cello at 12, having had several years tuition on the piano and having a pretty good standard of musicianship for my age. I was surprised at how long it took to get a decent sound out of it (compared to the piano). I managed to play a relatively simple piece in my music school's end-of-year recital, but the poor 7-year old kids who started on the violin at the same time as I, with no previous knowledge of music... just sounded terrible.