ELCBK said

@Taryn -

How did you find a good instructor for her? 

  

Hi Emily,

The first thing I'd say is that it was all my daughter's idea, from seeing her dad and I play, she wanted to learn, and is very obedient and able to follow multistep instructions, so I didn't have to worry she'd break the fiddle.

I knew I wanted a fiddler, and not a violinist like I had at 8, because I wanted her to focus on learning by ear. So I googled, and it turns out we have a many time national champion, Jacie Sites, living by us. We started with her, and now my daughter takes lessons from one of her former students. It's working out okay, but I need to talk to her new teacher about what the overall plan is, because she seems more scattered than her old teacher was. But I don't think it's easy, overall, to find someone who will take on a student so young, and I'm very glad Margaret has clicked well with both instructors so far.

Taryn

ELCBK said
@Taryn -

That's wonderful! 

I really like Jacie Sites & have used one of her tutorials! 

Several of my Grandchildren are interested.  Right now the 4 & 6 year old boys seem the best candidates to really try and possibly stick with it.  If they were the only siblings, I wouldn't hesitate, but a large family of young children can be a bit chaotic (the youngest is 2).  I'm still trying to work out the logistics of lessons, because I'm not in good enough health to do any driving. 

I like that you've placed emphasis on learning by ear, it's important to me, too.  

- Emily

  

It's hard to know how to keep the youngest from messing with her sister's fiddle practice time, maybe during naps, or one of the older ones could occupy the littlest? I only have two, so far, so that's different for me. What are your grandkids ages?

Maybe if a few of them were interested, a teacher might come to you? Or maybe after a few lessons, you would be able to teach them the next steps yourself, even if you didn't want to start them out all by yourself?

I know how hard it can be to not be in good health, even just for short sicknesses, and I've struggled with depression, too.

I'm sure you'll figure out what's best for them. I think I saw somewhere, you already have fiddles for them, so maybe you could just show them the basics and let them work on some drills?

-Taryn