Building a Successful Music Lesson Program: Step 2—Launch a Strings Program

Starting kids early on piano can also help build your strings lesson program. Kids who’ve been enrolled in piano lessons from as young as 3 1/2 will often do well in a beginning strings class because they already have a basic knowledge of music.

Based on years of teaching violin to hundreds of young students—and my fair share of trial and error—I’ve designed a course that has been very successful for our students and our business. The Pascale Method for Beginning Violin teaches children how to play in a group setting, where they master seemingly difficult skills quickly and easily, including reading music.

Along with having a good method book, here are additional guidelines for hosting a successful strings program.

Prepare your lesson room. Make sure the room is large enough for six to eight violinists seated on a carpet in a semi-circle, plus a parent seated behind each child. Also have enough space for a whiteboard at the front of the class for the teacher’s use.

Provide the right instrument and equipment. Each child should have his or her own violin outfit—a violin, bow and rosin, with a case. Students will also need a shoulder rest. At our school, we purchase instruments to rent to our students and customers.

Offer 12 classes. The course consists of 12 one-hour sessions, once a week. The class should be fun and engaging. Ours includes finger tapes, reward badges and practice puzzles.

Get your students trying different types of stringed instruments. Part of our curriculum is an introduction to viola, cello and bass, with an opportunity to try each.

Hold graduation recitals. The last class is a graduation, where our students perform and receive a diploma. They’re also assessed to see if they would like to continue with violin in private lessons and enter our training orchestra—or switch to another stringed instrument.

There’s no reason why kids shouldn’t be up and running on violin quickly and, most importantly, playing with good form. This becomes the foundation on which to build a successful orchestra program. (We’ll cover this in the following article.)

A strings program benefits your business in many ways. Along with lessons and items needed for class, you will sell replacement strings, carbon fiber bows, chin rest covers, practice mutes, tote bags, cleaning cloths, tuners, metronomes, musician’s chairs, cello straps, instrument polish, peg drops and much more.

Susan Pascale is founder and director of the nationally acclaimed Pascale Music Institute. Her two books, The Pascale Method for Beginning Violin and Practicing is for the Birds: The Ultimate Practice Organizer With Reward Stickers, are published by Alfred Music. Her children’s orchestras have been featured in national publications and on television. To see and hear her students in action, go to pascalemusicinstitute.com.