Learn Violin And Fiddle Online

Get your FREE Membership

Get started today with a free membership. We’ll serve up our best free instructional content in systematic, weekly packages.

Suzuki Book 1

Just starting out? Start here. My systematic videos take a beginner all the way through Suzuki Book 1 in about 7 months (take longer if you need to). This course is the only one of its kind on the web.

Suzuki Book 2

When you’re ready for a bigger challenge, Suzuki Book 2 could be for you! I’ll give you detailed instructions on every song and help you finish book 2 in about 8 months; plus instruction on vibrato, note reading and general techniques! This course is packed with great stuff.

Suzuki Book 2 Songs Coach

This is the “lite” version of Suzuki Book 2, teaching only the songs in the book! If you’re already studying Suzuki Book 2 with a private teacher and just want some help on the songs between lessons, this course is just for you!

Suzuki Book 3

Are you ready to take your playing to the next level? I’ll guide you through the next steps! Learn expression and musical maturity, and elevate your playing through bow distribution, tone development, phrase shaping, vibrato, 3rd position, shifting and much more!

Suzuki Book 4

Book 4 uses familiar, enjoyable repertoire to stretch your ability while also providing a rich opportunity to apply the skills you learned in book 3 and train yourself to execute them consistently. Come check it out!

Red Desert Fiddle

Learn 24 great American and Irish fiddle tunes in about 8 months, PLUS the techniques you need to make any tune a foot-tappin’ show stopper!

Red Desert Fiddle Songs Coach

This course is based on the same 24 tunes from Red Desert Fiddle above. If you have some fiddle experience and are just looking to quickly build your repertoire, this course is for you. I’ll walk you through 24 great American and Irish fiddle tunes!

Fiddle Secrets

No time to waste? This extremely condensed course gives you the low-down on the hoedown– bowings, ornaments, and chords.

Tunes Tutorials

Click here to explore the Tutorials Library, with new kits added every year! My all-inclusive kits give you everything you need to master a tune! Perfect for growing your repertoire, and for the Do-It-Yourself folks out there.

Vibrato Lessons

From the very first prep exercises to a fully developed vibrato. These classes can be purchased separately, but they are also included in the Suzuki courses: Vibrato Part 1 in Suzuki Book 1, Vibrato Part 2 in Suzuki Book 2, and Vibrato Part 3 in Suzuki Book 3.

Wohlfahrt Opus 45 (1-30)

Learn the process of studying etudes using this timeless classic. All in 1st position so you can focus on the important things like tone, technique, intonation, and more!

Learn to Read Music

This course is especially for violinists and fiddlers. In 90 days, you could be completely FLUENT at note reading!

"Introducing the Positions" by Harvey Whistler

Knowing your positions opens up dozens of fingering options that are not available in 1st position. Intermediate violinists NEED to know their positions. This course uses the revered book by Harvey Whistler, and with over 75 videos, it guarantees fluency in 3rd and 5th position.

"Melodious Double Stops, Vol. 1" by Josephine Trott

The best intermediate violin repertoire requires double stops. Using the classic method book “Melodious Double Stops” by Josephine Trott, you will learn how to tackle them systematically using a special formula. You will learn how to isolate hard spots and fix them efficiently and effectively. Start today! Your favorite pieces are waiting!

Get your instrument out of its case.

You’ve got this! What kind of music will you make six months from now? Whatever it is, I would love to be part of it.

Hi! I’m Lora, your guide at RedDesertViolin.com. Here I am with two students. (They’re related to each other. Can you tell??)

I started learning violin in the 5th grade through the public school system. I learned through the “traditional” system, which combines note-reading with beginning violin technique. I started becoming aware of the Suzuki method four years later, when I met Evan, a hot shot violinist from Sunset Junior High School. I had heard of him before, and I knew that he had learned Suzuki style.

I was so jealous and regretful that I had not been given the opportunity to learn by that method. From that day on, I always had an inferiority complex for not having learned via the Suzuki method—you could say I was fixated on it—but it made me practice harder because I felt I had to compensate in order to compete with all these Suzuki miracle kids.

Music did not come easily to me, but my dad had always told me (and I believed everything he said!) that I could do anything I wanted to if I wanted it badly enough, and was willing to work for it.

Well, I definitely wanted it badly enough, and I certainly knew how to work hard. I worked my tail off! I didn’t watch TV, didn’t go out with friends, I practiced on camping trips, on family vacations to Half Moon Bay. I never went anywhere without my violin.

I kept this up from 5th grade through a Master’s Degree in violin performance. I buried my head in music and solitary practice. The best illustration of how single-minded I was, is that while living within 50 miles of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1998, I had not heard about it until Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death. THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING!!!!

Why did I work so hard?

It was a combination of BAD teaching, an inferiority complex, and a highly competitive personality.

Why do I say bad teaching? Because my teachers should have realized that I was over-practicing—banging my head against the proverbial wall and accomplishing nothing—or at least not getting the results I should have for the effort I was putting in. (No one taught me HOW to practice for results, with focus, and to have fun!) I just believed what my dad told me, thinking if I practiced 6 hours per day, I would achieve my dreams!

Well, I did finally achieve my dreams—full ride scholarships, professional orchestra membership (as principal second violin), solos with several orchestras…I made my living making music—but the price was so high!

When I slammed my finger in a car door, I was in San Francisco collaborating with a composer on a film score. My life flashed before my eyes—all the missed opportunities to go roller blading, or play basketball, for fear of injuring my hands. I saw 15 years of my life devoted to my instrument, and the possibility that it was gone.

Fate gets you either way.

The moral of the story? Have Fun! Don’t be afraid! Think more, work less. There is no harm in a shortcut, and you don’t have to suffer for success!

My finger did not heal 100%, even with surgery. I now have a slight “hammer finger” where the end portion of my middle finger on my left hand droops, making vibrato on that finger and certain passages a little compromised. Oh, I can absolutely still play, but it caused me to struggle more than ever, and my confidence was shot.

How I Started Teaching

Out of the blue, I was given the opportunity to take over another violinist’s entire studio of students. I had never ever taught before! I had never really wanted to teach. But suddenly it made sense as a financial security blanket while I figured things out with my finger.

To make matters even more freaky for me, this teacher used the SUZUKI approach! I was so worried, but she assured me I already knew how to play very well—if I just attended a week-long Suzuki Teachers Institute, I would learn the basics on starting beginning students.

I lucked out and got the BEST Suzuki instructor in the world, Ed Kreitman, and indeed, at the end of a week, I had faced all my Suzuki demons and was convinced that there is NO BETTER WAY for any beginner to learn.

For adults, it can be a little childish, but it can be adapted easily for more mature players. And for kids—it just appeals to them.

If you want to know more about the Suzuki Philosophy and method, click here.

Three points of the Suzuki approach are my favorites.

Delayed note-reading allows complete focus on technique

The mother-tongue concept of learning music like your native language

The belief that Every child can learn.

Shinichi Suzuki was not out to create little kid-geniuses. He was out to help develop better human beings. He didn’t “audition” kids and pick out the best ones as his students. He took even the difficult ones.

This concept is near and dear to my heart, as I believe there is no such thing as a hopeless case. If a student is willing to put in the work necessary, then the right teacher can help them to achieve their goals.

In my studio, I prided myself on accepting the difficult kids who no one else wanted to teach. It challenged me as a teacher, it was extremely rewarding, and it helped me to heal some of my own wounds as a child who was basically left to my own devices—who practiced like crazy and got results slowly and painfully, and never really had a teacher who recognized my passion and efforts!

While at that Suzuki Institute, I learned some basic concepts that should have been taught to me in grade school, and others that I should have picked up somewhere between a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Violin Performance! I was suddenly painfully aware of the deficiencies in my own violinistic education. I found myself as an accomplished violinist, with a Masters Degree in Violin Performance learning things that I would be teaching to children—things I NEVER KNEW—things I should have been taught by my “teachers.”

At that point, I realized that my teachers had failed me, and that I owed my success to two things: my Dad telling me I could be anything I worked for, and my Mom’s enthusiasm for classical music—attending EVERY concert, making me play in church as often as they would allow, and pretending to swoon anytime I played Meditation from Thais.

I hope this site can give you some pointers, either as a teacher needing pointers for your students, as a parent helping your child, or as a self-instructed student.

Remember—Nothing is as important as your OWN BELIEF that you can do it….but it’s awfully nice when someone hands you a key which opens the hidden door in that brick wall! DON’T BANG YOUR HEAD!

I highly recommend that you find someone to check your progress once in awhile, either with a web-cam lesson with me, or a teacher in your area. Please see my article on “Choosing a Good Teacher”.

Ready to make the MOST of your Red Desert Violin experience?

Join our email list to receive updates on lessons, new blog posts, valuable practice tips and much more!