Violin Lessons in Portland, Oregon

What makes violin lessons at the Eliason School of Music so unique?

Students enrolled in the Portland violin lesson program start lessons using the Suzuki method combined with a unique 7 Step Method for Tone Production developed by Brian Eliason.  This combination method allows the teacher to immediately pinpoint what is wrong in a students tone, show the student through simple exercises how to strengthen that weak area, and as a result immediately improve the overall tone from the instrument. 

The benefit of this method is that students get to enjoy the pleasant tone from the violin sooner and with less effort.  Once students have learned how to create a beautiful sound from the instrument they continue to play through book one of the Suzuki violin method and further strengthen these positive habits of play.  Allowing students to play lots of songs with a beautiful tone, helps them get to know the violin and as a result, they enjoy playing the violin every day. 

Once students have created strong positive habits of play then the lesson focus will shift more to learning scales, sight reading and musical theory.  Since these students know how to make the violin sound good, we focus next on understanding and playing more complicated works of music.  Students designate a portion of their practice to sight reading, theory, and scales. This approach to learning makes it easier for students to learn new music because they understand it better.  Also, since they learned how to make the violin sound good from the beginning, they always know how to create a beautiful tone in any type of music. 

Who takes violin lessons at Oregon's Eliason School of Music?

The Eliason School of Music has over 100 violin students enrolled in the Portland Oregon area and is growing rapidly.  These students vary in age from as young as 4 to over 50.  Violin lessons in the school are tailored to match your individual goals for your music.  For beginners we use the same approach to learning the violin for everyone because it has proven to be so successful. 

For intermediate and advanced students, however, lessons are designed with your musical goals in mind.  We train students to compete in competitions, audition and advance into higher level youth orchestra’s and earn scholarships to universities.  We also instruct students, if they so desire, in how to play other styles of violin music such as fiddle, Celtic, church carols or even improvising.