Instruments & Supplies
Shop Local – Chicago Area
Performer's Music – Sheet music and accessories (Fine Arts Building, Loop)
McLaughlin Violins – Instrument Repairs, Rentals, and Sales (Fine Arts Building, Loop)
William Harris Lee – Instrument Repairs, Rentals, and Sales (Fine Arts Building, Loop)
Col Legno Violin Shop – Instrument Repairs, Rentals, and Sales (Evanston)
Seman Violins – Instrument Repairs and Rentals (Skokie)
Classic Violins – Instrument Repairs and Rentals (Mundelein)
Shop Online
Shar Music – Online store for everything related to string instruments (Michigan)
Quinn Violins – Great selection of chin rests (Minneapolis)
Note Reading
I Can Read Music Vol. 1 for Violin by Joanne Martin
Songs for Little Players by Evelyn Avsharian
Beginner Violin Theory for Children by Melanie Smith
Preferred Music Books for Beginner-Intermediate students
Royal Conservatory Method Books
Music by Black Composers Method Books
Building Technique with Beautiful Music by Samuel Applebaum
Melodious Double-Stops for Violin by Josephine Trott
Scales for Young Violinists by Barbara Barber
Melodious Double-Stops for Viola by Josephine Trott
Scales for Young Violists by Barbara Barber
Miscellaneous
Chin Chum – padded chin rest cover
Violin Stand (designed for full size instruments, but works with fractional sizes also)
Music Stand (professional quality)
Music Stand (professional quality, folding)
Metronome & Tuner (physical device)
Metronome & Tuner App – Android
Music Theory for Adults and Teens
Practical Theory by Sandy Feldstein
Master Theory Workbook Series
Suggested Reading
For parents of beginning Suzuki students
Suzuki Parent’s Diary, or How I Survived my First 10,000 Twinkles by Carol Morris
Nurtured by Love (Revised Edition) by Shinichi Suzuki
For students and parents of all levels
Teaching from the Balance Point by Edward Kreitman
The Strad Magazine
My Parents Give Me $28,000 a Year – Vox article about generational wealth and the arts
The Neuroscience of Deliberate Practice – article by Gregg Goodhart
For advanced students
Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching by Ivan Galamian
An Effective Method for Teaching and Studying Violin by Olga Dubossarskaya Kaler
Suggested Listening
Classical Violinists
Rachel Barton Pine, Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Julia Fischer, Hillary Hahn, Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, Anne-Sophie Mutter, David Oistrakh, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Ilya Kaler, Leonid Kogan, Fritz Kreisler, Gideon Kremer, Yehudi Menuhin, Midori
Folk/Fiddle Violinists
Hanneke Cassel, Hadley Castille, Alasdair Frasier, Brittany Haas, Jeremy Kittel, Allison Krauss, Roger Miller Bruce Molsky, Mark O'Connor, Sarah Watkins, Gabe Witcher
Jazz Violinists
Regina Carter, Stéphane Grappelli, Ray Nance, Noel Pointer, Jean-Luc Ponty, Eddie South, Stuff Smith, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Joe Venuti
(Note: This is not an exhaustive list! Use this as a starting point and do some exploring online)
Helpful Websites and Articles
IMSLP – free public domain sheet music downloads
How to Read Music – TED Talk by Tim Hansen
How to Select Violin Strings – Reverb.com
The Violin Guild – Facebook Group