Melissa E  
Instruments: Violin, Viola
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, R&B, Gospel, Musical Theater, Opera, Latin, Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic, Flamenco, Salsa, Showtunes, Spirituals, Reggae, Merengue, Latin Jazz, Swing, New Age, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul, Marching Band, Punk, Mariachi, Avant-garde

I began teaching when I was a sophomore in high school (5 years ago). I started off by going to middle schools to teach violinists/violists how to polish their repertoire contest, or helped them clean their music excerpts and etudes for auditions mainly in classical music. Not only did I taught middle school kids but I also taught beginners as little as 6 years old how to play the violin or viola, with fun modern music. Moreover, now I have progressed into teaching high school students who plays viola in more advanced level such as trying to audition for texas all state orchestra, state solo and ensemble, assigned etudes, book exercises, and scales. I encourage students to be open with me if they have any problems in playing their violin/viola, feeling overwhelmed with music, and/or feeling uncomfortable/shy when playing their instrument. It is very important to address these situations in order to make sure the student feels comfortable playing the violin/viola, knows how to overcome their obstacles, and most of all, feeling confident and passionate.

Those who are new in playing the violin/viola for the first time, I would start addressing how to care and properly hold their instrument and get them familiarize with the essential elements boors book which has simple exercises and fun modern music at the same time, so the student can learn and also have fun! Those who have a little bit more experience than a beginner in playing the violin or viola, I would ask them to play a solo piece and a scale so I can start analyzing and start working in technique such as bow usage, bow hold word, hand frame, intonation, etc. I also do Suzuki books trainings and use other outside resources as well. These techniques will help them apply in the future when they want to work on other pieces. I will also be assigning scales of course to help improve their ear training, etudes, exercises to build up even more technicality and for musicality, I will be assigning fun classical music pieces but if student wants modern music, that’s also fine too.