Let's Do a Twinkle Challenge!

Most of us had a holiday break recently. Family outings, travel, and social occasions may have tugged us away from our good intentions of regular and consistent practice. I sympathized with any of my students who reported a dismal practice record over the holiday break. I struggled myself to find personal practice time and energy to accomplish anything other than staying on top of my performance commitments.

So, I propose that we find a way to get ourselves on track, and what better way to do that than a Twinkle Challenge! Here are some ways to do a Twinkle Challenge:

• Play through the Twinkle, Twinkle Variations every day. Focus on correct execution of articulation and intonation while maintaining correct posture.
• Play through the Twinkle, Twinkle Variations at the next lesson, or perhaps the first lesson of each month for the next three months.
• As students progress through the Suzuki repertoire, add appropriate challenges for the students' levels. I will make a few suggestions below to whet your creativity.

Here are a few basic ideas for challenging violin students as they improve in skill and ability development.

Book 1:

• Play the variations on different strings.
• Play the variations in G major, as suggested in one of my earlier blog articles (click here to read more).
• Play a new Twinkle variation by using a new bowing style. For example, try playing Variation D with down-up-up, down-up-up bows, as in the bowing style used in the first measure of Minuet 1.
• Use left hand pizzicato to pluck all the open E and A strings and play the other notes with the bow. This is a great pinky strengthener.

Books 2 and 3:

• Play the variations in D or A minor, to mirror the finger patterns found in "The Two Grenadiers" and Lully's "Gavotte."
• Play the variations in Bb, starting on Bb, as in the middle section of Mignon's "Gavotte."
• Play a new variation using a bowing suggested by Paganini's "Theme" from "Witches' Dance." This variation example is actually found in book 2 already.

Books 4 and above:

• Play the variations starting with up bow. The variations should sound as good as they would if played with a starting down bow.
• Play the variations in higher positions or with shifts to stay on one string.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list but one to get you started thinking. I have done Twinkle challenges in the past, and I was amazed at how well the studio students sounded when we revisited the Twinkle Variations on a regular basis.

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

Monday Morning Check In: Ride a Rollercoaster

Written by Paula E. Bird ©2013

When I grew up, we celebrated my birthday every year at a local amusement park. I was a frequent rider of roller coasters, as was my dad. My mother did not enjoy the ride and preferred to sit and wait and hold our belongings while the rest of us had a blast. When my niece was in elementary school and would visit me every summer, we enjoyed visiting Fiesta Texas and riding the roller coasters. We especially liked the end of the day when we could ride the coasters over and over, sometimes even getting off the car and back on again within a minute. When my niece was afraid of a new type of coaster, we would analyze it together and then think of a way to "ease" ourselves into trying it. We succeeded each time in challenging ourselves to try the new ones, even if they did look scary because they ran backwards, upside down, loopy, and feet dangling. It was all a great deal of fun in the end.

My niece has grown now, and I have had no reason to go to the amusement parks for many years now. Two years ago, though, I visited my father, who was suffering from an illness that kept him pretty tied down to the house. He suggested that I amuse myself at the park one day. Remembering how much fun I had with the coasters years ago with my niece, I gladly drove to the park by myself.

I hopped on the first coaster I found -- an older, wooden kind that bumped and jerked and banged and squealed around the course. I managed to hang on, but I was terrified. When I got off the coaster, I almost felt a spark of nausea. What was this? Have I reached the age like my mother when I can no longer ride the coasters? I considered this, and I thought about how many other rides I would not be enjoying, since they also involved the thrill of risk and the fear of crashing. I sat on a park bench with an ice cream cone and thought for a long time that day about what this fear of riding the coasters meant. And this was just the usual type of coaster. This was not a newfangled kind with the loops, feet dangling, backwards motion, upside down, and supersonic speed. This was the usual one, the one I had grown up riding.

It was a dark series of moments on that park bench as I thought about the future -- my future -- at amusement parks. All of this thinking took place with the squeals and shrieks and roaring noises that form the backdrop of the roller coaster amusement park. In those moments, I came to a decision that I would not be defeated by this setback. I would not give up. Of course, as most of my readers already know, this is typically the way I deal with things eventually. 26.2 miles? Why yes, thank you. Where do I start? What? I have to finish it within a certain time period. Pfft. Nah. I'll just go 26.2 miles, thank you. 50K? Yes, I do believe I can stay the course, even if I have to crawl.

I approached my decision to meet the roller coaster challenge as I would meet any decision -- like a Suzuki teacher would. My first question: What do I need to do to bring me to the point that I can ride the things?

I just needed to do it, I decided. I needed to get back up and do it. OK, maybe not right away. First I will ride that Pirate ship swingy thing, because that always bugs my stomach. That is what I did. I rode it and endured it. Then I went back to the original scary coaster and rode that again. The second time wasn't that bad, actually. I felt better about my decision. Then I looked for another medium-to-easy ride. Then I went for another coaster that looked to be about one step up from the one I had first rode.

I alternated this plan of challenge versus easier for the entire day. I circled the coasters on the park map and made mental notes of the rides that I had accomplished. I walked around that park all day long and into the evening as I continued my plan. I noted that with each coaster, I got stronger and stronger. By the end of the day, I was ready for the ultimate coaster challenge -- the coaster that starts out by going straight up and then straight down. I had circled this monster most of the day, several times in the day, and viewed it from all angles. I had listened carefully to the reports that excited youths shouted to their friends about the rush and the experience. I was ready. I had saved this challenge for the end of the day, and the line was long enough to make the waiting and the anticipation excruciating. My father called me sometime while I was in the line to ask where I was. I think I had been at the park for 8 hours by that point. I explained that I was waiting to go on my last ride, and that I would come home after that.

The ride was fabulous! I do not know whether I would want to ride it again, but I can go through my life with the knowledge that I did it.

This experience was 2 years ago. This year I returned to visit my father, and we went to the park together. My father did not ride with me as he would have in our younger days. He rode a few things with me, but then he preferred to sit and wait and talk to a friend while I indulged my coaster fun. I approached the first coaster with a little trepidation. It was the coaster that I had first experienced two years before. I had a history with it, and I wondered idly about what kind of experience I would have this time. I prepared myself mentally for the challenge, whichever way the challenge would turn out to go.

I need not have worried. The ride was terrific. Oh yes, it was fast and scary, and bumpy and jerky, but I had no trouble handling it and finding that place of enjoying the challenge. I did not worry from that point on. In fact, every roller coaster I rode that day was fun. I enjoyed them all. I did not have time to ride all of them, and I did not want to tax my father and his friend's patience while they waited for me to ride.

Where am I going with this? There are several lessons to take away from this experience, or my experience. "Roller coaster" is merely another word for challenge, and life will be full of challenges if we want to experience life to the fullest and the richest. In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt: "The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."

Do not let too much time go between challenges. I let several years elapse between my roller coaster experiences, and the result is that I forgot several things, such as what the experience would be like and how to handle it. Do not allow yourself to be benched for too long. Get out there and try again.  Often.

Develop a plan to meet the challenge. Do not rush into an experience without contemplating the best way to approach the challenge. Observe. Reflect. Consider. Create a plan to face the challenge, which will allow for setbacks, rest, and new evaluation.

Enlist the help of others. Although I did not have anyone to help me through my coaster crisis two years ago, I did glean information from other people this time. While I stood in line, I talked with folks about the ride experience, and I used this information to form a mental picture of how the ride experience would be. I prepared myself mentally with the help of information derived from other people's experience.

Use your mind to prepare a picture of the challenge and how to handle it. I am a firm believer in the power of visualization. Anyone who has ever woken in the middle of the night with night terrors -- racing heart beat, paralyzed scream, and panting breath -- will realize that the mind is powerful enough to believe that a monster is coming out of the closet and the body should prepare for fight or flight, even when the reality is that there is nothing there. Our mind is a powerful thing. We have the power to figure out how to use a computer, drive a car, and use all sorts of electronic tools. It is also indicative of how powerful our mind could be if we turned it to the task of visualization. Visualize a successful outcome. Be prepared to succeed. I ran many marathons, and I formed mental pictures of my routes, which carried me through the difficult stages of the races.

Put in the effort. Practice the skills you need. Two years ago I developed a plan to inure myself to the challenge of riding the roller coasters. I exposed myself time and again to each coaster so that I would lessen the fear. This is skill practice. Do it over and over. Again. One more time. Ability development is mostly about repetition and review.

There is one more lesson that I can offer. The entire experience is so much more rewarding when you share it with someone else -- a friend, a spouse, a relative. During my recent park experience, although I spent the afternoon with my father and his friend, I did spend some time alone in the waiting lines. I met several families, and in the case of one ride, I spent quite a lot of time in conversation with two younger boys, about 9 and 10 years old. They were terrific boys, and we had a great chat about the various rides the boys had been on and which coasters and rides the boys recommended that I try. I ran into the boys again later in the day, and we compared our experiences and reconnected. The rides together were so much more fun because I could share them with these two youngsters. I almost wish that I could have hung around with the two of them for the entire day,

Now look back through my list. Do you see how this works as a teaching plan?

Do not let too much time go between challenges. Offer students a little piece at a time, but do not allow the students to rest too much in between. Stagnancy is all too easy. Growth does not occur in this state. Stagnancy is good for rest periods, but a challenge outside the comfort zone is where the real learning occurs.

Develop a plan to meet the challenge. Suzuki teachers attend teacher training workshops to learn how to teach the Suzuki materials in a linear progression. Even university instructors have standardized syllabi that guide teachers and students alike in the progression of skill development. Each student (and teacher) and student-parent-teacher relationship is unique and will present different challenges and opportunities to create new plans to address the individual issues. Nothing much happens though or within a reasonable amount of time without a plan that systematically addresses the challenges, opportunities, and individual issues.

Enlist the help of others. Parent and teacher work together in the Suzuki world. Teachers in general work together to help each other come up with solutions to creative teaching problems. We have teacher-student-parent forums. There are blogs like this one to help teachers and parents. There are collective organizations that provide encouragement and support for teachers and parents, and there is nothing like the Internet to provide us with just about every answer for every issue and problem.

Use your mind to prepare a picture of the challenge and how to handle it. Visualization is the most powerful tool that I know for handling challenges. I never fail to note how the Olympic athletes spend time in quiet reflection with their eyes closed before beginning their next event. I am certain that this quiet reflective time is spent conjuring up mental pictures of successful efforts and outcomes. Playing a musical instrument has much in common with athletic endeavors. Musicians would do well to borrow from this most successful athletic technique.

Put in the effort. Practice the skills you need. This is self explanatory, yes? We cannot accomplish something unless we actually do it. Talk is useless. Eventually we need to step up to the plate and take a swing in order to figure out where we go next. Nothing happens if we just sit back and talk about our experience. Some of my favorite lines in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, occur when Mr. Darcy's obnoxious aunt claims expertise that she does not actually have:

"[M]usic is of all subjects my delight. . . . There are few people in England, I suppose, who have more true enjoyment of music than myself, or a better natural taste. If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient. And so would Anne, if her health had allowed her to apply. I am confident that she would have performed delightfully."

Uh huh, we all giggled when we read that. To claim proficiency without actually doing anything? Comical, that.

Share it with someone else. Challenges are best shared. A physics teacher explained how ladies' footwear and the different heels on the shoes change the way that pressure is spread across the wearer's foot. Larger, wider heels spread the pressure more equally across the foot than the localized, pinpoint pressure experienced with a spiked heel. So it is with challenges: as we share the pressure of the challenge among a wider range of people, so the pressure is lessened a bit on ourselves.

Challenges are a part of life, and life lessons are everywhere. Dr. Suzuki recognized this phenomenon when he made it his life mission to teach children and parents in order to raise children to have noble hearts and admirable character. Dr. Suzuki used the violin as the vehicle to reveal these life lessons. The truth is that everything we do and face in life will reveal these life lessons if we are open to receiving the instruction. For me the challenge has been to ride the roller coaster and to continue to ride the roller coaster throughout my life.

Monday Morning Check In: Choosing a Focus Point

Whenever I visit a Chinese restaurant, I am entertained by the place mats that explain the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. You may recall the 12-year cycle of animals, such as the dog, the rat, the sheep, or the ox. Each zodiac animal also contains a personality description and advice concerning what other animals to marry or avoid.

I like the idea of focus that the zodiac provides. Each animal in the zodiac represents a year. However, I do not know that I want to wait 12 years for my zodiac animal to come around again. However, the idea behind the zodiac – the focus point – is what I am interested in.

Our lives are full of distractions. There are many people and items that demand our attention. Life moves at a frenetic pace, as technological advances compete for our consumer approval. We need to constantly update our electronic devices lest we fall behind in our ability to communicate with each other. As a teacher, I see this communication gap widen between parents and their children and sometimes between authority figures and students.

For example, I find there are still some parents who have phones that are woefully out of step with the times. Please do not think that I am trying to argue for more consumerism. Instead I want to put forth the idea that parents should keep up with their children when it comes to technology. Just as I advocate that parents read the same books and view the same movies that their children read and see, so I also advocate that parents stay on top of the way technology works. The reason I advocate this position is so that parents are able to parent effectively.

When the Harry Potter craze started, I read the books because I wanted to know what my students were reading. When I got to book 5, I thought that the books contained incredibly frightening material for younger children. I discovered that many of my students read the books but that their parents had not kept up their reading. Sadly, these students were left to process the disturbing subject matter on their own. In the case of those parents who do screen what their children will read or see, please be sure to be timely about this. I know of several students who had to wait a year for their mothers to decide that some reading material was acceptable. Meanwhile, all the students’ friends had read the books, explained what happened to the non-reading students (and probably lent them the books to read secretly), and then moved on.

I recall a discussion with one student about something related to his phone. He remarked, “I don’t have a smart phone. I have a dumb phone.” This student was only able to make phone calls; his text message capability was prehistoric, time-consuming to use, and functionally useless. His mother joined our discussion, and I discovered that the reason behind the technology “lag” was that the mother was uncomfortable with the new technology. Instead of trying to figure it out, this mother opted to plead ignorance and lack of technological savvy. (Happily, this student is now in college, has purchased his own up-to-date laptop, and is humming along in step with the current technological trends, which fits his chosen profession related to sound recording technology.)

I understand that technology can cause a bit of fear and uncertainty, but I do not believe that ignorance and lack of technological savvy are really good excuses for not keeping up. I have seen two-year-old students use my iPhone. They knew exactly how to turn it on and work the buttons. (One of these same students actually called me one day on his mother’s new iPhone. This mother had more trouble using her phone than her little two-year old.) These same youngsters had mothers who still had not figured out how to use their phone. Do these mothers want their children to be able to use a smart phone in kindergarten when these mothers will not be able to do so? Think of the dangers lurking behind the Internet gateway, while these mothers will be clueless about how to protect their children. Why not just figure it out? If a two-year old can do it, then a grown-up will be able to learn how.

My favorite example of the technology gap can be heard at the university level. I frequently hear faculty complain that students do not keep up with their email. I am amused, because I have found that students have long passed by the email form of communication. Sure, they can still do it, but email is not the preferred method of communication. If I want to send an important message to my university students, I will send an email, because that is the preferred method of communication at the university level. However, if I want an instant response, I send a text message, and to cement the deal, I also send a message via Facebook. My students respond to the text messages first and foremost. I very seldom receive email responses, and occasionally, Facebook rules the day, but still the exception rather than the rule.

I started this article about the Chinese Zodiac and the idea of a year of focus, and I wound up with a discussion about the communication gap caused by parents who refuse to keep up with the current technology and trends. I know where I digressed and why, but let me get back to my original point. I know I had one somewhere. Oh yes, the many distractions that compete for our attention (and so many of these distractions are caused by technology and electronic devices). You wonder how I will relate this to the Chinese Zodiac?

I think we can take a page from the Chinese Zodiac and create our own focus points. Rather than devote one year per focus point, we can create our own calendar. Maybe we can devote a month or a semester or a season to each focus point, or maybe a week. I know that I use many different time frames for my focus points, and my points vary depending on the circumstances in which I need to use them.

For example, I typically begin the fall semester with an overall focus for my studio. This year, my focus is to help my parents and students to find a way to record and track their practice efforts. I went back to a handbook format that I had used for many years to keep my parents and students on task with practice and listening assignments. I have put this handbook back into play for the past two weeks, and already I have seen a big improvement in the organization that parents and students have put into their home practice sessions.

I may have a different focus for my university semester. For the fall, I may have one focus related to getting my students going for the university “year” and for the freshmen students especially. I may also have a focus for each of my various university roles: teacher, performer, scholar, and collaborator. Some of these roles and focus points may overlap. For the spring semester, I may have a different focus point related to student recital performances and opportunities to practice performing before others.

For the symphony or my performance opportunities as a professional musician, I may have additional focus points. For the past few years, my focus point has been “consistency,” where I strive to be consistent from one rehearsal to the next, and I practice so that I have the capability to maintain consistency. For my home, I may have focus points related to the upkeep of my home, my dachshunds, or the ranch animals (alpacas and donkeys).

I recommend that you select a focus point for the next month. Choose one word to represent this focus (or an animal, as found in the Chinese Zodiac), and put this word prominently on your calendar or somewhere that you will see it and contemplate it frequently. If you can, devote a morning page or two to discuss the meaning of this focus point to you:

• What does this focus point represent to you?
• How will it improve you or your life?
• How will it encourage your growth of character or personal development?
• What can you do to make this focus point happen?
• How will you decide whether you have succeeded at meeting your focus?
• How will you measure your success?

As many of you know, I am a big proponent of setting goals. I like having the “finish line” set before me. I like having a picture of an ultimate destination to aim for. I like climbing up mountains or running distance races. I like these things because they stretch me. These things demand more from me, and I grow stronger as a person of character, discipline, and knowledge because I strive to accomplish them. I think of focus points as those incremental stretches of road in between the larger goals. Some focus points involve more effort because they are those nasty road patches between miles 10 and 13 when the going is sluggish. Other focus points are those first few miles of uphill struggle to get started on a new project.

Please leave me a comment about your focus point this next month. I am interested in hearing what things other people are working around in their lives. If you have an animal to represent your focus point, then I want to hear what you have chosen and why!

Have a happy week!

P.S.: All this talk about keeping current with technology has a purpose. I recently discovered that I am unable to upgrade to the latest software update for my electronic device. It is time for me to purchase a newer, more up-to-date computer. As much as I love my current laptop (MacBook), I recognize that I need to move on to the next level for many reasons. I will move on to the next level in the next few months and hand down my current laptop to my dear husband, who would be happy to lag behind technology another year or two.

Monday Morning Check In: Mini-Challenges

When we think about goal setting, we tend to envision a grand picture. Our goal assumes lofty proportions, right? Of course, we need lofty big picture goals, because these types of goals fuel our vision and our desire to make a large impact on the world. There are other types of goals, however, that will accomplish much in our lives. These are our what I refer to as our mini-challenges.

What is a mini-challenge? This is a short term goal and may even be a really, really short term goal. Generally, short term goals are goals that can be accomplished within a year. The mini goal or challenge, however, can be as short as one week, or even one day if that attracts you and suits your purpose.

The reason I use mini goals is to keep my focus and concentration on a linear progression, since I can be easily distracted by many things. I am a curious person and am fascinated to learn about many things. If I gave myself free rein, I would not accomplish much because I would be chasing rabbit trails all over the place. No, I am not ADD. I just like learning about many things. Mini-challenges keep my head in the place where it belongs. I maintain a schedule of learning, and there is logical sense to my efforts and therefore to my mini-challenges. This is also why I write so often about systems, logs, and other methods of record keeping. When we lend structure to the chaos that abounds in our lives, we provide ourselves with useful tools to manage the nonsense and the necessary.

Here is how I use mini-challenges and goals. I might choose one mini-challenge per week. For example, let us suppose that I noticed in my last orchestra concert that my shifting felt uncomfortable in the high positions. Maybe my shoulder rest needed adjustment. Maybe I sat on the outside of the orchestral music stand rather than the inside. Maybe I wore a shirt that was slippery for my violin hold. No matter what the reason might be, for the next week I will challenge myself to address this issue by framing one or two mini-challenges.

If it is a shifting exercise, I will focus my practice efforts on addressing shifting in general and perhaps one or two shifts in particular. Maybe there is a Twinkle variation that I can practice or turn into a special variation that will address my issue or problem.

Maybe I notice that my bow articulation is not as clean as I would wish it to be. I might devote the next week to fixing this by using a mini-challenge. I would play one or two of the Twinkle variations, or Etude (Suzuki Violin Volume 1) every day for a week and listen very closely to my execution and articulation.

Maybe I want to improve my vibrato speed or evenness. I will set up a mini-challenge to perform several vibrato exercises in the coming week.

Mini challenges are even more fun if you have a partner to work the challenge with you. For this purpose I often involve my students. We challenge each other, write the challenge on a small index card, and then we check off our efforts during the coming week. At the next lesson, we compare notes about how well we did. Maybe our goal was to perform a particular exercise daily for a week. Maybe our goal was to see who could do the most repetitions of a particular exercise or skill in a week.

Mini challenges work well with character development issues as well. In these cases though, I might not involve another  person, preferring to go it alone. For example, I have been very stressed lately due to performance commitments and a schedule that drew me out of town frequently. I do not do stress well. I get grouchy and irritable.

Knowing my own propensity for anger and grouchiness, I started wearing a black ponytail holder on my arm. The purpose of the ponytail holder is to remind me that I need to maintain a positive attitude, even if I am tired or grouchy. Patterned along the lines of the purple rubber wrist band for a complaint free world (read more about it), I have structured this week's mini-challenge to work on making myself more aware of any anger or crankiness. If I get through the day without altering my positive attitude, I get to keep the ponytail holder on one arm. If I slip up, I have to move it to the other arm. My goal is to go at least 3 weeks without having to move the pony tail holder to the other arm. So far I have not succeeded. Bummer!

What will be your mini-challenge this week?

Monday Morning Check In: Artist's Dates

 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?

Monday Morning Check In: Anything is Possible

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.

Thanksgiving

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

Monday Morning Check In: Stepback Weeks

My regular readers know that I am a runner. I am not the world's greatest or fastest runner. I run for the purpose of exercise and discipline (and to keep my weight under control). I also gain several benefits mentally and spiritually from the discipline of running, and I frequently include the insights I have gleaned from this discipline in my blog posts and my teaching subject matter.

One of the benefits of running regularly is what I learn from setting up and following a training program. I regularly set up a running goal, usually in the form of a particular race event. Then I figure out how far out I need to start the actual training program to prepare me for the running event. For example, if I sign up for the Austin marathon, I know that I need to allow for 18 weeks of training to be in the best possible position to survive the endurance event (which means that I have to begin my marathon training this week). For those who are interested in embarking on a similar journey, I like to follow the training programs offered by:

http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/MaraNovice1.html.

Part of Mr. Higdon's training program includes a push for two weeks and then a "stepback week." During this week, the training program allows us to reduce our mileage in order to gather strength for the next push forward. Since I like to relate everything that I do to . . .  everything that I do, I considered how to relate this "stepback" week to my work routine.

As I have repeatedly noted in previous blog posts, life gets in our way -- a lot of the time! We have our systems in place and our goals and plans all laid out, and then "life happens." I have found that the best way to handle these little life upsets is to strengthen a positive attitude. But, that just gets us through the day in general. What about something more useful?

As I contemplated the upcoming start of the marathon training program (yes, as I write this I am seriously considering an entry into the Austin Marathon on February 19, 2012), I comforted myself about the trials ahead by reminding myself about the stepback weeks. Every third week I would run less on my long runs -- not a bad thing at all! In fact, it would be something to look forward to! (See how this "positive attitude" thing works?).

So too in life.

Things bog down now and then. Our computers need to reboot and refresh. We need a Sabbath Day to recharge. And a stepback week might be in order as well. Let this be that week if you need the extra rest.

So this past week was my stepback week, and I encourage you to schedule your own stepback week. This was my first stepback week and the first of several more to come. In this next week, I urge you to cut your weekend (or week's work) in half where possible, and to take time to sit back, put your feet up, watch something on TV or Netflix, and just recharge your mental and physical batteries. I ran a tough "marathon" in the past few weeks with an opera, symphony subscription concert, and Artisan Quartet performances (3 in one weekend!). I needed to sit still for a few hours and do nothing on a grand scale. I did sit on my hands to keep myself at rest though.

Here is a little, historical P.S. about me:

I had always wanted to run a marathon. I do not understand this desire or goal, because I was not a runner to begin with. I dabbled with the sport of "jogging" in the 1970's when it first became fashionable as something folks did to lose weight. So, I do not know where this desire originated. However, the hope and determination showed up again when I read "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner" by Dean Karnazes. Inspired by Karno's story, I took the challenge myself and ran my first marathon in February 2006 in Austin, and I have run several other marathons after that and two ultramarathons (50K). I learned quite a bit about myself, my mental thought processes, and my capacity for endurance and suffering. The lessons I learned from that initial experience were invaluable, and they have served me well in the intervening years (and, I enjoy telling folks that I run marathons when I so obviously do not look like a "runner"). This is why I continue to set running goals of half marathons, marathons, and even ultramarathons (50K is my longest distance) on a regular basis. I encourage everyone to contemplate embarking on this learning experience.

Oh yes, as I wrote this post, I inspired myself, and I have now officially registered for the 2012 Austin Marathon on February 19, 2012. Who wants to join me?

January 1, 2011: The 100 Days Challenge

Welcome to 2011! Happy New Year!

I just love the start of something new, don't you? The start of a new year, or new semester, or quarter, or month, or week. It's such an opportunity to regroup and rethink the current path we are walking and adjust our focus and direction as we make our way along our life's pathway. Sometimes we make minor course adjustments, and other times we turn entirely toward a new direction. Sometimes our new direction takes us along a parallel path to our original, but sometimes we blaze a trail toward something new and unfamiliar. And that's the beauty of "living." Not just living to eke out an existence but living to experience our lives to the fullest, to the utmost.

Now that I've waxed eloquently about the possibilities of the new year, let me turn to the business at hand. I promised you a practice challenge for the new year, and here it is: The 100 Days Challenge. You can start this challenge whenever you are ready.

The challenge is to practice 100 days in a row, with no skips or misses, for at least five minutes at a minimum. (See? I told you everyone could do this!). Just five minutes? Yup, that's right, just five minutes. Because everyone can find five minutes every day. Because five minutes is a small enough amount of time that no one can justify an excuse to miss it. Yup, five minutes is E-A-S-Y!

Now, what do you practice? Doesn't matter. It's your choice, as long as you do something related to whatever is your practice. That's another great thing about the 100 Days Challenge. You can do more than one challenge at a time and include other things, although I would wait to explore such fancy footwork until after you have mastered one challenge first. You can use the challenge for your music practice or for a health habit (like walking everyday).

I find this challenge to be very useful for my parents of new students. It helps the parents to build up a practice habit. At first the parents do the challenge for their benefit, but often the students themselves opt to continue the challenge for another 100 days. I had one student who did the challenge along with me, and we continued past the two year mark.

Here are some specific rules. There are no skips or misses. If you miss a day, you must start over. My studio likes to follow the "biblical rule": if we forget, but the sun hasn't yet risen for the new day, then we can quickly go get our 5 minutes in. Once I forgot but got up at 5 am to take the dogs out and go for a run. The sun wasn't due up for another hour, so I was able to quickly add my 5 minutes of scale practice in before the run. Of course, I also had to do another five minutes later that day for the new day.

Everyone can use this challenge, not just for practicing, but also for other life areas. For example, you can use the 100 Days' Challenge to effectively build a new habit or eliminate an old one (although I recommend you build or substitute a new habit rather than wrestle with eliminating a bad habit). Here are some examples

• add daily exercise: in this case, substitute the appropriate amount of time you would like to aim for daily exercise, e.g., 15 minutes of aerobic (walking, running, biking)

• make a dietary change: add 1 green vegetable daily or stick to a minimum goal of a specific caloric intake number (make it a reasonable one and not too restrictive; we want to succeed)

• Make a lifestyle change: how many days can you go without eating sugar (or any food product that has sugar listed in the first five ingredients), or smoking, or drinking, or watching TV for more than one hour, or staying at work late (or more than 1 hour late)?

So if you are reading this blog post on January 1, jump right in and join me in the 100 Days Challenge!

P.S.: In case I have to state the obvious, you are permitted to practice longer than five minutes. You may even do a lot of five minute practices in one day. The five minutes suggested for the challenge is the absolute MINIMUM that you must do. There is no limit to the maximum. Funny thing, but once you start your five minute practice, you tend to keep going longer than five minutes.

Be sure to log in that you are participating in the challenge by answering the poll question in the right margin.

If you are a teacher or parent, I have added a page just for you. Please check it out.