20 Best Violin Teachers on YouTube

by | Nov 15, 2019 | 11 comments

Learn to play the violin online with these awesome YouTube channels!

These violin tutorials will help you stay motivated and get progress

Learning online is very useful for violinists of all levels, for example when you:

  • Are looking for instruction on a specific topic, tune or piece
  • Are self learning, because you don’t have access to a local teacher
  • Have a private teacher, but want a different view on a certain technique or piece

Sometimes when you see something explained by someone else in a slightly different manner, it can suddenly click.

When you go all ‘peeps have learned the violin for centuries without YouTube’…

Yup, that’s true, but in those days learning the violin was only available for the happy few. Why use your private teacher as your online source of information? I (as private violin teacher) love it when students spend the time and effort to find information outside the lesson. In half an hour or an hour a week you simply can’t cover everything.

In the old times students would refer to books, masterclasses and concerts. Now we have YouTube under our finger tips as an amazing extra resource.

Top 20 Online Violin Teachers

All these teachers express their own qualities and specialities in their online violin lessons:

Ranking is based on a combination of quality, activity and popularity and of course highly doubtful ;).

#1 Professor V: my inspiration!

One day a student came in my violin studio and said: wow, this guy on YouTube is sharing all these wonderful violin lessons! I went to watch them and was impressed and… inspired to start Violin Lounge (now my fulltime job and family income). Although Todd (Professor V) doesn’t know me, I’ve got a LOT to thank him for and so do the millions of violin players who watch his online violin lessons.

The accomplished violinist and teacher Todd Ehle has decades of high level experience in performing and teaching violin. Twelve years ago he started publishing great violin lessons on YouTube as one of the first.

Todd is a firm believer in the power of will and desire, even over the power of God-given talent.  A student with tremendous desire and a love of the instrument, coupled with discipline and perseverance can achieve amazing results.

#2 Fiddlerman: very versatile violin channel

Pierre Holstein is an accomplished classical violinist, watch his Bach performance here, who has a talent to make violin playing accessible for everyone willing to learn. You can learn popular tunes on his channel and he offers great technique lessons. Now he and his family serve the violin community also through Fiddlershop offering good quality stringed instruments and accessories.

#3 Violinspiration: Learn your favorite tune with ease as an beginner violinist

Yay, my fellow Dutch girl teaching the violin online! Julia does an awesome job breaking down how to play your favorite movie tune, beginner piece and techniques you can easily master as an adult beginner.

So many adult beginners complain that their violin teacher can teach children, but not adults. Julia specializes in adult beginners, so this is a great resource for that audience.

#4 Joy Lee: Advanced online violin lessons

What’s in a name? Joy presents her violin lessons with joy and also covers more advanced techniques, like how to study the Flesch scale system, Beethoven sonata’s, Mendelssohn concerto and much more.

#5 Violin Viola Masterclass: for the viola!

Amber is a classicaly trained… violist! So for all of you playing the viola and missing specific online lessons for it, her channel is the place to be! I’ll stop here otherwise I start making lame viola jokes.

#6 Red Desert Violin: great online lessons on the Suzuki method

Another great teacher with a classical education and a lot of experience. Especially for those of you working with the Suzuki books, this is a very interesting channel with play along videos of the Suzuki pieces.

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

#7 Me! Violin Lounge: Violin Bow Technique Lessons

If you’re reading this you probably already know me ;). Some say I’m the best bower on YouTube. May that be true or not… I know I post some good video lessons every week mainly on bow technique and vibrato, but also to teach you classical pieces and movie tunes… and a lot of other stuff like performance videos and product reviews. Enjoy if you didn’t already:

#8 Violin Lab Channel: detailed lessons

Beth is classicaly trained violinist and experienced teacher. Her lessons are very detailed and this is important for online lessons, because in this way you can easily do the techniques yourself. A great resource for all levels.

#9 Violin Tutor Pro: Over 1.000 online violin lessons

Michael’s channel is a goldmine for violin (and fiddle!) players. You can learn various tunes and techniques and he explaines everything very clearly.

#10 Nathan Cole: Violin mastery

Nathan is the First Associate Concertmaster for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a great teacher. His channel is a great resource, also for advanced violinists, professionals and teachers.

#11 TwoSet Violin: when you’re in for a good laugh

Two classical violinists making funny and educational videos about classical music in general. Although they don’t really teach violin on this channel, you can’t miss this as a violin player and you’ll learn a lot from it while laughing.

#12 The Online Piano & Violin Tutor

On her wildly popular channel music teacher Alison publishes a lot of good stuff for the violin. Mainly self learning adult beginners can benefit from her videos and courses. Her videos have served millions and she’s making the violin and piano accessible for a big audience.

Join my FREE beginner violin course

I take you from scratch step by step to your first violin concerto including 40 videos, sheet music and violin tabs.

#13 Vivolin: awesome bow technique lessons

I was amazed when I discovered her channel: Vivien is an accomplished concert violinist and she has such a good way of teaching bow technique and giving really useful practice tips. Students can really put it into practice after watching her videos. I’m honored to have Vivien as a teacher in my academy and would highly recommend her channel:

#14 iClassical Academy: learn from the best

This is not an individual teacher, but a very interesting channel with masterclasses by the best concert violinists and other instrumentalists. It’s very inspiring to watch, even if you’re not playing this advanced repertoire yet. You can learn a lot from it in general. I was honored to make the course ‘Upgrade your Violin Bow Technique’ for iClassical.

#15 FiddleJamInstitute: learn to play fiddle music!

Yup, a whole channel dedicated to learning the fiddle, blues, chop techniques and more good stuff:

#16 Simon Streuff Violin-Education: great lessons on left hand technique

In our interview I discovered Simon is a great teacher on intonation and vibrato. He even has made an online course all about developing your left hand technique and playing in tune. On his channel you can find very useful and practical violin lessons:

#17 Stringosaurus: playful violin lessons for kids

Laura develops music games and playful violin lessons. She has the amazing skill teaching the very young in groups and private lessons. Although I don’t teach very young children I love watching her videos for her good vibe and her creativity. She just started her channel, but her place in this list is well deserved. I hope it will give her a flying start inspiring children world wide for the violin. As soon as my 11 week old twins are starting on the violin (I hope next week), her channel is the first place I’ll go.

#18: Heather Kaye: holistic violin lessons

Heather offers very useful online violin lessons for all levels with heart. She emphasizes Her challenges are also fun to do and really get you to take the violin out of it’s case and get to practice:

#19: The Hot Violinist: fiddle lessons

Jenny is an adult beginner on the violin, is now a performing fiddler and teaches you to play fiddle music. I think she can be a big inspiration:

#20 Violin masterclass: instruction from a top violin pedagogue

When I was teaching young beginners, I’ve used the German Sassmanshaus method for years! I even made tutorials for it in my Violin Lounge Academy. The videos might be a bit old and not in the greatest resolution, but there are so many super useful masterclass lessons by Kurt Sassmanshaus on this channel. You see him working on different violin techniques with students of a variety of ages and levels:

Share your favorite YouTube channel to learn violin in the comments below!

11 Comments

  1. Rick

    What a fantastic array of talented musicians you have recommended. I am an adult beginner/improver in Julia’s Violin Academy and I can certainly vouch for her professional and informative videos and methods of teaching. I have also used several of the other teachers that you recommend and can only say how grateful I am for having such a pool of talent available on the internet. You have also given me a few new names to check out – excellent!

    Reply
  2. Stewart

    Hello Zlata,

    I have greatly benefitted from your free (many thanks) videos.
    May I mention Professor William Fitzpatrick who has a great deal of helpful videos and a free e-book ‘In Search of Violin Excellence’.
    Hope you find them of interest, He has also published his own Etudes with accompanying access to mp3 audios and mp4 videos at remarkably affordable prices.
    I think you will find him an interesting person.
    Good Luck.
    He is at http://www.musisharevideos.com and http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com

    Reply
    • Violinist Zlata Brouwer

      Thanks for your suggestion. I’m sure it will be useful to others reading this. I’ve seen his videos from now and than on YouTube and they’re very useful.

      Reply
  3. Somak Tribedi

    Thank you so much for the recommendations. I am a beginner and resuming learning violin after 15 years. I am sure these tutorials will help me learn more.

    Reply
  4. bad fiddler

    check out fiddlehed lessons on youtube, I have found them excellent.
    someone posted that he is like a high functioning stoner )

    Reply
  5. Andrew Feazelle

    Hello,

    I wrote a small, two movement piece for violin and piano, with the intention that I would make it easy enough for myself to eventually play (I’ve been tinkering around with the violin as an adult for a couple years, but have never had a formal lesson). Do you know of any websites that would host my link to the sheet music and youtube mock up so that other intermediate students could also use it? I of course own the copyright, but I see a lot of sites just feature public domain works.

    Thanks,
    Andrew Feazelle

    Reply

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