It's More Than the Violin is hosted by Elizabeth Faidley, a violin pedagogue with more than two decades of experience teaching children music. The show explores what really happens in music education — the scales, concertos, auditions, competitions, crooked bows and collapsing wrists, but also the confidence, fear, ambition, perfectionism and anxiety that children bring with them. Elizabeth discusses how children actually learn, why some practice and others absolutely do not, and what motivation really looks like. She also offers guidance for parents on how to help without making everyone insane, including what happens when talented kids become teenagers. The result is a mix of stories, psychology, education and hard-won opinions, with rather a lot of time spent on pinkies and thumbs.
Episodes
My Child Doesn't Like PracticingOct 8, 20261263If 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. S
The Myth of the Perfect Music StudentOct 8, 20261607In 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 ask
Meet Elizabeth!Oct 8, 20261456In 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 t
Welcome to 'It's More Than the Violin'Sep 30, 202667Hosted 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—
