TEACHING SUZUKI

Monday Morning Check In: Grasshopper or Giant?

2012-02-26T21:14:00.000-06:00

We even saw giants there . . . Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that's what they thought, too! - Numbers 13:33 (NIV)

Perspective colors our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. Which perspective we choose to consider and follow will greatly impact how we develop our character and how we find opportunities to succeed. Consider the scripture verse above. This quotation arises from the biblical story of when Moses sent 12 men to spy out the Promised Land and bring back a report of the inhabitants and the land's fruitfulness. Two of the men returned with an encouraging report and enthusiastically urged the Israelites to move forward and enter into the Promised Land. The other ten men returned with a discouraging report and the quotation above. Let us take a closer look at the ingredients of this quotation. What is a grasshopper or giant perspective? Is one preferable over the other?

Someone with a grasshopper perspective is a person who views him- or herself as smaller than others. A person with thoughts the size of grasshopper is a person who may be fearful and insecure. This person may lack vision to rise above the status quo and in fact may find comfort with the familiar and routine. Lacking confidence in abilities, a grasshopper is likely to shy away from risks and new challenges.

A giant perspective is a person with a belief that he or she is larger than others. The danger in these thoughts is that the person may stray off the path of community and head down the independent road that leads to self importance, arrogance, and aloneness. The giant may not spend much time thinking about offering service to others, and instead may be a stranger to compassion. Because the giant has a large belief in him- or herself, the giant may become lazy and prone to sloth. The giant may even lack a willingness to try new things. Why bother? Who can touch me?

Interesting, yes? Both perspectives yield possible deficits of character and accomplishment. I have referred to the "grasshopper theory" for years, because I witness so many people falling prey to their own negative thoughts and predictions. When I first thought about this post. I intended to focus on the grasshopper perspective as the negative example, and I assumed that the better perspective would be to think as a giant would. However, as I delved into my material, I realized that there was a negative side to giant thinking too.

Black/white thinking is so easy. We humans do it all the time: yes/no, right/wrong, up/down, good/bad. The hardest part about my legal education was training myself to think of more than three answers to a problem. I frequently pushed myself to think of three, and many times strived for four or five, because the mental exercise stimulated my creative juices and freed up any tendency I had to settle for less. As a teacher I frequently encourage students to think of at least three possible solutions to any challenge.

So to take my own advice, I will suggest that there are other perspectives to consider besides the grasshopper and giant. There may be elements of each that when combined will form a new perspective that combines the best of both. There may be a perspective that avoids all the negative traits of each.

I suggest that we take this week to consider the type of perspective with which we view our lives and work. Are we thinking like grasshoppers or giants?

Quick Teaching Tip: Vivaldi’s Phone Number

2012-02-25T23:32:00.000-06:00

I helped a student today on Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor, op. 3, no. 6, in the revised edition of Suzuki Violin Volume 4. We discussed some practice ideas for the section in measures 25-28, which I refer to as “Vivaldi’s phone number.” I believe I first heard this particular nickname for these measures from Terry Durbin at an institute, perhaps Elizabethtown over a decade ago.

The nickname refers to the first note of each group of 16^th notes. If you recite the fingering for these notes, it sounds like a phone number. Since Vivaldi lives in Venice, Italy, the phone number is quite lengthy to accommodate the international aspect of the call:

4 – 4 – 3 – 1 – 4 – 4 – 2 – 1 – 3 – 4 – 1 (or 4) – 0 – 2 – 3

Vivaldi Concerto in A Minor, measures 25-28

Students stumble through this passage in their initial playing attempts. There is a reason, and I find this passage is a golden teaching opportunity about how to approach passages in a way that will spur students to achieve success quicker. I also use a similar technique in a passage in Seitz Concerto No. 2, 3^rd movement, the first song in book 4:

Seitz Concerto No. 2, movement 3 passage

One of the reasons I think students have trouble with both passages is that they are reading every single note, one at a time. For example, in the Seitz concerto passage, the students have great difficulty playing this passage of double notes. When I guide the student to notice that everything is presented as pairs of notes, so therefore, read just the first note of each pair, the student reads the music quicker and with less difficulty.

Similarly with the Vivaldi phone number passage, I find that students are bogged down looking at the trees and not taking in the scope of the forest. Sometimes I suggest that my student take a step backwards and look at the music from a distance that is almost far enough away that the student cannot read the individual notes. Standing farther away encourages the student to notice the scope and breadth of the musical passage, such as the high and low points and the phrasing or grouping of notes.

In the Vivaldi passage, I ask the student to play the first note in each group of 16^th notes, in other words, Vivaldi’s phone number. This poises the student to visually group the notes, which is where I want the student to be. When the student plays Vivaldi’s phone number, the student also experiences the bowing direction that will occur in the passage once the student puts all the notes together:

Vivaldi's Phone Number

After playing the phone number, I guide the student to notice that each grouping has the same three notes and bowings after the initial note. How easy can that be to learn, I ask them. At this point, the student sails through the passage with much less difficulty.

What is my point in this teaching tip? My point is that as teachers we need to figure it out. When we notice that our students have difficulty in the same places, we need to figure out what part of the passage causes the students to have learning or playing problems. Then once we figure out the problem, we need to come up with a solution.

I do not know what Terry Durbin’s original purpose was in coming up with the “Vivaldi phone number” nickname. Mr. Durbin is a fun teacher, so my thinking is that he came up with a fun way to turn the student on to learning the passage. My purpose in using Mr. Durbin’s trick was initially to entertain my student. After years of teaching students this passage, my teaching technique has evolved into an understanding of what the problem is in learning this passage and how to teach the passage so that students learn the passage easier.

Just as I ask my students to step backwards on occasion and get a bigger picture of the task before them, so I as a teacher also must step back and look at the learning situation and figure out what is going on in my students’ learning sphere.

Every time I successfully identify and solve one of these learning dilemmas in the Suzuki repertoire, I renew my admiration for Dr. Suzuki’s brilliant insight into how we learn. I was surprised when I taught my first adult student using the Suzuki repertoire, that my adult students had the same learning and playing difficulties as my young charges. No matter what the age or ability level, students learn in similar ways. Our job as good teachers is to figure out where students have learning issues and how to solve those issues.

I love teaching! I enjoy these repertoire challenges. I seek to discover new problems in the repertoire and new solution methods. The best part of teaching, in my opinion, is when I "figure it out."

The Big Whyne

2012-02-23T00:08:00.000-06:00

If there is one thing that students consistently whine about, it's the scale assignment. I have to vigilantly monitor whether my students are practicing their scale assignment and in what manner. Even when I have put the parent in charge of the scale assignment, I still have to check up to make sure that the assigned homework is being done.

Mostly the whine is about "why":

Why do I have to play scales?

Why are scales important?

Why can't we do something fun instead?

Why can't I practice something else?

Why can't I do something else? What value is there in practicing scales anyway?

Why can't we skip practicing scales, since we get scales practice in our songs anyway?

Why are you torturing me?

Well, OK, maybe I do not hear this last complaint so much (unless I am putting the student through my "homework lesson."* [see my footnote below for an explanation of the "homework lesson."])

Why do we practice scales? Why do teachers assign scales? Why has this assignment been passed along from teacher to student for so many generations? There must be a reason, or several. How does a teacher explain the value to a student or parent?

This year one of my talented violin students decided to add piano lessons to his schedule. Because he already played the violin so well, it did not take very long before he was really cooking on the piano. I actually skipped right past the usual popular piano methods and started him on the old John Thompson books, which are my initial piano studies. I enjoyed these books because they provided a great deal of intellectual stimulation, and because they included historical and other information with each song. I have not used these books with my students ever, but with this particular student, I knew I would need something really interesting to spur him to the next level of excitement.

As I revisited my old John Thompson memories with my pupil, I viewed the lessons from the teacher's perspective, which is not something I would have had as a student. One of the first discoveries I made is that John Thompson helps the student to discover and remember how it feels to play in various keys. One set of songs may teach the student how it feels to play in C Major. Another set will focus on G major, and so on. As my student and I discussed these song sets, we started exploring the feel of the various keys.

Since my student was well versed in music theory, I helped him understand a basic chord progression of I - IV - V - V7 - I. We learned this first in C major, which every pianist can tell you feels completely balanced and centered on the piano. When my student learned the G major chord progression, he learned that there was a little bit of a "tail upswing" to the left in that key (due to the F#). We noted and discussed how that felt. We discovered the similar feeling in D major. In F major we discovered no tail, but there was a spreading of the hands between the thumb and index finger (left hand) and thumb and third finger (right hand).

Do not underestimate the value of feeling. Music involves all aspects of our brain or at least more areas of our brains than required by other activities. Kinesthetic sensation plays a valuable part in a musician's craft. My young student discovered this phenomenon for himself in our "key feeling" lesson.

So I will argue that one main purpose in practicing scales is to develop the kinesthetic sensation of playing in various keys. What else?

When I am comfortable playing in a key, I can play quickly. I have practiced the particular physical sensations or developed the muscle memory that allows me to play fast. Repetition in practice teaches my muscles the memory of how the notes and finger patterns feel in relation to each other. Practicing scales helps me to develop more strongly my muscle memory.

Practicing scales also helps to develop my aural skills. Various scale patterns make different demands on my aural reception. For example, I note that my freshman university students generally have difficulty playing a diminished arpeggio. It may take an entire semester before I can help them to successfully hear and play the diminished interval in an arpeggio. Once a student learns the major scales, the student then moves on to learn how to hear and play minor scales (natural, harmonic, melodic, and even Dorian).

There is a mental and visual aspect to learning scales. Mentally, a musician needs to be able to think in a particular key, which includes reading in a particular key. The mental and visual aspects make a connection with the physical.

Have I convinced you yet of the value of practicing scales? The purpose of this post was to impress on you the importance of performing a scale practice on a regular basis, preferably daily. My purpose was not to discuss what a good scale practice routine would be. That is the subject of a future post.

Please leave a comment with your argument about why practicing scales is important.

Quick Parenting Tip: Let Them Practice it for Themselves

2012-02-21T22:27:00.000-06:00

Sunday I bathed eight dogs. Yikes!, you are probably thinking. Uh huh, I have eight dogs in my home right now and three puppies. I had nine but one little guy got snapped up today.

I did some heavy duty cleaning and dust busting on Sunday afternoon. After mopping the floors, I thought that it might be a good idea to wash the dogs too, in case they were helping to spread some of the dust around the place (Texas had a drought last summer, which has helped me to understand The Grapes of Wrath in more depth myself).

As I washed each of the eight dogs, I noticed that I got more efficient at it. I discovered which actions made my chore go swifter, and I hit upon a sequence of steps that offered the best use of my time and efforts.

As I perfected my technique and sequence, I compared this experience with that of practicing and learning how to play the violin. Too often parents and students play through something one time and then seem to consider that a sufficient practice. I have made little practice vignette recordings lately on my phone for students and parents to practice with, and everyone seems to enjoy them. I especially like the results that I see lately. I get these results because I make a recording that actually asks the student to practice. We may go through a sequence of steps as many as four times in varied ways. This is what I consider practicing.

But I digress. My post today was about "letting" students practice things for themselves. Rather than follow along with the teacher's recording or the parent's instruction, I suggest that students be allowed to discover themselves how to do something. Not everything, but some things. Not completely alone, but with guidance.

Today's tip stems from my experience the other day with two of my fun students, Jamey and Elliott. Jamey had to change his strings on Monday, and Elliott had to change his strings on Tuesday. We have changed strings together in the past, and I thought it would be a good idea to let them learn how to change the strings by themselves (while I was there to encourage and guide them). Jamey opted to use most of his lesson time to change to a new set. Here is how I structured the string changing lesson:

I helped him sort out his materials first. We laid out the new strings on the table and decided which order to change them. We labeled the string package with today's date and discussed saving the used strings so that he would have a quick, easy replacement if he ever had a string break.

I began the process of changing one of his strings. As I changed it, I talked aloud about the string changing process. At first Jamey was eager to jump in and do the whole thing himself. He was sure that he remembered all the steps to change the strings himself. I let him grab onto the process, but I knew that he probably would not remember everything that we planned to do.

As I changed the first string, I asked if he had done the other steps that go along with changing a string. In this case, I like to put peg compound on the pegs (to prevent slipping and sticking) and pencil graphite in the grooves of the nut and the bridge (to prevent wear and tear on the string in these places). He had not remembered to do them, so my question was a gentle reminder.

For the next string, I let him do the string changing bit, and I took on his role with the peg compound. I asked him whether he did the pencil thing because I had "forgotten."

I did not help at all on the third string. I just sat there and watched, maybe doing the "back seat driver" bit occasionally. (Remember to hold the string taut, like when you tie your shoes, etc.).

I do not even remember if he changed the last string, because I was busy cleaning up. I wrapped the used strings and put them in the dated string package to store in Jamey's case. Then I helped him to tune, although he did most of that himself.

I know we did not spend much time having a "lesson" per se, but we had a great lesson. Jamey will feel completely competent to change his own strings in the future if he wants to, although I expect he will opt to share the experience with me. We did have a good time. In Elliott's case, we had a good time too, but I know that Elliott will enjoy sharing the time together to perform this menial task.

So parents, I know it is easier to do things yourself. It speeds things along if the expert tackles the chore. However, if the student can perform at least 80% of the task passably well, it will be worthwhile for the parent or teacher to allow the student to experience the task for themselves. Yes, it takes time, but it is time very well spent. One really learns when one experiences.

Plini: "Experience is the most efficient teacher of all things."

Julius Caesar: "Experience is the teacher of all things."

Tacitus: "Experience teaches."

Monday Morning Check In: Collecting the Right Stuff

2012-02-19T23:50:00.000-06:00

Lots of folks collect things. My husband collects stamps and has since he was a boy. Others collect figurines, dolls, coins, music boxes, or glassware. Elizabeth Taylor collected husbands.

I collect words. Ever since I can remember I wrote down interesting things that I read or heard. I have little notebooks all over the place. Just the other day I found one in my car. I eagerly checked to see what was in it and discovered that I had scribbled something on every single page. Quotes from podcasts I had heard, words from audio books I had listened to, and notes of random thoughts. I spend a lot of time in my car.

I like to use “big boy words[1]” with my students to encourage their curiosity about vocabulary. Last semester I put a “word of the week” on my university studio door. Then I followed the word with an expression that introduced a second big boy word. For example, I wrote:

Word of the Week:

PITHY

Not to be confused with:

SUCCINCT

Or “obdurate,” not to be confused with “intractable.”

My students and I had fun coming up with these interesting pairings. It was not unusual for me to open my studio door to the hallway and discover several students standing around the posted word of the week.

This semester I am putting up different kinds of words. These are not words that students would need to look up, I expect. Instead, these are words that I want students to ponder. These are words that say much with just a few letters, and what these words say will have many different meanings for each person who considers them. The other day when I opened my studio door into the hallway, I found a student I did not know loitering outside my door. "I love reading everything on your door!" he told me. Well, thanks! This is one student who obviously "gets it."

I would like to share 100 words with you and encourage you to spend some time thinking about them yourself, about what each word means to you, and how you can show others by your actions what the words mean to you. Please feel free to chime in with your own list of words.

Love, hope, curiosity, acceptance, trust, faith, affection, belief, fascination, expectation, responsibility, perseverance, discipline, strength, encouragement, nurturing, discernment, evaluation, habit, routine, thoughtfulness, kindness, gratitude, graciousness, courage, audacity, solution, searching, fairness, acceptance, challenge, confidence, expressive, character, achievement, decisive, promise, commitment, teamwork, education, choices, presentation, impression, joy, clarity, inspiration, mentor, role model, surprise, laughter, compassion, sympathy, perspective, observation, future, invention, reinvention, teachable, receptive, learning, knowledge, wonder, respect, consideration, motivation, empower, goals, promise, endeavor, practice, success, failure, measurement, ability, skill, time management, smile, refinement, problem solving, repetition, unlimited, perfection, idealism, aspiration, dreams, concentration, focus, willpower, growth, determination, perspicacity, blessing, partnership, performance, sharing, connection, and obligation.

That is a good list for starters. Let us add more words like this to our lists.

[1] My eleven-year old student Jamey is fond of using “big boy” as an expression for anything that I would do as an adult. E.g., if I forget my personal piano music on the music rack and he has to move it out of his way, he refers to it as “big boy music.”

Suzuki Violin Book 2 Musings

2012-02-18T01:05:00.000-06:00

Recently a teacher friend of mine mentioned that she was venturing farther into book 2 with her students than she had previously gone, and she asked me for teaching advice. This conversation sparked me to think about the gifts we discover in book 2.

In general book 2 is designed to “unfurl” the student’s left hand. Whereas book 1 remained within the confines of the perfect fourth interval and ventured to widen the reach between the fingers within that perfect fourth interval, book two challenges the student to stretch the reach between all of the fingers and widen the overall interval to an augmented fourth (or diminished fifth) and a perfect fifth. The book introduces four or five new finger pattern combinations and some stretches between the fingers that span across the strings rather than on the same string (e.g., Chorus and Minuet in G). The last third of the book introduces the trill (preparation in Gavotte from Mignon), and the student learns to widen the space between the trill (half step trill in Lully’s Gavotte and whole step trill in Boccherini’s Minuet).

The right hand skills include longer bows and whole bow distribution concepts in legato (Long, Long Ago) and staccato (Hunter’s Chorus). The up-up hooked staccato bowing from the book 1 “Happy Farmer” is quickened in the Long, Long Ago book 2 variation and then lengthened to four up bow staccato notes in the trio to Minuet in G. There is increased complexity of bowing and rhythm combinations: hooked and dotted rhythms (Witches Dance), slurred dotted rhythms (Minuet in G), bow speed variances, louré or portato bowing (Handel Bourreé and Minuet in G), and the beginnings of the “circle back” collé bowing (The Two Grenadiers).

I separate book 2 into two separate books in my head, because the first and second halves seem to belong to different skill perspectives. The first half of book 2 casts an eye back at book 1 in terms of finger patterns and bowing skill sets. The latter half of book 2 looks ahead to the skills needed to advance into books three and four.

Perhaps the trickiest part about teaching book 2 is to figure out how to introduce a new book 2 skill or teaching point. To prepare for early book 2, what I call book 2A, I focus on cementing the skills that book 1 introduced. I find this easy because simultaneously we are going over what we have learned in book 1 in great detail as we polish the book 1 repertoire to prepare a book 1 graduation recital.

To prepare to teach book 2B, the last half of book 2, I introduce new concepts and skill exercises. The first really new skill will be the wider stretch required between the index and second or third fingers in The Two Grenadiers and in Lully Gavotte. Most teachers introduce this stretch by altering Go Tell Aunt Rhody to resemble a more Middle Eastern sound. We play Bb instead of B natural and F natural rather than F# throughout the song:

Aunt Rhody Goes to Saudi Arabia

The parents are usually interested to hear how this change in fingering alters the sound of the song so completely, and the students want to learn this skill because their parents are so interested. This is also a great group class activity, as Aunt Rhody makes a stop in Saudi Arabia when she takes a trip around the world. See my previous post about this: Around the World with Aunt Rhody.

Another new skill in book 2 is the Bb finger pattern, so I introduce the one-octave Bb scale on the A and E strings. We often work with a tuner.

Bb scale, one octave

I find that the best teacher of the Bb finger pattern shows up when the student learns to play the Bb scale in broken thirds:

Bb scale, broken thirds

We definitely use a tuner for the broken thirds exercise to make sure that the third fingers are in tune. This exercise also affords me the opportunity to talk about ringing third fingers in octaves with a lower string:

tuning the 3rd finger

One other useful tool to prepare for the second half of book two is to teach the student how to play Perpetual Motion from book 1 in the key of Bb. Twinkle Theme in Bb is also useful. Once the student has mastered the Bb fingering for Perpetual Motion in Bb, the student will be able to later use this fingering to learn how it feels in various positions:

Teaching Positions with Bb Perpetual Motion

Teaching Positions (Filling up the Back Car Seat)

Each song in book 2 requires a different set of previews of skills for both the left and right hands. My purpose here was to give a brief summary overview of some of the major skills that book 2 will introduce and to lay out a few of the basic preparation tools I use to pave the way for teaching the last half of Suzuki violin book two.

Quick Practice Tip: Holes and Towers

2012-02-15T00:08:00.000-06:00

I have a delightful eleven-year old boy in the studio who is on the cusp of book 6. We have spent much of this year in lively discussions about practicing and what constitutes good practice habits. I would like to share one of our recent conversations about this topic.

Eleven-year old boys are enamored with speed and movement. They generally have lots of energy and enjoy playing things as fast as they can. I understand the seductive lure of playing fast, but I also understand the pitfall of allowing the fun of physical sensation to encourage the ears to take a siesta from doing their job. When a student plays a passage too fast, the ears cannot hear it accurately. The trick is getting the student to learn how to play the passage quickly enough to garner speed but also slow enough to check for intonation and accuracy. I covered the topic of practicing methods to build up speed in previous posts:

Building up speed with thoughtful chunks

Building up speed with Magic Patterns

I had discussed these various methods with my student, but in this instance, my student was caught up in the fun and excitement of playing a very cool piece (Bach's Violin Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, violin 1 in book 5) and had little enthusiasm for accuracy for the moment.

I isolated a passage whose perfection eluded my student: tricky finger pattern, difficult bow articulation and slurring, and advanced aural interval for intonation. I asked my student to play the passage a little slower and really listen to what he played. Our conversation went like this:

What did you hear?

My student looked at me with a puzzled expression.

Were you playing the correct notes?

I could tell that he was not sure about the answer to that question.

Try playing it again much slower and really listening to whether the notes are correct and in tune.

It took a few more tries before my student could play the passage slow enough for his ears to start working accurately and identify problem areas.

Let's suppose that I asked you to build up a big pile of dirt for me. And, you eagerly did that, except that you dug a hole instead.

"O . . . K . . .," my student said, clearly puzzled about where I was headed.

When I checked up on the work you did, I found that you dug a huge hole instead of building up a pile of dirt. I would tell you: "Jamey! I asked you to build a pile of dirt! I wanted to build a tower and needed a pile of dirt. You dug a hole instead!" What would you have to do now to fulfill my request?

"I would have to fill up the hole and then build a pile of dirt on top of where I had the hole at first."

Exactly! So how much work did you do in order to finally build up the pile of dirt I initially asked you to make?

"I would have to do two sets of work. I would have to fill up the hole I dug and then have to pile more dirt on top of that to build a pile -- No! Wait! -- I would have done 3 sets of work! Because, I would have dug the hole in the first place, then I would have had to fill it up, and then I would have had to build it up. I did three times more work than I should have done."

So, how much work would you have done if you had just built up the dirt pile in the first place?

"I would have done the work once."

When we practice, we also have to decide whether we want to practice to dig a hole or build a tower, right?

"Right!"

So what do you want to do in this piece when you practice? Dig a hole or build a tower?

"I want to build a Castle, not a Moat!"

Lesson learned! Thanks, Jamey! Happy Valentine's Day back at you!

Monday Morning Check In: Artist's Dates

2012-02-12T22:11:00.002-06:00

I let myself out of the house today.

You wonder about that statement? Yes, I suppose it makes little sense to others, but it tells me a lot.

I do not enjoy leaving the house to do something that is not related to work. Yes, I confess, I work way too much. I tire out others when I explain what I do every day. I am frequently out of the house, but generally because of some work-related activity. As I think about today though, I realize that there is a pattern. I just like working. I do not enjoy doing things that are not related to work unless they are activities that I can enjoy alone, such as reading, writing, or watching movies or TV. Or doing something in my home. You would probably say I am a loner type. The folks I work with would be amazed to hear this, but as I have said earlier, I generally have no problem doing anything that is related to work.

I am a big fan of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and her strong suggestion that we creative types engage in the ritual of writing morning pages. I have done this activity for years, and I encourage others to join me. I gain so much insight and personal peace by sifting through my thought snippets each morning. If my mind is too full of things, the morning pages help me to carve out a route to the other side. If my mind is empty and drifting, the pages draw out helpful suggestions to pull me together again.

One of Julia Cameron’s other creative tools is the artist’s date. I am not so good about doing this requirement. Part of the problem is that I am generally too busy to take the time to do something like this. The other part of the problem is that I do not like to do something that is unrelated to work.

I made up my mind to do something this year about my problem. Recently I got a notice about a university theater performance of a Steve Martin play. I duly noted each of the performance dates on my calendar and especially noted which would be the last performance date, so that I would not get bogged down into thinking that I could "skip it this time and go next time.”

Today was the last performance. I had even thought that I would call up a friend to accompany me; I procrastinated making the phone call all week. Too many reasons came up. The weather looked bleak, I felt tired lately, the flu bug has been making its rounds so I should take precautions, and the dogs needed to spend more time with me. I let each performance date slip past me.

I did tell you that I got out of the house today? Yes, I did. It took a three-year old to accomplish this, one of my students. She was celebrating her fourth birthday a few days early, and at first she had planned to have a party at the local regional zoo. When the weather turned cold and icy, she moved the party indoors to a local pizzeria.

I accepted the zoo invitation, because that would have been an activity that allowed me to wander in solitude if I needed it and would definitely fit Cameron’s definition of an artist’s date. When the celebratory plans and venue changed, I said no at first, then later changed my mind. I really, really wanted to share my little student’s birthday enthusiasm. She had talked about her birthday cake all through Saturday’s group class. She was clearly excited about the event and about my coming and joining her friends. I thought about how disappointed she would be about the change in plans, and I thought I could help her mom to ease the disappointment of having the party in a new place. I would rise above my petty problem about not leaving the house to do things outside of work for the sake of my three-year old student.

And that is what I did. I attended the birthday party at the pizzeria. I met lots of people I did not know, and everyone was lovely. I had no trouble interacting with the kids, and my little student was such a pleasure to watch as she opened up her presents and walked over to personally thank and hug every single person who gave her a gift. When she finished opening up all her gifts, she announced, “Thank you, everybody!” She said it more than once. Wow, I do not know any adults who do that as well!

I had a lovely time, and I realized later that I was fulfilling my original purpose of embarking on an artist date. Cameron’s purpose for the artist’s date is to do a solo expedition about something that interests the individual. For me, however, the artist date will involve something outside of myself, because I understand now that any successful artist date for me will entail my having to overcome the problem of going outside of my comfort zone of work. I also understand now that the reason I have not succeeded at meeting the artist date requirement is that I have this work compulsion problem. Solitary excursions are not difficult for me; I embark on solitary artist explorations all the time because I enjoy being by myself. My future excursions will require me to involve myself in community outside of work no matter how uncomfortable; I will gain new insights from my social observations, and I will learn something about myself in the trying.

Maybe I should ask my little student what I should do for my next week’s artist date? Maybe we can go to the zoo?

Smiling Your Way Through Violin Practice (or How Not to Quit)

2012-02-07T23:19:00.000-06:00

Someone asked me how to practice with her child and feel like smiling at the same time. Let me describe how I would do this if I were a parent.

If the child were very young, I would sit with her on my lap and hold her. I would give generous hugs. I would turn my voice into a soft blanket and let my love warm our connection. Here is how the conversation might go:

“Mommy loves you very much,” I would say with a smile. “Do you know how much? Let me tell you.”

I would smile and look in their eyes with as much love as I could muster.

“What do I do when you are hungry?”

You feed me.

“That’s right. I make sure that your tummy is full of food.”

I would touch or pat the stomach area.

“What do I do when you are thirsty?”

You give me something to drink.

“That’s right. I give you something to drink.”

I would touch my fingers to the child’s lips and maybe give them a little kiss.

“Why do you think I send you to school?”

You want me to learn things.

“That’s right. I want to fill up your mind with things that are important to learn and know. I am feeding your mind.”

I would touch the child’s forehead.

“Do you know why we practice the violin together and go to music classes and lessons?

Here I would touch the area above the child’s heart and smile deeply at the child.

“We learn the violin together because we are feeding our hearts and spirits. We are filling up our hearts with beautiful music.”

Now the real lesson begins.

“If you are hungry, would I stop feeding you? Of course not! I am a good mom and I would make sure that you were not hungry.”

Hugs and smiles again.

“If you are thirsty, would I stop giving you a drink? Of course not! I would always give you a drink because I love you very much.”

I would offer more hugs, smiles, and hair stroking.

“If you wanted to stay home from school every day, would I let you? No, of course not! I want your mind to be full and not empty.”

And the big question comes next.

“If you did not want to practice the violin or go to violin classes and lessons, would I let you stay home?”

I would wait for the child to answer this question, because the child knows that the parent loves him or her.

No, you would not let me stop practicing or going to violin class.

“That’s right. I want to fill your heart with beautiful music. I want you to share in the wonderful gift that music will bring to your heart and spirit.”

“I want this gift for you because I love you very much. Are you ready to practice together now?” And I would smile as big as I could.

Imagine how wonderful our practices together would be if we focused on the beautiful gift we gave each other rather than on the work!

I am puzzled to hear that students want to quit playing or studying a musical instrument. I wonder how that situation came to be. If the parent were to accede to the child’s complaints and desires to stop instruction, I can only wonder how the parent would think that listening to a young child is the answer. After all, is that not why there are parents in the world? Who would think that a 4 or 7 or even a 13 year old would have enough life experience to understand what the benefits of music education are? I might listen to the argument that a child made and discuss it, but as an adult, I think it is my responsibility to make decisions based on my adult education and experience and not that of a child.

Yes, I know, sometimes it is hard to persevere when the child is frequently grousing about practice or going to lessons (or doing homework or taking out the garbage or going to school or not seeing enough of their friends or boyfriends). That is why there are parents in the world, because we have had the time and life experience to weather these storms of complaint and melodrama. These moments of frustration and dissension may be golden opportunities to offer the lesson of perseverance and discipline, which will eventually lead to the ultimate prize of high self-esteem that comes from achievement, fulfillment, and diligence.

One parent told me that she handled the situation by labeling the family in a way that discouraged the child from wanting to quit. “You are a Smith [fictitious name]. The Smith family does not raise quitters. We don’t even understand what it means to quit.” And then she walked away. She said that the child never brought up the subject again.

My personal story shares some elements with the Smith family. I began learning the piano when I was three years old; my mother, a primary school teacher and singer/pianist, was my first instructor. My mother and I had some difficulties working together, although her motivation was good. She did the best that she knew how, and we did not have parent education/Suzuki training courses in those days. Our practices together evaporated, and I was left to play by myself.

My father also played piano; he is a most excellent jazz pianist! My sister and I were treated to my father’s wonderful jazz music every single day that we lived at home. We fell asleep to his practicing, and we learned a lot about jazz musicians of the time and various styles. It was a real treat to put in our special requests for songs on our way to bed and then to fall asleep waiting to hear our father entertain us with our favorites.

Inevitably I wanted to be just like dad. When I was 5, I asked to take piano lessons again. This time my mom had a serious talk with me. If I really wanted to take lessons, I would have to think long and hard about what that meant. If I were to take lessons, I would have to continue taking them until I graduated high school or no longer lived at home. If I were to take lessons, I could not quit. Period. That was the end of the discussion. My mother left me with that and told me to think about it and make sure that I could live up to my decision when I made it.

I did think about it. I know I was only five years old, but I was a fairly smart cookie even then. I vividly recall lying down under the baby grand piano and looking out the front window of our house as I thought about it. Did I really want to play the piano and take lessons for that length of time [yes, I was smart enough to figure out on my fingers how many years it would be until I graduated high school]? Could I live with that decision for such a long time? (13 years is a very long time for a 5 year old to consider). I made the positive decision, and my mom got me started with lessons with a lovely teacher. I studied with her for seven or eight years before moving to another town and starting with another teacher.

Did I continue playing piano until I graduated high school or left home? Yes, I played all the way through college, and I continue to play and perform as a pianist and accompanist to this day, even though my primary profession is as a violinist. I have played piano for the San Antonio and Austin Symphonies. I have accompanied university musicals. I have accompanied many, many students of various instruments, as well as professional musicians in recitals. In fact, just the other day, I was accompanying two of my husband’s trombone students at a regional school performance event, and I ran into two band director friends whose pianist had not shown up (there was some very bad weather that caused traffic snarls and closed roads). I stepped in at the last minute as an emergency accompanist for these students. I love playing piano professionally and for my own personal enjoyment.

When I was 7 years old, I ran away from home. I packed a suitcase, unloaded my money from my piggy bank, and marched off about 2 miles away from home to camp out in the little wilderness area behind our local grocery store. I planned to live on Muenster cheese and chocolate Life Savers. The funny part is that I left my parents a note telling them that I was running away but not to worry because I would be back on Wednesday for my piano lesson.

I guess my mother’s lesson about commitment really took hold. I am still practicing piano and violin.

Happy practicing!

Monday Morning Check In: Pithy-ism and cliches

2012-02-06T01:33:00.006-06:00

It’s Monday Morning, and I want to talk about pithiness. As a teacher I find it useful to boil down important concepts into tiny word pictures. As a person journeying through life, I also find it useful to hang my hat on several succinct phrases – short on words but long on concepts. I keep my eyes open for these little gems and find ways to use and reuse them in many areas of my life.

I recall one conversation with a great Texas litigator, Joe Davis, formerly of Hilgers & Watkins, P.C. I asked Mr. Davis why so many litigators flashed clichés around like hot money. As a writer, I understood that clichés were to be avoided because they lacked originality.

Mr. Davis explained that clichés were a useful litigation tool because they painted a vivid picture with few words. When the cliché was good, the cliché would paint a picture that would resonate with a jury. The cliché would build a connection, tell a story, and draw on the individual jurors’ personal experiences with the use of a few words.

Ah, I thought, maybe writing should strive to achieve the same result. I may or may not use clichés in my writing, but I do find comfort in pithy expressions with my students, my friends, and myself. Here are three I enjoy spreading around:

Don’t Break ALL the Dishes

Throw a Lick at a Snake (the A minus philosophy)

Soap is Soap

Don’t Break ALL the Dishes. The dishes example came from something I once heard at a Weight Watchers meeting. The story example discussed at the meeting was about people falling off their diet plans. The dish analogy was that once someone made a dietary choice that was different than planned, the person tended to use that as an excuse to continue making bad dietary choices. In other words, having broken one dish, the person now feels justified as having permission to break all the rest of the dishes in the set.

I remind myself of this little phrase and the concept it represents whenever I make a mistake or fall short of my expectations. The temptation in those situations is to give up, give in, or give out. This phrase reminds me to pick myself up, hang in there, and give it another go.

Throw a Lick at a Snake. I first learned of this phrase with the flylady.net community. I understand this phrase to mean that I do not need to be perfect, although striving for perfection in any endeavor is always the best motivation. Sometimes, though, it is good to throw a lick at a snake. Throw enough at them and surely one or two will hit it. Any lick that hits will be good and make a difference.

I remind myself of this phrase whenever I find myself beginning to obsess about my performance in a particular area. My anchor for this phrase and its advice come from a past history during my stint as Director of the Texas State University Suzuki String Institute. I had a lovely conversation with my cello instructor, Donna Davis, in which she was trying to encourage me during a very stressful week. Here is her story:

Donna volunteered to build a Thanksgiving centerpiece for her child’s kindergarten class. She had the idea of using each letter in the word “Thanksgiving” to represent a particular concept related to the Thanksgiving theme, such as “thanks” for the letter T, “harvest” for the letter H, “appreciation” (or “apple”) for the letter A, and so forth. She got stuck over the letter K. She called the child’s teacher in a panic and asked for advice and help. The teacher must have known Donna well, because the teacher’s response was, “Donna, can a C minus be good enough this time?”

Donna and I had a good laugh over that story, because we understood that we both suffered from a similar problem – the need for perfection. Thereafter, I told that story to my Assistant Director (the best assistant director in the world, Robin Adamo!), and she had instructions to give me the signal at any time that I was heading over to the dark side of perfectionist tendencies. Robin would look me in the eye and ask me, “Can an A minus be good enough?” We would laugh, let the momentary obsession go, and move on.

Soap is soap. This little expression tells us that it does not matter what soap you use. Soap is soap. It fascinates me that there are so many possibilities of soap and shampoo available to us. When I was overseas, I realized that the hotel provided “soap” in most Guest bathrooms. That meant that I had soap for my hair and my body. Instead of waiting for the perfect solution, I would settle tor using the tools that completed the job satisfactorily.

OK, I get it now. It is funny how this works. As I wrote this post, I discovered that I had an overall theme: perfectionism can be hazardous. I notice that my favorite pithy phrases all reflect this theme.

What is your theme? What is the issue that you struggle with the most? I recommend reading as much as you can and visiting websites that may help you to find the quotes or phrases that would help you remember how to handle your issue or problem. Try these interesting sites:

Optimism Inc. on Facebook: community of optimists who share humor, motivation, and a whole lot of optimism.

Dailyinsights.com: daily inspirational and motivational quotes.

Dailypeptalkfromabestfriend.co: daily affirmations; there is a companion podcast; parental warning: this website may contain explicit material that is not appropriate for children or teens (or adults), but I have found more enjoyable and useful material in general on this site.

www.naphill.org: this foundation provides for weekly newsletter inspiration from Napoleon Hill, who wrote the popular “Think and Grow Rich” in 1937.

Dailyaudiobible.com: produced by Nashville recording producer Brian Hardin, this daily podcast provides a daily reading of scripture, including old and new testaments, psalms, and proverbs, along with commentary and a discussion of prayer and community issues. Brian has the perfect recording voice, and Brian has often raised strong issues for me to reflect upon.

There are many such subscription opportunities that provide inspiration, motivational quotes, and affirmations. I believe that it is helpful to frequently fill my mind with information that is encouraging, uplifting, optimistic, positive, and motivational. Most of all, I look for phrases and quotes that give me pause to reflect on the deeper messages that will spur my life forward in positive directions. I frequently visit blogs, books, websites, and recordings by Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, Steve Pavlina, Vic Johnson, Napoleon Hill, John C. Maxwell, and Leo Babauta.

I subscribe to all of the above items. Sometimes I am too busy to read and reflect on the items I receive, but I think that it helps to have a constant diet of such information to consider. I think it is important to keep my mind filled with the right kind of thoughts so that I can inspire my students and be a positive influence or support to my colleagues and studio parents.

I apologize for all the clichés that I included in today’s blog post. I could not resist the temptation to pepper my writing with as many clichés as I could generate to illustrate the theme of this post. Although I generally try to avoid clichés when writing, I do find them as useful as my lawyer friend Joe Davis suggested. As a teacher, I have built an arsenal of clichés and expressions designed to paint vivid pictures, build a connection, and resonate with my students.

This week, think about the issues you face personally. Visit some of the sites or information that I suggested above and see if you make a connection with one or more of them. Begin to collect catch-phrases of your own that provide powerful messages that will inspire you to keep on keeping on.

Quick Parenting Tip: Smile

2012-02-04T07:05:00.000-06:00

I am a big fan of the “Dog Whisperer,” Cesar Milan. I have read most of his books, watched many episodes of his television program, and participated in his online learning program. Let me tell you about one of Cesar’s useful training tips that I think parents should practice regularly with their children.

During the feeding ritual, before actually releasing the dog to eat his or her food, there is a moment when Cesar asks the human to gaze at the dog with a smile and expression of love. This smiling gaze lets the dog feel the human’s positive, warm energy. This is a bonding experience for the dog and the human, who is the dog’s pack leader. The gaze is momentary, but the ritual helps the dog to maintain a calm and relaxed attitude.

Imagine how powerful this ritual would be between a parent and child. What a lovely habit for a parent to develop! The benefits to both the child and parent would be immeasurable.

I understand how difficult it may be for parents to love their children 24 hours a day amid the daily problems and behavior issues. I have often witnessed a parent’s struggle to maintain calm, assertive leadership that would also allow the parent to express love, gentleness, patience, and kindness. Sadly, there are times when I wonder whether a parent likes his or her children because I witness the parent’s seemingly constant battering of sarcasm, impatience, and anger.

Children are important. Like my canine companions, children are dependent on adults for everything: food, shelter, and nurturing. Food and shelter provisions attend to children’s physical needs. Nurturing and a parent’s expressions of love apply to children’s spiritual and emotional needs. A parent’s love and attention to a child will fill up the child’s emotional tank with the most important thing the child will need to face the world with strength and to grow into a secure and stable adult.

Please spend some time today thinking how you can develop the habit of looking at your child with love and a smile. From this simple habit will grow the larger habit of loving your child.

Vibrato: Pig Nose and Wibble Wobbles

2012-01-31T23:06:00.000-06:00

In previous posts I have introduced the vibrato concept. I have offered my suggestions for preparing the student to begin learning vibrato. I have discussed what vibrato is and how I approach the subject with my students, along with some beginning exercises to strengthen the student’s vibrato muscles and movement. This is the point at which I introduce the “pig nose” and “wibble wobble” vibrato exercises.

I have taught for many years and observed many teachers instructing in lessons and master classes. I am like a sponge when it comes to absorbing new ideas to teach familiar concepts. I am never content to sit easy with how I teach something. The minute I find myself complacent about my teaching method for a particular skill is the day before I meet the one student who cannot understand how to do that skill with my method. This is the point at which I become a real teacher, when I am faced with a problem and I do not have the answer. This is the point when I discover just how good a teacher I can be.

I have picked up many new ideas from other teachers. Unfortunately, I do not recall all the teachers that I got my ideas from. I know that I rely on vibrato ideas I have picked up from Teaching from the Balance Point by Ed Kreitman, but I have also picked up ideas from Enid Cleary and other teachers whose names I do not recall. Still in other instances, I have meshed many ideas from other sources together into my own style of doing things. This sort of blend is truly my own uniqueness, as is the case with other teachers.

If I introduce an idea, and you recognize yourself as the source of the idea, please feel free to add a comment and take credit. I would be happy to thank you for planting these seeds in my teaching garden.

Pig Nose

The “pig nose” is nothing more than two dots drawn on the ring finger. The dots resemble a pig’s nose. Here is what I mean:

Pig Nose Vibrato Exercise

I put a short piece of colored tape under the A and E strings where the 6^th position begins (“G” on the A String, “D” on the E string). For purposes of this exercise, the student will be practicing this vibrato exercise on the A string.

The E string presents too many temptations for the student to worry about. I want the student set up for the optimum execution of the exercise and not also worrying about whether the left hand is high enough for the E string, how funny it feels to hold the hand up on the E string, and so forth.

The A string allows the student to relax a bit more as compared to lower strings. The left hand is already up, and there is less danger of the hand slipping down under the fingerboard too much.

I ask the student to rest the wrist and heel of the left hand against the shoulder of the violin. I instruct the student to let the wrist “rest” there and touch against violin throughout the entire exercise. This resting wrist also allows the student to relax.

Note that my language of instruction generally uses language that encourages rest or relaxation. Vibrato is difficult enough to execute without having to fight through tension as well. Students naturally “try” to vibrate and add tension and tightness to their muscles when they work to do vibrato. Vibrato will not work under these circumstances, so we need to guide the student into letting the tension go and letting the hand naturally relax into the vibrato movement.

I ask the student to place the ring finger “pig nose” on the A string on the color tape (this would be the 4^th position note “G”). After checking that the student has the left hand at the correct height and the wrist resting against the instrument, I ask the student to let the hand fall backwards toward the scroll (and along the fingerboard) until the pig nose is revealed. Then the student lets the hand roll back into its starting position and squashing the pig nose.

I may have to revisit the discussion about how the finger does not participate in the active part of vibrato but is just the passive passenger along for the ride. Some students try to create the vibrato motion by using the fingertip. I have to guide the student to use the hand to pull and roll the finger on its tip.

Wibble Wobbles

Once the student has the pig nose motion going with the hand alone, we add the bow to it. At first a student might practice the pig nose vibrato exercise for a week or two. I find that the length of time on this exercise depends on the student. Younger students may work on the exercise for a few weeks. If a student seems to get it, then I add the bow to the exercise.

The purpose of the pig nose marking was to teach the student how much range of motion is necessary to produce the correct vibrato sound. Vibrato should oscillate pitch by a half-step interval. Therefore, in my pig nose exercise above, the student will perform the vibrato oscillation between G and F#. Now we add the bow to the mix and listen to see if the student is getting the half-step interval. If the student performs the pig nose exercise correctly, we will hear the half step.

Wibble wobbles should be performed at the metronome speed of 60. I have also shown students how to use the second hand of a clock to determine the speed of 60. Each wibble wobble should be performed per click.

I ask the student to start doing “Wibble Wobbles” and aim for four of them in a down-bow and four in an up-bow. Mr. Kreitman refers to this as one round. The student may take a week or two to get comfortable doing this. My goal is to have the student play 8 rounds of wibble wobbles.

Four is fairly easy to do but not enough to push the student to progress.

Six is a little more difficult but manageable. I tell students that six is just enough to learn how to do vibrato, but that it will take a while.

Eight is excruciating to a student! I tell students that eight is the magic number! Eight builds the muscle, the habit, and the ability. Vibrato will come quickly if we do eight.

What’s Next?

After the wibble wobble exercise, the next step is to build speed up naturally. The hand is still resting against the instrument, and the student still performs the exercise in 4^th position. At this point I help the student to keep control of the vibrato motion while gaining careful speed.

First, we do our wibble wobbles, but we do only two rounds. Then we add six rounds of “strawberry blueberry” oscillations. This is a triplet rhythm that is faster than our wibble wobbles.

Second, once the student has mastered step one, we add another gear speed: we do 2 rounds of wibble wobbles, 2 rounds of strawberry blueberry oscillations, and 4 rounds of superduperwibblewobbles.

Wibble Wobble Vibrato Exercise

Rhythms

After the student is comfortable with the above exercises, I add additional exercises to maintain speed and control. I ask the student to perform the vibrato oscillation to a particular rhythmic figure. I use three main figures, and coincidentally these rhythmic variations coincide with Dr. Suzuki’s Twinkle Variations:

Mississippi Hot dog (Variation A)

Ice Cream sh! Cone (Variation B)

Cat Kitty Cat Kitty (Variation C)

Kitty Cat Kitty Cat (reverse of Variation C)

Note the student has already worked on the rhythms of variations D and E.

Great, you think, my students can now perform the vibrato exercises, but how do I teach them to do vibrato in first position?

In a future post, I will talk about how to bring vibrato down into the lower positions away from the shoulder of the violin and how to incorporate it into the repertoire.

For now, happy teaching!

Monday Morning Check In: A Rock in a Sea of Confusion

2012-01-29T20:44:00.000-06:00

It’s Monday Morning, and I want to discuss the importance of what we do as teachers and the gift we give to others. I want to share some powerful photographs with you throughout my discussion.

The US Coast Guard photos you see in this blog post depict Tillamook Rock Lighthouse ("Terrible Tilly"). I travel to Oregon every summer and have done so since 1984. I have visited the town of Tillamook and the cheese factory of the same name every year and most of the Oregon lighthouses, but I have never seen this lighthouse. I know it only by photos I have seen in books or on the Internet. When I look at these photos, I experience a lot of fear. This is not a place that I would seek to visit or live. This is a dangerous place. I would eagerly vote for hazard pay for anyone who was assigned to this post. This lighthouse serves a valuable purpose. It alerts others to the presence of danger and serves as a warning. It is a rock in a sea of confusion.

This is a great pictorial representation of what we can become as teachers to those around us whom we may influence. As teachers we are highly respected. I learned about this over a decade ago when I still practiced law (music was my first career, and I added a law degree along the way). Everyone loved to hate lawyers. When my life’s circumstances pushed me back into teaching music full time during my mother’s failing health circumstances, I quickly learned that everyone loves teachers. Teachers are respected, revered, and adored. Lawyers are not. I am reminded of the Nathaniel Hawthorne quote when asked by his mother about his choice of profession as a writer: “I do not want to be a doctor and live by men's diseases, nor a minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer and live by their quarrels. So, I don't see that there is anything left for me but to be an author.”

As a lawyer, I had already experienced the disapprobation of our times; I say again that people love to hate lawyers, except when a lawyer is needed, usually in the middle of the night to help a parent handle a child’s transgression against society. The days of the respected and trusted Atticus Finch (ˆTo Kill a Mockingbird by Lee Harper) are gone. The picture of Perry Mason as the idealized attorney representing the innocent client who is a victim of police power corruption does not represent our current time.

Instead our children are presented with events such as 9/11 or the Columbine school shooting. I have survived both events and been touched by each of them. (Atticus Finch: "There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.)

On September 11, 2001, a Tuesday, I was teaching an early day, about 8 am. As I finished up the lesson, my husband called to inform me that someone had flown a plane into the World Trade Center. Huh? Since my father is a pilot, I knew that there were restricted air spaces in that area. Someone must have been incredibly stupid, I thought, to have violated this restriction.

I kept the news station on the radio while I cleaned the studio and waited for the next students to arrive. During that time, I learned about the tragic events in New York. Stunned, I spent a good portion of my day sitting at my desk and thinking (and writing, which is how I glean the most comfort). As the day unfolded, I realized that the businesses near to me were closed or had shut down and it was eerily quiet outside (due to the US flight restrictions).

I wanted to go home and sit and contemplate the momentous import of what had happened that day. But I could not. I was not sure who would come to the studio, and I was not sure how I could reach all of my students to find out their intentions. Instead, I just stayed where I was in the studio and kept cleaning and practicing and writing.

As the day progressed, my students arrived one by one. Their parents would tentatively open the studio door and poke their head around to peer at me: “Are you teaching today?” they would ask. “Yes!” I told them.

They would come into the room, the parents would exchange a tearful glance with me, and we would have our lesson. The students would be a little bit subdued: they knew something had happened but not what it was (and they would not understand the "hugeness" of the occasion at that moment anyway).

What I learned that day was that what we do as teachers is incredibly important. We can be the rock in a child’s life when everything around them is a sea of confusion. We are the stability that allows the child to handle difficulties or grief. We provide the child with the anchor they need so that they can go through the scary stuff. We are something that the child can hang onto when things are tough.

We do not have a 9/11 every day or every year. Still, children experience difficulties in enough measure that we teachers can be called upon to provide strength and support. Perhaps your student is suffering the effects and aftermath of a divorce in the family. Perhaps your student’s family is struggling to recover from a death or serious illness in the family. Whatever the type of event is in your student’s life, you the teacher can be the rock in the sea of confusion or despair.

What an awesome responsibility! What an honor to offer this kind of service!

This week, think about how you give the gift of yourself to your students. You may be the one bright spot in your students' week.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This is the last Monday of the month. Time to check in and finish up what we have not done so far to keep our studio running smoothly. Review your checklists from the previous weeks and attend to any items that you have not yet taken care of. Because we are at the end of the month, look ahead to these items:

Time to set up your bill paying program. Arrange to pay your next month's bills.
Your students should have all paid their tuition by now. If they have not, make sure that you send an email reminder that the tuition is due (plus the coming month), and set a reminder in your calendar to check in with the student's parents at the next lesson.
Set up your monthly record keeping system for the coming month.
Clean up the studio. I was fortunate this past weekend to have my studio toilet overflow for some reason. The event caused me to mop the floor, but do not wait until a catastrophic event to get around to cleaning your teaching area. You do not need a large amount of time to clean your studio:

Set a timer for 10 minutes and run the vacuum until the timer goes off.
Swab a mop around the common areas for 10 minutes.
Grab a sponge and some cleaner and attack the bathroom with vigor for another 10 minutes (be sure to clean the mirror).
Run a dust rag or feather duster around the room for another 10 minutes. Then straighten up the place and throw away magazines or other trash.
Take another 10 minutes to put things away that need putting away or filing. There! You have spent an hour (or less) and the place looks terrific.

It is the beginning of tax season. If you have not yet taken care of these items, time to get cracking!

Gather your tax documents for the previous year and put them in a folder for processing later when you do your tax preparation.
Set up your studio record keeping system so that you can begin capturing your next year's tax records.
Make sure to file any tax record documents you may have generated in this current month.

Is there anything you can clear out of your studio space? I like to subscribe to the periodic suggestion from http://flylady.net to do a 27-fling boogie. This activity requires you to have a receptacle or large plastic bag and run around a designated area and collect 27 items that need to be removed from the area. What you do with the items is your choice. When I do a 27-fling boogie, I aim to collect items to be given to a charitable organization. I could also designate two boxes: one box for giving away and another box for putting away. Still, I think it is more productive to get rid of clutter rather than file it away somewhere else in an already overcrowded environment.

My catastrophic studio toilet experience this weekend reminded me that I need to organize my files better. I had two boxes of music on the floor, and they needed to be filed away (fortunately, the boxes were unaffected by the extra water, but it was a close one!). I plan to set aside 10 minutes at least every week to attend to any piles of music or supplies that are sitting around the studio and need a permanent home.

Happy teaching week!

Take Ten

2012-01-28T21:43:00.000-06:00

Building a practice habit is as simple as taking ten -- ten minutes that is. When I ask my students and parents to practice every day, or at least on the days that they eat, as Dr. Suzuki was fond of saying, I am amazed at how easily my students and parents provide me with reasons why they cannot do that. Generally I do not assign a particular maximum amount of time to spend practicing, because I do not like the idea of telling a student to practice 2 hours, or four or five. I want my students and their parents to focus on practice goals and then to set up a practice routine that meets those goals.

I know of no goal that would allow a student to miss practicing, certainly not to miss practicing on a fairly recurrent basis. I understand that life sometimes gets in the way of our intentions and desires, but with a little thought and planning, we can still manage to find time to practice. The solution is all about priorities. If we place a high priority on practicing with our child, then we will find or make the time necessary to practice with our child.

I ask my parents to find a minimum of 10 minutes. That is all. When I reduce my expectations to the quantity of 10 minutes, my parents and students find it difficult to excuse their way out of it, because everyone can find 10 minutes in their day:

My university students have learned that they can generate 30 minutes to an hour each day just by avoiding the lobby of the music building and instead following a route through the music building that skirts the lobby. A lot of time gets wasted in the lobby with social activities.

Having a plan in advance for the day or even the week will help the student or parent to stay focused on what activities are productive and to pay less attention to time-wasting (and possibly nonproductive or unrewarding) activities.

Eat/dress/shower/walk faster.

Record TV shows and fast forward through commercial breaks.

Primp less in the mirror (this is a great generator of time for students in the teen years!).

Watch less TV.

A group of my studio parents used to take turns on certain days and go to the children's school to practice with each other's child. The school was delighted to allow this to take place during a time when nothing else more important was going on.

Practice before school.

Practice in those "twilight" minutes before dinner. Practice after dinner in those moments before the night's entertainment begins.

If a student or parent continues to argue about this, I ask them to bring me their calendar so that I can help them find some available time. If we cannot find 10 minutes, then I have to suggest the obvious: perhaps they are too busy or lack the commitment necessary to be taking music lessons at this time. The alternative is that the student or parent needs to eliminate one or more activities in order to free up some time. A parent cannot reasonably expect that a student can learn a skill and develop an ability in a time vacuum when no time is spent learning, practicing, and using the new skill and ability.

Here is a short interview of about one minute with the mother of one of my youngest students. This student began lessons at the age of 2.5 years. The student has a weekly 30 minute lesson and attends group classes of 45 minutes to an hour about twice a month. She has great concentration and plays beautifully. She is working to complete her Twinkle variations along with several other songs that we enjoy playing. Here is my student's mother describing her philosophy about practicing:

Interview with Suzuki parent: 10 Minute Philosophy

See how simple it can be? Can you really look me in the eye and tell me that you cannot find ten minutes a day to spend with your child in quality interaction? Your child is your most precious gift. Ten minutes is a small amount of time to spend to develop the gift of a lifetime for your child.

Aunt Rhody: Dessert Tastes Sweet!

2012-01-26T00:19:00.000-06:00

After reading and working through my previous posts that discuss the teaching and learning of Lightly Row and Song of the Wind, I am willing to bet that you are ready for a break! I am certain that your students and their practice partners are ready to catch their breath.

Dr. Suzuki understood the need for a “breather” now and then when he put together his repertoire of Suzuki volumes. When I explain this concept to my student's practice partner, I use the analogy of hiking up a steep mountain. Along the way, we run out of breath from exerting ourselves. Periodically we stop and take a rest. We get out our cameras and take pictures of flora and fauna or the vista before or behind us. Maybe we have a snack or a meal. Then, after a brief refreshment, we push forward to the next resting place along the trail.

As it is with mountain trail hiking, so it is with learning the Suzuki repertoire. Dr. Suzuki arranged the material to challenge us with new left and right hand skills and ever increasing complex musical forms. After a few songs, we find a song that breathes a little easier for us. We quickly figure out the finger patterns, and there seem to be few new technical skills included in the song. We find that we can just relax and enjoy the view, catch our breath, and let our muscles and our motivation and enthusiasm for learning get a little bit stronger as we give them a chance to build and harden.

Dr. Suzuki arranged the repertoire to introduce new technical skills, but rather than constantly push us to the edge of the cliff, Dr. Suzuki allowed us to step back a wee bit now and then to enjoy the beauty of playing music and to celebrate how much we have learned about the instrument, music, and ourselves up to this point. I call this type of piece one of Dr. Suzuki’s "dessert" songs. “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” is a dessert song.

I spend very little time teaching my students how to play Aunt Rhody. I use the song to work on ear training skills and to show my students how to translate the musical sounds they hear into the notes and fingers they need to play to recreate the same sound. Occasionally a student has difficulty in this area because of perfectionist tendencies. This song is great for working through these issues.

Here is a basic summary of the skills found in the song:

Left Hand Skills

The song is in A major and uses the same finger pattern as the previous book one songs (close 2-3 finger pattern).The song basically moves stepwise, either ascending or descending.

There is a finger "tangle" spot in measure 4.

The song is in A-B-A form (3 parts and the first and third part are the same).

Right Hand Skills

There is a quick string crossing from the E string to the 3^rd finger “D” on the A string.

There is a later opportunity to teach bow distribution concepts: long bow, 2 shorter bows, long bow, 2 shorter bows.

There is a forte and echo place in measures 5-8 where the student can learn about using bigger bows for bigger sounds and smaller bows for smaller sounds.

Previews (How to Teach the Song)

I preview the finger "tangle" spot in measure 4.

I help the student to practice the string crossing place in measure 6 from the E string to the note “D” on the A string.

If the student has not picked out the notes to the song on their own, I use the song as an opportunity to work on ear training skills.

I ask them to turn around from me because we are going to play a game. I play the first note and ask the student to try and find it on his or her violin.

I may have to guide the student a little bit by asking questions that direct the student, such as whether the student thinks the note is on the A or the E string.

Students do not yet understand the progression of pitches up the scale to the next string. This will come later on.

Parents do not understand this concept either. Women have a harder time grasping the concept of the pitch getting higher when the string length is shortened. Guys tend to get this right away.

I play the first 2 notes of the song and ask the student whether the notes are different or the same. I am establishing the thought process for picking out a new song.

I play the first 3 notes of the song and ask the student whether the new note is different or the same. If it is different, did the pitch go “higher” or “lower”? Students can have a hard time with the concepts of “higher” and “lower.” This will also come together with time.

I continue working through the first measure, and maybe the 2^nd measure as well depending on the student. Once the student is able to play this small segment of the song, I will help the practice partner and student by writing down what we accomplished, e.g., 2A-2-1-A-A-1-1-2-1-A.

I know about the discussion of whether to use numbers or note names. I have struggled to remember to use note names from the onset, but I keep forgetting.

I find it helpful to enlist the practice partner’s help with this, and I ask them to remind me to stay with the note names.

If I use finger numbers, I only list the string name when the string changes. My students understand that they are to play on the same string until I have designated a string change.

This is the perfect time to work on those perfectionist tendencies or fear issues, if they exist. If a student suffers from these problems, the student will present in this way:

The student will hesitate before playing anything.

The student will hesitate for longer and longer periods of time until he or she becomes almost catatonic.

I encourage the student to stop "thinking" and just play, because “sometimes the fingers and bow know just what to do and thinking about it will get in the way of the fingers and bow.”

I help the practice partner observe the student’s behavior so that they see exactly what I see. A child who is having trouble in this way probably has trouble in other areas at home as well.

Remember, a parent could be the reason behind this problem. E.g., sometimes a strong, confident parent could be squelching the student’s comfort about experimenting.

Also, a perfectionist parent or overly critical parent may promote this problem in the student. If a student cannot play something “perfectly,” or the student is not sure that they can play perfectly or correctly, they will stand before me completely stymied.

If I identify a perfectionist issue, I instruct the parent to “burn toast.” This is my expression for activities that I want the parent to engage in at home and present in a new way.

If the parent makes toast, I tell the parent to burn the toast and then throw a “hissy fit” and threaten to never make toast again because it was not perfect.

If the parent makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I tell the parent to smear the peanut butter or the jelly all wrong on the bread, throw a silly tantrum about it, and go through the routine of never making another PB & J sandwich again because it was not perfect.

The student will quickly get the message. The student will recognize how silly the parent is acting, and this opens the door for great discussions about the whole thing.

This also alerts the parent to recognize when the parent is behaving in a way that contributes to the student’s problem.

Once I work through the ear training exercise with a student, I find that the process of picking out the notes of a new song by ear go much easier with the next song. I continue working in this way through the literature in book 1 until the student at some point “gets it” and can do it for him- or herself.

Later Problems (or Just Later)

I do not have very many problems come up later with this song.

I do use this song later for introducing more advanced skills.

I use Aunt Rhody as a review song for teaching whole bow distribution:

Whole down bow

2 smaller bows at the tip

Whole up bow

2 smaller bows at the frog

I use Aunt Rhody to teach the low 1^st finger pattern by substituting a Bb for B natural on the A string and F natural for F# on the E string. We refer to this as Aunt Rhody goes to Saudi Arabia, because the song sounds like music from that part of the world.

I use Aunt Rhody to teach the close 1-2 finger pattern on the A string. We substitute C natural for C#.

Group Class and Other Options

We play the game where Aunt Rhody travels around the world.

We go to Saudi Arabia: low 1^st finger on the A and E strings.

We play sad Aunt Rhody. I tell the students that Aunt Rhody is homesick.

We play Aunt Rhody with pizzicato and pretend we went to England.

We play Aunt Rhody with our bows over the fingerboard (in the ditch) because we went to the rain forests in Brazil and our car got mired in the mud and ran off the road.

We play Texas Aunt Rhody, which is a double string version, where we drone A or E string while we play the song.

Aunt Rhody is a great long bow or legato review song.

We use the song in group classes to practice making crescendos and echoes.

As you can see, the Suzuki repertoire and how we approach the teaching presentation of the repertoire are full of possibilities. We are limited only by our imaginations. Aunt Rhody is a dessert song in my book, but it is a great song for teaching many possible concepts. Most of my students love Aunt Rhody, so it is always popular.

I had a young student who started lessons at age 5. She was one of the brightest students I ever had. She is currently studying in the science field at the University of Texas. When she was 7, she told me that “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” was her favorite song. Whenever she was fearful about something at school, she would sing the song to give herself courage.

I have never forgotten that. That was the first time I recognized how powerful the Suzuki repertoire could be to a young child who is discovering the power and beauty of music for the first time.

Monday Morning Check In: Take Care of Yourself

2012-01-23T01:28:00.008-06:00

Today’s topic is an important one that we often neglect: taking care of ourselves. This is a season when the weather and our activities may compromise our health. I want to remind you today of the importance of thinking about ourselves and taking care to be sure that we are protected from the things that may adversely affect us.

There are five areas that need our attention: health, work, home, lifestyle, and growth. Let us take a closer look at each area, why it is important that we pay attention to our condition in this area, what the bumps in the road are likely to be, and the areas we need to address or shore up.

Health

“If you have your health, you have everything.” Remember that saying? I could not find out the author, so if you know, get in touch with me.

Without good health, we are miserable creatures. We find little joy in our daily activities. It hurts to move; it hurts to think. Good health is absolutely crucial to a pleasant day. Without it we have little energy to face the little kiddos in our charge. As professional musicians, we have trained ourselves to dig deep and find that reservoir of energy to put on a performance or finish a tough teaching day despite our general feeling of malaise.

Poor or compromised health can come from many sources. Generally I think that poor health stems from a compromised system of strength. If our systems are firing on all cylinders, then we probably have the resources to fight off infection and disease. However, if we have run ourselves down in terms of scheduling, poor food choices, and lack of physical exercise, then we have set ourselves up for the possibility that a nasty germ or two will enter our system and take us out of commission for a time.

In the problems we can find the solution. We need to be mindful of our food choices. What exactly are we eating? Is it the best thing for us? Can we substitute some other better choices? Are we paying attention to our body’s needs? Are we exercising regularly, both cardio and strength activities?

Work

Some of you may resemble me: you work all the time. Yes, I admit that I have a problem with this. I have thought long and hard about the possible reasons. I recall one job interview years ago when I announced with pride that I was a workaholic. Although I got the job in that law firm (surprise, surprise), I look back on that memory and shudder. How could I think that such an admission would be a good thing? Being a workaholic shouts out to everyone that I have a problem. I may be a people pleaser, which means that I do whatever I need to do to gain acceptance and accolades. The word was first used in 1968 to refer to a compulsive worker. Admitting that I have a compulsion to do work is an admission that I have a problem, because a compulsion is defined as an irresistible persistent impulse (Merriam-Webster). I understand how I might have thought at the time that offering up the fact that I enjoyed working would make me more attractive in the job market. However, over time I have come to learn that this issue should be greeted with caution and circumspection. Exactly why do I feel a need to constantly fill up my empty calendar (white space) with things to do?

There is wisdom to be gained from stopping. There is the gift of self-knowledge to be unpacked if one stops long enough to look and listen for the kernel of insight. We tend to stay constantly busy, most likely to avoid dealing with some other difficult issue.

Take a few moments today to consider how much time you devote to work. Are you addicted to work? Do you fill up your white spaces on your calendar with ruthlessness? If this is one of your troublesome areas, look at your calendar, find a white space, and write something different there: “White Space Time.”

On a personal note, I had a very busy day scheduled this past Saturday. I had a heavy Artisan Quartet program in the evening, and during the day (starting at 8 am), I was adjudicating a local school district music contest, which would last most of the day. I was ready and equal to the task (I have a LOT of energy). At the last minute, due to a glitch in the system, I found that I was double booked with someone else. Rather than insist that I continue with the judging because I was the first person asked, I opted to take the day off and let the other judge take over. I thought it would be a good thing to be fresh for the evening’s concert.

It was a great day! I scheduled a nap in there somewhere, although it did not amount to much time. That was all right, because the rest of the day was terrific. At some point in the morning, I took the time to write a list of some things that I wanted to do during the day. Since it was an unexpected “white space day,” I followed my rule of choosing activities that I wanted to do, and not insisting that I do something because it needed to be done.

Funny, but I spent quite a bit of time straightening up my personal bathroom. I set the timer for 15 minutes for a small task, but when the timer went off, I reset it and kept going, all the time knowing that I could stop when the timer went off. I don’t think I spent much more than an hour in there, but I accomplished a great deal and I felt terrific at the end.

Give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Home

Home involves a place and people. If you are not paying enough attention to either the place or the people who live there, then you will have more strife and stress than you can ultimately handle in terms of creating good health. The solution to this problem generally stems from one thing: TIME. You need to spend time in the place that you call “home” and with the people who live with you (including pets if they are your people, as in my case). How you treat your home and the people in it will say much about how you respect and revere these things.

There. I have said it. Your behavior concerning these two areas reveals your attitude toward these two areas. Consider what your behavior is. Are you a bit slovenly in your housekeeping? I have certainly been there and done that. (See my discussion above about work and you will understand how easy it is for me to claim that I have no time for housekeeping). Although I have found it easy in the past to be flippant about hiring someone to do this chore, I understand in my core that my attention to this area sends the message to my loved ones that I care about them enough to take the time to give my attention to this area.

If you have trouble with housekeeping, go to www.flylady.net. You will find everything you need to succeed in this area. Take it a baby step at a time.

Lifestyle

This area is related to the work area, at least for me. It is also related to the other areas as well. How we choose to deal with the various areas I have listed here constitutes our lifestyle choice. Too many times we react to the events in our lives as if we had no control over their occurrence. I would like to suggest that we are captains of our lives in more ways than we allow ourselves to acknowledge. Do we want to spend our days working to accomplish our goals or to help someone else achieve their goals? Make no mistake about this. I am all in favor of helping others else achieve their goals. That is a function of teaching. If, however, we are allowing ourselves to drift through life without a plan of action, then we are allowing ourselves to be subject to the desires and plans of others.

I prefer to choose the lifestyle I lead. I am a busy lady. That is okay. I like to do many different things. I am a curious person. I enjoy being involved in many different activities and learning about new things. Because I maintain a working list of goals and preferred daily activities, I am confident that I am pursuing my lifestyle choice rather than that of someone else.

What are your goals? Are you living the lifestyle that you desire? In what areas could you improve? Make sure that you have a list of goals for the coming year. Also make sure that you have a system for keeping track of these goals. Is your behavior in line with the goals you have set?

Growth

This is my favorite area of taking care of myself. I remember a Star Trek episode in which the Star Trek crew discover a race that have “evolved” to the point that they no longer need their physical bodies. There were only three brains under glass jars. To me, this episode represented the dangers of not exploring the physical and spiritual realms of growth. I have discussed the need for physical attention above, but here I advocate for attention to our growth spiritually and mentally.

I believe that we need to stimulate our brains by developing a program that actively engages our mental facilities. Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, new language learning – all of these activities serve to stimulate our mental facilities. In addition, we need spiritual nourishment. We exist here on this planet at this moment in time for a purpose. It is important that we reveal the purpose for why we are here now and why. However we determine our answers to these puzzling questions, we still need to consider the questions, our answers, and our responses.

Taking care of ourselves is a conundrum. It is a riddle, a puzzle, an exercise, and an answer to many of the issues that plague us.

Let us make a commitment today to spend time throughout the week contemplating the areas I have listed above, what problems we have in these areas, and how we can improve.

Have a great week!

Look at Me and Other Rules

2012-01-19T22:45:00.000-06:00

I often overhear a parent tell the child to “look at me when I’m talking to you.” In most of these cases, I have found that the student in question is not necessarily a visual learner, so “looking” is not the student’s natural response. Sometimes a gentle reminder to the parent that the child is not a visual learner will go a long way to lightening up the parent’s assumption that the child is disrespecting the parent by not looking at them. Also, I may need to remind a parent that some children become quite embarrassed when scolded in front of another child, adult, or especially the teacher, and these children tend to cast the eyes downward, or face away, or hide behind a music stand or another person.

I find it more helpful to discuss with the child that certain behaviors are considered polite. Even though I know and understand that the child can hear me without looking at me at the same time, I explain that there are many people in the world who will want the child or student to establish eye contact during conversation of any kind. And then I help the child to do just that.

In Ron Clark’s “The Essential 55” book, he lists the basic rules he asks his students to follow. One of them is to look the other person in the eye when he or she speaks (Rule 2). I enjoy referring to Mr. Clark’s book on occasion for a renewed focus. For example, recently I have begun asking students to look me in the eye (Rule 2) and answer questions in complete sentences (Rule 14). This may be more difficult concepts for younger students, but it is a great set of expectations for high school and university students, who are beginning to face the world as young adults and who may need interview skills for employment opportunities or college applications.

Other popular rules in my studio are that at the end of a lesson, a student may have a “Dum Dum” lollipop, which is a tiny little lollipop of about 15 calories. The student must ask for the treat and use the word “please.” Then the student must remember to say thank you within an acceptable lapse of time (Rule 9; Mr. Clark says three seconds is the appropriate length of time). If the student does not remember to say thank you, then we will throw the lollipop in the trash can. No student yet has forgotten to say thank you. In fact, they usually remember to say it at the time they receive the lollipop. I even had one student’s mom call me on the drive home from the lesson because the child was upset that I might not have heard her say “thank you."

Mr. Clark's little book is full of great rules for students, and for adults too for that matter. I highly recommend this book for every parent. Manners and general civility should never go out of style.

Monday Morning Check In: How to Handle Grief

2012-01-16T02:13:00.000-06:00

This will be a different kind of Monday Morning post, because this is a different Monday for many of us in the Austin Symphony Orchestra. On December 27, 2011, the symphony’s members lost a valuable colleague when Jennifer Bourianoff died in the hospital from a viral pneumonia infection that seemed to spring up overnight. Although our colleague had been in poor health in the past year, she continued to fulfill her symphony responsibilities as best she could while she battled her health issues.

This past weekend the symphony honored Jennifer, a valuable member of the first violin section and Assistant Concertmaster, by dedicating the subscription series concerts to her memory. As the symphony members and conductor Peter Bay prepared for the weekend’s performances, we wrestled with how to handle our individual emotions and feelings about the situation. Rehearsals were subdued. Many musicians expressed themselves through conversations, story-telling, and recalled memories. Others were more introspective and quiet.

Almost everyone found something to “grinch” about in a small way, a phenomenon I refer to as “kicking the dog.” Most of the musicians handled the rehearsals just fine, but there were pockets of time when folks seemed a mite more irritable about something trivial than the situation required. I thought this was one example of how people handled their grief. Things were not normal. Things would never be the same. We continued to play our instruments and make music together, but there was a rift in the fabric of who and what our symphony was. As hard as we all worked to make our final gift to Jennifer and her family as beautiful and flawless as we could, we still struggled ourselves with having to work around the hole in our hearts and in our membership.

As I watched these small occurrences of kicking the dog, I thought about what would be a good way to handle grief and mourning. The answer will be different for everyone, but I made some observations of the types of things that people found helpful in our situation.

Dissociation

Basically, dissociation is a defense mechanism. We have probably all used this technique at some point when we “zone out” or daydream while performing an activity. Many of us can probably recall a time or two when we drove somewhere and have no recollection of the drive because we were on autopilot. I have used this technique to focus or “tunnel in” on something I am doing, such as writing a lengthy paper, running a marathon, or surviving a difficult recital performance.

I have also used this dissociation technique when I am faced with grief in great proportions. As a performing musician, I learnt from an early age that “the show must go on.” This old saw refers to the fact that musicians cannot really afford to take a night off. We have to dig deep on those days when we do not quite feel up to snuff. When faced with deep grief, I hypnotize myself to tune out those thoughts while I get the task done. I get into my “work mode.” And so I used this technique to survive this past week, as I sat behind Jennifer’s empty chair, which had been draped with white satin and decorated with a large bouquet of flowers.

Today, however, there is no longer a need to use this technique, and the dissociation walls have crumbled. I am now turning to the second useful technique for handling grief.

Tears

I spoke with a therapist years ago about why therapists encourage the expression of grief through tears and crying. The therapist explained that tears were nature’s way to heal the body. Although we need spiritual and emotional healing, tears are a physical expression of that intangible healing. So rather than hold the tears back, the therapist suggested that it would be better to let the tears flow, and the more tears that flowed over time, the closer the person would come to achieving ultimate emotional healing. Today I am accepting the catharsis that comes from using this technique, as have many of Jennifer’s friends and colleagues as well as her family.

Writing

Years ago I lost a very important pet, my black lab mix Zubin (yes, named after Zubin Mehta as suggested by a conductor friend). This was my first dog as an adult, and I felt as if he was my best friend, my child, and my sweetheart, all rolled into one package. We took trips together. We played together. I taught him so many tricks. We had so many memories, so that when he passed away, I was “heart sick.” I came to the conclusion that I was hanging on to my memories with my grief because I was afraid that I would lose the fresh crispness of my memories; I feared that my stories and memories would fade with the healing of time. I could not bear the thought of forgetting all that my sweet fellow had been to me, and so my thoughts were making my heart sick.

I bought a pretty little journal and spent an evening writing in it until I could think of nothing more to tell about my darling boy. I wrote about all the tricks my dog performed, all the funny stories I could recall, and my feelings of loss now that my beloved pet was gone. I drank a lovely bottle of wine during my writing event, as I recall, and turned it into my small celebration of my love for my sweet dog.

After I finished, I closed the book and put it on the bookshelf. Every once in a while I would feel drawn to pull the little book off the shelf and read what I wrote that night. These feelings seemed to occur on or about the anniversary date of my pet’s death. (I find it interesting that our mind and spirit revisit these feelings on a cyclical basis). Once I finished writing my little book of memories, my grief subsided and I was able to move on past it, in spite of my loss. Because I had taken the time to write my way through my grief, I now had a permanent record of my beloved dog, and I no longer needed to fear that I would forget him. He would always be a permanent part of me through my writing. Jennifer has also been a big part of my daily morning pages entries in the past few weeks as I write my way through my memories.

Instead of sending a sympathy card, our symphony members opted to write in a small journal instead, as suggested by our musician’s committee chairman. Some members wrote personal letters to Jennifer. Others wrote stories and memories to share with Jennifer’s family. People glued pictures of Jennifer on the pages. We used the journal as a special place to pour out the words that best reflected everyone’s individual emotional needs. We remembered our Jennifer in unique ways, as each person who wrote in the book found their own special way to share our individual and collective connections with Jennifer on the journal pages. I am sure the book will be a treasure to Jennifer’s family in the future.

Celebration

Every person we meet makes a valuable contribution to our lives in some way and on some level. We should celebrate that connection, no matter how brief or momentary, how complicated or complex. As with all performing musicians, each of us connect and relate with each other on a sliding scale of intimacy depending on the type of performance collaboration we are called on to make together. No matter whether we were very close or just the briefest of acquaintances, we have made a connection together. That small connection — that thread in the fabric of life — ought to be acknowledged, respected, and honored.

The symphony celebrated our connections with our colleague of over twenty years through a series of performances. Other members celebrated through special dedicated performances in the community or as part of the funeral events. Other members bought flowers or sent cards to the family. Still others may visit the grave site or schedule an intimate gathering of friends to celebrate that Jennifer touched our lives in a special way.

I noted with interest that in these past two weeks, there were different combinations of people grouping together and making new connections or rebuilding former connections that had been lost. Death has the unique ability to tenderize the heart in a way that nothing else other than a deep religious faith can. Jennifer's death softened the hearts of many of our symphony members in a way that drew us closer to one another as we shared our mutual grief over this new entry in our organization's history.

All of these different expressions of celebration help us to individually honor the value and worth of the person whose memory we celebrate. Just as the ancients of the bible erected pillars or altars to commemorate a place where a special event occurred, so does our individual acts of celebration remind us of the importance of the person who touched each of us in a special way.

Acceptance

Finally, I offer the technique of acceptance. When we accept something, we no longer fight to change circumstances. We no longer express disbelief or shock that this tragedy has occurred. We no longer shake our fists in the air or our heads at the ground. We sit quietly as the momentous experience wraps itself around us, and we accept that “it is what it is.” Once we can do that, we can begin to face the next stage our life holds for us.

Let me remind you that everyone experiences and survives grief and mourning in different ways and over differing periods of time. While you may have reached this stage of acceptance, there may be others who still struggle to break the surface of the emotional pain and breathe air again. Look around to see if there is someone who needs help. Helping others to process their grief may be just the thing to help you to handle yours.

There is no one way to handle grief, and many people use many different ways to wrap their minds around sad events. Ultimately, time will pass, and the grief will lessen. We will not forget the person we lost, nor should we try to do so. Everyone comes into our lives for a purpose and a season. Some stay in our lives longer than others, and some touch us in very special, close ways.

I will miss you, Jennifer. You were a part of my life in many ways over the past two decades. I have many memories and stories of times we shared together, on and off stage. Thank you for the gift of yourself that you gave to all of us, and thank you for the gift of your music.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This is the middle of the month checklist:

Have you received all of your tuition payments for the current month? If not, make a list of who owes what money, and make one or two calls per day to remind your students' parents to bring the payments up to date.

Is your studio or teaching space straightened up and clean? Take a few minutes at the beginning and end of each teaching day this week and put things away, straighten up teaching materials, and clean the bathroom.

Do you have the schedule for the next week or two laid out? If not, take the 5-10 minutes to do that. Then look through your calendar and determine when you will practice or devote time to your other goals.

Have you set up a system to catch your receipts and records to be used in filing your 2012 taxes? Take a few moments to set up such a system now.

Practice Tip: Building Tone with Open Strings

2012-01-11T01:57:00.001-06:00

I think Dr. Suzuki hit on a brilliant idea when he suggested that we practice tonalizing on our open strings. I would like to share my experience with you on this matter.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with the term "tonalization," and apparently my spell checker is unfamiliar with the word, Dr. Suzuki coined this word to describe what we instrumentalists do in comparison to the vocalization that vocalists do. Just as singers work to produce good quality tone and volume, so too can we instrumentalists.

Tone is a broad topic, but we do not need to discuss what tone is in order to understand how best to produce it. Dr. Suzuki suggested plucking the open strings and listening to the resonance of the pitch and then recreating the "ringing" sound with the bow playing the same pitch. There is something special about the resonance of our open strings. There is a brightness, a clarity, and a lingering and shimmering vibration in the air. The open strings sparkle and emit an extra "umph" in their sound.

When I am working with a student to build a stronger tone, I ask the student to play open strings as much as possible. For example, when playing notes on the D string, I might ask a student to play the open D string as strongly as possible about 6-8 times before playing the D string passage. Similarly, I will ask for repeated A strings or E strings. I notice that once a student has played an open string numerous times with the aim of making the string vibrate back and forth as widely as possible with as slow a bow as possible, the student then works to make the passage live up to the tone level set by the resonating open strings. I also think there is a kinesthetic value to this exercise, as students learn how to "feel" the pitch as well as hear the pitch with all its resonant overtones. I find that playing this open string exercise on the G string is quite lovely; the vibrations I produce resemble the same variations used in meditation chants, which help to stimulate the internal organs.

I have a simple tune that I like to use for this purpose, called "Lullaby." Originally I found this little song in David Tasgal's "Family Violin Method" and used it as an open string song in my PreTwinkler classes. My students loved it so much, the song has become a regular feature in my classes. One young student even went so far as to secure Mr. Tasgal's permission to record the song onto his mother's folk song CD.

Mr. Tasgal has graciously given me permission to print the music for this cute little tune. I myself use this tune to get focused for a practice session or to test out the resonance in a new performance hall. I can feel my back muscles relax as I play the song and concentrate on getting the most resonance from each open string. I play the song through two times; the first time I start the piece with a down bow, and the second time I reverse the bowing by starting with an up bow. My young students like it so much, they spend a great deal of time and effort to learn to play the song. I notice that my students have to expend a lot of concentration and focus energy to change the strings correctly and to use longer, slower bows. For a young PreTwinkler student to spend the time and effort to achieve this ability is a tribute to Mr. Tasgal's composition. My students enjoy this tune.

I have printed out a copy done on Finale, because it was easier for me to put it on my blog in this manner.

The only way I could figure out how to add an audio recording to the blog was to make a "video" of the song while playing it on my computer. If anyone knows how to embed an audio player on blogger, please contact me. Meanwhile, here is the recording I made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQ8u34laQo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Mr. Tasgal has gone on to publish a new series, "Strings Fun and Easy." I have not yet had a chance to look through those books, but I will write out my experience once I have looked through them. You can learn more about Mr. Tasgal and his new series at: http://www.stringsfunandeasy.com/. The previous series, "Family Violin Method" can be found at: http://www.familystringmethod.com/, although Mr. Tasgal is encouraging newcomers to try out the new series.

Have fun playing those open strings this week. And if you have not changed your strings in a while, or your students are playing with dull, lifeless strings, buy new ones! You will enjoy playing this song with bright, shiny, new resonating strings!

Monday Morning Check In: Freedom From Limits

2012-01-09T01:22:00.000-06:00

I made an interesting discovery this week. As I have written in the past, I complete “morning pages” daily on a fairly consistent basis. I habitually wake up on the early side of the day and spend about 20 to 30 minutes thinking and writing about whatever is on my mind.

This past week I have struggled with “skittered thoughts.” This is my description for those times when I cannot seem to calm my mind down, when my mind seems to be in the active “monkey mind” as the yoga instructors refer to it. My thoughts alight on one thought only to bounce off a few seconds later and head off in another direction. Very disconcerting.

I accomplish very little on mornings like this. My goal is to complete three full hand-written pages in my composition book (4 if the book is wide-ruled), about 25 minutes’ worth of writing. On “skittered thoughts” mornings, I flit from one idea to another, jump up a minute later to make a note about something, cross the room to complete a small task, and then return to my writing. All of my actions seem relevant at the moment I do them because I cannot calm my mind down to a speed that allows me to grasp the core of an idea to wrestle it onto the page. Instead, I reach to catch the tail end of each thought, and my skin starts to crawl with unexplained physical energy. I am agitated and exasperated because I cannot seem to sit still for more than a few seconds at a time.

Less coffee, you suggest. I wondered about that myself, but I have not altered my caffeine intake in years. I always drink the same size cup of caffeine every day. If I add to my load, I do it later in the morning.

I also thought that the problem stemmed from my having something I needed to really digest on the written page. I worked hard to dig into the words and see what the pen turned up. Nope. Nothing changed.

Then I remembered an old saying, referred to as “Parkinson’s Law.” This expression was published by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in an essay in “The Economist” on November 19, 1955: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” See the full article at: http://www.economist.com/node/14116121. This expression means that if I allow myself 10 minutes to dust my living room, then amazingly enough, it actually takes 10 minutes! The flylady.net folks use this phenomenon to their advantage by suggesting that house cleaning activities be timed so that they last only as long as the time you allow to complete them.

What could it hurt to try it? I grabbed my iPhone and asked Siri to set the timer for 23 minutes, which she gladly did for me. I asked Siri to play the "Beethoven for Book Lovers" playlist to put me in the writing mood. Then I started writing as fast as I could, because I knew that 23 minutes was about 3-5 minutes too short for how long I would need to write three pages of long-hand writing. Surprisingly, I ended my third page of writing at the sound of the timer going off. I happily report that at no time during those 23 minutes did my mind skitter around my thoughts. I wrote with a purpose and fierce determination to finish before the timer sounded.

I did not stop with that one day’s writing experiment. I continued the rest of the week by repeating the timed writing exercise, and I completed each day’s writing assignment with no return of the skittering thoughts problem.

I went to the grocery store the next day. I had a bank deposit ready to put in the bank, but I had not yet put the checks into my account. Usually I make my deposits as checks become available, and then I grocery shop as I need. I use a grocery list and do not usually succumb to impulse purchases. I do not limit myself much when I shop for groceries; I usually have enough to buy what I need or desire.

Because I had not yet deposited my checks into the bank and was using a debit card, I did not have the funds in the bank to cover shopping in my customary manner. I had to pull some cash from an emergency stash before heading off to the store.

How could I limit my purchases so that I would come in under the amount that I had in my wallet? I grabbed a grocery cart, whipped out my iPhone, and used the calculator function to record the price of each item as I put it in my cart. I kept a running tally of my proposed purchases as I swept through each grocery aisle. At some point I came dangerously close to a total that exceeded the amount of cash in my purse. I surveyed my cart and decided to switch a few items for smaller sizes, and in one case I decided to buy one package rather than two.

I was amazed that I had managed to arrive at a final cart total that fit within the budgeted amount of money I had put in my wallet. As I thought about the entire shopping experience, I realized that I had spent about $20-30 less than I might have spent if I had shopped in my customary way. I had still bought everything I needed, but I had made some choices along the way that altered my final total in a positive way. By saving money on my shopping trip, I had given myself the freedom to make additional purchases in the future, whether groceries or some other category (clothes or books),

What did these “limiting” experiences teach me? I learned that by limiting the amount of time or money I would spend on an activity, I gained more focus on my activity. I concentrated on what I was doing in order to succeed within the limits I had set for myself.

I made choices. I could not buy everything. I could not write about every thought that entered my mind. I prioritized and selected what I purchased or wrote.

There is a value in setting limits. Freedom is lovely, but I notice that when I have a free day (which is exceedingly rare in my life), I do not get very much done. I end my free day wondering where the time went. What I learned this week is that by setting limits to how I spend my time, my money, and my attention, I actually create more time for myself to do something more or at least to do nothing if I so desire.

I once learned of a study about children playing in backyards. In one backyard, the children were told where the boundaries of the backyard were, but there were no visible markers of the boundaries. In the other backyard, the children had a fence that clearly set off the limits of the backyard; the children were very aware where the backyard ended because the fence stood there.

In the unfenced backyard, the children played throughout the entire yard area, but they tended to stop short several feet from the "boundary." In the fenced backyard, the children played in every inch of the yard, including the last few feet within the fence. The conclusion was that when the children were aware of the physical boundaries, they played more freely within the perceived physical limits. When the children were unsure where the actual boundaries stood, they curtailed their spatial play area. They did not feel free to use all the space available to them.

The lesson to be gleaned here? Setting a clearly defined limit allows more freedom. In other words, we gain freedom from limits.

I have given you two examples of how setting a limit might offer more freedom in return. Imagine how many more ways we could use this trick to free us from the thoughts and things we use to limit ourselves.

What a paradox! By setting limits we free ourselves from our limits.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This is Monday Morning. Have you done your weekly homework? Have you reviewed and completed the checklists from last week? Here is the typical weekly list checklist. Look it over and make an effort to get things in order.

Weekly Checklist

o Have you scheduled all your necessary appointments or lessons for the week on your calendar?

o Is there anything you want to accomplish this week that needs to be broken down into manageable steps over several calendar days?

o What major projects or goals are you working on this week?

o What materials do you need to gather to complete a particular project this week?

o What steps can you take this week to move yourself forward on your goals?

o What can you do today to make some forward progress on your goals?

o What phone calls do you want to make this week? Do you need to schedule time to make those calls?

o What emails do you want to make this week? Do you need to schedule time to write those emails?

o Are you waiting to hear back from someone? Have you scheduled the day when you will follow up with that person?

o What errands do you want to do this week?

o Have you scheduled time to do those errands?

o What materials do you need to gather together to complete those errands?

o Have you sent out your tuition bills for the month?

o Have you done your record keeping from the previous week (or month)?

o Have you scheduled your practice time for the week? Maybe I should move this item further up the list, because I think it is an important daily item.

I added something new to my checklist. My father sends me a beautiful day planner calendar from the Smithsonian Institute every Christmas. Since I use my iPhone for my calendar and just about everything else in my life, including teaching, I have not found much use for the planner.

This week I tried scheduling my daily activities for each day. I started out the week by "inking" in all the activities, appointments, and lessons I had. Then each day I would visit the day planner and schedule what I would do every hour of the day in general. This is something different than the activity log I completed in the past. I found that I could use the day planner for this same purpose, and I like that I can see the entire week at a glance. So I will be adding a new entry in my weekly checklist: have you planned out your activities for the week?

Practice Rut? Expand Your Thinking!

2012-01-07T07:57:00.003-06:00

It is easy to get into a practice rut. Your practice sessions with your child become routine, and your interest wanes. You lose your enthusiasm for the number of repetitions that your child’s teacher thinks are important (Ten times a day? Really?). Even professional musicians suffer from this problem and have to work to discover the fun that can be found in practice. I have a solution: expand your thinking.

I know. It sounds like that tired cliche, “think outside the box.” But really, that is what is required. Here are three examples where expanding your thinking produces something entertaining and interesting.

Squares of Eight

I borrowed this idea from an article I read at http://practicespot.com. If you have not visited this site, there are many free articles and theory tools that you will find useful and interesting.

The purpose of the “Squares of Eight” game is to teach the student the best way to master something and what quality effort is involved. The game also provides the student with an interesting and fun way to do repetitions. I want to demonstrate to the student how important correct repetitions are. You have heard the old adage that “practice makes perfect,” but in reality “practice makes permanent,” and that is the true lesson that I want a student to learn and take away from this game.

Before we begin the game, the student and I identify a particular passage or finger exercise that we want to improve with practice. In the squares of eight, I take a piece of paper and fold it in half. Then I fold it in half again, so that the paper has been quartered. Then I fold it one additional time; the paper is now evenly divided into eight squares. I number each square sequentially from one to eight. I put a small game piece (a poker chip or a small piece of candy will also work) on square number one.

The student plays the passage or exercise. If the student plays correctly, the student then advances the game piece to the next square. The student plays the passage or exercise again. Now the game becomes interesting. If the student does well, the game piece is moved ahead. But, if the student does not play the passage correctly, the game piece gets moved back a square. We continue the game until the student finally reaches square 8.

As a teacher I find it amusing to watch how different students work through this game. Some students keep “banging their head against a wall” by doing the same thing over and over without ever addressing the issue. I have to offer more guidance in these cases. Usually though a student soon figures out that a slower and more careful repetition will net a positive result and advance the game piece further ahead. In other words, the student learns that slow and steady nets quicker practice results.

Then we play with this game and “expand our thinking” to keep the game interesting. One student drew a race track that wound among the squares and used a little match car as a game piece. Another student turned the game into a pirate story that had various obstacles to successfully navigate to reach the treasure in the last square. Another student nicknamed the squares to represent the difficulties that each square represented. For example, square number four was the “habit breaker” and square number six was the “habit maker."

The Scary Story

Here is another example of expanding your thinking. In this example, the student was learning how to navigate some of the tricky places in “Humoresque” in Suzuki Violin book 3. I stuck some colored highlighting tape on each tricky place to make it easier for her to isolate the passages that needed extra attention and repetition. The student would also see the areas to come, and the colored tape would “foreshadow” the areas before she played them, reminding her to take her time and be careful. The different colors also helped the student to get a picture in her head of the piece’s logical structure, which would help her with her memory.

We used yellow, purple, blue, pink, and green tape and one teensy bit of red. To make the practice sessions even more interesting to think about, we gave each colored area a name. The yellow tape referred to the patch of “Yellow Yucky Yuccas.” The purple place became the “Purple Pools of Poison.” The blue tape spot became the “Blue Bogs of Bubbles,” and the green tape became the “Green Gorge of Ghosts.” We also have the "Pink Patches of Prickles." The little red tape spot became the “Red Rose of Ramputa,” which was isolated in the middle of the purple spot to remind the student of a particular grace note place.

When the student plays the song, she concentrates on making her way through all the treacherous spots with exotic names. We giggle about the names and use goofy voices like TV announcers in a wild animal documentary. We added a “swaying bridge” over the “Green Gorge of Ghosts” to imitate the swaying motion that the bow uses to make the string crossings.

Do the Opposite

Sometimes a practice rut can be overcome by expanding your thinking with a different or opposite expectation. For example, I have trouble on a particular Bach Allegro movement. I have always had difficulty with this particular movement because it stretches my tiny hand in an uncomfortable way. There is nothing I can do except practice it enough times so that it eventually improves. I noticed that my frustration was increasing, so I decided to do the opposite with my expectation. Instead of making music of it, I turned it into an etude.

Gasp!

Yup. I turned that fine piece of music into a thing of drudgery. Instead of frustrating myself about making the piece sound beautiful, I altered my expectations. Some might say I lowered my expectations.

An interesting thing happened as a result. I started to improve. I still have some trouble playing it but not as much trouble as I did before. I am still not ready to make music out of the exercise just yet. I want to keep working on this etude project a while longer before I decide to add the additional complexity of a musical expectation. My goal is to continue with this “exercise” throughout January.

You can invent your own opposite expectation whenever you encounter a practice issue or frustration by first identifying what your expectation is. Then figure out a way to change that expectation.

I provided three examples above of ways that you can expand your thinking. These are just three ways that popped up this week during my teaching sessions. Take a look at what you are practicing this next week and consider whether you can use any of these ideas to shake things up a little.

Teaching Tip: Be Observant!

2012-01-05T14:03:00.000-06:00

One of the best tips that I can offer a teacher or parent about how to be more effective as a teacher or parent is to be observant and pay attention to your student or child. When you watch carefully, you will figure out a great deal about what is going on in the head of that student or child. You will also gain valuable clues as to issues that negatively impact the student’s or child’s learning.

I was always fascinated with the stories of Dr. Suzuki’s listening to graduation recordings sent in by students. How, I wondered, could he be able to offer comments about the student’s posture or character issues just by listening to a recording? Now that I have taught for so many years myself, I can now understand how Dr. Suzuki accomplished this feat. I discern many things about a student, not only by watching the student, but also by listening, and using my sense of touch.

Most of the people in the world are visual learners, which means that they take in what happens around them through visual stimuli using their eyes. Try the following experiment: activate your “super ears” by closing your eyes and really listening hard without simultaneous visual stimulation.

How does your student or child sound when they walk into the room? A high school student of mine loves to wear a particular pair of cowboy boots. I can tell how she feels about herself and the upcoming lesson just by the way she clicks her feet when she walks into the room.

Can you hear that the student’s right elbow is too high or that there is tension in the student’s shoulder? The wispy tone is a dead giveaway. A high elbow usually means an over-pronated bow hold too. The index finger may be drooped over the stick and the pinkie may be straight and stiff, and the thumb may be showing signs of pushing through the underside of the frog and turning into a banana rather than being bent and strong and resting against the frog.

Can you hear the clunky bow change at the frog or the crunchy bow changes in general no matter what part of the bow? Check the bow hold again. Is the student relaxed? Is the student hanging out in the lower half of the bow most of the time?

Hear that slippery bow sound at the beginnings of notes? You can bet that the student’s bow is crooked or off the contact point in general. Or maybe the student is getting that squishy, soft sul tasto sound, where the bow is slipping over the fingerboard. Again, check the bow hold and see whether the student is completely opening up the right elbow when traveling the bow to the tip. Many students get a little bit sloppy and floppy once they develop “finger motion” with the right hand fingers, and the bow hold tends to suffer. Also, once students start reading music, they tend to focus on the music more and listen to the sound they produce less overall. I encourage my reading students to memorize their music repertoire as quickly as they can so that we can refocus on good posture, good articulation, and good sound.

Now open your eyes and really observe your student or child. Are they looking at the music, if reading music is your purpose? I can tell by watching whether a student is really reading the music or whether they are playing by ear (or memory) and “appearing” to look at the music. Watch the student’s eyes. Are they focused or glazing over? Do they follow along with the music or does the student lose his or her place occasionally?

I have a really intelligent parent who has this disconcerting habit of slipping into a fixated stare at me in the middle of an instruction or conversation. I cannot tell if she is really listening to me or pretending to. The next time I experience this stare, I plan to stop talking or doing anything even if I am in mid-sentence. I cannot think of any other way to test my theory out. If she is really paying attention and just has that funny “look” in general when she is concentrating on a conversation or activity, then she will respond instantly to my stopping in the middle of my sentence or activity and ask me why I stopped. If she does not respond to my interrupted speech, my suspicion will be confirmed (at least at that moment in time), and I will need to think of a way to address this issue.

Students are a bit trickier to discover when they are not paying attention. I see it as a lack of focus in the eyes. I also stop talking in these cases and consider whether talking is feeding the child’s tendency to “wander off” mentally. I usually draw the child’s focus back onto the activity or conversation by engaging them in conversation with a question about the activity. My questions begin with “what” or “how” in order to solicit actual responses of more than one or two words. (Note: I am not discussing specialized cases of learning issues here, such as ADD or ADHD).

With eyes closed again, feel the energy in the air as your student enters the studio. I can tell when a parent or child have had a fight in the car on the way to a lesson or when a student has had a hard day at school just by the quality of energy (or lack of it) when they enter the room. I sometimes hear that there was a fight because the student’s “hello” is glum and fuming, while the parent’s voice is overly cheerful and upbeat. I have even been able to tell which child is the parent’s favorite or easiest to raise in a family of more than one child just by listening to the parent’s tone of voice when they address each child. Parents beware of this! If I can hear a difference in the tone of voice, you can be sure that the children can too.

This week, be observant about your student or child. You may learn something new.

Monday Morning Check In: Checklists for the New Year

2012-01-01T23:14:00.001-06:00

Good morning and welcome to the new year 2012!

Like me, you have probably been recently inundated with emails and articles about goal setting and resolutions. You do not need me to add another level of information to a topic that we have discussed repeatedly throughout the year. Of course, if you do want to revisit those blog posts, just search for goal setting or goals in the search box above.

Today is the first Monday of a new year. For my recent readers, I devote my Monday blog posts to more general topics that will aid us to become better teachers. In the past my topics have sometimes included goal setting. Other times I focused on organizational tools, practice planning, or anything that crossed my mind in a general way and which I thought might help us to improve our effectiveness as teachers.

Weekly Checklist

Since it is Monday morning, let me start out by asking whether you have done your homework for the week? Have you thought ahead to what your schedule will be this week, and have you figured out what you need to accomplish? Here is a general checklist to consider:

Have you scheduled all your necessary appointments or lessons for the week on your calendar?

Is there anything you want to accomplish this week that needs to be broken down into manageable steps over several calendar days?

What major projects or goals are you working on this week?

What materials do you need to gather to complete a particular project this week?

What steps can you take this week to move yourself forward on your goals?

What can you do today to make some forward progress on your goals?

What phone calls do you want to make this week? Do you need to schedule time to make those calls?

What emails do you want to make this week? Do you need to schedule time to write those emails?

Are you waiting to hear back from someone? Have you scheduled the day when you will follow up with that person?

What errands do you want to do this week?

Have you scheduled time to do those errands?

What materials do you need to gather together to complete those errands?

Have you sent out your tuition bills for the month?

Have you done your record keeping from the previous week (or month)?

Have you scheduled your practice time for the week? Maybe I should move this item further up the list, because I think it is an important daily item.

Monthly Checklist -- January

Because this is January, and we have just completed 2011, this is also a good time to begin gathering your documents and records to get ready for tax preparation season. So here is a checklist to begin the tax records process:

Gather your income records into one folder.

Make a list of the next steps you will need to take to put this information in a form that you can easily use or access when you prepare your taxes.

Since I maintain a simple income register log with a new page for each month, I simply add up each month’s figures and ultimately add up each month for the yearly total.

Gather your expense records into a master folder.

Make a list of the next steps you will need to be able to access this information easily when you prepare your taxes.

I have several subcategories related to the main studio category, and I have a folder for each of those subcategories. To get ready for tax preparation time, I go through my master folder and sort out these various receipts into their respective folders. Ultimately I will total up the subcategory figures.

As part of the new year, I make sure that I have set up the studio record keeping system for the coming year. This involves adding new monthly sheets to my studio notebook for the year.

The Japanese have a tradition of cleaning their homes on New Year’s Day. This might be a good time to consider whether there are any areas in your studio that need attention aside from general housekeeping:

Are there any piles of music that need to be refiled?

Are there supplies or teaching aids that need to be sorted, cleaned, or put away?

Are there any toys or books that need to be repaired, cleaned, or put away?

Does your piano need to be tuned?

Do you need to buy any new supplies or equipment?

Do you need to replenish any studio necessaries, such as paper towels, drinking cups, or toilet paper?

Do you need to repair anything or do anything to maintain your instrument?

Are there any student records that you need to update?

Are there any new students that you are beginning this month?

Do you have a record for the new student in your income register?

Have you updated the new student's contact information?

Are there any other places that you need to update your student's contact information (such as your phone, computer, or website contacts list)?

Have you set up your budget for the month?

I highly recommend YNAB to help you get your finances in shape so that you learn to live on last month’s income.

http://youneedabudget.com

Have you arranged to pay your bills at the end of the month?

Have you planned for your quarterly IRS payment?

4^th quarter for 2011 is due January 15 (maybe January 16).

While you are thinking about this, go ahead and calendar the other quarterly payment due dates:

April 15 (maybe April 16)
June 15
September 15
January 15, 2013
Check with http://irs.gov for the exact due dates, because sometimes a payment date is extended a day or two to accommodate a weekend

Have you set up your semester teaching schedule?

Have you put your teaching schedule on your calendar, including any semester break or vacation?

Have you notified your students and their parents of the semester’s teaching schedule?

Have you determined the group class dates for the coming semester?

Have you notified your students and their parents of the semester’s group class schedule?

If you maintain a studio newsletter:

Are there any news items or event information to include?

When do you plan to publish the next newsletter issue?

Have you calendared the dates related to publishing the newsletter?

Look ahead to the studio’s next recital date and put that on your calendar.

Make a list of the items that need to be addressed for the recital and schedule dates on your calendar for those items.

When is the deadline for securing a recital location?

Who will be the accompanist?

When do you need to contact your accompanist?

When do you need to provide music to the accompanist?

When do you need to schedule rehearsals with the accompanist?

Will you need to schedule a recital dress rehearsal?

Have you notified your students and their parents of this date?

When do students need to have their music selected, learned, and memorized?

Now is a good time to think about what your summer plans will be. Add a page to your notebook, label it “Summer Plans,” and start making a list of ideas, including:

Attending an institute

Setting up a summer camp or workshop

Visiting with another teacher and his or her studio

Organizing a studio event-performance-trip

Planning a vacation for yourself

Schedule time to review the systems you have set up. One idea is to consider your lists on a weekly basis. Why don't we plan on this every Monday morning? [See below].

I am a big fan of checklists and systems and project notebooks. I draw up a plan, type it up, and stick it inside a plastic sheet protector. I use a dry erase marker to check off items. The dry erase marker is easily erased, and the checklist can be used again. If I need to include some new item I had not thought of previously, I just add it to my checklist. At some point I will retype my original checklist if it has gotten messy.

Something I would suggest we add to our list of weekly things is time to think about the things I have listed above. We need to remember to schedule time to reflect upon our lives. Consider scheduling 15 minutes every Monday morning for the purpose of checking in here with our blog community of teachers and parents and committing to the next week or renewing your commitment to growth as a teacher.

I love setting goals. I love accomplishing things. I enjoy the feeling of satisfaction I get when I turn around and contemplate what I accomplished in the past, whether last week, last month, last year, the last marathon I attempted, or the last long hike I trekked up a mountain. I enjoy the journey better if I have a good sense of where the starting point is. I need a record in order to remember. So I create checklists that can be used again and again.

I have many goals for 2012, as is customary for me in every new year. Some may fall by the wayside as I discover on my yearly journey that a particular goal is not as important to me as I had anticipated on January 1. That is okay too. One goal that I think would be good for all of us to adopt is the goal of simplifying our lives. Making checklists and project notebooks will go a long way to help us to simplify our lives in the future.

I hope in this next year that we will build a sense of community together. Please comment with your ideas or questions. I hope you will contribute to our checklists.

And, if I have not said it before, I hope your holiday was a blessed one, and that your new year is fruitful and prosperous.

Happy New Year!

The Suzuki Pathway: Books 1-10 General Overview

2011-12-30T19:23:00.000-06:00

This next year I want to spend several blog posts discussing in detail the various books contained in the Suzuki violin method. I think it would be helpful to preface individual book discussion in favor of a general look at the Suzuki violin method books 1-10.

I think of the books as grouped in beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels:

Beginning: books 1-3

Intermediate: books 4-6

Advanced: books 7-10

Within each of these groups, I think the books represent a beginning, intermediate, and advanced level as well. For example:

Beginning: books 1-3:

Beginning: book 1

Intermediate: book 2

Advanced: book 3

Intermediate: books 4-6:

Beginning: book 4

Intermediate: book 5

Advanced: book 6

Advanced: books 7-10:

Beginning: book 7

Intermediate: book 8

Advanced: books 9 and 10

So within each basic category, there are subcategories. Within each of these subcategories are additional "sub"-subcategories. For now, for general discussion purposes, let us consider the basic ingredients of each book. I will leave for a later discussion the actual information about how to mix the various ingredients in the proper way to create a satisfactory finished product.

For the purpose of this general and brief discussion about the various books, I will consider the general left hand and right hand skills. What will not be included is a discussion about how to specifically teach the concepts contained in each book.

Book 1:

Left hand skills include the introduction of 3 basic finger patterns, which encourage the left hand fingers to stretch between each finger within the basic hand framework of a perfect fourth.

The right hand skills include staccato, legato string crossings, good contact point, pizzicato, slurs, hooked bowing.

Book 2:

Left hand skills include the introduction of some more finger patterns which encourage the left hand to "unfurl" and lengthen, and the Bb scale pattern, the extended fourth finger, and the wider stretch between the first and second fingers.

The right hand skills include more complex use of the up bow staccato (2- to 4-note staccato groupings), string crossings at a quicker tempo, and hooked bowing (dotted eighth and 16th note rhythms).

Book 3:

Left hand skills continue to widen the stretch between the first and second fingers, the Bb finger pattern, the cross-the-string pattern (Minuet) when the fingers consider playing combinations as double stops, third position, and the cementing of the "yellow" finger pattern, where the third finger is sharpened and placed next to the pinkie.

Right hand skills include more complex slurs, including string crossings on a slur, and more complex use of the up bow staccato and string crossings; the introduction of double stop execution

Book 4:

Left hand skills mix and match all the finger patterns learned in the previous books, plus double stops (Seitz 3) and 6/8 meter. In addition, the student uses second and third positions (Vivaldi concertos) and 4th position harmonics, along with "cross" fingerings, which are those fingerings that accommodate augmented or diminished fifths across the string. In addition, the student extends the "unfurling" of the hand to reach the interval of an augmented fourth. The final repertoire piece, Bach's double violin concerto, combines everything learned to date, by combining every possible finger pattern, upper positions (1st, 2nd, 3rd), and bowing complexities.

Right hand skills include more complex string crossings and slurs and playing of harmonics and double stops. The student learns how to apply equal pressure between up and down bows to accomplish a good articulation.

Note: The Suzuki community has embarked on a campaign to revise the Suzuki books to memorialize several teaching techniques that have been in play for many years now. The Suzuki books are designed to be a growing, breathing animal, so it should not surprise us that the books will continue to meet this growth demand. I have not addressed the particular changes of each book in my discussion here. I am still learning how to incorporate the new changes within the framework of how I have been teaching the Suzuki material to date.

Book 5:

Left hand skills include 4th and fifth position skills and more familiarity with second and third positions. The book builds the knowledge of the fingerboard "across" the strings rather than up and down a string, as in earlier books. The book allows the discussion of fingering choices and also introduces the time signature of 3/8. The student learns how to play successfully in the key of G minor.

Right hand skills include more complex string crossings in lower positions as well as higher positions. The student learns how to perform "off the string" bowing techniques, such as spiccato and flying staccato, and perfects the collé stroke.

Somewhere along the way, students learn the vibrato skill and how to read music. I have discussed both of these topics in earlier posts as well a teacher's need to develop a system for incorporating such new skills as these:

http://teachsuzuki.blogspot.com/2011/06/johnny-cant-read.html (post about reading)

From this point on, I would like to be more general in my discussion about the books. At this point, the student is probably exposed to a lot of repertoire that is not contained in the Suzuki books. The student may be a member of a youth or school orchestra program or responsible for preparing special repertoire or ensembles for school assignments or regional contests. The student may be a member of a church or other ensemble outside of school or be asked to perform as a soloist at community events. The student is therefore learning a lot of music that is not contained in the Suzuki books.

Book 6 is one of my favorite books because I use it to teach a full development of tone as a right hand skill, and it is a chance for the student to develop ease in playing in various positions within a phrase as part of the left hand skills. The pieces present many varied bowings within each piece, and the repertoire becomes complex in its demands for memory and advanced musical forms.

Book 7 really advances students to another level by the middle of the book and the big Bach A minor concerto. Dr. Suzuki set up the concerto learning by inserting the Handel Sonata No. 1 in A major, which is similar in many respects on a simpler scale to the Bach concerto. The Bach concerto provides an in-depth study in articulation clarity (movement 1), tonal colors in phrasing and bowing (movement 2), and bariolage and 9/8 bowing phrase complexities (movement 3). In addition, the concerto draws increased focus and concentration from the student in terms of memory and structure. The rest of the book provides the student with additional opportunities to learn alternatives to the Bach bowing of movement 1. The last Corelli piece is an excellent pinkie development tool.

Book 8 develops the students' facility to trill and ornament. There are even more complex musical forms for the student to exercise memory and concentration skills, and there are ever increasing string crossings and double stop opportunities. I enjoy using book 8 repertoire pieces in an advanced discussion of musicality and phrasing. By advanced discussion, I mean the kind of discussion I would have with a performance major at the university or conservatory level. This is very advanced repertoire, and by this point in a student's musical education, they are well versed in advanced musical concepts of phrasing and execution, so I go to that place in our discussions, no matter the student's age.

I lump books 9 and 10 together in my mind because they are the end of the Suzuki line and I sometimes think that we can teach these books interchangeably, although I do them in order. Mozart is as important to me as a teacher and performer as Bach is. The music in these two books is quite advanced in terms of right and left hand skills, phrasing, musicality, and musical forms. We can study these pieces over and over and still come up with new ideas, new fingerings, and new expressions. I use these books to enthuse my students with the excitement that comes from true music making on a professional level. These books represent creativity at its highest level. Every student is unique. Every student presents with unique learning issues and individual ideas. Every time I teach these pieces, I learn something new about the student and about myself and my approach to music. If I were to keep a record of the comments I write in my students' music in books 9 and 10, I would enjoy re-living my own growth as a musician and a teacher.

Although many people may think that the Suzuki Method is the only way to create true artists, I will have to point out that the research I have read seems to indicate that the number of "professional" or "concert artists" that come from the Suzuki Method seems to equal that which comes from the more traditional approach. In other words, the same number of students go on to become professional musicians on some level, no matter what their origin or learning. But that does not matter to me. That is not my purpose. I have always known my purpose as a teacher since the moment I first read Dr. Suzuki's book "Nurtured by Love." I want to teach students to raise them to be productive citizens in the world and not only to create concert artists, although teaching students to love their culture and musical heritage and to be able to express emotions and creativity on an advanced level is extremely important to me as well. To this end, I whole-heartedly agree with Dr. Suzuki's philosophy.

I do not always retain a student who makes it through all 10 of the Suzuki books, although I have had several. It is always a joy to journey with such a student who has made it his or her goal to complete all the Suzuki books by high school graduation. Students do develop other life interests and focus on other life goals outside of music. My having exposed my students to learning and life lessons gained through the disciplined study of music as a creative art gives me satisfaction that I have touched their innermost souls and hearts. I know that each child I have taught will retain in their spirit and hearts the love that their parents and I have shown them through our teaching, our sharing, and our learning together.

That is the Suzuki Pathway.

Monday Morning Check In: Anything is Possible

2011-12-26T08:21:00.000-06:00

We are in the home stretch now. Today is the last Monday of the year 2011. Next Monday will be the beginning of an entirely new year. We have today and five more days to close the book on 2011 and begin a new book for 2012.

To finish our discussion about “Your Best Year Yet!” by Jinny S. Ditzler, we have a few more questions to consider briefly:

What are my personal values?

This question seeks to uncover the driving force behind the things that we do. If we are not tuned in to what is our hidden unconscious drive, we are unlikely to feel very satisfied once we have achieved our stated objective. We need to be aware of what we are really trying to achieve and tap into the motivation that this drive will produce in us.

I hope you have an opportunity to read Jinny Ditzler’s book and complete her exercises. Jinny lays out a good discussion about some of the different life pursuit paradigms we might be unconsciously following and how limiting or empowering our life pursuit paradigm choice might be.

What roles do I play in my life?

This question provides several benefits:

It provides direction.
It places your values at the center of your life.
It makes it natural to focus on how to share your gifts.
It generates balance in your life.
It increases your natural motivation.

Count the number of roles that you play, and consider whether some of them could be grouped together in focus. Jinny suggests limiting our list of roles to no more than seven or eight.

Which role is my major focus for the next year?

To help us determine the answer to this question, Jinny provides us with a Whole Life Review Chart. We build this review chart to plot our performance rating for each of the roles we perform in our lives. Once we connect the dots, we can see where we may be out of balance and in need of more focus. I highly recommend this visual performance and balance check.

What are my goals for each role?

Jinny’s chapter about setting goals will guide you to create powerful goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, and appropriate.

What are my top ten goals for the next year?

Jinny shows us how to write out our best year plan, how to prioritize our list of goals, and then how to summarize the four principal parts of the “Best Year Yet Plan.” Our final one page document -- our best year plan -- will include the guidelines we created to advise us along the way, the new paradigm we framed to empower our thinking, the major focus we identified to give us direction, and the top ten goals we shaped to give us achievable possibility.

How can I make sure I achieve my top ten goals?

Jinny provides suggestions and questions that will encourage our success, such as:

Keep the plan visible (how can I keep my awareness high?)
Be aware of external factors (what’s the next step?)
Find and use a support system (who can provide the support I need?)
Keep focused on the paradigm that will lead to success (does the way I see the problem lead to success?)

One day I was on an early morning run about 5:30 am before the sun came up. My running headlamp brightened a small path in the road before me. The sound of my breathing was my sole company. I heard a slight rustling in the bushes behind the wire fence that lined the road about 5 feet ahead of me. Startled, I stopped short and trained my lamp in the direction of the noise. There stood a brilliant white unicorn not much taller than I. I held my breath as I took in the delicate sight before me. A small white pony gazed back at me, but for a breathless few seconds, anything was possible.

I urge you to create that vision where anything is possible, because we need this attitude in order to create the kind of life that we want to live. For a few brief seconds, hold your breath and visualize the unimaginable, the impossible, and the wonderful. Let the image soak in to your very core. Drink it in and let it fill you up. Allow yourself to experience the joy of the vision that you have created in your own mind. Let the image strengthen your faith and your belief that anything is indeed possible.

Now go out there and get to work. I want to hear from you at the end of 2012 when you write to tell me how proud you are of your created life and how you shared your gifts to accomplish much in the world.

Quick Teaching Tip: Tunnel Fingers

2011-12-24T14:57:00.000-06:00

When shaping the student's left hand, how can we help him or her form a "tunnel" between the fingers and the top of the fingerboard? There are several possibilities.

If the student's hand is large enough to accommodate this, I place a roll of life savers lengthwise along the D and A strings and ask the student to curve the fingers around the roll for a count of 20 or longer. If the student's hand is a little smaller, breath mint rolls may be tinier. I have also used a large or thicker "children-sized" pencil, sometimes referred to as a "Kindergarten pencil."

For young children, I make a caterpillar out of a colorful pipe cleaner. I take the pipe cleaner and wrap it like a coil in a spiral fashion around a pencil. I remove the coil and tuck the sharp ends inside the coil so the points do not stick a student. Then I use a black marker to draw two eyes on one end (or you can glue two craft eyes instead). The parent and I use this caterpillar for all sorts of things besides checking for "tunnel" fingers. We also use it to see if the student has left a "wormhole" between the neck and the left hand web between the thumb and index finger. We wiggle the caterpillar into the little hole.

There are many ways to accomplish this. Look around and see what might be useful.

Quick Practice Tip: Factorial Repetitions

2011-12-23T01:15:00.000-06:00

Here is a quick tip for assigning a student a certain number of repetitions for a tricky spot to be worked. It is called "factorials." Your students will enjoy this.

If you remember your math lessons from high school, you may remember the factorial expression "10!" and what it refers to. No? Well, many of us have stopped using those math lessons learned many years ago, and now that calculators are so prevalent, many of us may not even remember some of our basic math skills. One of my students did an internship with NASA this summer, and he found that he was rusty with his basic math skill of multiplication. Interesting. When we discussed how that could be, because he is a very, very bright student, he thought it was probably due to his not having to remember the multiplication tables because he used his calculator exclusively.

I digress. Back to the discussion about factorials. The expression "10!" means that you multiple 10 by each consecutive number lower:

10! = 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1

Now in the math world, the expression 10! would equal 3,628,800. But for my teaching purposes, I use the factorial expression in a different way, because I doubt that my student (or his or her parent) would be willing to repeat something over 3.5 million times. Instead I ask my student to repeat a particular skill or passage 10!, which means:

day 1: play the passage 10 times

day 2: play the passage 9 times

day 3: play the passage 8 times

day 4: play the passage 7 times

et cetera until

day 10: play the passage 1 time

So in ten days the student will do a "factorial" of 10! and decrease the number of repetitions beginning with 10 times and ending with just one repetition. In sum total, the student will have done 55 repetitions. My student and his or her parent can handle that number.

If I asked my student to repeat something 55 times, I doubt that my student would have completed that assignment completely. By couching my instruction as a factorial, my student has a plan to follow. The assignment also gives motivation, because the incentive is that the practice assignment decreases with each day.

How to Determine What Size Violin for your Child

2011-12-19T21:03:00.000-06:00

The beauty of learning to play the violin is that the instrument comes in many different sizes. There is practically a size for every child! Granted, the 1/64 size violin is probably more suited to being bronzed and hung from the rear view mirror of a car like a child's first baby shoes. For a very small or very young child who is taking his or her first violin lessons, this tiny violin is a treasured possession to the child and a frequent reminder to the child's parent of the treasured gift that music lessons will give to the parent and the child.

How does a teacher or parent size the child to determine which violin size will best suit the child?

I recommend that parents seek the advice of the child's teacher first and foremost before making any purchase or rental decision. The teacher may have a preferred method of sizing the child, as I do, and the teacher would therefore appreciate that the parent seeks direction from the teacher. There are many different ways to determine a child's violin size, and I have seen some tools on the market that are designed to help the sizing process. I do not use these tools, and I do not use special fingerboard tapes that have the finger spots already marked on them. My reason is very simple. All violins sizes vary.

Just because a violin bears a label that it is a ¼-size violin does not mean that the violin would fit the typical ¼-size violin student adequately. There are variations within the general size labels. There are "bigger" and "smaller" ¼-size violins. A child may do very well with a smaller ¼-size but have a great deal of difficulty playing well with a larger ¼-size violin. For this reason, I ask my parents to follow my "system" of sizing the child. I demonstrate my instrument sizing method to the parent in the studio during the child's lesson or at a group class when there are many violin sizes available to try. If the parent goes to the violin shop and I cannot be there (which is usually the case since we live in a rural area about an hour's drive from the violin shops), I know that I have been careful to instruct the parent in my preferred method of sizing the child. I have also made sure that the violin shop understands exactly how I wish my students to be measured for a violin sizing.

When I place the violin under the child's chin and stretch out the child's violin arm as far straight out as it will go, I would like the center of the violin's scroll to reach the child's wrist. If the violin is a little bit too big, then I opt for a smaller size. The child should not have to "grow into" a violin size. That "grow into" philosophy might work well for clothing sizes, but it does not work for violin sizing. If a child is asked to play for a time on an instrument that is too big, the child will develop some very bad posture habits, such as turning the violin elbow outward instead of under the violin, or tilting the head to the right as if to see "around" the violin. I have one such student now who had been playing on a violin that was too large for over a year. Now that he has come to me, and time has dutifully passed, we are still working two years later on correcting the incorrect posture alignment problems that arose during the "too large" phase.

After checking that the violin and arm length are a good fit, I then hold the violin flat across the student's upper chest and take a look at how the instrument fits with the shoulders. Ideally the instrument should appear as if it "fits" between the shoulders rather than looking as if the instrument dwarfs the child. Some children are from sturdier, stockier family designs, like rugby or defensive football linemen in the making. In these cases, sometimes a smaller instrument would be easier for the child to maneuver his or her muscles around. Measuring the violin across the shoulders would reveal this possibility if it exists.

Other Problems

Tall Students. A very, very tall student may pose an additional sizing problem because the student’s neck may be rather long. In this case, the student may have to scrunch the shoulder up and squeeze the chin down to get a good "fit" in the violin hold. This is quite uncomfortable for the student and may lead to neck and other muscle problems down the road. The first remedy this student might try is to use a taller shoulder rest. The problem is that by building up underneath the violin to fill in the empty space, we are also raising the height level of the violin. A violin that is too high in relation to the rest of the body will also cause muscle problems and unwanted muscle tension.

The better solution is to find a way to build up the violin to the normal specification underneath and then to provide the student with a way to fill up the empty space from the top of the instrument. We might try a higher chin rest, or in the case of one student I knew years ago, use something under the chin rest to raise the chin rest height in relation to the instrument.

Short or Stocky Students.

Irregular Finger Length. Occasionally I run into a student whose fingers seem to be irregular in length. For instance the pinkie finger may be a tad shorter in length with regard to the other fingers or one of the other fingers is longer than is typical. There is not much that a teacher can do to accommodate the unusual sizing in these cases except to encourage the student to find an instrument size that works best for the student.

Inconsistent Growth. A growing student will not grow evenly all around. The student may gain a quarter inch on one side and an eighth inch on the other. The student’s neck may lengthen, but the student’s body may stay the same. I like to use the wedge sponges as shoulder rests to accommodate growing students. The sponges come in six sizes, and I can easily switch from one size to another in a lesson. If a student's violin hold tends to tip the violin “upward,” I try a larger size sponge. Sometimes a small child may be playing on a size 6 wedge sponge (the largest size!) while playing on a ¼-size violin. When a student moves up to the next larger size, we might try a smaller sponge to accommodate the increased instrument width between the shoulder and the chin.

My sizing method may not be the same as your method. I recognize that there are many ways to do this. This is my preferred method. Keep in mind that there may be other factors that will impact a sizing decision, such as the child’s body size overall, the child's hand size, irregular finger length, and inconsistent growth. My key points are these:

Develop a sizing method for your studio that produces the type of results that work for you.
Make sure that your instrument provider or dealer understands your method of sizing your students. In other words, make sure that you and your shop owner are “on the same page” when it comes to sizing your students.
Make sure the parent takes the child to the violin shop in order to be there for the proper sizing process.
Do not allow your students to choose instruments that are too big. Students will not “grow into” the correct size without other unnecessary posture problems that may be difficult to correct later.
Follow your teacher’s advice about sizing!

Please feel free to share your particular method for determining what size instrument a student needs.

Monday Morning Check In: Limits and Complaints

2011-12-19T09:24:00.000-06:00

When we cast a look back at our lives up to this point in time, we can see that there are goals and plans that we did not accomplish. As we map out a new plan for the upcoming new year, we would do well to consider why we have not succeeded. This thought process brings us to question four in Jinny Ditzler's "Best Year Yet!" program: "how do I limit myself and how can I stop?"

In order to have a best year in the coming new year, we need to discover how we limit ourselves and own up to the responsibility for our lives turning out just the way we planned them, thought about them, created them. What are our reasons for not succeeding? For an in-depth discussion about planning your best year yet, please visit the website: http://www.bestyearyet.com or purchase the book (also available on Kindle).

Here are Jinny Ditzler's basic questions to consider:

How do I limit myself?
What has it cost me to do so?
How have my limits benefited me?
Am I willing to stop limiting myself?

By examining ourselves with the above questions, we are uncovering our true focus that guides us to the kind of life results we are getting. Instead of accepting a limiting paradigm, we can create and focus on an empowering paradigm. Here are Jinny Ditzler's four steps to shift a paradigm:

Discover your limiting paradigm.
List your limiting thoughts, feelings, and perceived benefits.
Create a new empowering paradigm.
Shift to the new paradigm whenever you are haunted by your old, limiting one.

One of the trickiest parts to making the paradigm shift in thinking is to find ways to remind yourself whenever you are slipping from the new back to the old way of thinking. Let me share one technique with you -- the complaint-free world campaign.

Started by Will Bowen in 2006, his complaint-free idea has reached possibly 6 million people or more from 106 countries. Will Bowen's idea was to wear a purple bracelet on one arm. Any time he caught himself complaining, gossiping, or criticizing, he would switch the bracelet to the other arm and renew his commitment to focus on the positive instead. The goal is to go at least 21 consecutive days (which could take 4 months to complete!), and ideally make this a new life habit. It counts if you speak it, but there is no proscription if you think it.

I frequently consider myself to be a C personality -- a complainer. For more about this subject, see my blog post:

http://teachsuzuki.blogspot.com/2011/08/monday-morning-check-in-are-you-c-w-or.html.

I bought some black hairbands so that I could wear the "bracelet" while performing with the symphony. I was prepared to move my bracelet back and forth several times during the day and was pleasantly surprised that I went one or two days without a single complaint. I have had to switch the bracelet to the other arm a few times over the course of the week, but I am surprised to find out that I did not complain as often as I thought I did.

I think the reason for my success is due to my wearing the bracelet as a reminder. The bracelet helps me to remember not to complain. Another benefit to this enterprise is that I have begun to consider any aspect of negativity to see whether it qualifies as a complaint. I have discovered that there is a subtle aspect to negativity that I had not considered before. Now that I have been wearing my bracelet, I have evaluated the words I say and sift them carefully before speaking them to be sure that they have nothing in them that might be considered a complaint. This is probably the greatest gift I have been given by wearing the bracelet: thinking before I speak.

As you explore this week how you might be limiting your achievement, you might consider using the complaint-free technique I have outlined above to remind you. The bracelet can represent any aspect of change that you wish to make.

Have a great week!
(Counting today, there are 13 days remaining in the year 2011, which is almost two weeks. Plenty of time to accomplish something!)

Christmas Gifts

2011-12-16T08:15:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year when everyone is distracted by the glittering decorations and twinkling lights, the holiday music, and the scent of special baked goods and favorite recipes. Whatever holiday you celebrate during this time probably involves giving gifts. I thought it would be fun to talk about giving gifts.

As a teacher, it is pretty tricky to budget for gifts for everyone of my students since I have quite a few. I usually provide everyone with a candy cane or other holiday treat and a small Christmas tree ornament. Even those students who do not celebrate the same holiday as I do still opt to select a decorative ornament, such as a snowman, One year I gave miniature photo albums. During the year I collect items that I keep in a "prize box." There is something for students of all ages. During the year, the students earn opportunities to pick something from the prize box. This year, everyone gets to pick something from the prize box during this holiday season.

As a parent, I suggest that there are several things you might consider as gifts for your child. Ask your child's teacher to suggest recordings. My students love to get recordings by Joshua Bell, Rachel Barton Pine, or Hilary Hahn, but there are many other possible recordings that your student may enjoy. I particularly enjoy those CDs with a theme, such as "Mozart for Meditation" or "Beethoven for Book Lovers." There are many such theme CDs available, and your child's teacher may have many others to suggest.

You child's teacher might also recommend particular pieces of music that the child might need. These are usually more comprehensive collections of music that an older student might need, such as the complete Bach sonatas and partitas or the Galamian scale book series. For younger students, there are several fiddle, popular, or religious music solo books that come with CDs for listening.

Grandparents also like to get in on the act of gift giving. Do not overlook the student's need for instrument supplies: new strings, rosin, metronome, tuner, etc. I recall one student whose uncle gave him the gift of new Evah Pirazzi strings, which are expensive. The student really appreciated this gift!

As a teacher, I do not expect gifts from my students, but I receive them nonetheless. Here are some of my favorites:

Picture frames with a picture of the child inside
School picture of the child
Large picture frame with photos of the child's group class
Starbucks gift card (yum!)
Target gift card (I spend hours thinking about how to use this!)
Home baked goodies
Hand lotion and soaps
Special coffee or tea mugs
Christmas ornaments (especially the handmade kind)
Homemade soap mix (just add water!)
Homemade cookie mix (just add water!)

I especially enjoy the homemade gifts. One year I made up little candy treat bags and wrapped them inside empty toilet paper rolls. Then I wrapped the rolls up to look like firecrackers. Another year I made homemade bubble bath. Another year I made up special practice bags filled with counters, colored chip or plastic animal counters, dice, and instructions for several practice repetition games.

I hope these are helpful ideas for the holiday season.

Quick Practice Tip: How to Take Notes During a Lesson

2011-12-14T07:51:00.000-06:00

One of the roles my parents adopt is that of the scribe. I ask the parents to take notes during lessons because the process of memorializing the lesson aids the parent in understanding how to recreate the lesson at home. The added benefit is that we will also have an historical record of the child's music learning.

When a parent begins lessons with me, I give them a composition book. You can find these at really inexpensive prices at back-to-school sales in the fall, when I usually buy the books by the caseload. A parent may opt to use a different form of notebook, but I recommend that they have some sort of notebook depending on their personal preferences.

The left side of the notebook is to be left blank during lessons and used as a place to record information and questions to me, either during lessons or at home in between lessons. The right side of the notebook is where the parent is to record what transpires during the lesson.

I ask the parent to record exactly what occurred in the lesson, step-by-step. Focus on the activity and language used.

Did I ask a question? What was it? Write it down.
Did I fix something in the student's posture? What was it? Write it down.
Did we focus on part of a song? Which part was it? Write it down.
Did we practice or drill repetitions of a particular skill or problem area? How did we practice it? Write it down.
Did I use a word picture? What were the words I used? Write it down.

Here is how it might look:

Conversation about school band concert the student played in while tuning the violin
Took a bow, then got into playing position
Adjustment of the pinkie on the bow
Played Song of the Wind

Adjusted pinkie on the bow
Played 10 down bow circles on the E string

Real circles, not flat pancakes
Circle sizes: watermelon, cantaloup, strawberry

fun game!

Which size circle goes where in the song

cantaloup size except for strawberry size at end of measure 8
(parent, student, and I mark the strawberry circle place in the music)

Adjusted pinkie on the bow

Played 10 jumping finger sections

Adjusted pinkie on the bow
Pinkie pushups

Reviewed Variation A

Adjusted pinkie on the bow
Pinkie pushups

Reviewed Twinkle Theme

Adjusted pinkie on the bow
Pinkie pushups

Reviewed Aunt Rhody finger tangle preview

Repeated finger tangle drill 10 times
Adjusted pinkie on the bow
Pinkie pushups

Now, all a parent has to do is go home and repeat the lesson. If I was particularly creative in my word pictures, the parent might use those same descriptive words. I am greatly amused to look at the music of some of my high school students and see that they have also written my descriptions. Here are a few examples:

No stabbing in the eye
Heel your dog
Samurai warrior
No riding the brake
Shooting bow
No fishing
No swimming

Note also that a parent will easily discover what the focal point of the lesson was. In this case, the teacher focused on the student's keeping the pinkie on the bow. That should also be the main focal point of the home practice sessions. This should now become one of the weekly practice goals, along with good execution of the down bow circles, the jumping fingers, and the finger tangle preview.

At the end of the lesson, the parent might ask some questions for clarification, and the teacher might have specific practice tips or assignments or review songs to suggest for extra practice of the lesson's focus point.

My favorite reason for keeping a notebook is that we can look through it in a few years and remember all that we accomplished. I recall observing one student's master class lesson during a summer Suzuki institute, and the mother and I thumbed back through the lesson notebook to find something in particular. We were delighted to read back through some of the notes the parent had taken in the previous three years since the child had started lessons. We had a great stroll through memory lane! We also celebrated how far we had come since the beginning.

Monday Morning Check In: Teaching and Purpose

2011-12-12T11:37:00.000-06:00

I am blessed in my line of work to have many colleagues who are involved in the education field at various institutions besides my own. I enjoy my discussions and the free exchange of ideas between us. Recently, however, I had a conversation that has stuck to me like a limpet. I would like to share it with you, along with a few of my own thoughts.

The teacher was younger and assigned to teach theory classes, and the classes were filled to capacity, which I know can lead to issues of effective class management. So, I was interested to hear this teacher's ideas about methods to streamline the grading, testing, and attendance taking process.

This teacher was laughing, almost gleeful when describing how the class syllabus was set up to act as a barrier to most student problems. I had to admire this teacher's cleverness in setting up an online assessment test to determine whether the student had read the syllabus. The student could take the exam as many times as needed until the student passed the assessment. Thus, the teacher then had proof that the student had indeed read the syllabus and arguably was familiar then with the syllabus provisions regarding attendance, homework assignments, excused (and unexcused) absences, and grading policy. I walked away from that conversation clearly aware that this teacher was almost giddy about how she had set up her syllabus program to prevent students from being able to offer up any conceivable excuse about anything.

The part of the conversation that puzzled me was the teacher's gleeful, cheerful attitude when describing the syllabus. I clearly got the picture that this teacher thought of the classroom situation as a "me against them." Along with that, the teacher exercised a very rigid approach to situations and very seldom permitted any room for emergencies or situations that we can only refer to as "life happens." For example, although I allow plenty of time to get to places on time (I set my clocks ahead), I cannot predict when I will be thwarted from my punctuality by an unexpected train or unavailable parking situation.

At this point, let me throw out three words here: teaching, equity, and discretion. Over my vast years of teaching experience and living in the world generally, I have come to a comfortable coexistence with these three words, well, concepts actually. Each word represents more than just a simple definition. Each word leads to richer discussions:

"Teaching" leads to the ability to learn or at least it should in my opinion. When I teach my students, my purpose is to help my students learn. I will stand by this as my top priority as a teacher. Granted there are many lessons we teachers impart to our students besides the obvious lessons of our subject area. I advise us to take care that we monitor our motivation behind each "lesson" we seek to teach.

"Equity" leads to the ability to structure remedies to fit the circumstances of the situation. The syllabus rules are not to be wielded about like some sort of rigid club in a game of student whack-a-mole. There are situations in life when the rules and regulations we previously set up do not apply, or at least they do not apply in a satisfying manner. There are times when the results of our rigid rules and laws offend our sense of justice and fairness. That is when the concept of equity steps in and allows us to create a solution that will fit the situation.

"Discretion" leads to the power to exercise compassion.

Few issues are black and white. One of the biggest lessons I have learned during my stay here on this planet is that there is a very large gray area to explore. Even in the field of music there are few absolutes. Take for example, rubato and musical expression.

During my conversation with the teacher, I wondered what was the teacher's real motivation and purpose. Was it to teach? I ask this because what I heard in the tone of voice and saw in the smile on the teacher's face were more like the giddiness and glee of having the power to thwart and stymie the students. I wondered if the teacher had ever experienced or would ever experience the joy and energizing motivation that comes from embracing the purpose of teaching students so that they learn.

Yes, I know, there is probably more to the story, and indeed there is. I also know more to this story, which is why this conversation is still haunting me a week later. As it happens, while I was having this conversation with the teacher, a student that I know well was vainly trying to get to school in time to meet with this teacher. Unfortunately, the student failed, and 10 minutes later was sobbing in my office. Despite the exam period lasting over several days and despite the fact that there were many open slots still available to fit the student in, this teacher opted to adhere to the syllabus proscription about tardiness. The student was dead in the water, and I could not interfere. What was the lesson this student learned? Not to be late? Gosh, I think the student always knew that. To expect a train? A flat tire? An alarm that went off but wasn't heard? No, I think this student learned a different message, and that saddens me.

As I consoled the student, my thought was: I hope that the next time the teacher is speeding just a little to get to an appointment on time, and a policeman stops to give a speeding ticket, that the teacher will reflect on the lesson about teaching, equity, and discretion when the policeman decides to give a warning instead of a ticket.

Monday Morning Check In: Disappointments and Life Lessons

2011-12-05T07:08:00.000-06:00

Last week I focused on Jinny Ditzler's "Best Year Yet!" question number 1 concerning this past year: "what did I accomplish?" This week I want to consider Jinny's second and third questions:

What were my biggest disappointments?

What did I learn?

What were my biggest disappointments?

Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal;

it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it. -- Eliza Tabor, author

One of the reasons I like Jinny's program is the way she frames her questions. Jinny asks us to list our biggest disappointments. Notice that she did not ask us to list our failures. The word "failure" drips negativity and finality, whereas "disappointment" sounds, well, disappointing and transient. I would have trouble facing a "failure." I would have to wade through a lot of psychological swamps in order to make sense of a failure, if I could even get myself to the point where I could consider the failure. There is so much negative stuff that comes with a failure, including the impact on one's self esteem, the sense of rejection, and a possible hit on our perceived self worth or value. To me the word "failure" resembles a closed door.

I am not sure that I want to deal with a failure. I am not sure I could take a failure in stride in a timely manner. I can, however, face a disappointment. I can consider all sides of a disappointment. I can learn from a disappointment. To me the word "disappointment" resembles a door left ajar. I can close it, walk through it, or even poke my head around the open edge without ever taking a step beyond the door sill.

Sometimes what holds us back from achieving our full potential is our refusal or inability to let go of our disappointments and open the door all the way. By asking us to examine our disappointments in the full light of day, Ms. Ditzler is asking us to "[s]top trying to drive with your hands on the rear-view mirror!" We cannot change the past. The past is done, finished, unchanged. Looking back at it, refusing to let go of it, keeps us tied to the past. We are unable to live in the present or look to the future when we are looking backwards.

Instead, Jinny asks us to consider our disappointments in an effort to change the effect our disappointments have on us. Jinny considers question two to be the next step to help us deal with negative aspects of our past and to help us refocus on living in the present. Jinny gives us three possibilities to dealing positively with negatives from our past:

Forgive

Forget

Learn

Forgiving is a difficult task for many people, whether it is to forgive others or to forgive oneself. Forgetting may be difficult too, although the act of acknowledging or naming a particular disappointment may be enough to release the disappointment's hold over us. Jinny suggests that the best way to deal with disappointments of the past is to learn from them, and this is Jinny's third question.

What did I learn?

Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the oracle process all begins. -- Jim Rohn, entrepreneur, author, motivational speaker

Now the fun begins. Look over your list of accomplishments and your disappointments, and reframe them as lessons you have learned or a lesson you could learn. In order to keep my focus on this task, I maintain a "Life Lesson" journal. My journal is merely a simple composition book with the title "Life Lessons." I see it every day but I do not always write in the book on a daily basis. Still, because I see the book every day, I am reminded to think about my life and my activities with this perception: what life lessons can I learn from my daily life experiences?

I actually enjoy sitting down for a minute while I wait for my morning coffee to finish brewing or dripping. I cast my mind over the previous day and look for a nugget to transform into a life lesson. Some people advocate writing a life lesson or a list of things to be grateful for at the end of the day when the activities are freshest in our minds. I have trouble remembering to do that at the end of the day when my energy level seems to be at its lowest. Instead, I enjoy contemplating a new day with the activity of transforming the previous day into a life lesson "sound bite." The positive aspect of this activity sets the tone for the beginning of my day.

As we think about our accomplishments and the lessons we have learned, we can be objective about the skills, attitudes, and behaviors we already have and what we might lack to achieve or improve ourselves in more ways. Jinny then provides us with some steps to help us turn our life lessons into personal guidelines and ultimately into instructions to follow in the coming year.

If you are interested to learn more about Jinny Ditzler's program, please visit her website at http://www.bestyearyet.com/ or purchase her book, which is also available now as a Kindle version.

And one more thought: in this world of the Internet, where the possibilities are endless for us to make connections with others all around the world, any time we can make a personal connection with someone, such as a stranger, I think we should celebrate this opportunity. And, I think it says much about the person who reaches out. I was more excited than you can imagine when I heard personally from Jinny Ditzler

Next week I will write about question four: "How do I limit myself and how can I stop?"

Where to Get an Instrument for Your Child

2011-12-03T08:53:00.000-06:00

Recently, I received a request to raise and comment on the issue of where a parent might obtain a good quality violin for their child. This question also raises other important questions: should I rent or purchase my child's instrument? Where should I rent or purchase my child's instrument? What size instrument should I get?

We have several youth string programs at Texas State University, and parents raise this discussion annually. Here are a few of the informational points I discuss with the parents of new string students.

Where Should I Get an Instrument for my Child?

A parent should be careful when getting an instrument for their child. I highly recommend that you follow the advice and suggestions of your teacher first and foremost, because your teacher is the expert in this field and has the experience to back up any recommendations. Still, there is some advice I can offer to help you avoid future problems.

EBay is a wonderful and fun tool for purchasing many different things, but for buying a violin or other stringed instrument, in my opinion EBay is the worst place to go! Anyone who knows anything about good musical instruments will NEVER sell them on EBay. You are more likely to get a poor instrument or an instrument that will need much repair in order to be put into working order. The main problem is that you will have little or no idea whether the instrument is any good. You cannot tell what the instrument's quality is without examining it in person. You cannot tell what prior repair work has been done, and despite the ability to resolve any dispute through EBay, who would want to take the time and trouble to do that?

There are many retail music stores that sell violins, however, a retail store may not be what you are looking for either because they may not be generally equipped with the experienced personnel to adjust the instruments properly for easy playing. Many stores offer their violin inventory and do not understand how to adjust the instrument to its best possible playing condition. Adjusting an instrument involves numerous items to check for and make adjustments about the instrument. For example, I offer here a link to a sample 15-point checklist that might be used when adjusting an instrument: http://www.henrystrobel.com/adjust.htm.

When a parent ignores my advice concerning which shops to rent or purchase an instrument from, I am usually faced with an instrument that has not been properly adjusted. The pegs might not fit, the bridge and sound post might be out of alignment, the nut and fingerboard may have issues concerning improper height, the instrument may need minor repair, and the chin rest might not properly fit.

I might struggle with the new instrument for a few weeks. Usually the issue is that I cannot tune the violin very well the because the pegs will not hold. Another common issue is that the bridge is way too high for a student to play comfortably. Of course, the parent winds up struggling with these same issues every other day of the week. Each week I struggle some more and make a point of saying, "this violin just needs to be adjusted. I'm surprised the shop did not do that for you before letting you leave the store." I say that enough times, and then the parent actually goes to the store and asks the shop to adjust the instrument. At that point the parent also realizes that the shop does not understand what "adjust the instrument" means. The parent then quietly returns the violin and then heads over to one of the stores I recommended.

Note to teachers: I think it is crucial that a teacher build a good report with the violin shops in the area. I know everything about the shops in my locale: I know which shops have deservedly high reputations and in which shops I need to be careful in my dealings. I have visited with the shops that I would recommend to my students and their parents, and I have also explained to the shop what my sizing policy is. My relationship with the shops has grown to the extent that in many cases the shop employees also remember that I like my students to have real wooded bows rather than fiberglass, wherever possible. One shop even understands my color coding preferences for finger tapes.

The BEST place to purchase a violin or other stringed instrument in my opinion is a specialized fine string instrument shop that has a luthier available to repair the instruments properly and to see that the instrument is properly made ready for easy playing. A luthier is someone who has typically completed a special apprenticeship program to learn how to work with wood to craft violins and other stringed instruments. This is not a skill that can be learned via the Internet or by working in the back of a shop. Luthiers are highly trained individuals; some have learned their skill in foreign countries.

If the child's instrument sounds lovely, your child will be more encouraged to practice because it is a pleasure to listen to the music he or she is making. As a parent you will enjoy the beginning sounds your child makes, so you will be providing the necessary encouragement and appreciation your child needs to spur him or her on to practice even more (to please you more). Conversely, if your child is not producing pleasant sounds, you and your child will not enjoy the music learning experience quite as much.

I recall an instance when one of my young students outgrew her 1/8 size violin. I explained to her father that she needed a 1/4 size violin. For some reason, the father delayed going to the violin store, until finally the situation became untenable for the young student. Her violin was so tiny, and she had grown so quickly and so much, that she had trouble crowding her fingers into the proper positions to play correct intonation. Every week I would remind the father that she needed a new size violin, but every week the child returned to her lesson with the old size violin.

Finally, frustrated as much as the child seemed to be, I drug out an old 1/4 size violin from my closet, which we happily refer to as the "camping violin." One of my other students had been camping once somewhere in Texas and while hiking a herd of wild horses had raced through the campsite and trampled everything in its path. Fortunately, my student had not taken her violin along on this camping trip.

The violin in my closet was a dog. It sounded terrible, and I inherited it somewhere along the way from someone, but I do not recall how I came to own it. It had a horrible, thin, scratchy tone, and there was nothing that anyone could do to improve the sound. I mostly kept it around in order to have a 1/4 size violin available to check my student's violin size. We call this the camping violin because if a student borrowed it to go camping and a herd of wild horses ran through the campsite, I would not shed a tear if the violin was destroyed under thundering hooves.

So to hand over this violin to a student would almost be a gesture of abuse, but, I could not think of any other solution until the father went to the violin store. Perhaps it was a financial decision on the parent's part, but I did not know the reason.

At first the student was excited because the violin felt right and fit the student's size. That probably lasted a few days. At the child's next lesson, dad was disheartened to report that he had some difficulty getting his child to practice. She had no interest. She said it sounded "scratchy," and she did not enjoy the sounds she made. I understood, because that was the problem with the violin. We limped along like this for several lessons, until the child practically stopped playing altogether. At that point dad became really concerned. He finally went to the store and got her a new instrument.

At the child's next lesson, her face was all lit up like it was Christmas Day. She could not wait to show me what she had been playing on her new violin. She was literally jumping up and down with excitement as she made me look at her pretty new violin. Dad was smiling too, because practicing no longer was an issue in his home. His daughter looked for opportunities to practice and enjoy her sweet violin sounds.

Should I Rent or Buy my Child's Instrument?

Some families will prefer to rent, some to buy. If a parent is unsure whether the parent or the child will continue his or her interest in studying music, the parent might consider renting the child's instrument initially. The shops that your teacher might recommend usually have very affordable rental programs. Most of these programs also offer the option of purchasing insurance for the instrument, which might cost a few dollars per month. These shops can also set up the parent and child with a purchase-to-buy program as well, so the parent is able to choose a plan to fit the family's budget. One difference in renting versus buying is that over the long haul, renting will benefit the shop more than purchasing. The advantage in renting is that usually the shop will provide basic maintenance and care, such as providing new strings or replacing bows with worn out bow hair, without additional charge. Be sure to ask the shop what you will be getting.

If you buy the instrument, the shop often provides you with a trade-in value when you go in for a larger size, and you can pay the difference between the trade-in value and the cost of the new instrument. Many of my students have traded up their violins size by size until they reach the day when they can purchase a full size (4/4) instrument. With the purchase option, these students built up equity for the cost of the future full size violin.

Sizing is special topic, so I will save the discussion of that topic for a future post.

Parents, please follow your teacher's advice. After all, you attend lessons with the teacher you have chosen because they have this expertise. Teachers, take the bull by the horns and provide your students and their parents with the information they need to make wise decisions about obtaining an instrument.

Happy Practicing!

What is a Suzuki Teacher?

2011-11-29T23:25:00.000-06:00

Recently, I received a lengthy email asking me to comment about a particular teaching situation. I thought the questions raised were worth addressing for everyone to read, so I am doing a blog post about it. I welcome anyone else's comments or suggestions as well.

To summarize the email, there were three issues raised:

What is a true Suzuki teacher? How can a parent tell if the teacher is really a trained Suzuki teacher? What should a parent look for when searching for a Suzuki teacher?
What should a new parent expect for the child in terms of lessons and learning? Will there be an instrument involved, or will the teacher be waiting until the child is older before beginning actual lessons and instead spending the early years playing games or focusing on other non-Suzuki programs?
What is the parent's role during the lesson? Should the parent interact to discipline the child or should the parent stay out of the way and let the teacher handle it?

These are all three important questions, so I will address them one by one. As I began this task, I realized that these questions raised very important and lengthy points. I will respond in three parts in three separate blog posts, beginning with the question of "What is a true Suzuki teacher?"

I put my name on any available teacher referral list, even though I may not live in the area where the teacher referral list is maintained. I do this so that I have an opportunity to educate the public concerning what Suzuki education is and how to look for a Suzuki teacher. I am not sure if it is possible to tell if a teacher is a trained Suzuki teacher, but there are some common character-
istics and experiences that are shared by all Suzuki teachers. There are many teachers who may be highly qualified to be good teachers. However, if a parent chooses to select a Suzuki-trained teacher, then there are a few guidelines that might help the parent's search.

Let me be clear: there are many qualified teachers available, however they may not be Suzuki-trained. I have encountered many teachers who claimed to be "Suzuki teachers" but who in fact did not take any Suzuki training. Instead, these particular teachers rely on such support as "I grew up learning under the Suzuki Method," or "I've used the Suzuki materials for years."

As for growing up studying under the Suzuki Method, I am fairly certain that most of my students would not be able to recite the teaching points to every song, even though we spend a lot of time working on these points. Nor would my students have the benefit and wisdom of having studied these materials from a teacher's perspective, which is to say an educator's perspective and experience. The teaching side of the fence is vastly different than the student side, as any teacher will tell you.

As for the teacher who uses the Suzuki materials for years, I have met many of those same teachers in Suzuki teacher training courses. These are the same teachers, highly qualified I will remind you, who then sit back in amazement at what they have learned during the teacher training courses and say, "I'll never skip teaching that song ever again! In fact, I won't ever go out of order or skip any of the Suzuki songs!" Or, they will admit that they had no idea of the depth and wealth of skills and ability learning opportunities that could be found in each piece of the Suzuki Method repertoire. That is the value of the specialized Suzuki teacher training.

So, first and foremost, a "Suzuki teacher" will have taken teacher training somewhere, sometime. If asked, the teacher will be able to tell you where, when, and what course the teacher took. If you feel more comfortable finding out the information without asking the teacher directly, contact the Suzuki Association of the Americas at www.suzukiassociation.org or call its office at 303-444-0948 or 888-378-9854. If a teacher has taken teacher training, he or she will have registered that training with the SAA.

The second most crucial component of the Suzuki Method of Talent Education is the group class. Individual lessons are important, but so are the group classes. Group classes are a great way to motivate students in their music learning. Students enjoy the classes and look forward to them. Group classes afford students an opportunity to learn from students who are more advanced than they are, and also for older students to learn leadership skills and act as role models for younger, less advanced students. At the same time, all students learn in a group setting, so there are opportunities to learn social skill interaction, ensemble playing, and teamwork responsibilities. My second question to any potential "Suzuki teacher" is whether they maintain a group class.

The format of the group class may not be as formal. I know of several successful Suzuki teachers who maintain group classes combined with other teachers' studios. I recall when I first started seriously teaching. I did not have a group class in the beginning because of the difficulties of finding a suitable location and making appropriate financial arrangements. After I began doing group classes, I immediately understood the benefit of teaching them. It was a great opportunity to reach all my students at one time. My group class structure has altered over the years as the students have changed. Some years are lean years because the particular group of students are heavily involved in other extracurricular activities, such as sports or family. I have had some wonderful group class years with full classes, large ensembles, and many performance opportunities. The attendance numbers may vary over time, but the students' enthusiasm for the classes do not.

The third question I would ask any potential Suzuki teacher is whether the parent could come and observe the teacher in action during lessons and group classes. Any Suzuki-trained teacher will welcome a visitor to the individual lessons and group classes. Anyone, especially new parents and students, are welcome to visit (and hopefully interact) with my studio at any time. In fact, I publish my performances as well, so that potential students and their parents have an opportunity to observe my abilities and skills first hand and to meet me in person at recitals and symphony concerts.

There may be many teachers who teach with the Suzuki guidelines of nurturing, enthusiasm, and parental involvement. However, when a parent contacts a potential teacher with the intent of finding a "Suzuki teacher," that the teacher should be upfront about what services he or she will offer. I think that a teacher should not label him- or herself as a "Suzuki teacher" unless the teacher has in fact taken sanctioned Suzuki teacher training and then also embodies the Suzuki philosophy by offering group classes, among other things. There is no reason to hide the actual circumstances from a prospective parent.

A teacher's purpose should always be the growth and benefit to the student. There are many roads to the same destination in all endeavors. I happen to have chosen the Suzuki Method as my route in music education, and I use the Suzuki principles in my university teaching as well. The Suzuki Method of Talent Education is more than just a "method" of teaching a student how to play an instrument. Dr. Suzuki used the violin as a vehicle to teach his students how to be upstanding and productive members of society. I also believe that the violin (or music education) is a wondrous vehicle to impart important life skills to my students and their parents. I also happen to believe that the Suzuki Method of Talent Education is one of the best ways to accomplish this lofty goal.

Practice Tip: Building Tone with Open Strings

2011-11-29T21:07:00.065-06:00

I think Dr. Suzuki hit on a brilliant idea when he suggested that we practice tonalizing on our open strings. I would like to share my experience with you on this matter.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with the term "tonalization," and apparently my spell checker is unfamiliar with the word, Dr. Suzuki coined this word to describe what we instrumentalists do in comparison to the vocalization that vocalists do. Just as singers work to produce good quality tone and volume, so too can we instrumentalists.

Tone is a broad topic, but we do not need to discuss what tone is in order to understand how best to produce it. Dr. Suzuki suggested plucking the open strings and listening to the resonance of the pitch and then recreating the "ringing" sound with the bow playing the same pitch. There is something special about the resonance of our open strings. There is a brightness, a clarity, and a lingering and shimmering vibration in the air. The open strings sparkle and emit an extra "umph" in their sound.

When I am working with a student to build a stronger tone, I ask the student to play open strings as much as possible. For example, when playing notes on the D string, I might ask a student to play the open D string as strongly as possible about 6-8 times before playing the D string passage. Similarly, I will ask for repeated A strings or E strings. I notice that once a student has played an open string numerous times with the aim of making the string vibrate back and forth as widely as possible with as slow a bow as possible, the student then works to make the passage live up to the tone level set by the resonating open strings. I also think there is a kinesthetic value to this exercise, as students learn how to "feel" the pitch as well as hear the pitch with all its resonant overtones. I find that playing this open string exercise on the G string is quite lovely; the vibrations I produce resemble the same variations used in meditation chants, which help to stimulate the internal organs.

I have a simple tune that I like to use for this purpose, called "Lullaby." Originally I found this little song in David Tasgal's "Family Violin Method" and used it as an open string song in my PreTwinkler classes. My students loved it so much, the song has become a regular feature in my classes. One young student even went so far as to secure Mr. Tasgal's permission to record the song onto his mother's folk song CD.

Mr. Tasgal has graciously given me permission to print the music for this cute little tune. I myself use this tune to get focused for a practice session or to test out the resonance in a new performance hall. I can feel my back muscles relax as I play the song and concentrate on getting the most resonance from each open string. I play the song through two times; the first time I start the piece with a down bow, and the second time I reverse the bowing by starting with an up bow. My young students like it so much, they spend a great deal of time and effort to learn to play the song. I notice that my students have to expend a lot of concentration and focus energy to change the strings correctly and to use longer, slower bows. For a young PreTwinkler student to spend the time and effort to achieve this ability is a tribute to Mr. Tasgal's composition. My students enjoy this tune.

I have printed out a copy done on Finale, because it was easier for me to put it on my blog in this manner.

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The only way I could figure out how to add an audio recording to the blog was to make a "video" of the song while playing it on my computer. If anyone knows how to embed an audio player on blogger, please contact me. Meanwhile, here is the recording I made:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UrQ8u34laQo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Mr. Tasgal has gone on to publish a new series, "Strings Fun and Easy." I have not yet had a chance to look through those books, but I will write out my experience once I have looked through them. You can learn more about Mr. Tasgal and his new series at: http://www.stringsfunandeasy.com/. The previous series, "Family Violin Method" can be found at: http://www.familystringmethod.com/, although Mr. Tasgal is encouraging newcomers to try out the new series.

Have fun playing those open strings this week. And if you have not changed your strings in a while, or your students are playing with dull, lifeless strings, buy new ones! You will enjoy playing this song with bright, shiny, new resonating strings!

Monday Morning Check In: Just Desserts!

2011-11-28T08:03:00.000-06:00

"Increasing your self-esteem is easy. Simply do good things and remember that you did them." -- John-Roger

Today is the last Monday in November. To give you some perspective, four more Mondays remain in the year 2011 after today. We are in the final push to the end of the year, and there is much that we can accomplish despite the upcoming holidays.

As I look forward to a new year and a new beginning to some of my goals, I have begun the process of looking back at the past year and contemplating what I have accomplished. When I look back throughout the previous months, I realize that I accomplished a great deal. There is much for me to celebrate.

Asking the question "what did I accomplish?" is the first step in Jinny Ditzler's "Best Year Yet!" program. Jinny starts with this question in order to guide us in a positive direction. Too often we have an unbalanced perception of who we are, what value we give, and why we matter to the world. Reflecting on the answer to Jinny's question helps us balance our perspective with what we actually accomplished and have not taken the time to acknowledge.

I have the added benefit of having to prepare an annual report for my employer about my activities during the year. I routinely make a habit of listing all the performances, creative and scholarly activities, teaching workshops, and service I have given or done. So I am usually going through this question pretty thoroughly anyway, although this year I have the added difficulty of somehow "losing" my electronic record for the year in some misguided syncing operation. I will have to recreate my list by memory. Bummer.

Along with the list of tangible accomplishments, there are other accomplishments we should consider adding to our list. Perhaps we had a difficult year, but we managed to survive it with a good attitude. That would be a worthy accomplishment to celebrate. Perhaps we kept within budgetary or dietary restraints more times than not. Perhaps we did several acts of kindness on a routine basis. Perhaps we expressed more optimism or graciousness in our daily interactions with others.

There are many things that we can add to our list of accomplishments. It is important that we remember what we have actually done this past year. It is necessary that we celebrate our achievements before we begin the process of adding new goals to the picture.

Jinny's first step is important. Do not neglect to take the time to thoroughly answer this question. I titled this post as "Just Desserts" as a play on words. The actual idiom expression is "just deserts," which means that one receives what one deserves. However, in my topic today, I want us to focus on celebration. I used the "dessert" spelling to encourage us to bring the same attitude to our celebration that we do when we eat dessert.

Let me leave you with some quotations to contemplate this week as you prepare your master list of accomplishments:

"Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment." -- Thomas Carlyle

"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." -- Mark Twain

Have a great week! Celebrate those accomplishments!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T12:32:00.004-06:00

This will be an unusual post from what I normally write here. I have been very busy in the past two months with a great number of recitals, symphony services, new puppies and training, Thanksgiving preparation, end-of-semester preparation, and the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I apologize for not posting more in this past month, but I had a daily goal of writing 2,000 words for the NaNo project, and I had a few tough weeks back there trying to squeeze in everything else at the same time. So sorry I have not been as active on the blog as usual.

First, let me say how touched I have been to read your many notes and comments to me. It is sometimes a very lonely life as a writer, because there are so few opportunities to interact directly with readers. I do not receive very much reaction or many comments, so I have not developed the habit of checking my comments very often. Imagine my surprise to check things today and discover so many lovely comments from so many people! How very sweet of you all to take the time to write to me! You have given me a precious gift of encouragement and renewed enthusiasm. More posts to come!

Second, I want to offer my thanks to you for allowing me the opportunity to stand on a soapbox and preach about good (and bad) teaching, parenting, and learning. I do have a message about the importance of all of us becoming and being the best that we can be for the sake of our children, and I appreciate that you have been supportive of my efforts to "get the word out."

Third, I really do encourage you to write to me either as a comment or as a personal email. Your comments and emails to me provide me with ideas and prod me to think of new and interesting ways to solve many of the problems we face together. I am thankful that you take the time to let me know what you would find helpful to discuss in future blog posts.

Fourth, I am also open to guest posts, interviews, book reviews, and the like. If you have an idea, a contribution, or some news to share, please let me know. Dr. Suzuki was never one to limit his instruction or materials to an elite group of teachers, so I am personally sure that he would bless our continued exploration into the realm of teaching materials and ideas, whether they bear the Suzuki "stamp of approval" or not. Send me your thoughts and we will take it from there.

Fifth, I am proud to announce that I successfully completed the NaNoWriMo 2011! I finished and uploaded my novel for validation at midnight November 24, 2011 (or should I say November 25?). I successfully completed over 50,000 words written in November on the project. Actually I was over the minimum, and I actually have one little section more to add. I have a few more days until the final deadline to add that material, but officially I have "won" at this point. I am very proud of meeting this goal, and I spent some time this morning contemplating the various lessons I learned from the experience. The biggest thing I learned is that carpal tunnel is a serious issue! We really need to be conscious of how we hold our wrists when we use our computers. This is a serious topic for a future blog post, I assure you!

So there you have it. I have been really busy, but I am coming to a place where I can resume my regular posting. I welcome your ideas about future posts. I have been working my way through book 1, but I am perfectly willing to jump around to another place as folks direct. I have had a request for new or beginner mom tips. Let me know.

NaNoWriMo Winner's Badge 2011

Oh, for those who are interested in what my NaNo writing project was, I was writing a book about how to set up and run a music teaching studio. Since the NaNo rules require that the work be fiction and my writing project contemplated nonfiction, I was stumped about how to participate in this November ritual, which is something I have always wanted to try. I discussed my disappointment with some writing friends, and they slapped me around a little bit. I refused to cheat, because I would know that I was cheating, and that just is not who I am. Then someone reminded me of Truman Capote's creative nonfiction genre, that got me thinking, and there you have it! I found the solution to my dilemma.

I have titled the book "The Music Studio" for now as a working title. I created four characters in various stages of teaching experience and life in general, and I let the book unfold each day in 2,000 word increments. I found the experience exhilarating in how the story took shape. Each character brought unique perspectives and problems into bas relief, and I was able to address in writing each subject area. I came up with more ideas for the book than I had originally planned to use. I was also surprised to see how much the book and the characters in the book depended on the inclusion of various goal setting exercises. There are many, many different ways to set goals, and I realized while writing the book that many of these goal setting tools were more appropriate at various times in our lives. I had not thought of goal setting in that manner before, but the fictional component of my story brought this aspect to the forefront for me.

Of course, now I have a mass of words to edit. I hope to spend December doing just that.

Happy Thanksgiving (one day late)! Enjoy those leftovers and a nap or two.

-- Paula