Marnie Thies of proviolin.com believes that practicing the violin or any musical instrument is an art in and of itself. As she continues to refine her teaching skills, Marnie Thies continues to deepen her understanding of various ways to practice.
Twin Cities, Minneapolis, 4th March 2025, ZEX PR WIRE, The most important practice tip is finding a good time to practice and establishing a set practice time. Ideally, an adult student or child practices when they are the most mentally alert. Many teachers assert that establishing a regular time to practice helps ensure a sense of routine, thus making it easier to practice. Additionally, a well-known strategy for making practice easier is to leave the instrument out of the violin case. This serves as a practice reminder.
Another proven way of practicing the violin or any instrument is to play musical excerpts slowly. Practicing slowly is both effective and essential when learning new music, and it remains valuable throughout the process of refining pieces. Practicing in this way enables the player to pay closer attention to pitch, rhythm, dynamics, phrasing, and other musical details, while also helping the musician memorize pieces more effectively.
When a violinist is learning new repertoire, difficult musical segments will arise. While it is understandable that a musician may want to learn the piece right away, it is more beneficial to break things down sequentially. Dividing music into smaller sections makes it easier to master more challenging pieces. Another advantage of practicing passages in smaller sections is that it increases the chances of success, motivating musicians to practice more.
As Dr. Suzuki, the founder of the renowned Suzuki method, famously said, “Celebrate small steps.” Working on music in smaller segments is especially important because some students need to experience success shortly after starting to work on something. This approach to practicing is essential when parents are working with their young children, which is a cornerstone of the Suzuki method.
When learning a new piece, it is easy to overlook dynamics due to the focus on other elements of musical performance, such as pitch, rhythm, tone, and other musical details. Many teachers, including Marnie Thies, recommend color-coding music to highlight where soft and loud dynamics occur. To help begin the process of color-coding music, Marnie Thies states, “I have students write down which colors symbolize loud and soft dynamics. When a student does not know where to begin, I may suggest that the color red be for loud and blue is for soft dynamics. From there, a student’s creative juices may flow, which will help them color-code other musical signs such as crescendo (getting louder) or decrescendo (getting softer). Color-coding the music may help a student recognize the dynamic differences he or she should execute when playing the violin.” If a student needs help remembering certain musical nuances when playing, Marnie Thies advises older students to take notes by using post-it notes.
During high school, Marnie Thies studied violin under Mary West, the former emeritus professor of violin at the University of Minnesota. She emphasized listening to at least three different artists when learning new repertoire. Listening to different violinists is helpful because a performer can take what they like in terms of dynamics and phrasing from each performer and incorporate it into their own playing. With the innovation of YouTube, students can incorporate dynamics and phrasing as well as bowings and fingerings into various pieces. Bowings and fingerings can easily be seen on YouTube and can influence how a piece sounds. By watching a violinist perform “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saëns, Marnie Thies learned to make a more effective crescendo by using two bows as opposed to using one. This made the piece more exciting because the crescendo was easily heard by Marnie Thies and the audience.
It is natural for violinists to want to play through pieces and “perform” them during practice. However, it is more effective to designate certain parts of various pieces as practice spots when musical nuances such as dynamics, phrasing, continuous vibrato, and other aspects of a polished performance are not up to par. When Marnie Thies instructs students during lessons at Marnie Thies Violin Lessons to mark specific sections of their repertoire as practice spots, they understand that these areas require focused, repetitive attention during practice. Focusing on specific sections of a piece helps achieve a higher-quality performance when playing it in full during auditions and recitals.
When learning a new piece, a student writes down various musical details to remember during lessons and in practice. As the weeks go by, it is easy for music to get cluttered with various reminders of how to play certain notes. Starting out with multiple photocopies of the music is helpful because old copies can be discarded when the musical details written in are no longer applicable.
It is important to have optimal mental alertness during practice sessions. Practicing in short bursts keeps the mind more fresh and alert. For some pupils, it may make sense to practice for 10 minutes at a time. For others, longer practice sessions might be more suitable. It is advisable for students to find the amount of time they can practice before they lose focus. Shorter practice sessions decrease the likelihood that faulty technique ensues and may increase the probability of learning new music correctly with regards to pitch, rhythm, dynamics, phrasing, and other musical aspects.
Many violinists take note of musical nuances to watch and listen for before they play musical excerpts. This makes a lot of sense. However, Marnie Thies found that it’s more effective for players to recall musical details just before they need them, rather than at the beginning of the excerpt.
It is crucial for students to listen to the pieces they are studying every day. Listening promotes internalization of the piece, which is a deep awareness of pitch, rhythm, dynamics, phrasing, and other musical nuances to the point that the student can accurately sing what is written on the sheet music. Once a student has internalized a piece, they can independently correct errors while playing various repertoire. This enables more lesson time to be dedicated to new material, making it easier for students to advance through the repertoire.
There are online and offline resources available that explain various ways of how to practice.
Many YouTube videos provide a wealth of information about practicing effectively. A few online videos that may benefit musicians trying to improve their practice technique are David Kim, who is currently Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Nathan Cole, concertmaster of the Boston Symphony.
Another resource that may be helpful to teachers is Philip Johnston’s The Practice Revolution: Getting Great Results From the Six Days Between Lessons. In this book, Johnston discusses various practice strategies, highlighting those that are effective and those that are not. He helps teachers learn ways to approach practicing so that they can coach their students. His second book about practicing, Practiceopedia: The Big Book of Practice Help, was written for students and parents. This manual explores practice tips and tricks.
The Suzuki Method, developed by Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, emphasizes the involvement of a “practice parent.” For Suzuki parents, students, and teachers, this approach requires the parent to attend lessons, take notes, and practice alongside their child. Suzuki parents may find it helpful to read Edmund Sprunger’s book, Helping Parents Practice. Mr. Sprunger draws on years of teaching experience and his background in psychotherapy to explain different practice strategies parents can use when working with their children.
At the release of this publication, Marnie Thies is available for both online violin lessons and in-person lessons to children and adults in St. Paul, in the suburbs of Falcon Heights, and North Oaks. Marnie Thies looks forward to expanding her teaching locations to include the Anoka County area in cities such as Blaine and Coon Rapids. Marnie Thies has been teaching online since 2014 and more frequently since 2020 with Marnie Thies Violin Lessons. Her website showcases the progression of her student who began taking lessons online exclusively with Marnie Thies. Another video on her online lessons page highlights how her student learned vibrato solely through online lessons. To collaborate with Marnie Thies, please contact her through her website.
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Violin Expert Marnie Thies Reflects on How Her Experience Has Transformed Her Approach to Teaching at Marnie Thies Violin Lessons
If there is one thing Marnie Thies would have changed about her teaching methods in earlier years, it would be to have students send her videos of themselves playing scales, musical repertoire, and other lesson items during the week. This helps Marnie Thies check for understanding and allows her to assess their strengths and areas needed for improvement. Sending recordings allows Marnie Thies and her students to focus more lesson time on current repertoire, which results in faster musical progress and improved violin technique.
Marnie Thies states, “Recording scales and arpeggios for my students during my earlier years of teaching would have saved my students and I time in the lessons as the recordings of both items begin with an explanation of fingerings to use then a play-through for each video.” When pitch is difficult for students learning scales and arpeggios, the play-through section of the videos on Marnie Thies’s YouTube channel, Marnie Thies Violin Lessons, allows students to play along with her so they can self-correct any pitch errors made while playing. Having access to this material familiarizes students with scales and arpeggios they study currently and in future lessons.
On Marnie Thies’s website, proviolin.com, there are Suzuki violin recordings for all ten books of Suzuki. Marnie Thies states, “I added this page to my website because I wanted students to have easy access to recordings of pieces they are studying. I wish I would have done that in my earlier years of teaching.”
Over the years, Marnie Thies has learned the value of having Suzuki piano accompaniments or other violin accompaniments on her website as it better prepares students for recitals. By familiarizing and playing along with the piano accompaniments, students can feel more comfortable playing with the accompanist for the first time and at recitals. When students know the piano accompaniments, they are more relaxed when playing the violin, which leads to better musical performances.
Marnie Thies comments, “Another practice I have developed is scheduling a Meet and Greet before a student’s first lesson. This allows me to gain insight on a student’s personality, so I can adjust my teaching style accordingly and to answer any questions a student or parent may have. Meet and Greets give us an opportunity to talk about violin set-up, which includes rosin, a powdery substance that is applied to the bow hair, chinrest, and shoulder rest. All of these accessories can make a difference in the enjoyment of playing the violin. If a student does not own a violin, I can advise during the Meet and Greet what to look for in a violin, which can help them in selecting a suitable instrument.”
Over the years, Marnie Thies has broken her teaching down into smaller, more manageable steps. Doing so helps greatly with motivation when students can experience some success right away. This is especially important for younger students or any student who values immediate success.
Marnie Thies strives to refine her teaching technique as time goes on. She enjoys the impact it has on her students’ progress and is always looking for multiple methods to improve her teaching. She enjoys finding various ways of teaching the same thing as students learn the same things in different ways.
At the date of this publication, Marnie Thies gives online violin lessons and in-person lessons to kids and adults in St. Paul in the cities of Falcon Heights and North Oaks with Marnie Thies Violin Lessons. Marnie Thies looks forward to expanding her teaching locations to include the Anoka County area in cities such as Blaine and Coon Rapids. Marnie Thies has taught online since 2014 and more frequently since 2020. Her website showcases the progression of her student who began taking violin lessons online exclusively with Marnie Thies. Another video on her online lessons page highlights how her student learned vibrato solely through online lessons. To work with Marnie Thies, she can be reached through her website.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.