Teaching individual beginners can be fantastically challenging and rewarding. If we get it right, they will love music for their whole life and encourage their own children to learn. These early lessons are crucial – braced with skill and kindness we can transform a generation!

Fostering confidence, enthusiasm and parental support are vital and measuring expectations will give key information to future progress. Invite parents into a lesson occasionally to quietly take notes and practice is guaranteed.

Good posture will alleviate later problems. Best to stand with feet hip width apart, soft knees and tummy, imaginary string from head to ceiling, shoulders down, violin on collar bone with a shoulder rest, sponge (and thick elastic band) or chamois leather. Otherwise the violin slides and it feels like bowing on a moving target! I usually shape cheap sponges until the posture is settled. Some violins have unreasonably high bridges and make it painful for little fingers – best to fix straight away.

Early lessons can start with singing and clapping games to develop good rhythm, pitch awareness and basic improvisation (it eliminates the anxiety of getting things wrong and develops sight-reading). Using elements from the next piece is a good preparation and I usually work aurally initially then with sheet music. A mixture of easy memorizing and reading will develop confidence – otherwise it’s difficult to learn independently.

Address bowing before left hand. Their image of sound is fundamental so demonstrating is ideal. Clean tone with a relaxed arm is not unreasonable even in the first few lessons and worth insisting on. Swinging arms around rhythmically encourages relaxation. Bowing firmly in the middle is most natural – fluid motions, not too slowly on open strings. Making up repeated words (4&20 Blackbirds) or sentences work well. Then extend to the top half (elbow hinging, parallel to bridge) and later to bottom half (whole arm movement). I usually start technically as they need to continue, with lots of fun games on open strings – ‘copy the rhythm’, ‘answer me back’, ‘guess the string’ (moving the right elbow precisely for string changes), ‘eyes closed’, ‘one leg’, ‘draw in the air’.

CD backing tracks are fun (use ABRSM’s speed shifter to alter tempi). Keep games short (2 minutes) as muscles develop – relax them while singing, note reading, clapping or listening to music as soon as arms or brains start to wane!

Choose pieces they like – they simply won’t play them at home otherwise. Strong open string rhythms over a CD may just engage them enough to develop that bowing tone so they can quickly get onto fingers. Singing first, then playing gets the quickest and most fluid early results.

Ask students to colour pictures or make up words to the first phrases to open up their imagination. Having several pieces on the go is good and one or two can be changed each week. No matter how simple the music, playing with firm rhythm, good tone, dynamics and confidence are crucial (some memorising desirable).

When clear tone (all fingers curled and relaxed), sense of character (dynamics), crotchets, quavers and minims (think maths and bow speeds – ½ bow for ta’s, 1/8 for ti-ti’s) are all pretty secure, then introduce left fingers. Minimum finger pressure is needed if the bowing is solid. Often one thing goes out of focus while the new skill is developing, but a little open string exercise regains balance. I like to use all four fingers, singing first and then lightly placing the fingers. It gives a proper hand shape and sets things up well for quick progress. I use octave harmonics to ‘feel the weight needed’. Sliding up and down (‘polishing the strings’) gives the correct left arm angle and creates a terrific feeling of freedom, helps with early vibrato and eliminates that fear of shifting that often stops progress around Grade 5. I usually use basic solfege on a movable Do and interchange it with options eg. Three Blind Mice, Me, Re Do, C B A or 2 1 0. Play the same tunes on different strings or in different positions. Beware of just using numbers though as students think everything’s ok if the ‘right fingers’ are going down. Under pressure, this can create the wrong key.

Playing with friends and feeling proud of their achievements is vital for continued learning so start small by asking each student to casually play (the favourite and easy) few bars while the next one is unpacking. Gradually escalate to a whole piece, group, assembly, informal concert, competition or exam. Each stage needs careful monitoring and renegotiation so observe their playing impartially – if they don’t play in tune, is more singing needed or is their left hand stiff? No dynamics – is it bow division/ speeds or characterisation?

I encourage parents to leave the instrument out at home for easy practice, loosening the bow each time and leaving the shoulder rest on. I teach them how to use the fine tuners (never pegs), singing the notes from a piano or tuner on their phone. Notebooks with next lesson time, progress, expectations and stickers work well. A quick call home mid term to keep awareness high on parents’ agenda, highlight potential ability, expectations from both sides and details for initial concert are welcome and increase practice but we as teachers have the biggest influence on their love of music.

Jessica O’Leary is a performer, ABRSM examiner, string syllabus moderator and teacher in London.