Claire Griffin

My name is Claire Griffin and I have been playing violin since I was 2 1/2 years old!   In 2017, I received the Presidential Scholarship for Achievement in Violin to go to Wake Forest University where I take private lessons, am co-concertmaster of the University orchestra, and play in a chamber quartet called Reynolda Strings. While at WFU, I have been able to participate in and win two Concerto Competitions (2017 and 2019) and won the award for Best Performance By Non-Music Major at the Giles Harris Music Competition in 2019.  Although I study engineering at WFU, I spend a significant amount of my time practicing, performing, and teaching music. I have been teaching locally in North Carolina for over 3 years now and have adapted to virtual teaching due to COVID-19. I have learned proper teaching techniques from my mom (she is a Suzuki violin teacher) and have been teaching violin at music camps for 7 years.  I look forward to bringing the joy of music to more people through teaching violin lessons on LessonFace! 

I have been teaching violin in various capacities for about 7 years. My mom is a Suzuki violin teacher, and I have mainly learned how to teach from her. From a young age, I volunteered at music camps where I would teach students from ages 5 to 13. When I was 15, I began to teach lessons and lead chamber groups on my own.  At Wake Forest University, I have been able to refine my teaching skills through Musical Empowerment, an nonprofit organization that trains college students to mentor and teach music lessons to low-income students for free.  My teaching style has been shaped by Musical Empowerment workshops, observing my mother, and teaching at music camps.  It is stylistically most similar to the Suzuki Method, which compares learning a musical instrument to learning a language since skills build on themselves and require daily exercise.  I am a highly organized person and like using student planners that clearly lay out weekly objectives to help keep students on track.  I usually start each lesson by talking with you to see how your practice week went, and then work on scales, rhythm, etudes, and your solo piece (in that order). I am also very adaptable and will adjust my lesson plans according to your individual needs!