Those are all good questions. Her local violin teacher is a fabulous teacher. His explanations are clear. He is focused on form to prevent injury. After attending camp this summer, she is aware of 2 weaknesses in his teaching. 1- he cannot demonstrate nuances that he wants her to implement (he is much older and his playing it not what it once was) and 2- he doesn’t have connections. (Connections are definitely a big thing, but we don’t live in an area where that can really be helped locally. We are near multiple universities, just none with high level music depts.) That is the thinking behind at minimum connecting with another teacher even if it is going to require such a long commute.
Yes to needing piano and voice. She has only been learning piano for a yr. Since all music majors need to be proficient in piano, it will only be to her benefit to reach that level in high school. Her piano teacher is also teaching her music theory. Violin teachers don’t teach theory. So that is another plus for piano.
Music flows through her veins and her voice is actually at a much higher level than her violin. Violin is her fully dug in decision (not for lack of our trying to convince her otherwise. I wish she would abandon the music path as a career choice and save it for pleasure.) But gigging where she both plays and sings is how we are currently getting her to understand what this is going to mean in terms of lifestyle. (She does both for weddings.)
There is definitely a social benefit to orchestra. One of her closest friends is in orchestra and is a sr this yr. That is the biggest draw for playing and the biggest downside for not.
If she could do both, that would be ideal. But orchestra is a 3 1/2 hr commitment bc practice is 2 hrs and we live 45 mins away. The 5+ hrs of commuting is at least somewhat less painful if we don’t have to do both. Alternatively, I guess I could ask the one teacher that is not associated with the precollege program if he could work with her 1 x per month and then she could do both. At least some benefit…
Sigh…I wish she would switch to electrical engineering and then I could forget about all of it.