The violin is difficult enough to learn.  Trying to learn and improve without the benefit of a teacher is a daunting task indeed.  I wouldn’t say it is impossible, but  without a teacher it is not efficient or optimal and bad habits are sure to form.  I have been back at the violin now for almost two years and since September I have been going it alone without a teacher.  Until now I have felt engaged and challenged, but aware enough of areas to work on and things to do to improve, and have employed much of my practice time to working on what are for me difficult pieces.  Lately though I have begun to feel that having some regular critique, regular guidance and the benefit of a teachers experience would make overcoming some of the challenges much more attainable.

There is an interesting relationship between the learner and the teacher.  Learning to play the violin is really a skill which takes years and thousands of hours of practice to master.  Physically, the complexity of the movements of the arms, hands and fingers in a vast array of permutations and combinations of positions and situations makes the skill required to play in control and with purpose very difficult.  Combine the requirements of an emotional and intellectual requirement in the music played so that the muscian can take a the emotions and ideas of a composer, transposed imperfectly and imprecisely onto a page, filter that through the eyes into a series of physical and techincal movements of the fingers which then combine with an emotional and intellectually understanding and message which is to be communicated to the listener through sound waves projected through the air.  Learning to do this at all is a miracle, but learning it without the constant and regular guidance, adjustment and encouragment of a teacher leaves one open to a spiral of poor choices, bad habits and efforts made into dead ends.

The interesting relationship between learner and teacher which I alluded to is that fundamentally each student must put in the time and effort to learn how to play.  No matter how good a teacher is, without the dedication and persistent practice by the student that student will never become a decent musician.  But, this fact does not diminish the crucial and pivitol role which a teacher plays in a students development.  The teacher is confronted with a kind of puzzle which is how to impart the knowledge and experience they posess to the student in such a way that the student will stay motivated and progress through the somewhat winding path of achievement.  The teacher can do so much, and yet can only do so much.  But with a motivated and eager student I think a good teacher can work wonders and learning and development can be optimal.

So, I am brought back to this idea of optimal and efficient learning.  So much of the actual time required to play is merely a matter of applying and reapplying the principles taught in the lesson.  With just an hour instruction there can be dozens of hours of work required by the student to implement the principles taught into a workable skill.  Learning optimally involves the inspirational and motivating influence of the teacher.  It involves the teacher communicating the discipline required, not only in a general sense, but also critically, in the specific and smallest details.  The teacher must communicate an understanding of a technique, then communicate an understanding of the small steps one will take on a path to achieve it, then communicate the kind of discipline and practice necessary to get there, then recoginze and teach how to recognize when it has been achieved sufficently to move on to the next task.  It is a monumental task for student and teacher. One that when working synergistically though can have a fascinating bootstrapping effect on the student.

Without this experience I feel a bit overwhelmed with my lack of technique and what aspect I should be working on to improve it.  Surely, improving certain techincal difficulties would have a greater overall effect in improving my playing.  Unfortunately, without a teacher, I am left to guess somewhat at what technical challenges I should most be addressing.  I miss having those external set of eyes assessing and adjusting what I am playing.  While I have much to work on and there is much I can do without a teacher and much I can improve upon, I do believe that having lessons would streamline that process, and probably push me a bit to challenge myself in ways that I may not naturally do.

Unfortunately, for financial reasons, regular lessons are a luxury I am not able to indulge in currently, though I hope to again before too long.  Perhaps I can take the odd lesson now and then to get me back on track or check my bad habits.  In the mean time I will press on and do my best to learn as much as I can about the science of learning to play the violin so that I can correct myself as much as possible.  In the end, learning to do this on my own and learning to be self-critical, and learning about the process and ladder of steps to achieving real musicality on the violin is a valuable and rewarding experience both for life generally, and for learning to make my hours in practice both useful and productive.