Violin Basics: Interview with Co-Author Jessica O’Leary

Violin Basics is a landmark method by two of the leading figures in music education. Comprising pupil's tutor book, teacher's accompaniment book, and online audio, Violin Basics provides everything you need to get playing. This Pupil's Book starts at absolute beginner level and progresses to Grade 1 level. The step-by-step technical progression is supported by fun exercises and warm-ups, a wide range of imaginative repertoire, music theory, and general musicianship activities. Audio of all the accompaniments is available online.

We spoke to Violin Basics co-author Jessica O’Leary about her exciting new beginner method and asked her the all-important questions that teachers, students and parents want to know when starting out on a new violin journey.

What led you and Paul Harris to write Violin Basics?

I was keen to write a holistic and practical beginner book that was engaging, encourages excellent technique and musicianship while also playing in a relaxed way.

Tutor books can be highly prescriptive and leave no space for teachers to personalise things for their pupils. Virtuoso teachers (as Paul Harris says) are highly flexible and this book will encourage that approach while giving all the practical information needed for these crucial early stages. Other beginner books can be just a series of pieces and although these are great to supplement core teaching, they don’t cover the knowledge needed to develop independent learning.

Students and parents can easily become frustrated with the rate of progress leading to many giving up in the first year. They are more likely to continue with lessons if things are easy, inexpensive and if progress and goals are obvious and fun. Performing early pieces with control and variety will add joy to most families’ lives and our method helps avoid the ‘scratchy’ sounds that need not be associated with beginner playing. Violin Basics encourages good aural awareness from the start and the games create relaxed and controlled arms to help make a singing sound from day one.

In your view, what makes Violin Basics different to the many other established methods already out there?

Violin Basics is a practical book that covers rhythm and bowing, fingering patterns and tuning, note-reading and theory, expression and character, movement games and duets as well as downloadable piano accompaniments – all with humorous titles to engage a young learner.

Because freedom of movement on the violin is so important for later shifting and vibrato, we created games and pieces that involve sliding, harmonics, tremolo and left-hand pizzicato. These are fun in themselves but also pave the way for seamless progress long term. For example, harmonics and sliding help avoid that feeling of being stuck in first position and the fear of high notes! I don’t think any other method covers all these elements so thoroughly in one book.

What kind of age and audience did you have in mind when you wrote Violin Basics?

Violin Basics is designed for 7-10 year olds. It has lots of humour and drawings as learning is always easier if the student is laughing! Among our students, we had beginners aged five and eleven who loved it equally—they just went at a slightly different pace.

The book is designed for one-on-one lessons, but the pieces and games will work in groups too. I have used the warm-up games in massed groups of beginners for years and they are highly effective for all string players. Developing awareness and control of motor skills is essential for youngsters and the games provide this in an easy way.

There is so much technique to incorporate in a beginner violin method—how did you tackle that, but keep it fun?

Our method ‘smuggles in’ technique within games that encourage the right physical movements. There are basic exercises that every professional string player does, and we have created child-friendly versions for each stage.

For example, there are games to reinforce the correct angle of the violin and bow and to develop the right feel and weight of the left fingers on the strings while keeping the body relaxed and upright. This is one of the only string books to incorporate these elements in such a holistic way and the feedback shows that progress is smooth and that students love it!

There are traditional scales and arpeggios too, but they are always reinforced in pieces, so the connection and purpose are clear. The book is divided into stages and there are age-appropriate explanations of new elements at the start of each one. Every technical element is linked musically but individual steps are tiny. For example, clapping new rhythms turns into bowed rhythms, which turn into pieces within the key of that particular stage, which then turn into theory questions and a composition and performance at the end!

There are clear diagrams, ‘personal bests’ and gentle reminders all the way through the book to keep the core posture in place. After all, we all know that students can forget to hold their bows with curled fingers occasionally…

Was there a specific ‘approach’ that you’ve used or drawn on?

I have an eclectic background in string education and am lucky to have grown up in a family of Suzuki teachers. I studied under a pupil of Galamian and was trained partly in the Russian method, I’m qualified in the Coloustrings method and work with top string players professionally in London. I’ve drawn on all these approaches in this method: a little left-hand pizzicato half-way up the fingerboard is a great way of encouraging the correct angles for the left arm and hand while strengthening the little finger (this is used in Colourstrings). Warm-up games are used by all professional musicians and have been more recently promoted by the Nicola Benedetti foundation; singing and clapping is a well-developed process used by the Kodaly method, bowing open strings first and then putting all left-hand fingers down in quick succession is a feature of the Russian method while early performances from memory is a Suzuki idea. In this book I have taken the best of all these ideas as well as calling on my own experiences of thirty years of teaching to arrive at a method that is both aspirational and practical.

Many violin teachers will surely be interested to know, what sort of pace does the method progress at?

The book is designed so that students can move at a pace that suits them and teachers will guide them so that learning is personalized. As note reading is encouraged right from the start, learners will be able to progress to new pieces within a stage seamlessly so that once started in a lesson, an enthusiastic beginner might finish that stage at home during the week. Later stages are longer and may take more time, so there are opportunities to speed through some pieces and polish others for performances. Again, the teacher is the expert in controlling pacing.

What other problems does it solve at the early stages for violin teachers?

Traditionally, the best teachers of beginners used a little from several different methods to fully cover the core elements. This often meant asking parents to buy more than one book or lending out their own copies. Having one book that draws together all the best ideas and covers everything from day one will remove this endless organising. There is lots of space for individual input from teachers and playing violin duets is a wonderful way to make music together and encourage that joy from the beginning. Downloadable piano accompaniment backing tracks will be useful if the teacher doesn’t play the piano and will encourage good rhythm and tuning from the start.

This book will help a new teacher to see the possibilities of in-depth learning and provide all the tools needed; for more experienced teachers it will mean having everything in one place so nothing is likely to be missed. The addition of the physical games is new in a method book and incorporating them with Paul’s Simultaneous Learning method is an exciting and thorough way of learning.

Parents will be delighted that they only need to buy one book to get their children playing sophisticated pieces and there are clear explanations of posture and bow hold at the start so they can help support their child, too. The Teacher’s Book has all the accompaniments and the downloadable backing tracks allow parents to be able to enjoy whole performances at home.

Tell us about the writing process—how did you and Paul Harris collaborate, and what were each of your specialities?

We knew each other a little already and had attended each other’s seminars, but shortly after our initial meeting at the Faber Music offices, the UK went into lockdown. Ironically, that meant that we had more time for our daily Skype sessions and as Paul can also play the violin (Grade 8!) we even played the duets together over the ether. Of course, Paul already had his Basics series for other instruments, so the rigour in his Simultaneous Learning method was already in place.

Working with someone who thinks so clearly about the order of processes was fantastic and we had a great time. I worked on the order of the initial technical elements and spoke to several colleagues about what stage they introduced fingers, for example. We are both lucky enough to have several experienced string teachers as friends and they were invaluable in offering suggestions along the way, too. Paul and I chose the individual components for each stage and worked out where we wanted to get to by half-way (roughly Initial Grade) and by the end (secure Grade 1). Then we filled in the gaps with the technical games, pieces, theory and creative elements to consolidate understanding and performances. There are familiar tunes as well as original ones. We are both good at writing within specific guidelines, but we didn’t hold back if things needed changing – we are both quite forensic about detail! It was great to be so closely aligned with the educational parameters and encouraging a sense of creativity in the learner was always on our minds - there are lots of opportunities for the students to compose pieces, for example.

We encourage singing and performing right from the start, so students gain confidence and experience, and there are helpful hints along the way to keep things on track. I wrote the violin duets which can be played with the teacher or other students and Paul wrote the piano accompaniments. I also had a fun morning with our editor as she took photos of me modelling for the violin diagrams!

Do you and Paul Harris plan to write more together? What are your next plans?

We’d love to write more together as we have such similar ideas on education and had huge fun. I also play viola so we’re both thrilled to be working together on Viola Basics …!