Kristin Garson

I have been a violin soloist with the Sioux City, Iowa Symphony and Dodge City, Iowa Symphonies. 

I have made a Jazz violin CD with acoustic and electric violin called "Music Under the Influence."  It is available on CDbaby.com. 

I want my students to be able to enjoy playing music for life.  For the violin, I teach a mixture of methods: Suzuki, and Mark O'Connor, and All for Strings. The students really like the variety of Classical, and traditional/fiddle music from Mark O'Connor, and the technique and music that the All for Strings books provide.    I use traditional scale books and technique by Galamian and Sevcik; Wolfarht, etc. as the student gets more advanced.    I also teach music theory and focus on sight reading. Music theory is important for the student not only to be a violinist, but a well-rounded musician.    My students are required to work on sight reading every other week, once they can read basic notes.   If they can't read music, they can end up studying music for years and not be able to enjoy reading any music on their own.  This also helps them with rhythm.  I do not "teach to the test" = have a student study a piece of music for many months and then in the meantime they are not reading and enjoying music, and get bored.  And frustrated.  This does not mean of course that they don't learn the music well.  But if you keep teaching a piece of music to the student  and perfecting it and perfecting it to the point where the love for that music -- and their instrument --  stagnates, then this can become counterproductive.  I teach  according to the students' learning pace and try to customize it somewhat.  Everyone has a different way of processing things.  I also teach music from musicals sometimes ( Andrew Lloyd Weber is always good )and some movies.  As long as the music is good quality and helps them to make progress overall, and helps them  to keep their interest, that is the main thing.  

For the piano, I also use a mixture of methods: the Faber method and the N. Jane Tan Method, and Keyboard Gymnastics.  I combine all three methods and the students really like the variety and again, it makes them more well-rounded musicians.  The students also have to work on sight reading every other week once they can read basic notes, and music theory.  For piano theory I use Keyboard Gymnastics Theory books, which are a lot of fun and the students really enjoy learning from those books.  For piano technique, I use Keyboard Gymnastics technique charts, and the students start out learning 5-finger scales in many keys.  They also learn how to transpose simple tunes or pieces of music from their lesson books.  Outside the method books, again, as long as the music is good quality and keeps their interest, I also teach some modern music, as well as some Jazz, Blues, and rags.