Star Teacher #2: Nathan Cole

Where Mimi Zweig offers invaluable advice for students coming up from the very earliest stages, Nathan Cole has mastered the art of teaching advanced players up to professionals preparing for orchestra auditions. He has offered a premium online Virtuoso Master Course to pros in the past. The second edition of his Violympic Games took place during the summer of 2021, a 12-week course for intermediate to advanced players, with structured video lessons combined with performance challenges. A lively online community of mostly adult students engaged with one another on a private Facebook group, with members from all over the globe.

Nathan is First Associate Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and could clearly spend all his time just performing. But his passion for teaching has turned him into a YouTube pro. While joining his private student cohort is limited and pricey, he has posted many excellent free teaching videos, including a series on the complete Bach Unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas for Violin. (He calls it Bach on the Road, an indication of his love of the pun!) Technique videos you’ll want to bookmark for your students include Effortless Vibrato, Mastering Spiccato and Pinky Power: Strengthening the 4th Finger. Check out the full menu of videos on his YouTube channel, or see what online courses are available at Natesviolin.com.

I just purchased a copy of his new book and video series on Scales: The Road to Repertoire and am looking forward to freshening up my scale routine — not to mention my students’!

Posted in Lesson Plans, Printables, Repertoire, Sheet Music

Pachelbel Canon – Study Edition

Posted on by J Melin

Is this the opening of the most overplayed piece in the violin repertoire? Probably! Does that mean that violin students should not have an opportunity to learn this Greatest Hit of Classical Music for themselves? Of course not! If piano teachers can keep teaching Für Elise, we can keep teaching The Pachelbel!

My students GET to learn The Pachelbel when they reach the equivalent of Suzuki Book 4. And most of them LOVE it. Many transferable skills can be taught using this piece: Counting in 8/8, note values from dotted-quarter-notes to thirty-second-notes, a little bit of 3rd position shifting, ensemble playing with two other partners, even Baroque performance practice if desired.

I learned this piece in high school from the Max Seiffert edition. For sentimental reasons and because it is in the public domain, this is the version I use with students. Because I teach this piece so frequently and repeat myself every time, I wrote down my usual spiel as Study Notes at the end of the piece. I also added handy section lettering every two measures, so it is easy to stop and start with a trio of intermediate students. I cleaned up some of the extraneous articulations and inconsistent bowings. The engraving is still a little scratchy, because this is the version that you can still download for free from IMSLP.org. I offer my Study Edition for a nominal charge here! This helps me maintain this site.

If you enjoyed using this resource, please check out some of my other repertoire publications for sale at SheetMusicPlus.com. Thank you!

Schradieck and Dounis Etudes – Together Forever

 

When it comes to fundamental etudes for violin, it’s hard to beat Schradieck Book 1 and Dounis Opus 23. (Leaving out Kreutzer 2 for now!) But you really only need the first few pages of each one to reap 95% of the benefits from these two works! Their finger-dropping-and-lifting patterns on a single string complement one another perfectly. Prescribe them to students who need to work on finger dexterity, velocity, intonation, dropping/lifting fingers in groups, finger-bow coordination (by playing the etudes with separate bows instead of slurs), and keeping a quiet left hand.

Download available!

I put together this 4-page PDF for my students and thought I would share it with you. Due to the popularity of this download, there’s a nominal charge to help me maintain this site. Enjoy !!?

And if you’re looking for a publication called the Dounis Daily Dozen, you can find it here from the fabulous Violin Lounge site!

Posted in Book Reviews, Method Books, Pedagogy, Repertoire, Sheet Music

Violin Method Books: A head-to-head comparison

Posted on by J Melin

The following post contains some affiliate links.
Cut to the Coda: The method book comparison chart printable!

Method books for music readers

I teach young beginner violin students to read music from the start. I use method book series to teach concepts in a logical sequence, but have yet to find “the perfect” method book that exactly matches my preferred teaching progression.

Most published violin method books in the U.S.A. were written for elementary-age mixed-instrument school music classes. So sometimes the sequence for violin students delays the introduction of the E-string notes (Essential Elements Book 1), because the cello and viola students in the class don’t have an E string. Some books advance more quickly than others, with fewer pages and examples between introductions of new concepts. Some Level 1 books leave out skills that other Level 1 books cover, like low second finger. All seem to be written for group instead of individual instruction. And most haven’t been updated for 20 years or more. Witness “String Builder,” unchanged since the 1960’s and the book used in my 3rd grade orchestra class!

An old favorite…  Continue reading “Violin Method Books: A head-to-head comparison” →

Simplified Piano Accompaniments for Violin Student Repertoire

I am not an advanced-level pianist with excellent sight-reading skills. I get finger-tied trying to play most published piano accompaniments to violin student solo pieces. But there is something so satisfying about supplying the underlying chords and harmonies when a student is learning a new piece. That piano part represents at least half of the music the composer created for us to enjoy. So I’ve come up with substitutes for the full piano score, from simplified or chorded piano parts, to turning the piano score into a violin duo part with as many double-stops as possible.

My copies of the piano accompaniment books for student repertoire are marked up with my own note reductions, chord notations, “Left hand only” warnings and alternate voicings. I use my markups to play along with a student during all stages of their learning a new piece of music. I’ll even play them at a recital in a pinch!

Would you like to be able to prepare your violin students for accompanied performances by playing piano with them on a regular basis? Is a student’s understanding of their piece lacking because they can’t hear the underlying chords when they are learning it? I’ve started transcribing my scribbles into clean, easy-to-read piano sheet music, and am now releasing it for digital download over at SheetMusicPlus. Here are four transcriptions to accompany solo pieces found in Suzuki Violin School Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 6.

Product Cover
look inside		 Brahms – Waltz in G for Violin and Piano – Simplified Piano Accompaniment
Composed by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Arranged by Paul Klengel, Jane Melin. Classical Period, Method, Repertoire. Score. 2 pages. Published by Jane Melin (S0.1021265).
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look inside		 Corelli – “La Folia” Simplified Piano Accompaniment Variations in D minor
Composed by Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713). Arranged by Jane Melin. Baroque Period, Repertoire. Individual Part. 6 pages. Published by Jane Melin (S0.1039991).
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look inside		 Dvorak – Humoresque for Violin and Piano – Simplified Piano Accompaniment in D/Dm
Composed by Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904). Arranged by Jane Melin. Romantic Period, Method, Repertoire. Individual Part, Score. 6 pages. Published by Jane Melin (S0.1020641).
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look inside		 Gossec – Gavotte for Violin and Piano – Simplified Piano Accompaniment
Composed by Francois-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829). Arranged by Emil Kross, Jane Melin. Classical Period, Method, Repertoire. Individual Part, Score. 4 pages. Published by Jane Melin (S0.1021377).

I’ll have more links for you soon, including violin duos for more Suzuki selections. Check out my full Sheet Music Plus catalog as it grows!

Incentive Program Package #2: Out Of This World

star trophyMy second incentive program theme is literally Out Of This World! You could also call it Space, The Final Frontier; Into Space; or even Blast Off! I get ideas for my incentive programs from the variety of economy-priced awards I can purchase from Crown Awards. A star trophy like this one is perfect for a space theme. Crown Awards has dozens of insert graphics too, from generic “music” pictures to specific instruments. Some are embellished with glitter and others glow in the dark.

The downloadable Progress Chart has 23 spaces for logging student progress towards a variety of music study goals. See Package #1 for the downloadable/printable list of MusiQUEST Goals and the Practice Tracking Card.