Violin lessons for a 4 yo.

[thesouthsbelle]

Basically DS was shown a violin by a man in the music shop fell in love with it- que 2 weeks later of him going on abot it all the time I gave in and got one. 1/8 (dead cute but anyhow)

I can play - all be it slower than I could before, and can still teach him, which we're trying to currently do, but I am wondering about a) teaching your own child, and b) DS is left handed do I need to think about how he would play as a 'lefty'

He seems very keen and has picked little bits up quickly.

is it too early to be teaching him as well?

I reckon it would be lovely to teach your own son and that he will love this. Perhaos when he;s a bit older he may be able to learn at school.

Are you teaching him a bit of reading music too? There are some really lovely books for very young musicians,like these where they do like join the dots and stuff. ALso, do some stuff like dancing to music in different time signatures, marching round the room, dancing to waltzs etc. Also, maybe do some compositoin with him when he becomes a little more confident. You only need one note! He could make up rhythms on one note while you play stuff on your violin. Duets sound twice as good as solos!!

I taught a few 4 and 5 year lds and the feedback I got was that it also helped with other skills like concentration, writing, reading, sharing, practising as well as having some musical skills.

good for you!!! Has made me think I should start showing mjy 2 year old our piano....

As for leftness..... Personally I would stick with normal position, both hands do stuff anyway.... I will ask a few of my violinists what they think. I can tell you that my left handed guitarists wishes he'd just learnt the 'normal' position!

thank you so much, I'm also keen for us to play together & him learn the piano - have high hopes for this one lol.

No its not wrong. You are teaching him to match sound to symbol. This is the same learning tool he will use for reading letters, it wont get in the way. Like kids who read arabic and english for example.

Kind of like using signing and then the kids being better at speech.

I used to do tempo and meter by playing a tune and speeding it up and seeing if they could keep up (this can be fun if you over exagerate and have a laugh!). Also CD if stuff would be fun, stuff he might know. Also 'how would tiger pounce to this', how would a kangeroo bounce to this' is quite fun.

I don;t thoink its pushy to want to share music with him.

cool how exciting! Let me know how it goes!