How long does it REALLY take to get good at the violin?
Disclaimer: the timeline that I will present in this article is by no means a one-size-fits-all. There are a myriad of factors that play into how fast someone learns, including previous experience, quantity and quality of practice, quantity and quality of instruction, and more. This is meant to be a general guide; take what resonates with you and leave what doesn’t.
Months 0-3 are the absolute beginner phase. Violin students must learn about proper posture and positioning (including how to hold the bow, how to hold the violin, where to place the fingers, etc.), learn to bow straight with an even, pleasing sound, and start to learn to read music if they can’t already. This is most likely the toughest stage for two reasons: 1) everything is new and can feel overwhelming and 2) you’re going to sound bad. No one sounds good at the beginning-how I wish I had videos of myself playing when I was a beginner! It’s very easy to get frustrated at this stage and give up.
Years 1-2 are the beginner phase. You’re continuing to refine your positioning (why won’t my pinky stay curved?! how does my bow keep getting crooked?!), getting more comfortable with all of the different finger placements in first position, refining your sound, developing good practice habits, learning to play faster, learning basic violin bow strokes, and getting more comfortable with note reading. In my experience, it usually takes students about 1.5 to 2 years to finish Suzuki Book 1.
In year 3, you enter the intermediate stage. You’ll start learning about shifting and vibrato (yay!), learn how to read music in third position, work on your intonation in third position. You’ll most likely practice many third position, shifting, and vibrato exercises. You’ll also start to develop more musicality-ie adding more frequent and complex dynamics into pieces.
Around year 4, you can expect to be shifting fluently through 1st and 3rd positions and adding vibrato into pieces more often. You might even find yourself using vibrato subconciously, which is a great sign! You’ll also start to practice double stop exercises and encounter them in pieces.
In years 5 and 6, you’ll practice playing in higher positions, learn three octave scales and arpeggios, and learn to practice scales in thirds, sixths, and octaves.
When you get to year 7 or 8, you’ll most likely be considered an advanced player. You’ll be out of the Suzuki repertoire and playing more “traditional” pieces. This could include some of the easier solo Sonatas and Partitas by Bach, some of the smaller concertos such as de Beriot and Accolay.
Year 10 marks the beginning of the “pre-professional” stage. The way I figured this was thinking about kids going off to college. They have about 10 years of experience (some more, some less, when I applied to college I had been playing for 11 years), and are ready to take that next step to make music as their career if they so choose. You’ll be playing advanced pieces such as major concertos like Bruch and Mendelssohn, and harder solo Bach pieces such as the fugues. And you’ll finally be “good” at the violin! 😅
At this point, I’ve been playing for 23 years and there’s still more to learn. That’s the beautiful thing about playing an instrument. How long did it take you to truly feel good at the violin? Leave a comment and let me know!
