I know a 10 year old who has been learning the violin using the Suzuki method. I must admit I'm impressed with the variety of music that they are given to play. This child has a very good ear, and once she has committed the tune to memory, she can play it without looking at the music. I gather they are encouraged to try playing without the music once they know the piece.

Amongst her repertoire, as well as some of the better known classical pieces, are more popular ones, such as the Beatles, some lively sea shanties and a couple of fast Irish reels. She's up to speed enough with "Drowsy Maggie" that she could hold her own playing it in a good Irish session. She seems to have a fair amount of confidence, so all she needs now is a few more tunes like that, and I might take her to one, if her mother will let me. That should increase her confidence even further.

The best part is that she enjoys playing, and will often keep on going long after she has done the required practice. I wish it had been like this when I was learning the violin. I gave it up eventually because I found the music boring. I had not been exposed to other ways to play, and I thought that classical violin was all there was to it. I'm starting to look at it again now - there's a trip to the repairer to get my old fiddle back to playing condition in the very near future.