Review of Fiddlershop Violin Academy

If you already play the violin or want to start, you may already be familiar with Fiddlershop.com’s Online Academy. The Fiddlershop Academy is a set of courses designed to take people who have never even held a violin all the way through violin mastery.

The Fiddlershop Violin Academy site may not be as flashy as some violin sites, but we think it’s the real deal. We like that they offer several courses completely free, but for the series learner, you can also purchase a premium membership that lets you get individual feedback from experienced instructors.

But is Fiddlershop Academy right for you? With our review and some excerpts from other Fiddlershop reviews, we hope to help you make a decision.

Things to Consider Before Investing in an Online Violin Course

There’s a wealth of lesson sites that teach you how to play guitar online. We haven’t found quite as many sites dedicated to helping you learn violin, but there’s still something for just about every playing interest out there.

Before you decide, though, here are some things to ask yourself:

• Do you want to play violin or fiddle? Technically, the violin and the fiddle are the same instruments. However, some courses focus more on fiddle music, and some focus more on classical violin music. When you’re a beginner, courses usually tend to be more generalist. But as you progress, you may want to choose a course that’s more in line with the style you want to play.
• Do you need instructor feedback? Some online beginner sites give you the option of receiving instructor feedback, which can be important. In fact, for those learning the violin, instructor feedback maybe even more important than it is for other instruments. After all, violins are very complex instruments, and there’s sometimes a learning curve even with learning to hold it properly or use accessories such as chin rests and rosin You’ll probably want to make sure the instructors are qualified to teach, though, since bad advice can make learning much harder.
• What about advice on troubleshooting? As a beginner, you’re bound to run into some issue or another as you learn how to play. With in-person lessons, you have the advantage of being able to ask someone with experience playing the violin about any issues you have. However, some online lessons have a section where you can receive guidelines on common troubleshooting issues. Sometimes, this advice can save you a shopping trip, which is always a good thing.
• How much experience do you have? Most online violin courses we’ve found are geared toward the new violinist. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does make it somewhat harder for intermediate to advanced violinists to find what they need in a course.

But first, let’s look at some pros and cons.

Pros

• The instructors are acclaimed professional violinists, so you know that the course quality is good.
• A significant portion of the courses are free, and there’s even one to prepare you for when your violin arrives.
• There’s a premium option for instructor feedback, although it appears that this option hasn’t been launched quite yet.
• The courses are designed to be engaging and effectively an extension of Fiddlershop’s goals as a company — to help customers discover the joy of playing the violin.

Cons

• Right now, visiting the site makes it look like the premium memberships have not launched yet. The site itself is also new, so there isn’t much in the way of reviews.
• This site is designed primarily for those new to a violin. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you have some experience, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere for a course.

Now let’s look into some of the features of this violin site. Thus far, we like their course options and their teachers, but we’ll let you be the final judge.

Meet the Instructors

The violin is a very rewarding instrument to play, but your early days of learning are likely to have a few hurdles. Thus, you don’t want just anyone teaching you to play.

If you’re worried about what kind of violinist will be teaching you over at Fiddlershop, we hope we can help you put those worries to rest — Fiddlershop has some of the most accomplished instructors around, including Fiddlerman, who is almost a kind of internet violin celebrity.

• Pierre Holstein (better known as Fiddlerman) — If you’ve been playing violins for any length of time, you probably have heard of Fiddlerman. Fiddlerman is a professional violinist who has been performing for over 30 years in symphony orchestras worldwide. He also coaches violinists of all abilities on his website, Fiddlerman.com. Fiddlerman runs the store along with his son.
• Michael O’Gieblyn — Michael is also a professional violinist, and he plays with Miami City Ballet, Florida Grand Opera, Boca Symphonia, and the Palm Beach Symphony. Michael also has appeared on video game and movie soundtracks, as well as on albums for various artists. He’s performed at the Grand Ole Opry and with several Grammy-winning artists, too. 

If you want to see what Michael is like as a teacher, check out this interesting video where he talks about (and demonstrates) the difference between playing with feeling and playing when you don’t care.

Courses

Now that we’ve covered your two teachers, let’s take a closer look at what courses Fiddlershop offers. It’s important to mention here that Fiddlershop has a premium membership option, but that part of the site doesn’t look like it’s set up yet. (In fairness, Fiddlershop Academy does say “Coming Soon” above its site banner, so we’re not surprised that all site features aren’t done yet.)

However, the “free” section of the Academy is up and running, and we think it offers a pretty comprehensive course selection:

1. Before Your Violin Arrives — This short course is designed to prepare you to start playing as soon as your new instrument arrives. You’ll go over the basics of physical movements when playing, preparing the bow hold, and the basics of rhythm and music theory. This way, once your violin is all set up and shipped to you along with its needed accessories, you’ll have an idea of what you’re doing.
2. Getting Your Violin Ready — This is a short course, but we like that it goes into a lot of detail. You’ll learn about parts of the violin, accessories, tuning, rosining your bow, and more. You’ll also learn how to use accessories like shoulder rests and tapes. These are things that an in-person instructor would usually cover on the first day of lessons, so we like that the Academy takes the time to introduce all of these topics in the beginning. If you want an inside look, check out this lesson on stance from the course.
3. Beginner Level 1 — This eight-module course is designed to help you feel comfortable with your new instrument. You’ll get some reviews on how to hold the violin and the bow, and you’ll also go through some theory basics. A lot of this course focuses on playing simple songs. We think this is a good idea — after all, even as a new player, you’ll have a sense of accomplishment.
4. Troubleshooting and Maintenance — If you buy your violin from the Fiddlershop, you can rest assured that it will be sent to you fully set up and ready to play. However, any musician knows that your violin or viola might start sounding “off” one day. This course takes you through important topics to fix issues as they arise and help your violin sound great, and it also teaches you about accessories:

5. Beginner Level 2 — This level builds on what you learned in Level 1. You’ll learn about using bows on open strings, playing with the first and second fingers, music theory, and some rhythm.
6. Beginner Level 3 — This course will help you learn more about developing a great tone on the violin. You will also learn to play with first, second, and third fingers and to play Twinkle and its variations.
7. Repertoire — This section contains pieces of sheet music to various songs. However, this section looks like it hasn’t been expanded yet — it’s something to look for in the future.

Fiddlershop does sometimes have group projects through its YouTube channel. This can be a fun addition to taking online lessons. If you want to learn more about these group projects, check out this interesting YouTube video.

Pricing, Membership Levels, & a Note on the Shop

As mentioned earlier, Fiddlershop Academy’s free courses are up and running. The site mentions that there is a premium option. This option means you get direct, personalized feedback from Michael and Pierre. You’ll also get access to an online community of other students learning to play the violin.

However, when we click the site’s link for premium pricing info, it just takes us to the top of the Academy page, where it does say “Coming Soon.” We don’t really think this is a bad thing — you’ll probably want to practice using the free lessons before you move on to a paid membership.

Lastly, we wanted to mention a little about Fiddlershop, which is both a website and a brick-and-mortar shop for violins. Fiddlershop was founded by Pierre Holstein (known more widely as Fiddlerman) as an offshoot of his website, Fiddlerman.com. Fiddlerman says his students kept asking about what violins and accessories to buy, and Fiddlershop was essentially an answer to that.

Today, Fiddlershop has a physical shop in Pompano Beach, Florida, where they build and sell quality violins, violas, and other stringed instruments. The shop strives to connect with its customers and give the best learning experience possible to students of all levels, and they put an incredible amount of care into setting up all of their instruments.

If you want to learn more about the shop, check out this beautifully-shot video where you can get a look at the shop and its impressive inventory of violins.

In closing, while we wish we could find more reviews of Fiddlershop Academy, we think that this lesson program is worth trying. Namely, we like it because of the quality and experience level of the instructors. It would be difficult to find more qualified people to teach a beginning violin course.

We also love that many of the courses are free, so you can try them out before deciding whether you want to do a premium membership or not. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Fiddlershop Academy’s premium memberships are available yet, but we like that this membership comes with personalized feedback from the instructors. Check out Fiddlershop Academy today!