Patrick - Violin tutor - New York
1st lesson free
Patrick - Violin tutor - New York

Patrick's profile and contact details have been verified by our team

Patrick

  • Rate R809
  • Response 1h
Patrick - Violin tutor - New York

R809/h

1st lesson free

Contact

1st lesson free

1st lesson free

  • Violin
  • Viola
  • Cello
  • Erhu

Violin lessons that plan your bow, your shifts and your phrases from the destination backward

  • Violin
  • Viola
  • Cello
  • Erhu

Lesson location

About Patrick

When you play something for me, I'm usually listening to the note after the problem and watching the moment before it. If your bow wobbles on a crossing, I'll likely ask you to play just the two notes on either side of it, then only the movement between them with no sound at all. I like making the problem small enough that you can see it yourself, because a mistake you've found on your own stays fixed far longer than one I point out.

I explain things in short pieces and then I stop talking. If an explanation doesn't land, I don't repeat it louder. I'll play it two ways and ask which one sounds closer to what you want. Or I'll put a coin on the bow to show a straight path, or have you rest the violin and copy the bowing motion on your forearm. With younger students that might become a game of "find the ringing note". With adults coming back after years away, it often means sorting out which old habits are still useful and which are just familiar.

My lessons are calm and fairly quiet, with plenty of short attempts and small adjustments rather than long run-throughs. I ask a lot of questions: where did that feel easy, where did your shoulder tighten, which note surprised you? There's no wrong answer to those questions. They're how you learn to listen to your own playing the way I'm listening to it.

I enjoy the moment when a student stops asking "was that right?" and starts saying "that shift was late, let me try again." That works the same way for a ten-year-old with a fractional-size violin, a teenager preparing for an orchestra seat, or an adult who finally wants to play the piece they've loved for years.

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About the lesson

  • All levels
  • English

Languages in which the lesson is available :

English

Most violin problems show up as a bad note, but the cause usually happened a second earlier. You run out of bow on a long note because the short note before it used too much. A shift lands sharp because your hand left in a rush instead of traveling. A string crossing scratches because your elbow arrived late. In my lessons we work backward from the moment where things go wrong. We start with the note or sound you want, then ask what has to be true just before it, and then just before that. For a beginner this might mean starting a new tune with its last bar, so every time you play through you are heading toward something you already know. For an advanced player working on a fast movement, it might mean building a passage one beat at a time from the end, so the most practiced part is always the part ahead of you, not behind you.

A big part of this is what I call bow budgeting. Before we play a phrase, we work out where in the bow you need to be for each note. Many students know the frustration of a lovely phrase that falls apart because they reach the tip just as the loud note arrives. Instead of telling you to "save bow", I'll ask you to play only the open strings of the passage, with your left hand resting, and mark where you begin and end each stroke. Once the right arm knows its route without the left hand adding pressure, we put the notes back. A child playing their first open-string rhythms learns the same idea in a simple form: big bows for long notes, small bows for short ones, and arriving at the middle when it's time to change direction.

Shifting and intonation get the same treatment. Rather than jumping and hoping, you'll practice a shift with a quiet guide note, sliding lightly on the finger you are leaving until the hand arrives, then removing the slide bit by bit until only the sense of distance is left. To check your pitch we use the open strings as reference points. A well-tuned G, D, A or E on the fingered string makes the instrument ring in a way you can hear and feel under your chin. That gives beginners a way to check their own notes from the first weeks, and it gives more experienced players a more honest measure than an app on a music stand.

Every technique is tied to music you actually want to play, whether that's folk tunes, film music, a first sonatina or a concerto movement. Each lesson ends with you telling me, in a sentence, what you'll practice and how you'll know it's working. Over time those sentences become your own practice method, and you'll rely on me less and less to tell you what went wrong.

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Rates

Rate

  • R809

Package rates

  • 5h: R4045
  • 10h: R8090

free lesson

The free first lesson with Patrick allows you to get to know the tutor and discuss your needs and expectations.

  • 1h

online

  • R809/h

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Languages in which the lesson is available

English

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