Once you have decided to begin Suzuki violin lessons, be sure to have your child measured by the director before purchasing or renting an instrument.  Please do not depend on the store salesman to determine which size instrument you need.  We want to be sure your child gets the appropriate sized instrument right from the beginning.   In most cases, the violin is not needed for at least the first few lessons.  Take the time to talk to your teacher in the first lessons to be sure of what you are buying/renting.  In the meantime, the student will be learning valuable lessons about how to care for the instrument and will be developing basic fine-motor skills necessary for playing the violin.

Additional materials you will be expected to purchase:

1.) Suzuki Violin School Volume I - Book and CD set (roughly $20)

2.) Kun shoulder rest for violin in appropriate size
( about $23 - contact director for exact model and sizing information)

These materials can be purchased from the Community Music School.

Pre Twinkle Beginning Suzuki Violin Lessons

While the ultimate schedule for all Suzuki students is a 30 minute weekly private lesson and a separate group class, beginning students ages 4-6, are grouped in pairs or triples to share lesson times and will not have regular group classes until they are playing Twinkle Variations.  Depending on enrollment, beginners older than 6 may or may not be grouped and will possibly start with full individual 30 minute lessons.  (If we have more than one 7-year old beginner, we may be able to group them together but we can’t group a 7 year old with a 4 year old.)  

Here is how shared lessons work: 

Student A and Student B will share a 30 minute lesson time.  Each family will pay for 15 minute lessons ($15 per lesson/$210 per semester) but both students and their parents are expected to be in the lesson for the full 30 minutes.  In some cases, there may be a 3rd child and the teacher will reserve 45 minutes for all 3 children.  Even though the teacher has reserved 45 minutes for these 3 students, it is possible, in the beginning, that the full 45 minutes will not be needed.  In any case, each student only pays for a 15 minute lesson each week.

Why we group:
1.) Concentration spans are often very short with students this age.  Sharing the lesson allows the teacher to alternate between students to take full advantage of the 30 minutes, as well as work with both children together using games to teach skills.

2.) In the beginning, exercises and skills taught take a very short time to teach but need to be practiced over and over by the student at home in order to develop the fine motor skills needed to master the exercise and move on.  The teacher will have the student repeat the skill as many times as possible in the lesson but it is the consistent repetition over multiple days that will improve the student’s ability to perform the task.

3.) Having another student in the lesson allows the children to learn from each other, and also allows the parents to see how other children learn and react.  Parents can learn valuable insights about their own patience and attitude towards their own child by being paired with another student for certain exercises in the lessons.  Parents need to exhibit the same patience they have with other children with their own child.

4.) When paired, if Child A is having a particularly rough concentration/cooperation day, that child can still learn something from the lesson by observing Child B work with the teacher without the stress of having to perform themselves.  In addition, the parent of Child A can still observe and participate so they can help Child A better during the week at home.

Please be aware that the teacher’s job is not only to teach the child but also to teach the parent how to teach the child at home.  If the student has particularly low concentration or is not ready for new skills to be added in a particular lesson, the teacher may spend the bulk of the lesson working with the parent while the child colors or sits quietly.  This one-on-one time between parent and teacher is equally as valuable since the parent works with the child 6 days a week while the teacher only gets to work with the child 1 day a week.    

Please keep in mind the logistics of pairing lessons….both families need to be on time for lessons each week and due to the small rooms available for teaching. it would be best if siblings didn’t attend shared lessons.   Please review the Policies for All Students page on our website for make-up/cancellation procedures.  Due to the logistics of scheduling the paired/tripled lessons, the teacher may not schedule any make-up times until the end of the semester when it is possible that you may be paired with different students for the shared lesson.  Regardless of how many cancellations a student makes during the semester, no more than 2 make-up lessons will be granted for student absences.  Your teacher may give you contact information and lesson times of other students and ask you to try switching with another student before canceling, if at all possible.   If the teacher cancelled the original lesson, it will be made up and this make-up will not be counted in the 2 make-up maximum.