Violins are a stringed instrument, similar to the guitar in appearance and are also called fiddles by some people. They are a part of the violin family which includes violas, cellos, the double bass, and last but not least, the violin itself, which is also the smallest and highest pitched instrument in the family, and debatably, the most popular as well.
Originating from Italy and all the way back from the early 16th century, violins are one of the oldest instruments and have been a very important part of nearly every genre of music from up until then to the present, and for many more years to come by the looks of it.
In modern music, violins are frequently used throughout a huge variety of musical genres, including many popular ones, such as country music, rock music, classical music, jazz fusion etc.
They may be a very elegant and beautiful instrument to play, but violins require a good bit of skill to master, so it will take a lot of patience and time if you want to be good at it. Below are some of the lessons which will surely help you become a better violin player.
15 Best Violin Lessons for Adults Review
1) MasterClass - Itzhak Perlman Teaches Violin
In this lesson, Grammy award winner Itzhak Perlman introduces us to himself and how the lessons he’ll teach you will be different from the usual violin lessons, while also talking about the violin as an instrument itself.
He starts off by mentioning one of the most important parts of the violin which is the bow, and how to hold it and get the most out of it. He later proceeds to mention other important things that will help you greatly during the time you play, such as postures and bowing techniques for a more comfortable playing experience and left hand techniques.
Itzhak Perlman tells us about intonation and vibrato, while explaining why they are such an important part of a violists playing. This lesson mentions other practice essentials, such as how to improve your mindset and thinking when it comes to giving performances as well as how to make a proper practice schedule for yourself. He teaches us how to overcome our playing limits and tells us about ways to improve ourselves beyond our limit.
2) ArtistWorks - Violin Lessons With Richard Amoroso
For over two decades, Richard Amoroso has been playing the violin as well as helping others, and in this lesson, he gives others a bit of an insight on his experience and helps them improve as well.
Richard starts us off with the basics such as bowing and and later moves on to the fundamental parts of playing violin and improving yourself. He teaches us about tuning the violin, which is obviously a very important part of playing the instrument as you’ll want the right type of sound when you play. He later moves on to practice and how to practice with the help of other instruments like the metronome.
Like others, he also talks about how to play under pressure, as it is never easy for anyone to be able to play with the presence of a crowd straight away. Richard also tells us about being open to criticism and always focusing on mistakes during practice. The lesson plan also allows for people to see Richards’s interactions with other students, allowing them to learn more.
3) Udemy - Violin Mastery From The Beginning
As its name suggests, this lesson focuses entirely on beginners and how they can improve their violin skills with a number of very helpful tips. The best part about the lesson is that you can learn from it even if you have zero experience with the instrument as it will teach you directly from scratch and all you’ll need is a bow and violin to learn along.
This lesson will have you learn how to hold the violin and the bow while also teaching you about shoulder positioning and the most efficient way to use your shoulder rest so that you can practice comfortably. It will also teach you about the terminology of the bow and violin while also telling you about some useful pre-scale exercises and scales themselves.
One of the most important things that the lesson will teach you about is how to read songs played by violins so that you can use this ability to self study after the lesson is complete, helping you in the long run.
4) Udemy - Cracking The Violin Code
In this lesson, learners will be taught the main aspects of holding the bow and violin and how to get the most out of their posture, while remaining as comfortable as possible, by Dr. Yuliyan Stoyanov.
The course intends to provide you with bow and violin holding techniques and tips that you would not be able to find in other lessons. Following the lesson to its entirety will allow you to master some of the most famous tunes out there which is always a good thing if you intend to play in front of a group of people.
The lesson also helps you with other practice strategies which will help you during the lesson as well as after it as these tips can be very helpful down the road. Another thing about the lesson is that you will not need to have any past experience playing violins as these techniques and tips are explained step-by-step so that even a player starting from scratch can understand them with significant ease.
5) Udemy - Learn The Violin, No Musical Experience Necessary!
This lesson is for all the people that want to learn the violin, regardless of age, however it is much more suited to more grown up players but children can still learn using it with the help of another adult guiding them along the way. The course teaches learners the basic fundamentals, such as holding the bow and violin as well as tuning it.
Slowly, the lesson gets more advanced after a while so that learners can progress their skills along the way. While teaching players the fundamentals, the lesson also consists of side lectures which players can listen to in order to fix some other mistakes they might be making while playing.
The lesson doesn’t put any pressure on the learner as players only need to give it 15-30 minutes a day so that they can keep progressing. The course is a cheap alternative to private lessons as they will cost you a lot more considering that this lesson consists of up to a year’s worth of private tutoring.
6) Skillshare - Learn Pop From Scratch
This lesson is meant from beginners and intends to make them completely familiar with the instrument, so that learning how to play is a great deal easier for them as they will understand what the tutor is talking about without having to ask too many questions.
The learners will be made to familiarize themselves with the fingerboard of the violin, allowing them to learn and play fast passages much more easily than before. The course has been tried and tested by people and does indeed help you with playing faster paced tunes while also making you comfortable with the instrument.
Along the lesson, the tutor will also give learners effective tips for practicing, which they can use to learn during their free time, allowing them to improve their playing skills even after the lesson has ended.
The lesson will also allow players to familiarize themselves with every note on their instrument, so that they can effectively play any note and learn how to play full tunes as well, helping you after you’ve ended the lesson as well.
7) Violin Lab
Violin lab provides players of all levels, whether beginner, intermediate or advanced, with pressure free and effective lessons that will surely help anyone improve their playing.
For beginners, Violin lab provides lessons which will teach them how to develop a great tone and how to keep the bow in the correct position for their playing while also teaching them how to no squeeze their necks while playing and other things to help them with their comfort.
For slightly better players they will provide a full course on the vibrato while also teaching them about effective yet difficult techniques such as the Spicatto and Martelle.
These lessons will also cover things like how to develop a beautiful repertoire and how to understand expressive phrasing and the positions and shifts accurately. For the most advanced of players looking to improve, they will provide you with lessons to work on your bad habits during playing, helping you grow as a violist and will improve your playing to the level of professionals, allowing you to play in front of crows and groups, regardless of pressure.
8) Skillshare - Authentic And Practical Violin Fundamental Techniques
In this lesson, like most other lessons, the tutor, Chuchao Wang, teaches us the absolute basic fundamentals of the violin and the bow, from how to hold the instrument to the structure of the instrument itself.
However he does so in much more detail as compared to other lessons, allowing players to completely familiarize themselves with their violin and bow while also teaching them about new and comfortable postures that help with playing while not putting any physical pressure on the violist.
He will also help the learners to identify themselves with the strings of the violin, allowing for quicker learning, helping you down the road as well, since you will be able to identify which string is being played at a specific time, allowing learners to learn tunes much more easily.
He also teaches us how to play the empty strings, and how to practice playing the empty strings with the use of a metronome. The lesson also teaches learners how to effectively clean their violin, allowing them to make their instrument last longer.
9) Fiddlerman
If you’ve been playing violins for a while, you may recognize the name Fiddlerman as they are also a big company when it comes to accessories for violins. Fiddlerman provides you with multiple amounts of different lessons which you can use to learn how to play or how to improve, as there are lessons for beginners and advanced players alike.
These lessons will allow players to improve their basic skills while also allowing them to get much better at playing even if they are already good players. The lessons explore the basics of violins, such as the structure of the instrument, the positioning and holding of the bow, which positions are most effective when playing, helping with tuning by introducing efficient methods that any player would find helpful and much more.
You can also use their website to interact with other learners or more advanced players so that you can improve your playing and you can also read the blogs submitted by other players, which can help you clear out any mistakes you may have been making before.
10) Violin Lounge
Violin lounge is a project of classical violist Zlata, a excellent teacher and violist who also has great bowing techniques. She has lessons for all kinds of players, from basic to advanced and from young to old, however her lessons are mostly suited to adults as she herself explains the instrument and how to play it in her own, passionate, but difficult to understand for most children, methods.
Her website contains multiple videos of herself teaching the violin to players and she explains everything thoroughly, allowing beginners to learn from her as well.
According to Zlata’s beliefs, violin playing is 80% about bowing, which can be considered true, subject to debate. Because of this, she focuses most of her playing on her bowing techniques and her lessons mainly consists of tutorials on bowing, how to hold bows, positioning etc.
Her multiple lessons include other things as well, such as a tutorial on how to play vibrato on the violin, which is a helpful technique that makes the way your playing sounds significantly more beautiful and professional.
11) Violin Inspiration
Violin inspiration is a sort of online academy that players of all skill levels can use to progress their skills further. Founded by Julia, who is also the founder of Julia’s violin academy and the author of number 1 selling book on Amazon titled ‘’ the ultimate sound-book for beginner violists’’.
Julia created this online academy for adults because she doesn’t like the myth that adults are not able to master the violin if they haven’t been playing since childhood. She says that this isn’t true at all and intends to prove the myth wrong, which is why she provides adults with great and fairly easy to understand violin lessons that cover basics and advanced techniques alike.
According to her, practicing requires much more than just having a violin to practice with, she believes that everyone needs the proper guidance and environment in order to learn, which is what she intends to provide with her lessons. Her lessons also help you overcome your insecurities with your playing and help you get ready to perform in front of other people.
12) Violin School
Violin school is a website that consists of multiple different lessons for children, adults, beginners, intermediate players, advanced players, players in general and teachers as well, allowing all types of violists to be able to learn and improve their skill to the point where they feel like professionals.
They have a proper curriculum which they use to teach you using a schedule according to your skill level and they do not put too much pressure on you either, however they do intend for you to follow the schedule for efficient learning.
There courses cover pretty much everything, allowing you to eliminate any and all mistakes from your playing given that you put enough time into learning. They teach the basics of the instruments to children and beginners while giving advanced players much more difficult tasks to accomplish with their playing.
Their methods have been tested in music schools in London as well as Dublin and it is safe to say that they are indeed effective and can help players of all levels grow and overcome mistakes.
13) Pro-am Strings
Pro-am strings is a violin and viola school for players of all levels and ages. They provide learners with multiple lessons in the form of text as well as videos. They also allow players with the option of communicating with one of their own tutors through a Skype call, allowing for players to learn with a personal touch of sorts.
Founded in 2013 by Henriette de Vrijjer, Pro-am strings is a place for all players to enhance their skills, as they intend to push your skills to the absolute limit. Their main 3 tutorials feature learning material for beginners, intermediate players, and advanced players.
They teach beginners how to hold the violin and the bow while also teaching them about the instrument itself, as they believe that knowing your instrument is important if you want to learn.
For intermediate players, they have lessons regarding stance and balance for comfort and good playing. At the end, for advanced players they have different and effective bowing technique tutorials that every professional uses and tutorials regarding arm and finger vibratos.
14) Violins From Scratch
As the name suggests, Violins from scratch teaches you about violins from the basics and all the way up to the advanced bowing techniques. Starting off, Deborah, the tutor in these lessons, will be teaching you about the violin, its working, the positioning of its components and how to tune it properly.
Afterwards, the tutor moves on to fingers and their importance in playing the violin and where they need to be positioned on the bow in order to play the best. The lesson also provides images so that you can follow the tutor’s exact actions easily.
Although the lesson is given through text in its majority, it is written so that you get a sort of personal feel to it, making you more comfortable while learning. After this holding the bow and violin correctly is the main premise of the lesson, and the tutor provides multiple images for this step as well, making it a bit easier for you. From here on forward, rhythm is the only thing the lesson focuses on, helping you produce better sounds.
15) Violin Masterclass
Violin masterclass is another online academy that is meant for players of all levels, whether adults or kids. They provide learners with courses that cover beginner basics, tips and techniques for intermediate players and techniques of great efficiency and beauty for advanced players so that they can polish their skills and reach the same level as the professionals.
Violin masterclass provides learners with video lessons, so that they can learn more easily as compared to having to understand a lesson written in text. They also provide complete schedules for practicing and learning to players who struggle with keeping track of time and need a reminder for when to practice.
Along with violins, they also provide piano lessons to pianists. People that intend to teach the art of playing violins to others can also use their lessons for teachers which provide the learner with effective methods to teach others.
They also have sample videos that you can use to play along with if you feel like practicing your playing skills, since playing along with other tunes is always the most efficient way to challenge yourself and your limits.
Choosing the Best Violin Lessons for Adults
There are multiple different lessons out there that you can use to enhance the way you play, however if you do not take time out for yourself and for your practice, all your hard work feels like a waste as you will never be able to grow as a player without proper practice.
While these lessons will surely help you grow as a player, it is important that you remember to focus on your practice yourself, and not depend on your tutor to teach you everything right away. As it is with everything else, practice and patience will gradually make your playing skills great.