12 Best Violin Lessons for Intermediate Review 2022

How would you like to learn the violin with a multiple Grammy award-winning violinist? Itzhak Perlman has won 16 Grammys, including a Grammy lifetime achievement award.

He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contribution to the contribution of music. Itzhak has also performed at very prestigious functions including the inauguration of President Obama.

He has also taught at the prestigious Brooklyn college and Juilliard school. In these lessons, Itzhak teaches how to build a richer sound, add color and expression to your music. The 17 lessons include;

· The Bow- mechanics, speed, pressure, and bow hold.

· Advanced Bowing and Left-Hand Techniques

· Intonation- improve intonation by recognizing sharp or flat notes.

· Vibrato-adding richness, color, and emotion to your music

· Comfort and Posture

· Color and Tone- producing musical “color” with bowing techniques, varying dynamics, and shifting.

· The Color Game- how to the listener's perception of a phrase or piece by using musical color

· Playing Different Styles

· The Performance Mindset- overcoming anxiety and achieving focus

Itzhak also shares his practice schedule as well as other tips on working in collaborations. These lessons come with downloadable sheet music. find the lessons on Masterclass;

Richard Amoroso is an accomplished violinist who has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Sting, Hillary Hahn, and other greats. He is also a long-time performer with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

In these lessons Richard teaches violin fundamentals, bowing and cross-string exercises, shifting, solo repertoire and etudes. This is a beginner to the advanced level course in classical violin, which will also teach several intermediate subjects including;

· Ear Training and Working with Intervals

· Repertoire - Riding Concertino Opus 21

· Dynamics & Color

· Shifting Positions - 3 Octave Scales, 1 Octave Scales on 1 String, Chromatic Scales & Broken 3rds, Shifting Above 3rd Position, 3 Octave Arpeggios

· String Crossing- Kreutzer No.7, Tip of the Bow, Middle of the Bow, Frog of the Bow, Kreutzer No.13

· Learning Trills Kreutzer No.15, Mozart Violin Concerto No.4

· Bowing: Spiccato and Bowing: Sautillé

· How to Transition in and Out of Spiccato (Beethoven Symphony No.3, Scherzo)

· How to shift smoothly One Finger Shifts, Classical and Romantic Shifts, Replacement Shifts, Substitutions and Extensions

· Vibrato - Controlling the Motion, and The Various Colors of Vibrato

· Left Hand Articulation - Dounis Op.12 Exercises, and “Fast Fingers” - Schradieck Exercises

These lessons can be found on ArtistWorks;

Udemy is one of the biggest online teaching platforms with hundreds of subjects; music, IT, photography, history, design and pretty much anything you can think of.

Anyone can post lessons, and charge whatever they want. The lessons receive a rating of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the highest. There are dozens of violin lessons on this platform. The intermediate violin lessons that have received a rating of 4.5 stars and above include;

· Vibrato Master Course – This is an in-depth course on how to play the vibrato on the violin. It has 80 lectures lasting about seven and a half hours discussing pressure, actuators, speed, motion, effects, and depth.

· Creative Violin, The New Violin Method 1 (Lessons 3, 4 and 5)- These intermediate lessons teach the combination of half and quarter notes, string changes and time signature, playing with 3 fingers, and improvisation

· Violin Christmastime! Christmas carols on the violin- You will learn to make different characters on the violin, as well as learn practice strategies to learn new songs

· Violin Karate – You will learn what works and what does not work for good sound by practicing folk, classical and children’s songs

These lessons can be found on Udemy’s listing.

SkillShare is also one of the top online teaching platforms for creative skills like music film, art, photography, and design. There are hundreds of violin lessons for all levels of playing. You can choose free or premium lessons, and filter by duration. Some of the intermediate violin lessons include;

· How to Learn Vibrato, Shifting and Pizzicato on the Violin- This is a short course to show how to play the vibrato as you learn new notes. You will also learn how to shift and pizzicato in different positions of the violin

· Vibrato Masterclass – This fairly comprehensive course teaches how to play the vibrato on the violin, fiddle, and viola. You will learn to play with different fingers and different cycles, as well as how to control arm pressure. The course comes with free metronomes.

· Violin scale shift and vibrato with C major Scale and Laputa- This short course teaches how to play the Laputa (castle in the sky) by Joe Hisaishi, and the C major scale of Carl Flesch scale system to help understand scale shifts and vibrato

These courses can be found by searching;

Beth Blackerby teaches violin at Southwestern University, Georgia, Texas. She also performs with Barton Strings Quartet and Austin Symphony. She has played the violin since the age of 5 and studied music up to the Masters level at the University of Wisconsin. She offers online lessons for violinists of all skill levels. Her intermediate lessons will teach you;

· Complete vibrato

· How to execute positions and shifts accurately

· Bow techniques like the Spicatto and the Sautille

· Expressive phrasing

· How to use different fingers more effectively

· Rocking the metronome

These lessons are offered in high-quality video and come with loads of resources so you don't have to download or buy extra material. The curricula are carefully sequenced for players of different skill levels to follow. You also get;

· 24/7 access to your online portal

· Sound sliced play-along-videos

· Freedom to curate learning resources

· A practice organizer

· A progress tracker

· Takeaways for reference and concept remembrance

You can also arrange real-time one-on-one private lessons with Beth, which are done on Skype. These lessons can be found on her website.

If you are reluctant to part with good money for lessons, this course by Pierre ‘Fiddlerman’ Holstein could be worth looking at. Fiddlerman is an accomplished violist who has been performing in Europe and the US for over 25 years.

He runs a violin learning resource site on which he shares lessons, insights, and tools that are useful to playing violin at the pro level. He has categorized his lessons into beginner and advanced levels. If you have been playing the violin for some time, advanced lessons that would be useful include;

· How to remove and set a violin

· How to hold the violin without a shoulder-rest

· How to tune a violin using the pegs while playing

· Introduction to phrasing (Amazing Grace)

· How to repair a fallen bridge on your violin

· Vibrato for violin and viola

· Finger flexibility for smooth bow changes

· Jazz improvisation for violin

· Finger and hand vibrato

· Playing the third position on the violin

· Glissando and portamento on the violin

· Tremolo on the violin

· Legato bowing on the violin

· Playing marcato on the violin

· Playing two-octave g chromatic scale for violin

Have you been away from the violin for a while and miss its feel, or think that you can’t just get some techniques, right? These lessons are designed to help express the music in your head by learning good tone production.

It will teach you which bowing techniques to use where, which in turn will help you learn new repertoire quickly, and express your music without technical barriers. There are free and paid lessons for different levels. Some of the free lessons you can sample include;

· 24 different bowing techniques

· Practicing dynamics in legato

· Tips on avoiding bow shakes and unwanted bounces

· How to play different popular tunes like Silent Night, Mary Did You Know? and Amazing Grace

There are also detailed vibrato lessons for free;

· Avoiding common mistakes in violin vibrato

· Wrist postures for vibrato

· Doing the vibrato using different fingers

· Debunking vibrato myths

· Dos and Don’ts of vibrato

These lessons are taught by 5 accomplished violinists. There are hundreds of video lessons with downloadable sheet music and practice plans. You can find these lessons on the website;

Do you feel more comfortable learning in a group? Julia’s Violin Academy violin lessons are to encourage students to feel that they can become good violinists regardless of their skill or age.

Membership is free but you pay to access lessons. You start by assessing your skills to gauge your learning stage. If you are at the intermediate stage, you access the appropriate workbook and practice plan. This will also include downloadable sheet music.

You can then watch and practice the video lessons in your workbook, that are in simple step-by-step instructions. You can track your progress as you learn. You submit your practice videos for review and get feedback from fellow students and the instructor.

You can also join the live bi-monthly classes where you have the chance to interact with fellow students, and engage in Q&A with your tutor. There are intermediate how-to-play lessons for;

· Faded by Alan Walker

· La Vie en Rose

· Sherlock Holmes theme

· Phantom of the Opera

· Beauty and the Beast

These lessons will help you perfect bowing technique, do complex string changes, and complicated techniques.

Are you looking at the violin as a serious career path? There are few intermediate courses as comprehensive as that offered by the Violin School in London. The school caters to people of all ages, including Parent-Child combos.

Beginner lessons are online, but intermediate lessons are not yet available online and have to be studied on campus in London. The learning is sequential and designed for continued growth and development in playing the violin. The intermediate stage is designed to introduce you to new repertoire, styles, techniques, and experiences.

These lessons are for people who have been playing the violin for 1-3 years, and would like at the highest levels. This is all about looking at the familiar subjects in new perspectives to explore new ways of playing. This will help you understand, implement and internalize these ideas for better expression while playing the violin.

The lessons take one year but are done on Saturdays only. You can enroll at any time of the year because the courses are cyclical, with concepts being visited twice or thrice in a learning cycle. The school plans to upload intermediate lessons online shortly.

Jan Hulst is a career violinist who has been performing and teaching for more than 25 years. She has performed with Continuo Chamber Orchestra in the Netherlands and appeared on Dutch Television.

She is the founder of Pro-Am strings, which teaches the violin to people of all ages and skill levels. Her intermediate lessons are for 'Improvers' or players looking to perfect their technique and explore new repertoire and styles. These lessons include;

· Martele bowing and what happens in Martele

· Stance and balance – How to stay relaxed, play with less effort and fatigue

· Right-hand flexibility – How to develop a good bow hold and develop wrist suppleness for smooth bowing. You will learn wrist exercises to help with wrist flexibility

· Vibrato and how to move fingers

· Position changing – how to change positions unobtrusively and smoothly to keep the play smooth and uninterrupted

· Legato bowing spiccato bowing

· How to find new strings

· Better music expression using dynamics

These lessons along with their sheet music are downloadable for practice. You can also arrange for Skype lessons, join webinars and participate in the forum. Find more on the website

This course is taught by one of the most accomplished violinists in the Netherlands. Deborah has played for the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands and started teaching the violin while still studying herself.

This long experience with the violin, from age 10, has been consolidated in a course designed to teach playing the violin from scratch. But the course is also very useful as a reference for intermediate players. Some of the subjects she covers include;

· Introduction to parts of the violin and tuning

· How to hold the violin and playing pizzicato

· How to hold the bow

· How to play with the bow

· Reading music notes

· Introduction to Rhythm and notes and beats

· First finger position on the violin string

· Playing violin with the second finger

· Combining first and second finger with rhythm

· Positioning the third finger

· Playing violin using all the fingers

The course is to teach you the fundamentals that will be useful for your preferred style; rock, jazz, or pop.

Violin Masterclass offers premium learning content for free. This is a non-profit project underwritten by Starling Project Foundation, Inc. The project is a brainchild of one of the foremost violinists across generations, Kurt Sassmannhaus.

He is the chair of Dorothy Richard Starling School for Classical Violin at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He is credited for coaching many accomplished young violinists in Europe, Japan, the US, Korea, and Australia.

He collaborates with another renowned violin teacher, Egon Sassmannhaus, who has written violin instruction for children in Früher Anfang auf der Geige (Early Start on the Violin). Students in Starling Chamber Orchestra get to tour the world every year and get opportunities for openings for talented violinists.

All video tutorials on the site are free along with practice schedules, graded repertoires, performance videos, and violin recital videos. Some of the free video lessons discuss;

· Stance and violin position- Chin and shoulder rest, Changing violins, Straight bow geometry

· Left- and right-hand techniques

· Scales, arpeggios and double stops

· Intonation

You can arrange for a live lesson with one of the top tutors on-site at a cost. A session with the legend himself will cost you $250 per hour, but opportunities are very rare.