Listen Like a MaNIaC!!!!

Listen Like A Maniac!!!!! 

Do you feel like you go to your lesson and work on the SAME THINGS over and over again?!

A wonderful Suzuki Teacher and Suzuki Parent, Michele Horner has the answer to get your child moving! This is one of the great videos from the 2012 Parents as Partners series from the SAA. 

Are you frustrated with SLOW progress? 

Do you wonder how to make learning new pieces easier?

Are you wanting smoother practice sessions?

Do you want a "magic button" to make your Suzuki journey more fun?

Well friends...... 

THERE IS A WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How do you expect your newborn to learn to speak ENGLISH (or any other language)? They hear ENGLISH all day! You talk to them in ENGLISH, you turn on the TV and it's in ENGLISH, you go to the grocery store and everyone there is speaking ENGLISH, everywhere you go ENGLISH is surrounding them!

How can you expect your child to learn to play a piece if all they do is play around with it for 20 min a day? How can they know if they're playing the rhythm right? How do they know if their intonation is correct? 

Michele has a great way to make all of this more enjoyable for everyone involved. All you have to do is Listen Like A Maniac! To do this, Make a SUPER CD/PLAYLIST. Play the piece your child is learning (at least) 10 times, then play the next piece the child will be learning 10 times, then the piece after that 10 times. She had a parent that thought that was too hard to play it 10 in a row - so she just puts on the "repeat 1" button for an hour for each piece.

Michele's thoughts....

*get the WHOLE family on board for this

*It's the PARENT'S responsibility to take the "LISTENING LIKE A MANIAC" CHALLENGE

*The GOAL is NOT to get through all of the Suzuki Repertoire as quickly as possible. It's to get through the repertoire as SMOOTHLY as possible. 

From personal experience - 

*I remember having competitions and festivals that I would be participating in and being SO NERVOUS that I would forget where I was in the music or I would get lost and wouldn't know how or where to start playing again. I found that if I left my CD on repeat while doing various activities, and while sleeping at night, I was still nervous for the upcoming performance, but I wasn't worried about forgetting the notes - because they were ingrained in me. 

*Growing up, I had a hard time reading notes - especially in orchestra. I would get the recordings of the music that we were playing and I would listen to the music. After many hours of listening and practicing and rehearsals, I would be able to play with the rest of the kids. 

*I come from a very strong "Suzuki Family." My Grandma is a Suzuki violin teacher and she has 10 Suzuki trained children on various instruments. Her youngest son, listened to all of his brothers and sisters practice the Suzuki repertoire, listened to countless Suzuki violin lessons as well as practiced all of the music himself. He KNOWS his Suzuki stuff! He can sing any of them for you. If you're practicing at my grandma's house, you better watch out - if he hears something that you didn't play correctly he'll come help you practice, even if you didn't ask for help ;)

LISTENING WORKS!

IT'S TRIED AND TRUE!  

Goals

I have had the most FANTASTIC time at ISSI!!! 

Oh I LOVE this week - it's the highlight of my summer!

I always come home being so motivated and wanting to practice everyday for hours on end. 

It was so fun to see so many friends and students I had in Utah. One of the things I look forward to most is catching up with the friends that I've made at institute over the years. Our paths would never have crossed otherwise. I love seeing their kids grow physically and musically. 

What a wonderful adventure we're on! 

As I was contemplating what new and fantastic idea to post, I looked at my counter space where I take all of my pictures and noticed that there are fish there (we're pet sitting for the next 2 weeks)... that's when it hit me - for every month that your kid practices 30 days (or whatever time period you choose) - get them a goldfish! Let's be honest, I can't think of a better way to spend 33 cents!  Plus, not that playing an instrument doesn't already teach them this, but it will reinforce the life lesson of responsibility, or "actions and consequences," diligence, hard work, the list goes on!

10x Spots

Bead Counter

How cute are these! 

I got mine at the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute from the Practice Shoppe. Leslie has lots of different designs to choose - from princesses to dinosaurs and soccer balls to animals! What a cute and fun way to count those 10x spots.

White Board Fun

Tell me folks, who doesn't love to write on a 

WHITE BOARD!!!! 

I know I do & I'm not even in grade school anymore. haha

I substituted for my dear friend Jentry one day and she had me use a whiteboard in each lesson. In her lessons, she writes down all the things that needed to happen and the kid got to put the assignments in order.

So how this works for a parent at home...
Write down all of the assignments from the lesson and then let your child write the numbers of what order he wants to do them in.

In this way he can practice taking ownership of his practice with your guidance, and he knows exactly what he needs to accomplish during this time.

The whiteboard is for him, and the parent uses the practice chart to clarify specific assignments for each exercise or piece that week.

*if you don't already have one of these babies, get a magnetic one - so you can have much more fun with other practice ideas I'll put up :)

Twinkle Bean Soup

Twinkle Bean Soup

A parent came to the lesson the other day almost in tiers because her little boy refuses to practice. This same little boy won't play the entire Twinkle Variation A from start to finish. The thing that KILLS me is that he'll play it and just when I think he's got it, he'll stop 2 or 3 measures from the end and tell me it's "too hard."

There is a program that the SAA is doing from January 30-June 30 that is called "Parents as Partners." It gives me a little motivation each week. It's so wonderful. It's like a little teaser for summer institutes!

I found this practice idea from Irene Mitchell in her lecture Motivated to Practice, I know this is similar to the last post about filling the jar, but it's even cooler! The teacher counts out a variety of 600 beans. I bought huge bags of beans so I could get a variety (and because 600 sounded like a really BIG number). Later in the week when I was at a different grocery store, I found a small bag that had an assortment of 12 beans that would have given more variety than what I have, but it will all be okay! haha Also, this is the cheaper route if you're only going to give this assignment to a few students, but hey - now I have some food storage!

The way Irene does it, is that 1 bean gets to go in the jar for every Twinkle Variation practiced. Since I'm trying to work up to that with my little guy, I'm giving 1 bean for each time he plays the "bread" or "cheese" section and 3 beans each time he plays the Twinkle Variation all the way through. I told him to bring it to his lesson each week so I can see his progress (and I'm letting him earn beans at his lesson too). When he's earned all of the beans, I'll give him the recipe to make the famous Twinkle Bean Soup! You can also make your own "variation" of this game- the kids will LOVE it!

….THE FAMOUS “600 TWINKLES” BEAN SOUP….

Ingredients:

·        600 Beans of all shapes and sizes, earned by careful practicing (WHOLE FOODS has large beans which are fun to count :o)

·        4 slices bacon (turkey, tofu or pork), cut into small pieces

·        1/2 onion, chopped

·        2 cloves garlic, minced

·        3 stalks celery, chopped

·        2 large carrots, chopped

·        salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1.     Soak beans in water overnight.

2.     Fry bacon slightly, then add onion, garlic, carrots and celery. Cook until veggies are tender.

3.     Place drained beans. bacon and veggies in large pot; Add water to cover

4.     Cook on medium-low heat until beans are tender (this takes a while...at least 2 hours)  Add salt and pepper (& hot sauce!) to taste.

CONGRATULATIONS! PLEASE SHARE YOUR SOUP AND A TWINKLE CONCERT WITH YOUR FAMILY!

Fill the Jar

Fill the Jar

For every review piece the child gets to put a pumpkin (you could also you beans, marbles, piece of candy, etc.) into the jar. You'll probably have to make some rules so the jar doesn't get filled up by only playing the Twinkles (unless those are the only pieces you're working on). When the jar gets filled, you can have a reward for your child.

• His favorite candy bar
• an ice cream cone from Aggie IceCream if you live in Logan, UT GO AGGIES!
• a special afternoon with just the two of you
• if you filled the jar with candy - he could keep it and eat all of it - YIKES! that's a lot of sugar!
• a special trip to the music store (where I live, Columbus Music has a section of music paraphernalia that's inexpensive) 
• Choose what to have for dinner and/or make it!  

Also note that you can make this less/more challenging by using bigger/smaller objects and jars. 

I got these pumpkins at Target in the dollar isle (where else... right?!) during the fall, They came in a pack of 250 or maybe they were $2.50 - I can't remember, but I know I have A TON of them! I use them for EVERYTHING - mostly counters. The kids LOVE them! I gave them each 3 to use as they practice the hard spots in their pieces. They're magic I'm tellin' ya. They know they have to do it 3 times correctly in a row and then they can move on. LOVE THEM! I also have hearts that I found in February and my eyes are always looking for more - let me know if you see them around!

Clearance Isle

I've taken teacher training classes at the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute and the Idaho Suzuki Institute with Cathy Lee, a wonderful Suzuki Pedagog. She is very "cutesie" and kid friendly. I have heard her say on multiple occasions that when her children were younger, SHE would be the one to go to the toy isle to find toys that she could use in her teaching - and that her little boys would say "Mom, do we have to go to the toy isle?!" haha I am grateful I know this, because I find myself spending the most time in the toy isles thinking, "How could I use this in my teaching?" A perfect example was on Saturday - my husband and I were at Target. I told him I knew exactly what I wanted and I'd be in and out, so he stayed in the car. Well, that's what the plan was until the dollar isle sucked me in. I was in my own little world when I heard from behind me a voice that sounded familiar, but somewhat funny sounding man saying "Ma'am..." I can't remember the rest because when I turned around to look at him, all I could focus on were bunny ears that he had on on his head. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture, but I do have these ones...

Elmo on his head at Halloween

Gobble, gobble, here's our Turkey from Thanksgiving

I asked him how he knew where to find me. He told me that after sitting in the car for 20 min, he knew that I was scouting out the dollar isle and had come into save his wallet. Oh my sweet husband! Although this post isn't about him, I will say, he's a good man. He sure puts up with a lot!

So here ya go folks, the point of the Elmo and turkey hats is to get you to GO TO THE TOY ISLE and to the DOLLAR SECTION and the SALE/CLEARANCE SECTION! There are AMAZING things to get there both for the teacher and the parent at home trying to get creative to create a practice friendly environment.

These are my Target finds - they are squishy balls. My plan is to have my students understand that they can HOLD them with out SQUEEZING them = no tension :)

Beautiful felt flowers from the dollar bin at Michael's

Walmart had this cute little Mr. Frog

...and these sports ball Easter eggs!

Now, how perfect are these for little boys (I think it's SO hard to find stuff to entertain them) and your sporty girls. Just think about the possibilities of games you could play during each one of these sport seasons. 

Even if you don't end up finding anything you can use for teaching, you'll have a great time - especially if you take your husband along ;)