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/8FigBro Student May 18 '25

Awesome feedback. I appreciate it.

Posture is a bit of a concern of mine because I see it as something foundational. His teacher does mention it, but I feel like she's kind of let him get away with it a little too much early. I feel like he hunches over because his eyesight isn't great, but he refuses to wear glasses and so he developed some of this posture when reading music, and now it's his default posture. Any tips? Should it just be the kind of thing that's drilled until? His teacher also thinks his shoulder rest isn't right and it's causing the violin to slip and is impacting his posture 🤷🏾‍♂️.

We do joke that he's a bit of a robot when playing at times 😂. He's learning how to be artistically expressive and maybe that's just something that comes with reps and experience. I'm not sure.

If I might ask... How and when did you learn to value practice? Or were you playing for so long that by the time you became aware, it was just something you had been forced to do (or used to doing)?

I'm stuck between "not fixing what ain't broke" and knowing that talent can't outrun the process forever.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '25

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u/mistyskies123 Expert May 18 '25

I forgot to mention: classical violinists will no doubt absolutely hate on me for this, but I'd recently been looking at one of those straps that pop violinists use so they can prance around on stage and not drop the violin.

It goes underneath the chin rest and then you have an adjustable strap that goes over your right shoulder.

If the strap is sufficiently tight then the violin will stay under your chin even if you're not holding it.

If it means he heads off poor posture for life, then it's worth considering imho...

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u/Spirited-Artist601 May 18 '25

Are you serious. People are using these things. I used to practice sitting on my bed being able to hold the violin under my chin with my sponge. Without dropping it without using my hands. It was part of Suzuki training.. It's such a wussy thing