WHERE SHOULD YOU BE AFTER 1, 3, 6 ,9, 12 MONTHS OF

LEARNING VIOLIN:

My thoughts and opinions on this are based on MY teachings over the last 20 odd years and
my own Violin Video Lesson Course with books.

MONTH 1-3:
• You should be learning basic and rudimentary techniques: holding the violin & bow,
bowing properly, playing open strings and the rest of the fingers very basically.
You’ll want to concentrate on getting these fundamentals down before moving on.
Making sure your tone from the bow is good, intonation is good, posture is correct
and you know where the fingers go on both the sheet music and the violin.
I recommend you go through my ‘Video Lessons 1-10’ followed by my Song Book 1. That
will cover all the above and take 1-3 months depending on the person.

MONTH 3-6:
• This might be where you want to invest in a better violin. Here is a link to my ‘Top 9
Violin Picks’. Here are the top 3 violins would personally recommend: ! Cecilio
CVN 500 and the Cecilio CVN 500 video Review. Another good one is: Cecilio
CVN 300 and the Cecilio CVN 300 video Review. This violin is available in both the
US and the UK: ! Stentor II (1500) and the Stentor II (1500) violin review. For the
UK" : Stentor II (1500).
• You will be getting to grips more with the basics and playing simple tunes - all whilst
making sure your tone remains good and your intonation also.
• My ‘Video lessons 11-20’ and the accompanying 'Tutorial Book 2' and 'Song Book 2'
will take you though months 3-6, depending again on the person etc.
• You will be learning more complicated rhythms, a few basic bow techniques and
very importantly scales/arpeggios to help the finger dexterity.

MONTHS 6-9:
• I would have a student working on repertoire - easy repertoire to cement all the
learning thus far. I prefer to teach a lot right at the start to get students going, then
work on that. So sort of staying static if you like in terms of learning new stuff, but
just perfecting the basic technique.
• Here are some books and sheet music that I think are of the level you should be
working at:
1. Mini Concerto in G Major
2. The Simply Series
3. Canon in D
4. Concerto in B Minor Op.35 (violin part is from page 15)
5. Concertino in G Major Op.11 (piano part)
MONTHS 9-12:
• Again, not necessarily anything ‘new’ but just harder pieces that are still basic, but
require more skill and also give you the chance to improve and work on your tone.
1. Concertino in D Major Op.15 (piano part)
2. Fiocco’s Allegro
• I would add in some more scales/arpeggios at this point too and possibly, even 3rd
position - closer to the 12month mark.
• Here is a book of violin scales and arpeggios that I would recommend you begin
working through. I would try and work through as many as you can, but these MUST
be something you continue to practise from now on. You could start with these as a
warm up. Scales and arpeggios are super good for you in multiple ways (Google it!).

MONTHS 12-18:
• If I were comfortable with the basics and felt comfortable and confident reading
music despite whether I sounded brilliant or not at this point, I would definitely start
working on learning 2nd and 3rd position now. Here is a book on learning 3rd
position and here is a book for 2nd position. Learning 2nd position as a position is
optional as you may well sort of pick it up when you learn 3rd position, but its
recommended if you are unsure and/or struggling to grasp it.
• Your tone will continue to improve so as long as you are aware of it, it won’t get
worse. With the violin, you have to learn more techniques as well as needing time to
mature in order for the sound to develop into what you want it too. Don’t get too
bogged down with the semantics of getting that ‘beautiful’ tone right away as it will
come later down the line when everything else slots into place.
• I might at this juncture start vibrato, BUT only if all the above is down. Here is my
best (and most recent) vibrato video, but linked under that video are 2 more that may
prove useful as well.
• Feel free at this point to try and play music that attracts you. I have literally hundreds
of violin sheets on my Patreon page. You pledge monthly to my Patreon page and get
access to everything I put on the feed which is about 20-30 new violin sheets per
month. You can pledge a minimum of $1 per month to get access to my feed and
therefore hundreds of violin sheets instantly. Once you have pledged, if you go here
you can download my spread sheet that gets updated periodically throughout the
month which has ALL the violin and piano sheets and violin backing tracks that I
currently have on my Patreon page.

MONTHS 18-24:
• I would start learning more complicated scales and arpeggios and possibly a few
other technical exercises such as thirds and chromatics and more complicated pieces.
Here are some more advanced scales and arpeggios etc.
• Kreutzer Etudes - these are a MUST for any violinist who wanted to improve their
technique.
So again, I want to reiterate that the above is MY opinion of where one should be when self-
learning/teaching the violin and it is all dependant on the person and how much time and
effort they put into it and whether they have an aptitude for it.
The point of this was to give you an ‘idea’ of where and what you should be doing and
roughly when, so it stopped you going off on a tangent or not knowing what to do next!

Good luck with the playing…

Alison