Teachers & directors
Arco for string teachers and orchestra directors
Start with the free Classroom Starter Pack: staff paper, practice logs, key references, flashcards, and instrument charts in one ZIP, no student account required. Add printable first-position charts, the note-reading drill, tuner, metronome, and annotated excerpts as you need them. A Teacher’s Desk with rosters, in-app assignments and teacher assessments is not available today.
A printable library for the whole string room
Download staff paper, privacy-conscious roster and lesson sheets, key references, flashcards, practice logs, and instrument charts in A4 or US Letter. The Classroom Starter Pack puts the most useful pages in one ZIP; no student account or email needed.
Free classroom pack and tools
The fastest useful download for a string room is the Classroom Starter Pack on the printables library. It gathers the pages most teachers reach for first, in A4 or US Letter, with no account and no email gate. Print them, photocopy them, and hand them out.
Beyond the pack, none of the following requires a login or a payment, and all of it is meant to travel between rehearsal, lesson, and home stand.
- ·Classroom Starter Pack ZIP: staff paper, privacy-conscious roster and lesson sheets, key references, flashcards, practice logs, and charts.
- ·Selected first-position reference notes for violin, viola, cello, and double bass, with finger numbers and each chart’s limits. The bass chart uses Simandl 1-2-4 fingering.
- ·A note-naming drill on treble, bass, and alto clef that also shows the string and finger, so reading and fingerboard geography are trained together.
- ·A chromatic tuner with reference tones at A = 440, 442, and 415 Hz, running entirely on the student's own device.
- ·A metronome scheduled on the audio clock, with subdivisions, odd metres, and a visual beat for silent practice.
- ·Annotated orchestral excerpts for all four instruments, ordered by difficulty, plus a glossary of orchestral terms.
What Arco covers between lessons
Lesson time is scarce. A large share of it is often spent on things that do not need a person in the room: naming notes, explaining a key signature, describing what a term means, and negotiating what to practise this week.
Arco is built to absorb those, so a short lesson can stay on bow arm, tone, phrasing, and the things only a teacher can hear. It is explicitly not designed to replace instruction, and the material says so.
No Teacher’s Desk yet
A Teacher’s Desk with rosters, in-app assignments and teacher assessments is not available today. There is no studio-wide plan that lets you push work to a class roster inside Arco.
In the meantime, share the free pack and tools with students as you always would: print, link, or photocopy. If a studio or classroom workflow would need something specific later, tell us on the contact page. That is a soft request, not a gate on using anything free today.
Where students most often stall
Across a section, the ceilings repeat. Three of them account for most of the distance between the front desk and the back, and none of them is talent.
- ·Reading lag. The student can play a passage once told what the notes are, but cannot decode it at tempo. Five minutes of daily note naming away from the instrument usually beats more repertoire alone.
- ·Position avoidance. Everything stays in first position, with a stretch or a slide for anything above. Teaching the shift deliberately removes a permanent handicap.
- ·Tuning by neighbour. A student who matches the person next to them inherits their errors. Have each player tune to a reference before checking with a device.
- ·Rhythm read as contour. Counting aloud, then clapping, then playing, on the same passage, separates pitch from rhythm long enough to fix the weaker one.
Where to start
- Classroom Starter Pack
The free ZIP for the whole string room. No student account.
- Printable charts
Four instruments, first position, free to photocopy.
- Free tools
Tuner, metronome, and note reading students can use tonight.
- Contact
Tell us what a future studio workflow would need. Soft ask only.
Frequently asked
- Can I print the fingerboard charts for my class?
- Yes. The charts are free to print, photocopy, and hand out to students. They show selected first-position notes with finger numbers, not every possible note or fingering. Each chart states its limits; the bass chart uses Simandl 1-2-4 fingering.
- Do students need an account to use the tools?
- No. The Classroom Starter Pack, tuner, metronome, note-reading drill, printable charts, glossary, guides, and orchestral excerpt pages are all open with no account and no payment.
- Is there a Teacher’s Desk or studio plan?
- There is no studio-wide plan or Teacher’s Desk available today. The paid options are learner instrument and exam packages. You can use the free resources with a class and contact us about future studio needs.
- Is Arco intended to replace lessons?
- No. It is built to cover what does not need a person in the room, reading, theory, note names, practice structure, repertoire research, so lesson time can go to tone, bow arm, and phrasing, which software cannot assess.
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Not quite you?
Everything free, in one place
The tuner, the metronome, the note-reading drill, the printable charts, the glossary, and every guide, no account, no card.