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Discussion Forum - Teaching and Pedagogy - Thread
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Is Essential Elements for Strings good for young children?

February 25, 2026, 8:52 PM · I have been teaching in a music school for about 2,5 years. I have been using Essential Elements for Strings with my beginner students from age 7. I am aware that it's made for class teaching, but I wanted to give it a try since there are some structural ideas in the book that I like. The students' progression is very slow, and we spend an eternity just working through the pizzicato part in the beginning of the book. The young children don't really practice at home either, and I wonder if it's because they find the music in EE boring. I don't really have the same issue with older students. Any thoughts about this?
Also, the audio tracks in the online resources (EE Interactive) are so unstable that I sometimes prefer not using them. Am I the only one having this issue?

Replies (1)

SilentCrescendo
Christian Harvey
February 26, 2026, 12:42 AM · I use Essential Elements with my students. the youngest I have taught with it is 9 and they don't have any issues with it, so I don't see why a 7 year old wouldn't be able to use it. It's not necessarily that you have to go slower with all younger children. It'll be different for each student since each one learns at their own pace. I've had 9 year olds that go through the book faster than my middle school age students that are starting at age 11/12 in 6th grade.

About the students not practicing. That's just the reality of younger (and some older) students. You can tell them what to practice all day long, but unless they're really into it their parents are going to have to make sure that they practice at home. I recently had a student where it was pretty clear that the only time their were touching their violin was during our lessons despite me telling her exactly how to practice one of the songs in EE was well as how long it should realistically take which was maybe 15-20 minutes. I eventually talked to her about it, but it was the mom overhearing me talking to her about practicing that got her to practice. The mom asked me after the lesson if she needed to be practicing everyday. I told her that she needed to at minimum practice 4-5 days for about 20 minutes to actually see improvement since the songs aren't that challenging. Parents that aren't musicians often don't know that their kids need to practice/play the instrument more than just during the 30-60 minute weekly lesson. Should I have made that clear from the beginning? Yeah probably, but we got there in the end. Now that same student is making noticeable progress every week.