Keepviolinin

I taught the students ‘The Ant Poem’ to introduce them to the 4 strings on the violin. They really enjoyed learning the poem and singing with me while I plucked the strings:)

Austin and I loved performing for his class:

Thank you very much!!!!!

I’ve been asked by Austin’s teacher to give a 30 minute lesson on the violin and just getting the kids exposed to how violin is played and what it sounds like:) I have some exciting lesson plan for the kids tomorrow that I think they’ll all enjoy:) I’m very excited to share the love I have for the violin to the children tomorrow!!!!:D Life is good here in Mountain House, CA!!!!

Here are two different pictures of my beginner students’ bow holds:) Remember to always have a bent thumb and curled pinky, or 1 bump thumb and 2 bump pinky.  I normally take a picture for my beginner students so when they go home they can refer to their own picture of their correct posture.  These are a couple pictures of my students’ bow holds.

Enjoy:)

Musical ability is not an inborn talent but an ability which can be developed. …The potential of every child is unlimited.  ~Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

Many parents that I have talked with normally don’t believe in the above statement. Most of the time the parent would say that if a child is good at a musical instrument, it’s because he/she inherited some kind of musical gene or was just born with it….I strongly encourage parents to read Nurtured by Love or Ability Development from Age Zero by Shinichi Suzuki to understand why we should send our children to music lessons or let them learn a musical instrument at an early age.

I’ve started individual customized lesson plans for my students and it has helped me become even more organized:) I was going to have a master lesson plan, but I noticed as I started teaching, each and every student is different.  Some students learn really fast and can grasp the concept very quickly, while other students(most of the time younger ones) may need me to find all sorts of ways to help him/her with one specific technique.  Writing out a lesson plan for each of them really has helped me think about how I can improve my teaching and help me become more efficient during my class time.

Austin just started working on Variation B from the twinkles, and we’ve been working mostly on the use of his pinky on the bow hand.  I liked how when I was in the Suzuki Book I training, Dr. Baer told us about the ‘roles’ of our fingers and she called our index finger ‘the boss’.  However, in violin playing, it can’t be ‘the boss’ because we don’t want our hand to become pronated but rather more balanced. Austin loved hearing about the names of each finger and its role in holding the bow correctly.  I was never taught this way when I was young, and I just find these names so helpful with teaching kids and it really has helped him understand what exactly I wanted him to do.

I’m thankful for all the new students I received this year.  I’ve reached my personal goal as to how many students I should take in for this year.  I am very happy to receive mostly beginners this year so I can get into my group lessons quickly:)  Parents are all very supportive and I hope to develop a good triangle relationship throughout this year.  God has really made our move back to California an easy transition for all of us.

Austin told me he really wanted to be able to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’s Variation A on his own today.  I really didn’t think he could play it through, but I was wrong! We played together for an hour in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon.  I found Austin being really patient when trying to learn a new technique(going from E string to A string and putting his 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fingers down to prepare for the next note), which really surprised me, because he’s usually a very impatient kid.  What I realized today is if I make playing violin ‘fun’ for Austin and not make it seem like it’s a ‘homework’ for him, my teaching days in the future will be much easier for the both us:)

Here’s Austin’s first picture holding his violin:)

This excerpt came from Edward Kreitman’s book ‘Teaching From the Balance Point’, in which I totally agree to:

My goals for teaching are these:

1. To help all of the children I work with to become more noble human beings through their positive experiences with music.

2. To help parents understand that it is the process, not the product of the educational experience, that is important.

3. For me, to enjoy the opportunity to be a central part of the lives of these wonderful human beings, my students, who come to share their accomplishments with me each week.

I strongly believe in following these priorities for teaching my students and hope all the other teachers out there will follow this so students who are learning will truly enjoy each and every piece they play:

1. Posture

2. Tone/Tonalization

3. Intonation

4. Musicality

5. Notes to new pieces

After moving back to Mountain House, CA and getting all settled down, it’s time to start teaching!!! I’ve added my studio policy. I am really excited to start teaching new students and taking them to different places to perform!!! One of my other goals is also to start a Suzuki orchestra in the Mountain House community. I hope to get some of the parent and community support on this so we can start and build up the strings in MH!