Books › A Practical Guide to Violin-Playing, 1913 › scan 21
Scan 21
A Practical Guide to Violin-Playing, 1913
22 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 3. See the scan on archive.org.
1Parents ought to be particularly careful in selecting the best teacher available for the child's first lessons and the teacher so chosen should be one who is well able to interest the child in music from the very outset.
3Careful choice of a teacher for a beginner.
5The old idea that "anybody is good enough for a beginner" is a doctrine as stupid as it is pernicious. Since our memory retains nothing so well as that which has been acquired at an early age the importance of these remarks can be readily seen. It takes years to rectify the mischief done by incompetent teaching; in fact, in some cases the faults acquired in the initial stage are never wholly eradicated. To sum up: poor instruction means absolute waste of time and money.
7Deficiencies such as unusually weak or short fingers (e.g. the fourth being too short or curled-in), are a special drawback. Double-jointed fingers, or those webbed too high up, would for ever hamper the most ambitious and hard working student. But worst of all is an ear that cannot hear when a note is out of tune! Let us not forget that the ear is the most essential qualification for the violinist, just as the eye is for the painter.
9Physical Deficiencies.
11Value of a good ear.
13How can we find out whether the child has a taste for music and a sufficiently good ear to take up the violin? In very few cases can an absolutely certain opinion be given as to whether the young child is likely to do well in the future, neither would it be right or fair to give an adverse opinion or to assert that the child will never do anything at all at the fiddle. The beginner must be given a good trial, and the parent follow personally and carefully the progress made, or seek the advice of a musical friend or acquaintance. The parents' desire to see their children progress brilliantly is well known and natural, but since children at first are rarely very keen to learn an instrument, it is extremely difficult to gauge what is in the child in this respect.
15Without someone to superintend, (at least so far as to tune the fiddle and to make the child practise daily) the English pupil, as compared with young beginners in most of the other European countries, will be severely handicapped.
17Continental children generally receive two or three lessons a week throughout the entire year, as against one weekly lesson during only thirty-six weeks in the year, which is the case in this country.
19Too few lessons.
21To practise daily must become a work of love — remember what the great Anton Rubinstein said: "If I don't practise
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