Online violin & viola studio
DANIEL RATUSH
The Violin Explained
Right from the first session you'll feel your playing more confident and resonating!
IN MY SESSIONS
ALWAYS A POSITIVE VIBE
A supportive, encouraging & great atmosphere
Discover new sensations and a new relationship with your instrument
Become more confident and free in your playing
THIS IS FOR YOU IF YOU WANT TO:
Release unnecessary tension from your playing
Improve your intonation and learn to play more consistently in tune
Develop a fuller, richer, more powerful sound
Play with greater freedom and confidence — not just during practice, but when performing in front of others
Learn modern, practical techniques that will make your playing more effortless, expressive, and versatile
Develop the technical foundation you need to play faster, cleaner, and with greater control
Play with confidence and captivate people with your sound
GET AN ONLINE 20 MINUTE ASSESMENT OF YOUR PLAYING DIRECTLY WITH ME
FREE DIAGNOSTIC SESSION
16+ years teaching experience
32 years performance experience
A violinist, violist and educator raised in a family with generations of professional musicians.
For the past 19 years, I’ve performed professionally alongside outstanding musicians in major concert halls, including Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Philharmonie, and served as a principal player in leading orchestras.
For more than 16 years, I’ve also helped players of all levels develop stronger technique, more effective practice habits, and a clearer understanding of how playing actually works.
Today, my work focuses on identifying and solving technical problems, optimizing practice strategies, and developing personalized methodologies for violin and viola players, string teachers, and music education.
After thousands of hours of teaching, one thing has become very clear:Players improve fastest when they stop guessing.
That is the purpose behind everything I build and teach.
Daniel Ratush
YOUR VIOLIN / VIOLA INSTRUCTOR
A complete and comprehensive conceptual framework of violin and viola playing — for students, players, and teachers.
The Integral Violin & Viola System™
MY METHODOLOGY
Over the course of 16+ years of teaching violin and viola, I’ve developed a comprehensive framework for understanding the craft side of playing — the physical and technical mechanisms that allow us to actually play the instrument.
It is a whole system designed to encompass the fundamental elements of violin and viola technique, from the smallest movements of individual fingers to complex bow strokes, shifts, vibrato, articulation, double stops, chords, and everything else we eventually encounter as players.
Your playing can be understood through three interconnected levels:
1. CRAFT
The foundation
The technique and the biomechanics of the hands and torso, that allow you to play the instrument.
2. ARTISTRY
The expression
What you do with your craft in a musical context.
Interpretation, expression, musical taste, touch and timing.
3. PERFORMANCE MAGIC
The human element
The intangible quality that appears when a human being performs an artistic act.
The three levels aren't separate.
Craft makes artistry possible. Artistry gives craft a purpose. And when both become integrated, the possibility of Performance Magic emerges.
THE CRAFT MAP
The map can be understood as moving from foundations to techniques.
At the deepest level are the mechanics: the physical organization of the playing system.
These mechanics make possible particular qualities, such as dexterity, agility, or endurance. Those qualities are then expressed through specific techniques and principles of technique.
This means that a technique is not an isolated skill. It is the visible expression of several underlying components working together.
For example: vibrato involves form, angle, movement, muscular effort, and coordination. It also requires qualities such as dexterity, agility, control, and endurance. The same principle applies to shifting, bow strokes, string crossings, articulation, and other techniques.
The map is therefore both a model of the playing mechanism and a tool for practice: a way of moving from the visible technical problem toward the underlying physical principles that shape it.
About
Daniel Ratush is a classically trained independent violin and viola player, a pedagogue, musical arranger, musical events producer, composer, songwriter, painter and poetry writer.
Daniel started his musical education at the age of six, studying with his grandmother, coming from a family of musical professionals.
He began his solo performances abroad in Poland and the US at the age of 15, and continued his professional studies in the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in the University of Tel Aviv, where he also began his viola studies.
He later continued his viola studies in the US at the North Carolina School of the Arts.
Daniel has performed extensively in chamber music ensembles and orchestras, where he played both as a section and a lead player, thus acquiring a substantial amount of experience and expertise in orchestral settings.
His diverse musical interests and influences have led him to perform in Israel with some of the most known musicians and artists in the classical, klezmer, Balkan, jazz, and pop genres, both as an ensemble and as a solo player.
He is an active session player as well, and has recorded extensively for bands, independent singers, and instrumentalists.
As a musical pedagogue he has more than a decade of experience in teaching in elementary schools, conservatories, music courses, and private lessons. Some of his students have successfully continued their professional education in music performance, and some have even embarked on their own professional musical careers.
As an arranger and composer, Daniel has been writing music since high school years, and has written numerous arrangements for string ensembles, especially string quartets, some of which are to be found on his website; and has written his own original compositions for a variety of instrumentations, which are also available on the website.
Daniel is also a keen producer of his own original musical and cultural events that represent his unique taste and perspective of synthesizing different styles of music, different mediums of artistic expression, and conceptual themes that create an engaging and highly atmospheric and aesthetic experience for the audience.
The Violin Explained
Stop guessing what to do at the start of every practice session — boost your skills and be optimally prepared for playing your best every time.
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Know exactly what is limiting your progress and how to break through with a step-by-step plan.
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Take your playing to the next level with an accelerated and personalized path 1-on-1.
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Courses
The Orientational Map for Every Player & Teacher:
For FREE violin content, technique tips, material, arrangements and more — subscribe here ↓
There's Something Nobody Ever Showed You.
There's a complete HIDDEN structure to everything you ever play — and most musicians have never seen it.
Get the FREE GUIDE to unlock the hidden system your teacher never told you about.
Once you SEE IT, it can change the way you practice forever: Smarter — not longer.
Honestly, I have no idea why it's kept away from beginners.
Oh! By the way
Hi there, I'm Daniel!
Violinist, violist, instructor, course and content creator.
Not your typical violin teacher.
More of a transformation master.
With more than 16 years of experience teaching violin and viola I've developed a system of learning to play with the highest results, but in a fun and smarter, not longer kind of way.
Get Your Free Musical Map Guide
Learn to practice like a pro and have a clear system that will solve your tone, your control, intonation, speed, agility, string crossings, and almost any possible technique on the violin or viola. It starts from seeing the big picture — the map. Available for instant download now FOR FREE 🎯>>
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What I do
Music Education
Personalized lessons for all ages, focusing on technique, repertoire, and musical expression in various genres.
With over 15 years of experience, I have taught all ages and levels and in various settings, individually, in groups and online, sharing my passion for music and helping them develop their skills and love for music.
Solo & Ensemble Performances
Engaging performances for events, collaborations with artists, ensembles and orchestras, in a variety of styles and genres.
More than 20 years of solo, chamber music, and orchestra experience in styles ranging from classical and folk, to jazz and experimental.
Constantly exploring new musical vistas, activities, and recording opportunities with artists.
Music Composition
Music Arrangement
More than 15 original compositions for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and pedagogical purposes, expressing my own unique style of synthesizing influences from pop culture and traditional artistic and academic composition.
More than 30 original arrangements for string quartet, violin solo, viola solo, duets and trios, as well as string parts for independent musical productions.
Explore my musical projects and collaborations as a violist, violinist, arranger and composer
Composition
Space Suite - original 20 minutes long piece for a string orchestra - synthesizing pop, cinematic & classical music idioms
Orchestral Solo
Viola solos throughout a contemporary piece in the Israeli Chamber Orchestra as the lead violist
Solo
Violin solo of my original arrangement of 'Petite Fleur' in the style of tango
Music Videos
Recording Music
My original arrangement and recording of 'Shalom Aleichem'
What else
My two other passions beside music are painting and creative and philosophical writing
Painting
My paintings are intuitive and mainly abstract, inspired by the realm of musical perception
Four of my poems in Hebrew where published in an independent poetry magazine in 2022
Poetry
Get in touch
Hi! Let's get in touch for musical collaborations or music lessons inquiries 🎻