Learning Violin: Talent Needs Ignition
As a pre-college violin professor I see many talented students, but I'm often reminded that talent is only the starting point. It is a long road ahead. Passion - that energy which drives us to practice and propels our sense of ambition - is crucial. Without that, talent will stagnate, and practice and even special opportunities can become heavier to a child.
In other words, talent needs ignition.
And to be clear from the start - ignition should come from the student, not just the parent. Lately, I’m thinking ignition comes from having space and time to gather that energy up first and foremost. Many students are not getting enough of that these days.
A Perspective on Practice
Let's start with practice. We need to frame practice beautifully and allow for enough time and space for ignition to occur naturally.
If a student has time to practice and thoughtfully explore their technique, learn great repertoire (something most people never touch), receive lessons regularly from someone who is an expert in the field - this is a beautiful privilege. Students forget this easily when they are treating practice and lessons as a chore.
In fact if practice is framed as a chore, creating a battle of wills on a regular basis, we are blocking it from ever having the power to ignite. And that pilot light gets dimmer.
Practice is a privilege of time and space, not a chore. Framed this way, practice can serve as fuel for ignition. That’s quite a pivot, isn’t it? From a battle zone to a point of gratitude and inspiration. From a line on a checklist, to a space where the spark for ignition can emerge. We need to cultivate these ideas early with students. We need to keep their pilot light on and have it ready to ignite.
The Effect of Over-Scheduling on Attitude
We also need to be mindful to not overload students with activities and musical offerings. While many of those musical opportunities we see offered on social media and through our learning institutions might be very educational, it's important to strike the right balance.
There is ample science indicating that how you present to an educational opportunity is directly related to its outcome. If a child is growing tired and resentful of being pushed around and over-scheduled, they MIGHT still receive benefit from the opportunity presented. But they will not learn as deeply or retain as much as if they arrived eager, appreciative, and grounded to learn. I worry about how this can affect their relationship with their instrument and music as a whole. They should want to perform, learn, engage, and dig deep.
Maybe a child sees practice in a negative light because it is being presented or scheduled like one. For example, if they are being rushed through traffic, eating in the car, then pushed straight into a practice room, followed by homework for AP courses - this hardly positions a child to see practice as a beautiful activity. I once had a kid arrive straight from SATs to record with me on the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. I was poised and ready to have a creative and productive session with him, where we captured his beautiful musical voice. But he was physically exhausted and mentally drained.
As parents, we need to schedule practice in a way that honors its importance in a child’s life and musical development. Create a beautiful space, help them arrive rested and encouraged, and give them the space to practice wisely and thoughtfully. Practice is a personal and sacred space to so many musicians of all ages. That mental pivot into a place of gratitude for the time and space to explore something students began with love and genuine curiosity can turn the ignition switch back ON.
And another note: Practice has always been the student's part of their educational equation. Once established in the beginning, it should not need to be continually negotiated at home on a regular basis. Ultimately, students need to learn how to negotiate with themselves to manage their own time for adequate rest vs. practice. If they are practicing only to satisfy a requirement of them at home, I believe we have missed the mark as teachers and parents, especially as the music becomes more complex.
Will practice feel wonderful every day? Of course not. But practice should have the possibility of being invigorating, thought-provoking, satisfying, and empowering.
The Stress-Effect of Rushed Repertoire
So why else would practice landing on the dreaded-to-do checklist for so many? I believe some students are also being asked to learn repertoire very quickly and are often very concerned with "keeping up." With repertoire requirements and deadlines and social media fueling comparison on a daily basis, it is no wonder they don’t feel there is time to learn deeply. When pieces are being learned too rapidly, there often isn’t enough time to develop confidence on stage and get to a point of palpable satisfaction, where the student’s voice has the chance to shine.
Imagine the hours a student must put in, especially to play a piece at the upper levels. Now imagine that student never getting to hear the performance they have been envisioning, instead being urged to just move on, semi-defeated, knowing deep down that they could have done better. For a child to miss out on that feeling of satisfaction or empowerment, after so many hours clocked - it surely seems like something most adults wouldn’t be able to tolerate.
By contrast, a well-prepared, deeply satisfying performance has the power to ignite a student for months of very gritty work ahead.
Sometimes parents simply don’t realize how much stage experience is needed for a kid to feel ownership over a complex piece of musical repertoire. The patience and grit required to prepare large repertoire takes has to be understood and supported by the whole family.
I often wish I could convince families to commit to the proper development of technique and repertoire that is required by competitions and applications they are interested in for their child. And if we approach repertoire far too early in their development to satisfy a requirement? Cue months or years ahead of work and tension-building - whereas learning it at the right time could have taken a fraction of that time and felt beautiful to everyone. This is an ongoing conversation and topic of education in my studio.
Pacing for Festivals and Special Programs
Some more of my thoughts about preserving ignition in young players center around over scheduling and the piling up of opportunities and festivals.
Some studio parents find a competitive pride in acceptances to multiple festivals and summer programs, without even being certain that it is the optimal placement for their child’s continued education. Those students are then going all summer long, feeling the pressures of festivals that might not truly serve them in the long term. Parents and students hope for featured opportunities like master classes and special performances at festivals, and this can also create tension all summer long. If the child isn’t chosen, it leads to feelings of self-doubt or insecurity and breed jealousies amongst peers and parents alike. None of this is healthy.
Don’t get me wrong; the RIGHT festival can be pivotal and empowering. But attending three or four in one summer is like throwing money on a wall to see what sticks. In such a case, I find myself frowning and worried for the student. It's another kind of over-scheduling that robs a student of sufficient break time in the school year or summer. That break time is what allows a student to have agency over the pacing of what they are doing. Without it, they are simply going nonstop. When I was a kid, none of us went to festivals until high school, but now they are marketing to younger and younger students. Proceed with care!
Live Performances
Kids also need more time to attend live performances and listen to recordings (I like the older recordings) so they can fall in love with what their ears are drawn to. This requires time and space, instrument down!
One of my best memories as a kid was falling in love with a Heifetz transcription, which at the time was out of print - and then heading to the Library of Congress the next week on my Mom’s day off to go find it. I can still remember how motivated I was to practice it and make it my own. I was enthralled.
Listening promotes reflection and increase a child’s understanding of music. Parents can help by scheduling time to attend live concerts and by encouraging more listening to spark inspiration.
Connection
Young artists are more likely to ignite and keep the pilot light on if they are feeling connected - connected to teachers, their parents, and to a community of other young artists.
For teachers, I believe part of staying connected to students is understanding child development and meeting the kids where they are, foremost as growing humans. Of course, honoring them at each life stage and being aware when those life stages create challenges in and out of the studio. (Changing violin sizes alone causes setbacks in technique, intonation, sound, etc.!)
Students also go through chapters in life where they are less likely to embrace the need to be super gritty in their work, instead veering toward being dreamy and needing to express themselves. If we can notice these shifts and pivots in our students, then we are able to better connect with them so they feel understood and "seen."
Investing the time in being part of a community of young artists also is incredibly important. While it is easy to schedule other activities instead, I feel really passionately that this support network needs to be cultivated.
And parents are needed, more than they think. Yes, there comes a point where kids like to have independence in their studies and practice, but sometimes parents disengage too much at this point, and they need to check in more. Students thrive when parents express a genuine interest in the pieces they are working on and the projects they are applying their energy to. Students notice when their parents attend concerts, and when they attend at least some lessons, assuming teachers are open to this. Parents should aim to connect to the pulse of what is going on in their child’s musical development.
Reflection and Conversation
And lastly, we need to take time to genuinely engage and connect to our kids and students through their music. Pause more often. Allow for those conversations that will make way for a child to feel something in them ignite. Dialoguing with our kids and students about this is more important than one might think. This idea may feel like a leap of faith, but it is one worth taking.
Reflection is something all kids need to see from their parents. Without this, all that busy studio parent-planning and strategizing will not amount to the kind of meaningful growth for the student that becomes self-sustaining. Surely there must be a healthy ratio between students being told to do the practice necessary (we all need a nudge sometimes!) or apply for this opportunity or another VS the student showing initiative, agency, and passion unprompted.
Students will need to find that pilot light that started their journey long ago - they need to find it over and over. We should want them keep it on for many years to come, whether they are headed to a career in music or not. The pilot light being on ensures that music will be a positive influence in their lives. And that is the most important thing.
You might also like:
- Mindfulness in the Violin Studio: Teaching with a 'Soft Gaze'
- Violin Breakfast: A Community Feast of Fundamentals
- A Parents' Guide to Conservatory Auditions
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Replies
No doubt this is a great article for certain parents of certain child musicians. Myself having had a childhood nothing like those supposed in this article, and having started teaching myself to play and read at the age of 49,and in those 10 years since having about 4 years of lessons since (mostly on zoom)and still having no community of musicians and playing alone in my room...except for a few hours improvising with two different guitarists finally in the last few months...I sometimes battle an imposter syndrome here at the forum among the professionals. I read here about talent and of course I've heard a lot of it in my audiences in the halls of the Yale School of Music, where baroque ensembles inspired me to try to learn to play. So my ignition was in hearing the special beauty of the early music, and my gratitude is deep every time I bow strings. But being an amateur adult learner in early music I find only 1% of the community and opportunity described above. And so I pour 100% of my gratitude into it. None of this is a complaint, just a reflection on the article from the mirror of my experience.
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September 25, 2025 at 02:06 PM · Excellent article; Amy covered so many points and identified the majority of the issues. Furthermore, I believe that learning music and practising can have mental aspects such as reverse effects: practising despite all of the problems or learning through difficulties due to a rebellious nature.