About the Suzuki Violin School of Santa Barbara

The Suzuki Violin and School of Santa Barbara provides the highest level of guitar, viola, cello, and classical violin lessons, for the beginning to advanced player. We believe that musical expression also forms character, and that playing a string instrument can help a student develop as a responsible person. 

 

 

Director Valerie Malvinni has been teaching violin and viola lessons in Santa Barbara since 1996, and is a professional violinist and violist who has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Her husband, David, specializes in classical guitar, cello, and beginner piano. In addition to kid's music lessons, they currently perform in local schools on violin, viola and guitar.

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We incorporate in our teaching Dr. Suzuki’s mother-tongue approach, the idea that music acquisition can be modeled on how children acquire language. At its core the Suzuki approach has a curriculum and set of common pieces that all students learn by memory.  

Yet a common misconception is that Suzuki students only play from the Suzuki books and do not know how to sight read. Yet Dr. Suzuki himself taught other pieces to his own students, and now most Suzuki teachers will incorporate reading as early as book two (book one if the student is older). 

 

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