The purpose of this thesis was to find out whether and how näppäri pedagogy can be utilized in classical music teaching. The intention was to look for new perspectives on viola teaching. Information was gathered by delving into näppäri pedagogy with the help of various source materials, an expert interview with Sinikka Ala-Leppilampi and my own pedagogical project which was a two-day course for viola players based on näppäri pedagogy.

First, näppäri pedagogy looked into: what it is, its history and its principles. The genre of folk music, which was already familiar to me, took on a new dimension: This method could be used in my own teaching. With the help of a pedagogical project, it was able to test the method in practice with classical music viola students. Together with a didactics teacher, a small group of young viola players was assembled. For them, two songs were taught, one of which was a classical music song and the other a song of folk music.

The differences and similarities between classical and folk music are also reflected on: should we choose only one – or can these support each other? The conclusion was made that folk and classical music are not mutually exclusive but complement each other. The methods of classical music also had similarities with näppäri pedagogy. This supports the idea that you don't have to choose just another style of music.