Alba García
About
I am a Spanish violinist living in The Netherlands. I have been teaching for 15 years now (since I was 15) and taught in various music schools with students from young ages to adults and starting with all kinds of levels. I also perform and am part of various ensembles.
As teacher I taught at The Royal Conservatory in The Hague in the year 2020 for the Young Talent class as assistant teacher. Most recently I taught at Bergschenhoek (the Netherlands) during the year 2023 and since last April, I am teaching in Delft, at Rootz (school of music).
As performer I have played in various festivals like City of Granada's festival (2017), VVélez Blanco Festival (2018), Sevilla's FeMás (2024) and Utrecth Fringe Early Music Festival (2024), all as soloist and with chamber music ensembles. I participated in Metropole Young Orchestra tour (2023) and attended various music courses (Bach Accademie in Stuttgart, and Freiburg Barok Orchest, 2022 and 2023)
I also give online lessons and they offer a different kind of interactions with students where I tend to use more audiovisual materials in between the lessons, we record ourselves (me to show certain pieces and the student to show a passage or piece) and find different ways to benefit from this platforms.
I have 2 Bachelor degrees (one from Spain, one from The Netherlands) and I am currently finishing my masters in baroque violin.
Teaching Style
My teaching style is dynamic but stable, I like to work on technical aspects that the student may need to play pieces in a more comfortable way; we discuss together, teacher and student, what pieces are there in the repertoire that fit the student's technical and musical level, etc. I like to expand the limits with more difficult pieces but also playing 'easier' pieces will keep the enjoyment of the student high during the lesson.
I like to explore the instrument without any guidance from the score so I like to improvise with the student to free them from judging themselves too much, giving them freedom to explore the instrument in a more playful way, not so analytical.
Mixing different points of view during the lesson(s) keep the student (and myself) curious and motivated to keep learning while enjoying the process.
Curriculum
At first, I ask the new students what their goals are when deciding to study violin. Some choose to explore the repertoire, others to challenge themselves, many to just enjoy pieces they have always wanted to learn, etc.
Once I have an idea of the student's intentions, I set some exercises (from books or ones I have learned through time) to train both technical and musical aspects of the playing. These exercises are normally connected to the pieces we study during the lesson and I always explain the connection between them, how to address them while practicing alone at home, how to keep motivated and so on.
At the end of the lesson I like to improvise a bit depending on the level of the student. We make our own melodies with elements that the students already knows (scales that are close to the level of the student, different rhytmical patterns, choosing different emotions, etc.)