SCMT Music Tuition offers 1 – 1 violin lessons to children aged four years and up. A versatile and impressive orchestral and solo instrument in so many respects, learning to play the violin is at the top of many youngsters bucket lists!
The violin is one of the most widely recognised musical instruments among children and adults of all ages. It’s a beautiful instrument, both to look at and to listen to. If you’re thinking about your child taking violin lessons, be prepared to find benefits in several surprising ways:
- Improved finger dexterity: As you learn more difficult songs on the violin, you’ll feel the fingers on your left hand strain to reach certain strings. The fingers on your right hand must learn to control the bow.
- Better coordination and motor skills: When you’re playing the violin, you need to coordinate both your fingers and your arms simultaneously.
- Expanded reading skills: A 2011 study at the Institute for Music and the Mind at McMaster University found a correlation between a child’s musical training and their word decoding skills, a fundamental part of learning to pronounce specific words.
- Improved concentration: It takes effort to learn how to read violin music and translate the notes on a piece of paper into beautiful sounds.
- Greater perseverance: Expect to complete long practice hours in order to improve.
- Sharpened memory: Your muscle memory will improve as you become more proficient at playing violin.
- Boosted academic skills: According to a study review presented by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, school-age children who play the violin often see a boost in academic achievement compared to their non-musical peers.
- Stronger verbal ability and visual pattern completion: These skills are not normally associated with music lessons, but a Harvard-based study published in 2008 found that children who take three years or more of violin lessons outperform their non-musical peers.
- Opportunities to invite others to events: Whether you play in one of our partner orchestras or you take one-on-one lessons, you’ll be invited to play in our magnificent concerts!
- Greater confidence: Playing in front of a group of people at a concert or recital is nerve-wracking. However, putting yourself out there can increase your confidence levels.
- Increased feelings of accomplishment: When you dedicate yourself to learning the violin, it can feel like an awesome accomplishment. You may realise you can do difficult things and achieve more than you realised.
The first decision you’ll have to make is whether to rent or buy your child’s violin. As a compromise, some stores and brands do offer a rent-to-buy option, making the financial aspect a little more flexible. Our brilliant friends at Ackerman Music can talk you through this and set you up with an instrument to take home the same day. We can also advise directly regarding the purchase of a beginners instrument.
Most of our young musicians enjoy taking part in ABRSM or Trinity practical music exams because they offer such a rewarding incentive to learn and improve https://gb.abrsm.org/en/. However this is not essential. Our concerts are also popular with string players for similar reasons https://www.cassam.co.uk/category/concerts-events/ . The journey however is your own, and our violin teachers vary in the teaching styles and direction they encourage, so you can choose someone that really appreciates your ambitions and is excited to support you in reaching your goals.
Most young children will start with 30 minute violin lessons, but we offer 45 minutes and 1 hour too. The first lesson is free. You can in most instances borrow a violin for the free trial but will need to obtain your own to start paid lessons. We can’t wait to get you started!