When the House Falls Apart | The Case for Regular Review and Repair

Let me describe four scenarios.

Scenario One

We walk through our home with our handyman on a regular basis to be sure that things are still in working order. We find that generally things are still in pretty good condition. We might have to repair a few loose floorboards with an extra nail or two here and there or tighten a screw in another place to make sure that the door hinges work properly. These are minor adjustments because we do this inspection on a regular basis and can address problems before they even grow into problems.

Scenario Two

We walk through the house after having been away for a very long time. Within a few feet of the entrance, we find that there is a hole in the floor. In order for us to repair this floorboard, we will need to give it a lot of time and attention. We have to pull up the rotten piece of flooring that is currently there and replace it with a new piece in good condition. We need to hammer a lot of nails to hold the new floor piece securely, and we may have to adjust the color and finish of the floorboard to match the boards that surround the new board.

We continue our walk through and discover that a window in the same room has a shutter that lists to one side because the hinge has come completely loose. We have found another bigger repair and replace project. Looking quickly through the rooms up ahead, we can see that there will be more major repair issues there as well.

This repair work will take up a lot more time than we expected, and we only completed a short part of our inspection. We cannot finish our inspection on this trip.

Scenario Three

The teacher asks the student to warm up at the lesson by playing a song that the student learned relatively recently, maybe two songs ago. The student stumbles in the 2^nd measure and restarts the song a few times until the student figures out what the mistake is and how to correct it. The student proceeds with the review song but trips over a fingering in the fourth measure. Again, the student backs up and takes a few passes at the passage until the student finally works through it.

The student continues through the first repeated section of the song with this stumbling, stuttering, and relearning method until the student at long last finally reaches the repeat sign. Inwardly sighing, the teacher gently reminds the student to make a bow circle and reset the bow for a downbow, and then asks the student to make the repeat. And the entire process begins anew.

And continues in this fashion.

Again . . .

            And . . .

                        Again

Until the 30-minute lesson ends.

Scenario Four

"Honey, have you noticed that the sink keeps getting this ring of hard water deposit around the drain? I wonder if there's something wrong?"

"Honey, I went ahead and put a little bowl under the faucet to see if it was dripping."

"Honey, the faucet is definitely dripping. I'm using the water I catch in the bowl to fill up the cat's water bowl. Be sure to empty it while I'm visiting my mother."

"Hi, honey, how are things going? What? There's water leaking under the sink too? It's still leaking after all this time?"

Apparently problems do not go away when ignored. Regular reviews (inspections) will keep the house in good repair and working order. So will regular reviews of the repertoire students have spent time learning.

I prefer the first scenario. How about you?

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2018 by Paula E. Bird

Teach Suzuki YouTube Channel now live!

Have you seen the new Teach Suzuki YouTube channel? I uploaded a video that talks about the importance of a consistent and regular review program, and the video sets out instructions for three possible review plans.

Check out the video, and be sure to hit the like button, leave a comment, and subscribe to the new Teach Suzuki YouTube channel. Click here for more.

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

G Major Twinkle Workout

Give Your Students a Pinkie, Vibrato, and 3rd Position Challenge!

Most teachers and Suzuki students are quite familiar with the theme of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Suzuki Teachers are even familiar with teaching the Twinkle theme in the key of Bb to prepare students for the Bb scale and finger pattern in violin book 2.

I also regularly use Twinkle Theme in the last third of violin book 1 during Etude and the Minuets. When I teach students how to play the theme in G major, students improve the necessary skills found in the last songs of book 1.

I teach my students the two-octave G major scale and the new close 1-2 finger pattern on the A and E strings to prepare for learning how to play Etude. As the students progress on this scale, I add the pinkie fingering on the scale's descent. 

When the student is comfortable with this new finger pattern and the long G major scale (one of my students calls this the "super duper G scale"), I introduce a new way to play Twinkle theme. Because this is "new," I find that it is easier to get students to play Twinkle again if they have slacked off on their review program.

Twinkle Theme in G Major

The students get a little extra practice with the new G major finger pattern, and the pinkie and third finger combination gets a little extra attention as well, which helps the part of the first Minuet that has the difficult stretch from third finger to the pinkie that spans across from the D string to the A string, as shown below.

Minuet 1 Pinkie Stretch

In book 2, I introduce students to third position. I usually do this when students are working on their vibrato skill. As students are able to play notes with vibrato, we translate the vibrato exercises into the Suzuki repertoire. At first, the students add vibrato on longer third finger notes, such as the dotted half notes at the ends of the Minuets' phrases. Then we add vibrato to the long third finger notes in Chorus from Judas Maccabeus and at the end of Musette. Later we will be able to add vibrato to Long, Long Ago from book 2.

Somewhere during all of this, I might have introduced third position with a G major scale:

G Major Scale in 3rd Position

Now students can practice vibrato on this scale. The next step might be to introduce Twinkle Theme in third position, using the same Twinkle in G major that we had learned at the end of book 1 and now playing it in third position.

I have found that a new Twinkle helps me to stay focused as well as my students. G major adds an element of fun to our review.

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2016 by Paula E. Bird