Videos of John Kendall's Ideas for Teaching Violin now available!

By ESA Administrator

06th June 2021

The ISA gratefully acknowledges Ithaca Talent Education and its founder Sanford Reuning for making these videos available for posting on the ISA website. All rights reserved by the ISA, April 2021.

John Kendall’s Ideas for Teaching Violin
A Selection of Pedagogical Points from Corelli to 200

Original notes by John Kendall, 1991

Note: John Kendall was the first American string teacher to observe and study the SUZUKI™ Method in Japan. The following are excerpts from the original text accompanying these videos.

suzuki and john kendall in japan

Preface

These videos were filmed in 1992 in the upstairs attic of the old String House at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville… We all recognize that violin teaching ideas reach back through history to Arcangelo Corelli, or even before… The medium of video, however, may provide a way of encapsulating, preserving and clarifying certain actions and the unfolding of process.

Overview

The focus of these videos is on simplicity, clarity, informality, even improvisation… They are not intended to be a complete curriculum or a method, and they do not tell when the teacher should implement the ideas. These practical ideas are presented as one workable teaching alternative and should stimulate experiment rather than codify or finalize ideas… The intent is to deal with broad applications and principles rather than rules…It should be understood that in every instance, the technique must be a means to better musicianship, without which all efforts would be sterile… For problem solving, we may separate the technical from the expressive, but it is never to be completely isolated and should not remain apart for long.

https://internationalsuzuki.org/kendall-video

The SUZUKI™ Method

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