Suzuki Mamas Tribe - Page 12

[Bekka]

Originally Posted by Mama Shifra;13886623} Childbloom Guitar. They also stress learning by rote initially (as opposed to reading music when beginning guitar) and start lessons from age 5 and up. My 8 year old daughter has been in the Childbloom program for over a year, and its great. There is a teacher in the Roanoke area who teaches Childbloom Guitar. You can check it out on this website: [url

www.childbloom.com[/url]

Thanks, we're in NoVA. There's a Suzuki guitar teacher an hour away; too far for us ... We need a 30 min or less drive. I will keep looking.

[Stacymom]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

There sure is, and what a wonderful milestone!

Have you got one of those cool brand-spanking-new revised editions of Book 4? There's little that's different in the Seitzes, but the layout and typesetting and inclusion of exercises is really nice. Fiona's prepping for the Bach Double right now, hoping to have it well learned in time for her to play it in a large group at the institute in August. That's a once-a-year opportunity that seems worth trying to capitalize on. We've skipped the Perpetuo Mobile for now because it seems unlikely it'll be a group piece at the institute since so few kids will have ever learned it.

Miranda

We are using the new books. Abby's teacher is really on top of things, and made us go back and re-learn the new things in book 3 when it came out as well. I'm still learning all the new things- can I just tell you how much of a loop the Bach Bourree has thrown me? I am constantly screwing up the bowings when I'm playing it with her, and she just laughs.

There's some new stuff in book 4 I really like- I like that they're using more shifting, have changed the horrible page turns, and using some more intuitive fingerings that I've been using already. Although I did come across one spot in the Vivaldi a minor 3rd movement today that made me scratch my head.

We love the Perpetual Mobile! I think Abby is more excited about that than any of them in Book 4. And I can't believe how fast Fiona is zooming! I check in on your blog every so often, and love to read about your and your kids' adventures with music. I hope she's able to do the Bach double- that would be amazing. (I can't wait to play that with my daughter- I think I'll cry all the way through the first time! )

[insahmniak]

General question - How much is enough?

We've been putting the finishing touches on the Gavotte Mignon. I think I indicated earlier that this has been one of our "headbanger" pieces. DD has been working hard on it, with challenges in terms of intonation, steady rhythm (don't rush the easy parts and slow up the harder ones), and getting the right number of strawberries or blueberries (repeated sixteenth parts). You can see her work hard, make some progress on one part, feel better, slip up on another part and then feel frustrated with the process.

When I think about how she will work on this piece for yet another week, and rather intensively with her master teacher, I can't help but feel badly for her. I'm pretty sure there is quite a bit of merit in pushing through with this and try to get it buttoned up with the master teacher. But her experience with this piece has me wondering how others deal with the challenging pieces that seem to drag on. Do you ever just move on? Do you stick with it and do your utter best to stay positive and not worry about The Finish? Is it possible to heal or overcome a frustrating piece such that it becomes "new" or, dare I say it, cherished rather than dreaded?

I'd love to hear your ideas and approaches.

[Juuulie]

Hi Suzuki mamas,

I'm new to these forums, been lurking awhile, VERY happy to have found this tribe, could discuss Suzuki stuff all day long and never get tired of it...

My daughter's headbanger piece was the Bach Gavotte in g minor from Book 3. That piece went into her review pile last November but she still loathes it. In fact, the best way to kill her interest in a new piece is to point out similar phrases ("do this bowing just like Gavotte"). I hope that one day she will cherish rather than dread it, but it hasn't happened yet. OTOH she used to despise Beethoven Minuet in G and now it's one of her favorites.

However, we do sometimes just "move on" -- our wonderful teacher would rather have a piece not quite polished than have a child give up in frustration -- and there have been times when we've put something in the review pile with the comment that "we'll come back to it later." The Gavotte was an exception, and with hindsight I can see that there were a lot of good reasons why we spent so much time on it.

Right now, at the end of the school year, dd is feeling kind of tired and burned out on the violin (she just finished Seitz 2/3). Teacher and I decided that we'd take a break from the Suzuki repertoire and let her make a "lateral move" while he is away teaching at institutes. So she got to choose whichever piece she wanted out of Barbara Barber (vol. 1) for her next piece. She picked Elves' Dance and we started it last night -- with much enthusiasm!

[MeloMama08]

Hey mamas!
Well isn't this a fun thread!?
Are there any suzuki piano TEACHERS in our midst? I played suzuki piano all the way from age four to high school and then went to conservatory and now I'm a music teacher... I just started teaching private Suzuki piano and I'd love to talk to any other people who are teaching! If you are, can you please PM me?
Thanks, yay suzuki.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by insahmniak

General question - How much is enough?

I took a great course with Ed Sprunger a few years ago and he talked a lot about this issue. Basically he suggested taking into account the teaching points for each piece, the technical and musical learning tasks that piece presents. We should keep in mind why these points are in this piece and what their importance is. Some of these things are crucial to ongoing development violinistic and should not be left to "linger" but said that often he'd be willing to allow other things to linger. They'd be kept in a mental teacher's file called "Lingering Issues" and revisited in subsequent months to hone them.

So, for instance, to raise the topical Gavotte from Mignon. If the student is having difficulty with the pizzicato at the end, that's not a skill that's built on in the next book or so, though the chord fingering is further built on at the end of Book 3 and in early Book 4. So one might allow that to linger for a few months. On the other hand the left-hand challenges in the B-flat major section is built on in the remaining pieces in Book 2 (in terms of dexterity) and in early Book 3 (in terms of intonation), so that isn't something that one should let linger. Counting the repeated sixteenths? Not crucial to ongoing development (and much easier with the piano accompaniment!). Placing the G# in the first section? That one gets built on in Minuet in G so should probably be solved now.

Hope that helps!

Miranda

[honeybee]

: I'm thinking this technical jargon will start to make sense at some point... Wow we have a lot to learn! But ds's teacher said we should start and finish up Twinkle by the end of the summer. :

[ebethmom]

Originally Posted by Stacymom

Although I did come across one spot in the Vivaldi a minor 3rd movement today that made me scratch my head.

I hope she's able to do the Bach double- that would be amazing. (I can't wait to play that with my daughter- I think I'll cry all the way through the first time! )

In the Vivaldi, is it the Open E to third position barriolage section? I had wondered about that spot! I learned it with the string crossing for the entire passage, but the fingerings in the new edition only show the string crossings for that one beat. I still teach the way I learned it.

I've been practicing the Bach Double with the new bowings. I like them! When we played it at the Play-In and the Final Concert last week, the leaders did the old bowings. Hard to break those habits!

My dd is a PreTwinkler now, but I was just thinking about her Bach Double potential. I'm just hoping that my ds can make it to Book 4!

I decided to bite the bullet and take my kids to Stevens Point in August. So it's a triple institute summer for me. I taught last week, I'm taking a training course this week, then I'll get to sit in the parent chair in August. My dh is taking some vacation time to go to Stevens Point. I'm looking forward to observing some lessons there! I haven't been back to Stevens Point since I was a kid.

[Stacymom]

We made it! Institute this year was tough, tough with my 7 month old in tow. Usually, I use institute as a way to recharge my teaching batteries as well, and gain new ideas, but this year it was all I could do to keep the baby happy. Poor little boy is very routine driven, and not being able to sleep in his bed when he was tired really threw him off! He was pretty cranky and really tired through most of it, and that made it tough.

But, Abby very much enojyed herself. We didn't come away with any big playing revelations or anything like that because her new teacher is so picky and doesn't let anything slide (in fact, it seemed like her master class teacher didn't have much of anything to suggest to her, which was a little frustrating) but she came away inspired, so I think that's the biggest success.

I did see some new teachers that I really liked- Koen Rens from Belgium and Fernando Pinero from Argentina. Anybody else have favorite teachers they like at Institutes? I'm always trying to find new teachers to watch.

Originally Posted by ebethmom

In the Vivaldi, is it the Open E to third position barriolage section? I had wondered about that spot! .

Oh wow! I didn't even notice that until just now! Hmmm, I don't know what I think about that. The one I was talking about is where it shifts to fourth position instead of using the harmonic on the high E. I've always taught a shift to fifth position there so the E can be strong, and I think I'll probably keep doing it that way.

Originally Posted by ebethmom

I've been practicing the Bach Double with the new bowings. I like them! .

Crap! There are new Bach Double bowngs? Argh! The Bach Bouree bowings have been killing me! My dd's teacher said she's going to re-learn book 4 as she teaches my dd, and I'm sure that will be my case as well.

Originally Posted by ebethmom

I decided to bite the bullet and take my kids to Stevens Point in August. So it's a triple institute summer for me. I taught last week, I'm taking a training course this week, then I'll get to sit in the parent chair in August. My dh is taking some vacation time to go to Stevens Point. I'm looking forward to observing some lessons there! I haven't been back to Stevens Point since I was a kid.

Three Institutes? You are a brave, brave woman. I am so exhausted physically and emotionally after this week that I'm not sure I could do another insitute if I had to! Someday I would love to do Steven's Point. Pretty ridiculous since ISSI is in my backyard, but it would be fun to experience something different.

Insahmniak, how was institute for you? I kept meaning to pm you so that we could actually meet irl, but never got to it. Who did you get to work with? Was is fun for your dd? How did "Mignon" turn out?

[insahmniak]

Originally Posted by Stacymom

Insahmniak, how was institute for you? I kept meaning to pm you so that we could actually meet irl, but never got to it. Who did you get to work with? Was is fun for your dd? How did "Mignon" turn out?

Thanks for asking, Stacymom. I'm super happy to give a review. I should start with : That's it, in a nutshell. I'm very happy with our experience this year. I was particularly surprised at how gratifying it was to see familiar faces. That made this large-scale institute feel rather homey, really. We got to catch up with folks we remembered from last year as well as meet new friends. I did miss having Sven Sjorgen, I must admit. We had him last year for technique and it was awesome.

Teachers we worked with this year were Terry Durbin (again), Pat D'Ercole and Helen Higa. Durbin was amazing as expected. D'Ercole also had a great way with the kids. Higa had a lot to impart, but for a child who just turned six I'm guessing it was a bit esoteric. "Practice doing nothing" turned out to be a theme in the class, for example. For the slightly older student I can see how a class with Higa could be transformative.

This time around my partner came along nearly every day, so I was able to attend some of the parent-centered classes, and observe a few others. This was tremendously helpful.

Best part for me - hands down - attending the parent chats with Ed Sprunger. I gained so much. I was also able to observe a couple of his classes.

This year one of the things that stood out was the emphasis on freedom of movement and relaxation while playing, at least in the classes I observed. As a mom concerned about establishing healthy playing habits I appreciated this.

Loved the Aaron Ashton concert - so much fun! He plays with such joy that it feels a privilege to watch. And the violinist who opened with Kreisler's Preludium - he was also amazing. I wish I could remember his name....

Mignon went well enough and I'm glad we'll be moving on. Taking it to institute certainly emphasized some of her left-hand issues like being tight with her thumb, which I found out is double-jointed. We now have lots of exercise ideas to try. One of DD's classmates had a beautiful vibrato, and I saw the awe in my daughter's eyes and watched her try to do it herself. I think she'd really like to have a nice vibrato. Terry Durbin was going through some bow distribution exercises and asked things like, "How do you play mad?" "How do you play sad?" When he asked the class "How do you play beautiful?" DD shouted out "With vibrato!" I was happy to hear her enthusiasm. She also can't wait to play Minuet in G. When she couldn't join in with the others in her class on this piece she got pretty teary. She knows how it sounds and plays it by ear at home, but I guess she felt shy about joining in because she hasn't formally learned it. So like you - we're coming home with a great deal of motivation.

Overall it was really rewarding to note the growth in my daughter. A year ago she had just turned five and was more easily overwhelmed. This year she was able to be quite a bit more engaged. She's grown up a lot in the last year. Sniff Sniff.

I kept thinking maybe I'd run into you at some point, Stacymom. It's such a busy week and with our kids at different levels it's easy to see how we'd miss each other. Maybe next year we'll figure out a way to connect.

Ack - long post. So much to process after institute! In a nutshell ... :

[insahmniak]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

I took a great course with Ed Sprunger a few years ago and he talked a lot about this issue. Basically he suggested taking into account the teaching points for each piece, the technical and musical learning tasks that piece presents. We should keep in mind why these points are in this piece and what their importance is. Some of these things are crucial to ongoing development violinistic and should not be left to "linger" but said that often he'd be willing to allow other things to linger. They'd be kept in a mental teacher's file called "Lingering Issues" and revisited in subsequent months to hone them.

So, for instance, to raise the topical Gavotte from Mignon. If the student is having difficulty with the pizzicato at the end, that's not a skill that's built on in the next book or so, though the chord fingering is further built on at the end of Book 3 and in early Book 4. So one might allow that to linger for a few months. On the other hand the left-hand challenges in the B-flat major section is built on in the remaining pieces in Book 2 (in terms of dexterity) and in early Book 3 (in terms of intonation), so that isn't something that one should let linger. Counting the repeated sixteenths? Not crucial to ongoing development (and much easier with the piano accompaniment!). Placing the G# in the first section? That one gets built on in Minuet in G so should probably be solved now.

Hope that helps!

Miranda

That helps a lot, Miranda. Thank you. I now have something to work from. Hopefully I can tease apart what is built upon and what is not, and get on the same page with the teacher on that.

Ed Sprunger - I can't say enough about how much I gained from attending the parent chats with him. He helped me become aware of the differences between the role of the teacher and that of the parent from my daughter's perspective. He has amazing insight and I really appreciate his emphasis on the health of the relationship between a parent and child. Hearing that was so liberating.

I'm both glad and disappointed to find out that the Valhalla Institute is at capacity. (I just inquired - ) One of these years we're going to make it up there for it. What an inspiring setting to make music in! I'd love to hear how it goes this year.

[elisheva]

Hi - I'm new here (to this forum, anyway). I have 2 kids - ds1 is 2.5, ds2 is 9.5 months, and we have one on the way, Gd willing, in November.

We are thinking of starting ds1 in Suzuki violin sometime after his third birthday. I'd welcome any opinions on when to start. I know very little about the method right now but I want my kids to have an instrument to play and to receive some instruction/practice on how to be dedicated to that instrument. I was in the band throughout school and loved playing in an ensemble, but never practiced or went any farther... I'd like to push my kids further than that.

Also, how best to find a teacher? We're in Victoria, BC. I'm looking forward to reading this thread.

[Bekka]

We're working our way through the Greater WAshington (DC) Suzuki Institute. DD1 got really sick overnight, so we're missing her lesson, orchestra, and everything today with Mr. Durbin--she can't keep anything down. Hopefully we can finish the week.

I have a 2 month old. I'm having to accept that this year Institute is ALL about dd--I'm never going to try to go the the parent lectures with a baby again. I had a terrible experience at Ed Sprunger's lecture a couple of years ago, and was so embarrassed. I LOVE Ed Sprunger, his book, I'm a total disciple. However, it's not fun to feel bad about your baby. So I just stay away with a baby in arms.

I enjoyed all the parent lectures last year; I'd love them this year, but I'll take what I can get at the level I can.

Our faculty are often regional--we get Ed Sprunger and Terry Durbin every year, and lots of local teachers (Ronda Cole runs our Institute and she is a Master Teacher). There are several other great teachers--I like Dana Myers (Meyers? sp) from Tennessee very much, and a few others. We haven't even seen them all!!

I'm not posting often b/c of said baby. Hope everyone has good Institute and summer experiences. And we're hoping to finish book 4 this summer, so we'll be on the Vivaldi soon (NEXT!!!) but not yet.

[Juuulie]

Originally Posted by elisheva

Also, how best to find a teacher? We're in Victoria, BC. I'm looking forward to reading this thread.

Well, I can tell you from experience how NOT to find a teacher. Don't use a directory that teachers have to pay to be listed on, that you got from the music store. Don't look at that list and recognize the name of someone you went to high school with and sign up your child for lessons because she was first chair in orchestra back then and therefore she must be a good teacher.

In other words, ask around! Get several names from people you trust, talk to those teachers, observe a lesson. One of the best questions to ask a potential teacher, IMO, is "how do you decide when it's time to advance to the next piece."

You might also want to read up on the Suzuki philosophy or take an Every Child Can class before you start talking to teachers. They will want to know that you've done your homework too.

Hope this helps. Suzuki is amazing. It's the best thing I've ever done as a parent.

[ebethmom]

Originally Posted by elisheva

Also, how best to find a teacher? We're in Victoria, BC. I'm looking forward to reading this thread.

You can look for a teacher on the SAA website, www.suzukiassociation.org . Not every teacher is listed, just those who have openings in the studios and choose to post their information.

I always recommend lots of observation. You want to know that particular teacher's style to make sure that it will be a good fit with your family.

[insahmniak]

Originally Posted by ebethmom

I always recommend lots of observation. You want to know that particular teacher's style to make sure that it will be a good fit with your family.

Just want to underscore the "lots of observation" tip. Don't be shy to ask for a few sessions, perhaps with different level students so you can see a range. It's not super important, but how nice it would be to find a teacher who could work well with your child throughout a good long chunk of their musical path.

Music communities can be tight in some areas and switching teachers is typically not without some pain. Better to do a thorough job ahead of time. Saves some potential hurt feelings in the long run.

[Bekka]

DD ended up being so sick that we took her to the dr. and she ended up going to emergency with appendicitis. So no more Institute, no more Mr. Durbin, but she's recovering slowly but OK. I hope there's no backlash/real sadness--she was so sick she couldn't be disappointed about missing the rest of Institute. She is still in the hospital for a couple more days.

So just so I can think about something else, ds tried violin last year, and it ended up being not so great. He was 4 1/2. He's talking a lot about guitar. I think I said upthread that the only Suzuki guitar teacher is an hour away. I just found out a friend of ours (who ds knows and likes very much) plays acoustic and electric guitar. I was wondering what your thoughts are about seeing if this friend would do lessons with ds. (Completely casual, completely non-Suzuki). FWIW, dd2 does not have a Suzuki teacher; she has a great match with a traditional piano teacher who has a very good curriculum. So we're flexible.

[DocsNemesis]

Aww...I came on here expecting bikes

[ebethmom]

We just got back from Stevens Point, and I'm trying to hold onto that high! We had a great week! Both of my kids had a great match with their A class teachers. My son had Rob Richardson from Manitoba, and my daughter was in Carol Waldvogel's pre-twinkle class. Both were fantastic.

Scott Conklin played a solo violin recital early in the week. I had a chance to watch Scott teach in Ottawa, too. He has a great way with the kids. We all laughed about the preteen and teenaged girls who swoon in Scott's wake. Well, now my five year old daughter is right there with them! In the middle of the recital she asked me "Could he be MY teacher?" Then when we saw Scott in the hall the next day, she jumped up and down and yelled "There he is! Can I meet him?" Too funny.

My son made lots of friends who happen to play cello. So now he wants to switch! I told him that if we ever move to an area that has a good cello teacher, that would be just fine. Right now, we would have to drive 1 - 1 1/2 hours one way to get to a Suzuki cello teacher.

At Stevens Point, they have the advanced violin groups play first on stage, then the PreTwinkle group does their thing. All of the other violinists are sitting on the gym floor, and play from their spot on the floor. I love the symbolic placement. Everyone from the floor can watch the stage and see where they have been and look forward to getting back on stage with the advanced group.

[insahmniak]

Quick question re:strings.

My D just broke and I didn't have any spares so I picked up a Dominant, which set me back about $30. I've always used them - ever since I can remember. But this new one I can't seem to get seated. The winding around the base is too thick and seems really bumpy compared to the old broken one, so it's not fitting in the slot, even with some force.

My daughter's teacher suggested Corelli crystals. Anyone else use those? What should I be using on my violin? I have a very nice Guarneri-styled violin which I adore. Should I just exchange the Dominant for one with a better wrap? Has the quality of Dominants dropped off or was this a fluke?