HaPpY BIRthDaY!!!

I LOVE Cheesecake - especially when it's from Cheesecake Factory! Yummy!!! 

I would rather have it than birthday cake - so I did this year :) 

Here's a fun way to practice your review pieces on your birthday...

Light a candle and play as many review songs until the candle is out. It's short and easy and gets the job done! 

Slow, Smart Practice

SLOW PRACTICE 

Itzhak Perlman 

I LOVE this video! I have students (and I've been guilty of this same thing) that love to play fast and want to play the entire piece and call it "practicing." While there is a time and a place for this kind of practice, it usually won't get you very far. In order to truly know how to express his music, one needs to incorporate SMART practice. What is smart practice? Mr. Perlman will help us understand what this means. One of things that really stuck out to me in this video, is when he says, "If you learn something slowly, you'll forget it slowly. If you learn something quickly, you'll forget it quickly."

Which Chair is the Smartest? 

Have your child play her preview spot on each chair in the room and see which one is the "smartest." 

There are lots of other cute ideas to help make practicing fun on the 

Aber Suzuki Center Parent Handbook website! 

It's football time!!!

As I've mentioned before, I'm taking some classes with Pat D'Ercole. A while back when I told her of some struggles I was having with a student, she said, 

"Dress it up in a new costume!" 

This football game is a variation of her "Chip Game" she likes to play. 

SUPER BOWL PRACTICE

Here's how the game works… 

*The student chooses the pink or the orange touchdown zone she wants to get to and the parent takes the other. The student in this game is going for the PINK touchdown

*Set a clear and specific goal that must be accomplished. By setting this goal, it will define what doing the repetition "correctly" means.

*The football starts on the 50 yard line

*Each time the student does the repetition correctly, the ball moves 10 yards. The student has done the repetition correctly 2x, so the ball is now on the 30 yard line.

*The student didn't do the repetition correctly. This means the ball moves back 10 yards, to the 40 yard line towards the parent's ORANGE touchdown. 

*Thankfully, the student makes a breakthrough and is able to do the repetition 4 more times correctly to get to the PINK TOUCHDOWN and gets 6 points!!! Now in the real game of football, the team that makes the touchdown has 2 options. They can either, kick the ball to try to get 1 extra point or they can run the ball into the end zone to get 2 more points. Let your student decide how many points they want to go for. If they play the repetition 1 more time, they can earn 1 extra point or if they want to play it 2 more times for 2 extra points…but  shh!!! don't let the student know they'll be getting extra reps in while they're earning their extra points ;)

Now that practicing is taken care of, go make some yummy treats and enjoy the weekend! 

Christmas left overs

My sweet friend Rebekah gave me this great for your leftover bubble wrap. For each review piece or or repetition, let your child pop a bubble! What kid won't love to do that?! 

Count Your Blessings

...name them one by one...

I was asked to give a talk in church about GRATITUDE this past Sunday. As I was preparing I  was humbled and have seen the Lord's hand in the details of my life in grater abundance. A short video I watched about living in Thanksgiving daily, said something profound.... 

Our minds have the capacity to notice the unusual. The opposite is true as well. The more we see the same beautiful things, the  more they become invisible to us and this is why we take things for granted. 

At Thanksgiving dinner, my Grandma always puts a cornucopia at each place setting. Each is filled with yummy treats and one in particular that is my favorites.... CANDY CORN. Yummy! :) I remember hearing that there is some hiddin meaning behind candy corn, so I googled it and sure enough I found something! Lois Graham put it this way

Count

All your blessings!

Never

Doubt

Year-round that

Christ Jesus

Offers

Rest in His

Never ending love.

I found this Candy Corn Game at Target. I thought of a few different ways you could fill in all the pieces.

1. As you practice with your child, and they do a practice spot correctly 5x (or whatever the assignment is), tell him why you appreciate him playing the violin or why it is a blessing to you or your family. 
2. Have your child why they are grateful to play the violin or maybe why they like playing the violin
3. Use it as a review game and have each pin be a different review piece and take turns saying why you like that piece. 

My hope is that we can all see the blessing that music is in our lives and how our Heavenly Father has blessed us with talents to make music and bless the lives of others as we use our gifts for good.