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June 19, 2005 at 5:50 AM

I'm beginning to wonder if my violin lessons are normal, or, should I say, typical. I've had three hour-long-plus lessons so far with my new teacher, and in none of them have I played more than ten minutes. It goes like this: I come in with a list of questions I've come up with in my previous week of practicing, like "Why is it so hard to bow slowly at the frog?" and "How do I do vibrato when I'm so high up on the G string I can barely reach the note?" and we talk and talk and talk about it. The most I'll play is several bow strokes or a few notes of a scale to test out some technique she's suggesting. Last week I didn't even play any of my piece, unless you count the two double stops I played so she could check out what happens to my vibrato.

But maybe I shouldn't sweat it. As weird as this method of learning seems to me, it's working really well. I don't play much during my lesson, but then I go home and apply what Virginia's told me, and things get noticeably better. I like the way I sound now. I like practicing, because I know I'm making progress even though I can barely manage half an hour four times a week. I've learned more from Virginia in three lessons than I think I did in the six or seven years I studied with my last teacher as a teenager, even correcting for age and experience.

I've got to wonder what she does with her kid students who probably don't come with long lists of questions. Maybe one of these days I'll ask her just to listen to me play for a few minutes and comment, but as long as I can recognize areas I need to work on, I'll fix those first.

Welcome to my world... my teacher is like that too, and it helps a lot, especially on the superbly hard Bach songs. The talking definitely helps on Bach's Ciaconna, because I can never seem to give the first note a ring. It's always the first note...
Taking an active role in your lessons (i.e.asking questions) is definitely desirable, but I would be concerned about not getting to play enough during lessons. How else can a teacher ascertain that you’ve processed at least some of what they’ve taught you, not to mention spotting any bad habits that need correcting? I think it’s worth expressing your concern to your teacher, but perhaps put it terms of finding a balance between the discussion-part and the playing-part of your lessons rather than putting an end to the discussion-part altogether.