It's More Than the Violin

Elizabeth Faidley

Hosted by world-renowned violin pedagogue Elizabeth Faidley, It’s More Than the Violin is about what actually happens when you spend 26 years teaching children music. Spoiler: very little of it is just about the violin. Yes, there are scales, concertos, auditions, competitions, crooked bows, collapsing wrists, and an absolutely unreasonable amount of time spent discussing someone’s pinky. But teaching a child to play an instrument means teaching a child, and children come with confidence, fear, ambition, boredom, perfectionism, parents, adolescence, anxiety, enormous feelings, questionable practice habits, and the occasional complete meltdown over four measures of Bach. Drawing on more than two decades of teaching students and mentoring teachers around the world, Elizabeth talks about how children actually learn, why some practice and some absolutely do not, what motivation really looks like, what happens when talented kids become teenagers, and how parents can help without making everyone insane. There will be stories, psychology, education, opinions acquired the hard way, and probably more discussion of children’s thumbs than any podcast reasonably needs.

Episodes

  1. 4d ago

    Bad Teachers, Big Egos, and Instagram Experts

    When did everybody on the internet become a violin pedagogue? Elizabeth Faidley opens this episode with a question that's been gnawing at her: every time she opens Facebook or Instagram, another violinist appears announcing that everything we've been doing for the last 100 years is wrong. Shoulder rests are bad. Your thumb is wrong. Your bow hold is wrong. And apparently, if you just watch this 45-second video, you can undo 40 years of terrible violin playing. Elizabeth loves social media—she loves watching extraordinary young musicians and discovering performers. But she's increasingly concerned about a culture in which visibility is mistaken for expertise, confidence is mistaken for knowledge, and a catchy headline is mistaken for pedagogy. And the people who pay the price are the families and children, not the people posting. In this episode, she explains why performing and teaching are not the same profession, and why an extraordinary performer understands how to make their own body do extraordinary things—while an extraordinary teacher understands how to help somebody else's body learn to do those things. She describes her own deliberate approach to Instagram: showing her students, not teaching yours. The mistakes, the memes, the seven-year-old who's forgotten everything from 30 seconds ago, the bow hold that looks like a fistful of spaghetti. And she offers a way forward: parents, be curious and ask questions—but don't let a stranger on Instagram convince you they know more about your child than the person who has been teaching them for years. Teachers, take the responsibility seriously. Because the real danger isn't always bad information. It's information without context. And the algorithm does not know your child. Find Elizabeth here: Website https://www.elizabethfaidley.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FaidleyStudio Instagram https://www.instagram.com/faidleystudio Podcast https://rss.com/podcasts/its-more-than-the-violin/

  2. Oct 22

    Why Are You So Angry at a Nine-Year-Old?

    Elizabeth Faidley saw a post from a violin teacher, and she was repulsed. The post explained how this teacher stays calm in lessons "when the situation dearly calls for some unhinged reactions"—and that sentence sends Elizabeth into one of her most passionate, and necessary rants yet. What situation, exactly, calls for an unhinged reaction? Did the child set the violin on fire? Did she throw it out the window? Or did a nine-year-old play an F out of tune? In this episode, Elizabeth draws a firm and uncompromising line: you do not have the right or the place to be angry at a student. Ever. She dismantles the romanticized culture of abusive teaching that has plagued classical music for generations—the screaming teachers, the humiliation, the thrown objects, the adults who still remember the feeling in their stomachs 30, 40 years later. She brings in the science: meta-analyses showing that acute stress impairs working memory and cognitive flexibility (the exact systems we ask students to use constantly), and a 2026 APA study of 700 teachers and 18,000 students across eight countries showing that teacher anger predicts lower teaching quality and worse student outcomes. She explains why "suppressing" rage isn't the goal—the goal is examining why the rage is there in the first place. And she offers the alternative: rigor without cruelty, high standards without anger, discipline without fear, kindness without permissiveness. Because children can tolerate incredibly high expectations when they know one essential thing: my teacher is on my side. It's not student versus teacher. It's teacher and student versus the wrist. Teacher and student versus the horrible shift. Teacher and student against the unfair competition. And if a nine-year-old plays the F sharp wrong 14 times? Okay. Apparently we're learning F sharp 15 times. Find Elizabeth here: Website https://www.elizabethfaidley.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FaidleyStudio Instagram https://www.instagram.com/faidleystudio Podcast https://rss.com/podcasts/its-more-than-the-violin/

  3. Oct 15

    Is My Child Talented?

    Parents are obsessed with talent. Elizabeth Faidley doesn't mean mildly interested—she means obsessed. And if you're listening, there's an 80% chance you are too. In this episode of It's More Than the Violin, Elizabeth introduces her taxonomy of the seven parents she's met over nearly 30 years of teaching—Blythe (who is "very relaxed" and definitely has a spreadsheet), Balthazar (who just wants his son to enjoy music, right before asking why he isn't first chair), Cricket (whose child is genuinely extraordinary and has no idea), Persephone (whose six-year-old has had four lessons and needs to discuss summer programs), Steve (whose nine-year-old "owns the process" in the same way she owns the apartment), Petunia (whose daughter is "behind" some imaginary child on Instagram who may or may not be a 43-year-old accountant named Bob), and Clementine (the dolly parton of musical parents—protect Clementines at all costs). What all seven eventually want to know is the same thing: is my child talented? And underneath that: how far could she go? Elizabeth believes in talent—she's seen extraordinary ears, remarkable coordination, children who walk on stage at seven like the audience came to see them, and children who look like they've been kidnapped. But talent, she argues, is not a prophecy. She explores why being talented can make the beginning too easy, why the violin eventually comes for everyone, and why "she's just naturally talented" usually means a child with a staff, a spreadsheet, and several adults having serious conversations about her next piece. Drawing on Carol Dweck, Anders Ericsson, and her own experience as a recovering Blythe, Elizabeth makes the case that talent is just information—not destiny, not a contract, not a guarantee. It doesn't tell you the ending. Because if your child studies violin for 12 years and becomes a cardiologist, the violin did not fail. Find Elizabeth here: Website https://www.elizabethfaidley.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FaidleyStudio Instagram https://www.instagram.com/faidleystudio Podcast https://rss.com/podcasts/its-more-than-the-violin/

  4. Oct 8

    My Child Doesn't Like Practicing

    If Elizabeth Faidley had a dollar for every time a parent told her "my child doesn't like practicing," she'd never have to teach another G major scale again. In this episode of It's More Than the Violin, she tackles the panic that follows that sentence—the fear that a child who doesn't want to practice has lost their love of music forever, or that years of scales and metronomes have ruined them. Spoiler: they haven't. Elizabeth breaks down what practicing actually is, why "playing" and "practicing" are completely different activities, and why an iPad six feet away is always going to win the attention contest. She shares her own childhood practice battles—chasing her mother around the house, screaming matches 35 seconds after promising not to argue, and her father Buster mysteriously disappearing every time the violin case clicked open. She explains why asking "do you want to practice?" is a trap, why children need help with the enormous executive functioning that practice requires, why boredom is not the enemy, and why "I don't want to practice" and "I love music" can absolutely coexist. Along the way, she offers the good-enough violin parent's guide to surviving practice: keep it routine, don't hold a referendum every afternoon, let them complain, and look at the whole child—not the meltdown at 5:15 on a Wednesday. Because the goal isn't a child who skips joyfully to the practice room every day. It's a child who learns how to work at something difficult long enough to experience the magic of "I couldn't do this before, and now I can." Find Elizabeth here: Website https://www.elizabethfaidley.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FaidleyStudio Instagram https://www.instagram.com/faidleystudio Podcast https://rss.com/podcasts/its-more-than-the-violin/

  5. Oct 8

    The Myth of the Perfect Music Student

    In this episode of It's More Than the Violin, Elizabeth Faidley takes on one of the most persistent fantasies in music education: the "perfect" student who practices every day, loves scales, finds the metronome comforting, and never complains. That child, she argues, does not exist—and if she did, Elizabeth wouldn't want to teach her. Drawing on her own humbling experience as a mother who once asked a master teacher how far her nine-year-old cellist daughter could go (only to be told, "I don't know"), Elizabeth explores why talent is far less interesting than what happens the first time a child truly can't do something. She weaves in psychologist Carol Dweck on growth mindset, Albert Bandura on self-efficacy, Lev Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, Donald Winnicott's "good enough mother," and Angela Duckworth's concept of grit—all to make the case that children are not tiny adults but human beings under construction. Along the way, she shares stories of students who practice 40% of what she assigns and are shocked she can tell, kids who spend half the lesson on the floor and somehow learn everything, and the brutal, boring, 4,000-hour reality behind every "talented" performance at Carnegie Hall. Whether your child is the anxious kid, the perfectionist, the comedian, or the one who asks why, this episode is a reassurance: your child is not supposed to be done. They're a child. And that's exactly the point. Find Elizabeth here: Website https://www.elizabethfaidley.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FaidleyStudio Instagram https://www.instagram.com/faidleystudio Podcast https://rss.com/podcasts/its-more-than-the-violin/

  6. Oct 8

    Meet Elizabeth!

    In the debut episode of It's More Than the Violin, veteran violin teacher Elizabeth Faidley pulls back the curtain on what 26 years of teaching really looks like—and it's far more than scales and bow holds. From staring at children's thumbs with the intensity of international diplomacy to navigating scheduling crises that rival Pentagon operations, Elizabeth introduces the five core philosophies that have shaped her teaching: foundational technique first, fun with no fear, the art of triage, every student is my favorite, and the power of communication. Along the way, she shares unforgettable stories—a mother nearly hit by a car on Broadway over a dropped Mendelssohn line, a parent jumping on her windshield, and the family who showed up 20 minutes early while she was still in the shower. Whether you're a teacher, a parent, or a student, this episode makes one thing clear: teaching the violin is actually a surprisingly small part of teaching the violin. It's more than the violin—and that's exactly the point. Find Elizabeth here: Website https://www.elizabethfaidley.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FaidleyStudio Instagram https://www.instagram.com/faidleystudio Podcast https://rss.com/podcasts/its-more-than-the-violin/

  7. Sep 30

    Welcome to 'It's More Than the Violin'

    Hosted by Elizabeth Faidley, a violin teacher with 26 years of experience and thousands of students and teachers behind her, It's More Than The Violin explores everything that happens when you try to help a child grow through music. Because teaching violin is never just about teaching violin. It's about children, parents, practicing, fear, confidence, talent, motivation, adolescence, and education—all the wonderful, ridiculous, and complicated things that come with the territory. Each episode digs into how children actually learn music: early childhood and adolescent education, practicing, motivation, anxiety, performance, and what happens as a child's relationship with music changes over time. Whether you're a parent, a teacher, or simply someone who cares about how kids grow, this podcast is for anyone who suspects that the lessons learned at the music stand reach far beyond it. Find Elizabeth here: Website https://www.elizabethfaidley.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FaidleyStudio Podcast https://rss.com/podcasts/its-more-than-the-violin/

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    6 Episodes

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About

Hosted by world-renowned violin pedagogue Elizabeth Faidley, It’s More Than the Violin is about what actually happens when you spend 26 years teaching children music. Spoiler: very little of it is just about the violin. Yes, there are scales, concertos, auditions, competitions, crooked bows, collapsing wrists, and an absolutely unreasonable amount of time spent discussing someone’s pinky. But teaching a child to play an instrument means teaching a child, and children come with confidence, fear, ambition, boredom, perfectionism, parents, adolescence, anxiety, enormous feelings, questionable practice habits, and the occasional complete meltdown over four measures of Bach. Drawing on more than two decades of teaching students and mentoring teachers around the world, Elizabeth talks about how children actually learn, why some practice and some absolutely do not, what motivation really looks like, what happens when talented kids become teenagers, and how parents can help without making everyone insane. There will be stories, psychology, education, opinions acquired the hard way, and probably more discussion of children’s thumbs than any podcast reasonably needs.

Information

  • Creator
    Elizabeth Faidley
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    7
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Elizabeth Faidley
  • Show Website
    It's More Than the Violin

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