How to Use These Videos
A Teacher Lineage is a series of short documentary videos about the teachers who shaped violin playing, from the Baroque era to the present. Every episode is free, viewable on YouTube or on billfitzpatrick.net, in English and subtitled in French. They are not biographies. They are studies of ideas: what a teacher believed, how they worked, and what got passed on.
How the series is organized
“Lineage Pillars” are the foundational teachers whose pedagogical influence runs so deep and so wide that the rest of the lineage organizes itself around them. Les “Lineage Pillars” sont les enseignants fondateurs dont l’influence pédagogique est si profonde et si vaste que le reste de la lignée s’organise autour d’eux.
“Lineage Pathways” are the connecting figures whose teaching shows just how the ideas have travelled, across studios, cities, and eras. Les “Lineage Pathways” sont ces passeurs dont l’enseignement révèle le parcours des idées, d’un studio à l’autre, d’une ville à l’autre, d’une époque à l’autre.
“Lineage Landmarks” are the teachers of reference whose work changed how the playing itself was understood, whether or not they sit on a main line. Les “Lineage Landmarks” sont ces enseignants de référence dont le travail a changé la compréhension même du jeu, qu’ils se trouvent ou non sur une ligne principale.
You can start anywhere. Starting with the Pillars gives you the map.
Ways to use them
In a string pedagogy course. One episode a week, paired with your existing reading. Each one runs short enough to watch in class with time left for discussion. The eight Pillars make a natural first unit.
In a private studio. Assign an episode before the lesson where the repertoire or the technique comes up. A student working on Kreutzer arrives having met the person the studies came from. It takes them ten minutes and changes what the lesson can be about.
In a high school or junior high string class. Use the lineage chart as a wall reference and let students find where they attach to it. The history stops being abstract the moment a student sees their own teacher’s teacher on the page.
In a music history or appreciation course. Several episodes stand on their own as history: the story of a school, or of a musician whose place in the record was quietly lost.
On your own. If you play, or used to play, the series answers a question most players never think to ask: where did what I was taught actually come from? Start with whoever taught your teacher, and work outward.
The one assignment worth giving
Find your own teacher lineage.
Ask your teacher who taught them. Then find out who taught that person. Keep going until you reach a name nobody can identify, and everyone reaches one eventually.
That question is where this series came from. It works for a twelve-year-old and it works for someone who put the violin down forty years ago. It turns the videos from something you watch into something you use.
[Optional: The lineage chart is free with the newsletter, a printable version to work from. Link to newsletter signup.]
Where to find them
All episodes are free on the [BillFitzVideos YouTube channel] and on billfitzpatrick.net, in English with French subtitles.
New episodes are announced in the [newsletter], which you can subscribe to by clicking on this link.
Teachers: you are welcome to use these in class, assign them, and share them. No permission is needed and there is nothing to buy. But if you do use them, I would like to hear about it. Email me at bill@billfitzpatrick.net