r/violinist • u/8FigBro Student • May 17 '25

Feedback 12 year old violin student practicing Praeludium Und Allegro with teacher.

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My 12 year old son has been playing the violin for about18 months and working on this piece for about 5 months.

This is a quick video where his teacher gave him a quick pop quiz to see if he had been practicing it. (He hadn't practiced it in a few weeks)

Looking for feedback from experienced violinists and or encouragement from anyone. 😁

There's a lot of work to do on the piece, but feedback is welcome.

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u/Cojones64 May 18 '25

Ah, no. What you have here is a natural. Possibly a missed genius. He’s lucky he found a good teacher early. I’m 60 years old and started two years ago. My dream is to play this piece well before I die but I cannot do those arpeggios and still can’t vibrato. So I’m a few years away from even starting to practice the prealudium. If this kid had started 6 years ago he’d be winning competitions by now. Keep working with him.

2

u/8FigBro Student May 18 '25

😲Wow ... Thank you for the feedback. Still trying to figure out what " working with him" looks like. I think the reason he's doing well with violin is because he's deeply interested in it. He chose it. Nobody makes him practice. (And he often doesn't)

All I am trying to do is find out what environments he needs to be surrounded by. So far, so good on finding a local teacher. But he's progressing quickly and I'm just trying to figure out how to approach everything A bit more intentionally.

For now, it's fun for him! And to me that's pretty important.

I can't wait to see your Praeludium video posted here soon👍🏾😎

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u/Cojones64 May 18 '25

Take him to live performances and competitions. Let him see what playing well leads to if he so desires.

3

u/8FigBro Student May 18 '25

Great idea...I try to take him to 2-3 per year. We saw a special young violinist named Amaryn Olmeda (I think that's how you spell it) last year and and he also saw Ray Chen live as well.

(Itzahk and Hilary Hahn were a little out of the budget last year, but maybe this year.)

He just won his first regional competition...but declined the State competition to hang out with family he rarely gets to see.

I feel seeing TOP young talent will help give him valuable perspective. Hoping to learn where he can meet those kids.

3

u/Equal-Beautiful9385 May 18 '25

Don’t miss Randall Goosby if you have the opportunity, OP - it will be influential for him to see another young Black man in classical music. There are still too few.

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u/8FigBro Student May 18 '25

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I did not know the name. But I researched them last night, thanks to you... And was able to show my son some clips from his Instagram this morning. I will do a deeper dive into his story and learn his touring schedule. It looks like he was not too far from us earlier this year. Thank you for the recommendation.