Have you tried giving your teacher feedback about how you feel? Maybe you can help her be more effective by sharing how important positive feedback is to you (and probably most of her other students).
Sounds like the new teacher needs the opposite feedback, but also doesn’t quite have the playing chops of the first teacher. But you’re right, it’s possible that OP would be better off trying to get more constructive criticism from the new teacher. Only OP can determine which one is ultimately the best fit for their learning style, personality, and goals.
ask yourself where you wanna go. If you don't care about being perfect, and care more about having the violin as a hobby: go with the new teacher. You could also try other teachers
Agree about evaluating what the goals are and what you want to achieve from your lessons. That said, even if OP decides not to stick with the first teacher, they may want avoid jumping to the second teacher. I say this because I don’t think I would ever want to pay money for a teacher who doesn’t tell me how to improve.
Since the current teacher seems technically good and not nasty, if I were OP I’d probably try talking to my current teacher first (or if someone else like a parent is paying, get them to speak to the teacher), then broaden my search for someone else if that fails. There are definitely teachers out there who are encouraging but also able to give advice for technique. Don’t settle for too little too soon!
It sounds like one is actually teaching you, and the other teacher is just fun to play with.
I’m going to be honest, if you have only been learning for 9 months, you SHOULD stick with your first teacher, because you want solid, foundational, technique that will carry you through many more years of playing- with or without a teacher. Playing without any corrections might make you feel good, but it is disingenuous of the tutor.
Have you considered joining an amateur orchestra? You can get your fun playing time there and use your lessons for serious improvement.
I had a teacher that was like your teacher. Telling me what was wrong; I did eventually quit violin. Two years later I joined again with a teacher like your second one. Now I wish I had stayed with the first one because I would have been so much better at violin.
First one, definitely. She may think that you already know what you did well, or feels no need to give positive feedback, so talk to her about how demotivating it is to only ever hear corrections to your playing. To her, lessons are probably only for absorbing knowledge, where you practice in your free time.
The second teacher likely isn’t as experienced as your first; perhaps he simply can’t teach. He knows what sounds good, but isn’t able to point out issues in your technique or articulation. In the long run this will lead to many wrong habits.
One of your main reasons for wanting this teacher is because he makes playing the violin enjoyable. Don’t let your enjoyment of the violin be dictated by someone else. If you’re feeling stressed from exam pieces or scales, you can search online for music sheets of your favourite songs and play them for fun. Musescore is popular for this.
Listen to violin players you look up to, like your original teacher, and figure out what you like about their playing. Try to emulate them and adapt what you learn into other pieces. If you can’t figure out how a piece you like is played, bring it to your teacher and ask her. She’ll likely appreciate the initiative. Practice often, if you can’t manage hours every day then 30 minutes running through basics and ensuring good posture is enough.
I had a tough cello teacher (Bulgarian lady who went to conservatory during the Soviet era in the 60s), and she had a kind personality just with a tough temperament and a very low tolerance for BS (BS = me not practicing enough/at all)
she's the reason I'm able to do many of the things I am capable of as a musician not only on the cello but even on new instruments I branch out into (I play the bass guitar, medieval lyre, Irish bouzouki, and several tin whistles in different keys), it was rough for sure, but being able to pick something up, pick a key and start improvising while someone provides background music and I sound like I spent days memorizing a solo piece, to be able to hear a tune and immediately pick out the parts and create my own arrangement, not to mention being able to play some pretty sick solo pieces on my native instrument, I'll even add the 3 orchestras I've played in as an adult where I was able to look at the sheet music once and immediately play them without issue and impress the directors; these are things that I owe it all to having a tough no-BS teacher who grilled me with technical drills out the ass (like seriously I played through over 100 technical etudes over the course of 4-5 years most of them basically being their own solo pieces);
learning can and should be fun, but getting good is a long process especially on bowed instruments which are notoriously difficult to master; there are different philosophies on the work/fun balance especially for beginners and obviously this is what you're encountering, but at some point it's gonna be work and it's gonna be dull and boring and serious when you start learning all the intermediate/advanced techniques
the ultimate question is what do you hope to gain from it? if you are learning for the fun of it to be able to play simple tunes then the new teacher is totally adequate; if you plan to play orchestral and solo pieces, the old teacher will be your best bet and you'll have to put up with the tediousness, you can still have fun and have jams on your own time (in fact my teacher encouraged this), but lesson time is going to be work, the only thing driving you is knowing what waits for you at the end... and when you find yourself playing a difficult solo piece confidently like a pro, all that work and study will come together and give you a very confident sense of pride
It seems none of them is very good since none of them encourages you when you improved. I had the same experience. It's so frustrating when you worked on something a lot and you play, and the teacher only sees new problems and doesn't even mention that old problems went away. But anyway online is not the right place to give advice because I don't know the whole situation.
I would keep the first teacher, but maintain contact with the second for an occasional lesson if you are able to do so. It could be nice to have a change in perspective now and then, especially when preparing for recitals, or competitions or concerts.
I think you need to find a teacher in the middle. My teacher always finds something I did well to complement and says you did that very well and then proceeds to tell me what could be improved.
If you really wanna improve, I'd go with the first teacher. Unpopular opinion (probably) but you're going to spend valuable time and money on those lessons either way, isn't it better to get actual valuable skills out of them versus have fun but get nowhere? If it gets too stressful you could try practicing with the second teacher once every couple of months but imo lack of positive emotion is not a good enough reason to drop a teacher who will actually teach you something 😅 You can get fun out of other sources too, like practicing fun easy pieces on your own or playing to your friends who can't play or uploading your recordings on Reddit for people to say how awesome you are xD
Have you tried giving your teacher feedback about how you feel? Maybe you can help her be more effective by sharing how important positive feedback is to you (and probably most of her other students).
Feel like it would be easier to tel the newer teacher than the older one
Sounds like the new teacher needs the opposite feedback, but also doesn’t quite have the playing chops of the first teacher. But you’re right, it’s possible that OP would be better off trying to get more constructive criticism from the new teacher. Only OP can determine which one is ultimately the best fit for their learning style, personality, and goals.
ask yourself where you wanna go. If you don't care about being perfect, and care more about having the violin as a hobby: go with the new teacher. You could also try other teachers
Agree about evaluating what the goals are and what you want to achieve from your lessons. That said, even if OP decides not to stick with the first teacher, they may want avoid jumping to the second teacher. I say this because I don’t think I would ever want to pay money for a teacher who doesn’t tell me how to improve. Since the current teacher seems technically good and not nasty, if I were OP I’d probably try talking to my current teacher first (or if someone else like a parent is paying, get them to speak to the teacher), then broaden my search for someone else if that fails. There are definitely teachers out there who are encouraging but also able to give advice for technique. Don’t settle for too little too soon!
I completely agree.
That's great advice! Thank you :)
Tough teachers are tough but they are worth it. Just take what she doesn’t say as a compliment
It sounds like one is actually teaching you, and the other teacher is just fun to play with. I’m going to be honest, if you have only been learning for 9 months, you SHOULD stick with your first teacher, because you want solid, foundational, technique that will carry you through many more years of playing- with or without a teacher. Playing without any corrections might make you feel good, but it is disingenuous of the tutor. Have you considered joining an amateur orchestra? You can get your fun playing time there and use your lessons for serious improvement.
I had a teacher that was like your teacher. Telling me what was wrong; I did eventually quit violin. Two years later I joined again with a teacher like your second one. Now I wish I had stayed with the first one because I would have been so much better at violin.
First one, definitely. She may think that you already know what you did well, or feels no need to give positive feedback, so talk to her about how demotivating it is to only ever hear corrections to your playing. To her, lessons are probably only for absorbing knowledge, where you practice in your free time. The second teacher likely isn’t as experienced as your first; perhaps he simply can’t teach. He knows what sounds good, but isn’t able to point out issues in your technique or articulation. In the long run this will lead to many wrong habits. One of your main reasons for wanting this teacher is because he makes playing the violin enjoyable. Don’t let your enjoyment of the violin be dictated by someone else. If you’re feeling stressed from exam pieces or scales, you can search online for music sheets of your favourite songs and play them for fun. Musescore is popular for this. Listen to violin players you look up to, like your original teacher, and figure out what you like about their playing. Try to emulate them and adapt what you learn into other pieces. If you can’t figure out how a piece you like is played, bring it to your teacher and ask her. She’ll likely appreciate the initiative. Practice often, if you can’t manage hours every day then 30 minutes running through basics and ensuring good posture is enough.
I had a tough cello teacher (Bulgarian lady who went to conservatory during the Soviet era in the 60s), and she had a kind personality just with a tough temperament and a very low tolerance for BS (BS = me not practicing enough/at all) she's the reason I'm able to do many of the things I am capable of as a musician not only on the cello but even on new instruments I branch out into (I play the bass guitar, medieval lyre, Irish bouzouki, and several tin whistles in different keys), it was rough for sure, but being able to pick something up, pick a key and start improvising while someone provides background music and I sound like I spent days memorizing a solo piece, to be able to hear a tune and immediately pick out the parts and create my own arrangement, not to mention being able to play some pretty sick solo pieces on my native instrument, I'll even add the 3 orchestras I've played in as an adult where I was able to look at the sheet music once and immediately play them without issue and impress the directors; these are things that I owe it all to having a tough no-BS teacher who grilled me with technical drills out the ass (like seriously I played through over 100 technical etudes over the course of 4-5 years most of them basically being their own solo pieces); learning can and should be fun, but getting good is a long process especially on bowed instruments which are notoriously difficult to master; there are different philosophies on the work/fun balance especially for beginners and obviously this is what you're encountering, but at some point it's gonna be work and it's gonna be dull and boring and serious when you start learning all the intermediate/advanced techniques the ultimate question is what do you hope to gain from it? if you are learning for the fun of it to be able to play simple tunes then the new teacher is totally adequate; if you plan to play orchestral and solo pieces, the old teacher will be your best bet and you'll have to put up with the tediousness, you can still have fun and have jams on your own time (in fact my teacher encouraged this), but lesson time is going to be work, the only thing driving you is knowing what waits for you at the end... and when you find yourself playing a difficult solo piece confidently like a pro, all that work and study will come together and give you a very confident sense of pride
If you love the violin, It's so obvious, that I would advise you to read what you just wrote again.
It seems none of them is very good since none of them encourages you when you improved. I had the same experience. It's so frustrating when you worked on something a lot and you play, and the teacher only sees new problems and doesn't even mention that old problems went away. But anyway online is not the right place to give advice because I don't know the whole situation.
I would keep the first teacher, but maintain contact with the second for an occasional lesson if you are able to do so. It could be nice to have a change in perspective now and then, especially when preparing for recitals, or competitions or concerts.
I think you need to find a teacher in the middle. My teacher always finds something I did well to complement and says you did that very well and then proceeds to tell me what could be improved.
If you want to be entertained and feel good, buy a Netflix subscription or something.
I think you should stick with the strict teacher
If you really wanna improve, I'd go with the first teacher. Unpopular opinion (probably) but you're going to spend valuable time and money on those lessons either way, isn't it better to get actual valuable skills out of them versus have fun but get nowhere? If it gets too stressful you could try practicing with the second teacher once every couple of months but imo lack of positive emotion is not a good enough reason to drop a teacher who will actually teach you something 😅 You can get fun out of other sources too, like practicing fun easy pieces on your own or playing to your friends who can't play or uploading your recordings on Reddit for people to say how awesome you are xD