All About Violin Classes and Teachers

[watmekiasu]

phankao:

Oh, it was just a choir competition with her school. That was 2 years ago. She just came back from another competition from Russia with school. Now getting down seriously to studying for her Os already. my family's age-gap v large. haha!.

Oooh, jetset life for a student. Nice!

Regarding the age gap, it's great that you are still being productive. :lol:

[Starrenee]

Wow…all your kids are holding it great esp since they are so young. I am v v frust liow becoz d teacher i got is v fierce and no patience wit my gal. Even before 3 minutes into the class, she;s already frowning and scolding my gal. She;s supposed a v professional teacher and one of best in spore! But for all that, she;s lousy with kids. My gal has lost her interest (which is quite sad considering how enthusiatic and eager she was initially) due to this teacher! Can anyone recommend a good teacher good with kids? Am desperate liow. Can pm me. I;m staying at east.

[metz]

Hi Starrenee,


Can I please have your teacher's name and contact? TIA.

If you don't mind travelling to town, you can consider this music school http://www.tanglewood-music.com/. Heard the teachers are very nice and inspiring for kids. They just came back from a successful inaugural tour in Europe in June.

[airex]

Hi all,


It's great to see parents understanding the process of learning violin. Cheers!
I have seen many cases whereby students are forced to learn and parents are not keen to understand more about the instrument and only keen abt taking ABRSM exams. Therefore interest in the instrument will not continue for long.

Personally, I have always recommend my students to go to Synwin for purchase of violins or technical faults etc. They do not push the high end products to my students unless my students want to.

For strings, Dominant is a good choice. Normally for beginners, I would ask them to get the beginner model for abt $128 at Synwin and change to Dominant strings for a better tone quality. It makes a huge difference. If the student shows interest and commitment in learning violin after some time, then I would encourage them to purchase hand-made ones.

Anyway, feel free to email me at [email protected] if there's any enquiries about violin learning.

[phankao]

airex:

For strings, Dominant is a good choice. Normally for beginners, I would ask them to get the beginner model for abt $128 at Synwin and change to Dominant strings for a better tone quality. It makes a huge difference. If the student shows interest and commitment in learning violin after some time, then I would encourage them to purchase hand-made ones.

I know there are a few ranges at Synwin ... the S$128 range, the S$350+ range, the S$650+ range.... and so on.

So the S$120+ range is NOT hand-made but the rest is?

My son is using a S$600+ range with vision strings and the tone is lovely.

[sylpha]

Price list is found here: http://www.synwin.com.sg


Basic hand-made model is $257. I def recommend changing strings. For a ttl newbie. I could tell the diff in sound quality ...

Why am I a Synwin fan? Coz the Marina Sq staff gave very good service and recommendations. The staff took care to check the bridge and sound post on her 1/64. For mine, they played a couple of hand-made models (same px range) before selecting the one w the best sound (factory strings). I decided to change my strings after selecting violin and no regrets! They also have a list of teachers in case u need one!


http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVOdbzA
*Pretty violins hanging in a row

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TswBeSr
*I din expect them to spend so much care on a 1/64 violin

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TswATq9[/url]
*My full size vs her 1/64 violin

[metz]

I second that Synwin has good personal service too. The choice of violins really make a great difference in playing. My son's first violin was a china factory made and it still cost us around about $220. The sound was rather scratchy. But when he uses the $700 violin from Sywin (loan from a friend), we could tell the differences even though we are novices. For our girl, we just got her a new Synwin 1/8 too. With all the changes here and there, it amounted to more than $300 too. No regrets cos we can feel a difference in the playing.


Just to share our first hand experience in selecting a violin -

As violin is a personal instrument, please bring along your kid to do the selection. I was told it's important that they like the sound the violin produces.

As for as possible, try out a few violins. And if you can't tell the difference, bring along the violin teacher or someone to help you assess the violins. Otherwise, you can request the staff at Synwin to help. My girl was lucky to have Ruben (the big boss) to help her choose and make improvements on the violin.

Change the strings and tail piece before you leave the shop. It all adds a difference to the playing experience. The tail piece is a good investment as it will include fine tuners to ease the tunning of the violin.

The tone of the violins. The two violins (same price range) we tried at Sywin have 2 different tones. One produces a higher tone and the other a more mellow tone. For us, we chose the mellow one although my girl's initial first choice was the other violin. A higher tone violin tends to sound brighter (and more cheerful?) but from experience, I learned that it's gonna give me spiliting headache during her practices. But that's just personal preference.

And lastly, be prepared to spend some time at the shop and enjoy the experience!

[phankao]

sylpha:

Why am I a Synwin fan? Coz the Marina Sq staff gave very good service and recommendations. The staff took care to check the bridge and sound post on her 1/64. For mine, they played a couple of hand-made models (same px range) before selecting the one w the best sound (factory strings). I decided to change my strings after selecting violin and no regrets! They also have a list of teachers in case u need one!

I went to the Marina outlet recently when my brother was looking at a replacement violin for his boy - yah, 2 of the brothers are there now. They used to always be at katong. Now, I wonder - if we go to Katong, then who would assist? They won't be there, right?

Actually, you should be finding the teacher first before you get a violin.

Like at my first lesson, my teacher fitted me with the violins and said that I should buy a 3/4 instead due to the length of my arm.

Anyway, i think teachers do ask adult beginners to start with a slightly smaller-sized violin than full, especially if ladies. either 3/4 or 7/8.

[metz]

Just to add on, if you are considering the factory made violins, there's not much point in changing the strings. According to the staff at Katong, it will not make too much a difference to the sound.

phankao:

I went to the Marina outlet recently when my brother was looking at a replacement violin for his boy - yah, 2 of the brothers are there now. They used to always be at katong. Now, I wonder - if we go to Katong, then who would assist? They won't be there, right?

There are two brothers? I thought it was brother and sister? No? So far, I have only met the one with a P4 daughter at the Marina Square shop.

[phankao]

chamonix:

Just to add on, if you are considering the factory made violins, there's not much point in changing the strings. According to the staff at Katong, it will not make too much a difference to the sound.

phankao:

I went to the Marina outlet recently when my brother was looking at a replacement violin for his boy - yah, 2 of the brothers are there now. They used to always be at katong. Now, I wonder - if we go to Katong, then who would assist? They won't be there, right?

There are two brothers? I thought it was brother and sister? No? So far, I have only met the one with a P4 daughter at the Marina Square shop.

I think the father who started the business has a few children. But the 2 men that you usually see in the shop are definitely his sons (as in, brothers- they have rather similar looks altho' one looks older than the other, lah). At the Katong place, i remember seeing their children practising around, even the preschoolers). That day at marina, i also saw one of their daughters.