If you’re an adult beginner and you feel like you are always struggling with the violin, then understanding these common mistakes adult beginners make when learning the violin might be the key to help you unlock your problems and start enjoying the violin.

I’ve been teaching violin for over a decade to all ages and I’ve learned that there are certain common mistakes and problems that adult violinists always seem to deal with. Now these mistakes aren’t technical mistakes. I’m not going to be talking about things like crooked wrist or bad posture (although I do have a free course that does talk about those common technical bad habits).

What I am going to be talking about is mistakes adults make in their approach to learning the violin. I think these mistakes are some of the main reasons people start learning the violin but then give up later, or maybe why people feel like they are always practicing but never making any progress.

So let’s get started.

Adult Beginner Mistake #1: Trying to Learn Everything All at Once

We’re adults, we can multi-task, right? Well multi-tasking while learning the violin is not a good idea. The left hand is doing something completely different than the right hand. You’re trying to not make scratchy sounds with your bow while placing your left hand fingers on a fingerboard that has no markings or frets, and let’s throw in some music reading while we’re at it.

Learning those three skills at the same time is hard. Period.

Even if you play other instruments or you are used to reading music, I still suggest you separate learning the violin into three separate skills when you’re just starting. Focus just on the left hand. Play pizzicato so you can focus on left hand position and intonation. Then focus on just on the right hand so you can think about tone production and relaxing your bow hold. Learn songs and scales without even looking at sheet music. Then work on combining the left and right hands. And then, start adding in reading music.

Adult Beginner Mistake #2 Having Too Many Violin Books

You just bought your new violin, you’re on Amazon looking at books, and you get all these recommendations for some amazing violin books. Scale books, method books, Irish fiddling, oh Gypsy music for violin, classical music, French fiddling, Ashokan Farewell, gotta have all of those!

I’m of the mindset that there is no such thing as too many books, so maybe buying all of those books isn’t a mistake, but trying to go through all of them at once, is.

I know how this goes. It’s like starting your first garden. You get so excited looking at the seed catalogues that you buy fifty varieties of seeds. And you end up planting a little bit of this a little bit of that and none of the seeds actually produce anything because you’re trying to learn how to grow fifty different types of plants all at once.

It’s the same thing with violin. It can be really tempting to just jump from one song to the next and never stay on any one song for any length of time. This might be one of the reasons you feel like you’re never making any progress, because…you’re not making any progress.

My rule is that you should stay on a song until you are absolutely sick of it and then move on. That way you move beyond just learning notes. When you stay with a song until you’re sick of it, you’re converting all of those new skills that you’ve learned into muscle memory which means when you do move on to a new and harder song, you can focus on those more advanced skills because those easier skills have already been converted to muscle memory.

That also gives you the mental space to go beyond just reading music, and start actually making music. You can memorize songs, you can add in dynamics and phrasing, and start to add your own personal stamp to any song you learn.

So my recommendation is that you should stick with one scale or one etude or warm-up exercise, or song for several weeks. You should only be learning one or two new songs at a time, but you should also always save time for revisiting old songs as well.

Adult Beginner Mistake #3 Having Too High of Expectations

My motto for life is “keep your expectations low and you won’t be disappointed.”

There’s a difference between setting goals and having unrealistic expectations. If you have unrealistic expectations, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment and frustration.

You have to learn to enjoy small victories when it comes to learning the violin. Not to be cliche, but it’s all about the journey.

The violin is not something you can conquer which brings me to my next common mistake.

Adult Beginner Mistake #4 Thinking of the Violin As Something To Conquer or a Box to Check

I’ve learned that people who want to learn the violin are pretty cool people with different hobbies and interests. As adults we tend to think of things we want to accomplish. I want to learn how to bake my own bread—check! I want to raise my own chickens—check! I want to get my pilot’s license—check!

I want to learn to play the violin—che….no. The violin is not something you can ever check off. It’s not something you can conquer, so don’t even try to conquer it. You will never master the violin. I’m not saying that to discourage you. The fact that you will never master this instrument, is part of its allure.

If you find joy in little victories and understanding little secrets of the violin, then you’ll see the violin as part of your life’s journey and not something you have to conquer or check off. And when you approach learning the violin that way, you’ll make more progress and you’ll have fun doing it.

So I hope these tips help you as an adult learning to play the violin. Let me know in the comments below if you feel like you make these mistakes or if there are other mistakes you’ve made and what you’ve done to overcome those problems.

Happy Practicing!