Adult Beginner: 1.5 Year Violin Progress

Hello everyone,

I am Claire. I've been playing the violin for 1.5 years !!! I am sharing my violin progress here. Thanks for staying with me and your kind and supportive comments. ❤️

About me:
I started to learn the volin since September 2023, when I was 24 years old. I was self-taught at the beginning and I followed Alison's course on Youtube (@TheOnlineViolinTutor ).
I started to take violin lessons since May 23, 2024 (around Month 8) Since then, I take a 45-minute private lesson every week.

About techniques:
As you may tell from the video, when I was self-teaching, I tended to try more new things (shifting and vibrato) but in the wrong way. I think it is usually seen on self-taught beginners.

After I started to learn from Silvia (my tutor), we worked on my left hand, intonation (through playing double strings), shifting, and a little bit of vibrato (this is not a real focus for me even now). We usually work on pieces directly. By learning those pieces, I learned new scales (and ways to practice them), shifting, some bow techniques or left hand techniques. But most of time, intonation is the biggest focus for us. So we sometimes spent some time on double strings.

About pieces and etudes:
With Silvia, we’ve worked on Air, Chanson de Matin, Chanson de Nuit, Concerto Ferdinand Küchler, op. 12, Romance from the Gadfly, Telemann No 9.

On my own, I also work on Dancla - 36 Melodious and Easy Studies Op. 84. Sometimes I ask Silvia some questions about this etude, but most of time, I practice it on my own and watch videos from Oleg https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgOC0F9FUU7pNzUxTEQrlzSZCGmClqHxT

Besides, I practice the first etude from Schradieck The School of Violin Technics Book 1 No.1. nearly every day for 10-15 minutes (well if I practice on that day).

I also do some double string etudes but not always.

About my practice time:
I have a regular 9-6 full-time job. So I practice after work or on weekends.

The time I can contribute to my violin practicing depends on my workload, my physical health, my mental health, and other things I need to do. I started to keep my practice journal since July 2024 (2 months after I started to learn with Silvia). I practiced 175 hours since 15th July 2024. At the most, I practice 13 hours for a week (actually it was last week). But for some weeks I just practice 2 or 3 hours. Generally speaking, my practice time is getting longer and longer in recent 2-3 months. (the biggest reason is that I joined 2025 Viva Orchestra ☺️)

About my violin:
The violin (2nd one) I am using now is a Fiddlerman Master Violin. I got it as a gift from my mother when i was learning the violin for around 3 months.