Can I teach myself violin?
Yes, it is possible to teach yourself how to play the violin, but for most, it is not the ideal way to learn. In this article, you’ll learn the common pitfalls of self learning the violin and how to avoid them.
Pitfall One: Lack of feedback.
The best way to learn anything is through a feedback loop.
In order to make consistent progress, you must receive specific feedback on your playing. Ideally, this feedback would consist of not only what needs to be improved, but also how to do so. When teaching yourself, instead of this feedback coming from a professional with years of experience, it must come from you. Due to a lack of experience, giving yourself feedback can be difficult for a number of reasons.
You might not correctly identify the issue(s).
You might not know how to practice to solve them.
You may be an advantage if you have experience playing other instruments, because noticing things like intonation, sound, wrong notes, etc, might be easier, but it’s highly likely that you will miss important techniques related specifically to learning the violin.
Pitfall Two: Falling into bad habits.
When I was about 9 years old, I started learning vibrato. My teacher had been wanting to start it for a while, but I vehemently resisted because I thought it would be hard (spoiler: it was!). One of the first things we worked on was creating a bit of space between my hand and the instrument, which is one of the core principles of vibrato. I took this to the extreme and completely changed my hand position. The result was a bad habit-one that I spent years undoing.
Bad habits are hard to break, and when teaching yourself, they are infinitely harder to identify. Learning how to play the violin is hard enough on its own-don’t make it any harder on yourself 😉
The best way to ensure that you’re not falling into any bad habits is to take things extremely slow and constantly monitor yourself. Only move on once you feel extremely confident with a certain technique-so much so that it almost feels natural. Bad habits are most likely to occur when you shift your focus from something that wasn’t totally ingrained yet.
Pitfall Three: Creating a plan.
One of the most common questions I get from students who are teaching themselves is “what should I play next?” In order to steadily improve (and not get discouraged because you’re playing things that are too difficult), you need to be following a clear, structured plan centered around your goals.
To create a plan for yourself, first, identify your goals. Why do you want to learn to play the violin? What do you hope to accomplish through the experience? Then create an action plan on how to achieve these goals, breaking it down into small steps. In my Online Violin Academy, you’ll get an outline of the exact steps to take to reach your goals while still maintaining the freedom to work and learn at your own pace.
Pitfall Four: Conflicting information.
The internet is an amazing resource with tons of great information available. However, there is a lot of misinformation and conflicting advice out there as well. It’s important to consider the source of the information you’re getting to ensure that it is correct. Why should you listen to this person? What are their qualifications? I recommend finding one or two teachers who you know and trust and following their advice, instead of randomly searching around the internet each time you have a question or want to learn something new.
In summary, learning the violin on your own is possible, but ultimately harder and riskier than seeking instruction. In this day and age, private lessons aren’t the only way to get support. If you’re looking for a method of learning the violin that is affordable, accessible, and effective, click here to check out The Online Violin Academy.
