Last week I attended a one-day session of a Paul Rolland String Pedagogy Workshop. Paul Rolland was violist and violin teacher who emphasized the importance of freedom of movement in string playing. He created a series of films that demonstrate various techniques in string playing. The films are particularly helpful for string teachers because Rolland used actual developing violin students to show teaching strategies. The workshop I attended was a one-week program at George Mason University. Since I hadn't heard about or attended the program before, I elected to go to the program's "sampler" day. The sessions included helpful information on teaching students about bow control and bowing techniques. It was wonderful to get a little teaching refresher and trade ideas with other string teachers. Below is a picture of violin teacher Lucy Manning demonstrating how to teach bow bouncing (spiccato) to even very young students - our guinea pigs for the afternoon!
