Megan Cronin Tucker
Megan (far left) with her students at a spring 2019 recital
Student Testimonials
"Megan teaches as if she believes everyone deserves the opportunity to experience the pleasure of making music. She is very kind and patient. She listens to her students and asks for feedback. She always comes up with new pieces to work on, so you get better but never bored.
There’s never any pressure, she meets you at whatever level you are at.
What’s so great about Megan’s teaching style, is you feel like you are making music right now! You aren’t just practicing to make music later. I really appreciate her flexibility. She knows how to read her students. I stay motivated because she strikes the perfect balance between keeping it fun and providing a challenge."
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Bonnie, adult violin student
Portland, Or
"Megan is a warm, patient, and encouraging teacher. I love participating in her
string orchestra class!"
Darcel, adult violin student
2nd violin, Portland, Or
Holiday student recital 2019
“I couldn’t ask for anything more in a teacher. I feel like I’m going to be a great violinist in just a few years if I keep learning from Megan because she’s such a good teacher. I can’t wait for my next hundreds of lessons!”
Eleanor, 9-year-old violin student
"Megan is an exceptionally warm, patient, kind and encouraging teacher. Not only is she an extraordinary musician, she also has the unique gift of creating a fun and engaging learning environment for her students. My daughter always looks forward to her weekly sessions, and I love watching her love of music and the violin grow through her experience with Megan. We feel so lucky to have found such a caring instructor in Megan!"
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Emily, mother of student Eleanor,
Portland, Or / Costa Rica
"Megan has been an amazing violin instructor. I began weekly lessons with her several months ago having never played violin but interested in folk, classical, Irish, Americana, and other styles of music. She has deep experience in each of these and more, and we've been working through a variety of pieces together, always one step at a time, breaking things down into digestible bits to then help understand how the full pieces should sound and flow. She also helps me work through music theory, bowing, proper technique, etc, which really rounds out my understanding of how different aspects of violin and music in general work together. When we needed to make the transition to online Zoom classes due to the pandemic, she didn't drop a beat (pun accidentally intended). She worked with me to create a good home setup for sound, and the online recitals have been great. She's got a wonderful community of students of all ages from all sorts of backgrounds, all very nice folks. Megan is empathetic, patient, encouraging, very personable, and of course an expert on violin and fiddling. I'm learning a ton, and I look forward to every lesson.
Can't recommend her highly enough!"
Trevor, adult violin student
Portland, Or
Winter 2016 student recital
"I took up the Violin in 2014 after giving it up in middle school ( I am 49 yrs old). Megan has been my teacher since I took her fiddle class in 2014 at Artichoke. I probably would have given it up again if Megan was not the teacher she is. Megan has been encouraging, non judgmental, patient and amazing in every way a teacher can be. Megan recognizes that everyone takes Violin for a different reason. Whatever your skill level is, or wherever you want your skill level to be...Megan will support you. Megan is an amazing artist!"
Jennifer, adult violin student
Portland, Oregon
"Megan is patient and supportive and takes a problem solving approach to helping the student improve. She is equally adept at teaching classical repertoire and the more 'popular' or traditional forms, such as old time, etc."
Karen, adult violin student
Portland, Or
"My 8-year-old daughter Ella has been taking violin lessons with Megan for over a year. Megan has always been very patient with her - even when she was having fidgety moments -and is always encouraging of her playing. Megan has also been receptive to Ella’s interest in fiddle-type songs over classical music. Megan found songs that [my] daughter liked the sound of, and this helped her keep playing even when she was struggling to make the violin sound good. Now Ella has gotten to the point where she has a repertoire of songs she can play and enjoys practicing. It’s been Megan’s patience and persistence that transformed Ella’s relationship with the violin - from one of struggle to that of pleasure.
More recently, I started taking singing and guitar lessons with Megan as an adult learner. I appreciate that she is as encouraging with me and helps me get through my own edges. She has helped me with strumming patterns, figuring out my pitch and helping me find confidence in singing out loud. I would say that Megan has been very receptive and attuned to both my daughter and I as beginning musicians. But also, I’ve watched Megan play and know she has the skill set for people continuing to grow as experienced musicians. I have no doubt that whatever level you are at Megan can help you develop your relationship to music."
Holly, adult guitar/voice student & parent of violin student
Beavercreek, Or
“Megan loves teaching fiddle and in particular she loves to teach fiddle to adults. She offers a broad selection of musical types and styles of music for beginning adult players, for adults who have started, stopped, and started again and again. She genuinely shares the joys adults discover in music coming out of the violin.”
Don, adult violin student
Lake Oswego, Or