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Violin Lessons: Making Up for Lost Time
By billalpert | violin
The 80/20 Principle is well know in the world of business: “20% of your customers create 80% of your profit.â€
But this universal “law†doesn’t just apply to wealth creation. For example: 20% of the roads get 80% of the traffic. 20% of the runners take 80% of the trophies.
This even works for learning violin. And the numbers are even more surprising:Â Only 20% of what your violin activities will produce fully 80% of your results. And it may even be more like 90/10!
And at the top of that 20% list is one glaringly overlooked item:
Violin Setup
Meaning: what’s on your violin, and how does it all fit your body?
This is fairly basic stuff, and a lot of it is just pure common sense. Still, I can’t think of one other thing that can so quickly improve your playing.
If you’ve always wanted to play better, but you’re not sure if you’re “doing it the right way”…
If you’re making up for lost time…
If you’re jealous of that beautiful tone that seems so easy for other violinist…
If you’d like to improvise or play more advanced positions…
Nothing will get you there faster than correctly setting up your violin.
Violin setup is truly your low hanging fruit. And that’s why I put violin setup in all of my violin teaching.
When you’re making up for lost time, you need a plan. A lifetime of work and much trial and error goes into creating a usable 80/20 practice system. You could delve into dozens of pedagogy books, expensive lessons and master classes. You could make all the mistakes I made.
Or you could cut out the boring, pointless and ineffective busy work and learn from my my mistakes. Not to mention my wins! That would be a true 80-20 play, yes?
To Your Violin Journey!
—Bill Alpert
P.S. An 80/20 strategy is especially important if you’ve been around the block a few times. I love working with adult students in Morro Bay, Los Osos and San Luis Obispo!