This project was born out of an idea that eventually became the thesis project for my masters degree at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pa.:

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The String Teacher's Toolbox: An Investigation of the Use of Teaching Aids to Develop Left and Right Hand Set-Up in Beginning String Students

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As an experienced music educator, but new to teaching strings, I was soaking up every bit of advice possible.  And much of it on the internet from colleagues on social media forums on Facebook, such as the groups School Orchestra and Strings Teachers and the String Teacher's TOOLBOX!.  (I highly encourage you to join those groups if you haven't already!)

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I was fascinated by the gizmos and gadgets teachers were describing that they used as teaching aids to help  beginning strings students develop or remediate excellent setup.  I wanted to know whether teachers in the real world were really using these teaching aids, whether they considered them effective, what they were using, and whether it was just beginning teachers who needed them.  Through social media, I48 teachers of beginning strings students took my survey and the results showed that the majority of teachers surveyed reported using teaching aids for intonation and fingering, bow hold and straight bowing.  A minority used them for left hand position and posture.  The majority of teachers who used teaching aids, thought the aids were effective.

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The teachers who took the survey provided me with hundreds of ideas beyond the commercial and homemade teaching aids that were included in the list of teaching aids in the survey.  Those ideas for homemade teaching aids were cataloged as part of the masters thesis and became this website's base of knowledge.

 

I hope you will add your ideas to this collection as well!