Amateur courses in the UK
A number of part-time and residential short courses in violin making exist in the United Kingdom, and cater to all levels from the completely inexperienced to skilled woodworkers looking for a musical challenge. These courses can be invaluable for potential violin makers to get a flavour of the kind of work involved in violin making, and to develop crucial tool skills before going to a formal violin making school.
The Violin Making Workshop, Cambridge
Based in Cambridge, UK, this workshop offers regular evening and weekend courses, as well as week-long summer courses.
The Cambridge Violin Makers began life in 1960 as evening classes at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts & Technology. In 1973 one week courses were started; in 1986 activities outgrew the college facilities, and The Violin Workshop was created on the premises it resides at to this day.
Brampton Community Centre, Cumbria
The Tutor, Corrie Schrijver, is based in Brampton and is a professional luthier since 1980. She has been involved in teaching violin making since 2007. Her own classes started in April 2014, in the well-equipped woodworking room of the Centre, with all specialist tools supplied for the use of the students.
The course includes short lectures on tool maintenance, design, choice of materials etc.
Presently the classes are run on a weekly basis on Thursdays, with the possibility of (extra) tuition at other times.
For more information please contact Corrie Schrijver:
E-mail: corrieschrijver@hotmail.com
Phone: 0771 4138963 / 016977 2649
Hardy Violins at Portland Works, Sheffield
Join luthier Emma Hardy for relaxed, hands-on classes where you’ll learn to make your very own violin in a friendly workshop setting.
Classes are small (maximum 5 people). You’ll work at your own pace, with guidance tailored to your experience and interests.
This course is aimed at amateurs/hobbyists, and requires no previous woodworking experience.
Classes run on 5/6-week rolling blocks, with approximately 2-3 week gaps between each block.
Merton College, London
Merton College provides part-time courses in violin and guitar making alongside its more advanced two year study in Musical Instrument Making and Repair. Teaching time is during the daytime in term time. For further details visit the college website
Newark School of Violin Making, Newark
Newark School of Violin Making offers evening classes in violin making during term time for amateur makers. For further information … [pending]
Musical Instrument Making at West Dean College, West Sussex
West Dean College provides an enormous range of short craft courses ranging from a couple of days to over a week in length, including various valuable courses in tool sharpening and general woodwork skills. Residential Easter and summer courses in instrument making have a long history at the college and stem from its tradition of diploma courses in early musical instrument making. As a result the courses have an enormous diversity of violin, viola da gamba, guitar making as well as the making of a myriad of early stringed and keyboard instruments.
The course is better suited to more advanced amateurs who normally return year after year and are able to work on their projects unsupervised through the year. (The college website button links to the search term 'musical instrument courses’, explore for further woodwork and craft courses).
Halsway Manor, Somerset
The Violin making workshops held twice a year and lasting a week are extremely popular at Halsway Manor, with many of the participants coming back year after year. The workshop gives maximum continuous time at the workbench supported by Neville Gardner, who has been teaching violin making for the last sixteen years. He is joined by Corrie Schrijver to ensure that there is a ratio of 1 tutor to no more than 5 participants giving plenty of patient and knowledgeable support.
This course is for all levels of ability and beginners are very welcome. As well as the violin family, support can also be given for making a rebec (an ancient ancestor of the violin). The class size is limited so that participants have plenty of support from the two tutors. Before enrolling please contact Neville Gardner Neville@njgardner.demon.co.uk to discuss the suitability of the course for your needs.
A separate course is run by Andrew Bellis on bow making. Andrew Bellis is a professional bow maker. He’s been playing the violin and viola since childhood, and studied music at the Birmingham School of Music. He’s been making musical instruments since the 1970s combining his passions for both engineering and music. He learned his skill in bow making with John Clutterbuck and Arthur Bultitude and has been in business as a professional bow maker since 1980. He has taught bow-making since the 1990s in the Faculty of Music at Oxford University, the faculty which houses the Bate Collection of historical musical instruments.