B.I.N.G.O

A few weeks ago, my husband and I went to his work party where we played BINGO and I won this lovely prize. I don't have room for it so... If anyone wants it, I'll be happy to bring it to your next lesson or mail it to you! 

I thought that this might be a fun way to practice - and sure enough, the student that I have that practices a few days each week came back and had practiced 5 days that week - 5 days in a row!!! I was TOTALLY blown away. Yeahooooo! I am still floating because I'm so very happy!  

Instead of BINGO, you could use letters and numbers.

To make it more challenging, you can make letters - like the letter "H" or a "L." You could also say, only diagonals, the number 3 row, etc.  

I put the game pieces in a ziplock bag and stored them in a plastic sheet protector along with the board game. I used pencil to fill in the boxes so I can mix things up or switch the practice session around with new activities. 

Hard to Start

For me, the hardest part of practicing is getting started. Once I get going, I'm fine and I love it. But those first initial steps are definitely the hardest! Growing up my mom had these awesome hooks that hung in our practice room where we could put our violins. This way we didn't have to get them in and out of the case each time we practiced and they kept the violins safe from all the little hands that wanted to play with them. These "fancy" hooks are actually curtain hooks and tassels! I think this is a DIY project Pintrest would totally eat up ;)

These are great cello boxes that were purchased from the wonderful  Charles Liu.

I know I could have cleaned up these piles of music and moved the bass guitar to make this look like we live in a perfect little world and our house is always spotless. The thing is, I have lots of faults, and  when I wait for the last possible minute to take these pictures as I'm running out the door to catch my flight, this is what you get and you get to know the real me. Maybe next time I go home, I'll clean up the area and take pictures in the day with better lighting. Then, you'll be able to see what my house would look like if we lived in a perfect little world. 

"TiME" to Practice!

Have you ever had a child or student that hasn't wanted to practice? I think we've all been there - including myself both as a teacher and when I was a young student myself!

I was asking a Suzuki Parent the other day what the hardest thing about practicing is. She said "I think our biggest mistake is that we don't have a set time to practice."

Set a time on the practice clock and when the clock in your home matches that time...

 it's time to practice! 

This can work in a couple different ways.
1. For the younger ones, the parent sets the time to practice.
2. To help build ownership as the student matures, have the child set the time that they will practice.

I got my clock at Target in the....you guessed it! The DOLLAR ISLE!!! If you can't make it to Target, it would be easy to make!

Building Violin Skills

I'm enjoying my time on the beach of California reading the most amazing book! 

BUILDING VIOLIN SKILLS

"a set of plans designed to help parents and children construct positive practices" 

by Ed Sprunger

I got my copy at www.daymurraymusic.com for $29.95. This book has been so insightful for m and I am going to recommend it to each of the families I teach now and I'm going to require all of my new students parents to read it before they start lessons. It goes step by step of what parents should expect. 

Ed is continually reminding the parents that they don't have to be perfect - they have to be ordinary. They have to remember that they'll mess up and that's okay. 

My favorite section so far is the idea of only practicing 1 minute a day. 

For the parent who worries too much, he revisits the idea that it's better for the child to be board, than to overwhelm him. 

Some of my favorite quotes are... 

"Good enough parents are aware that their growing children are working to understand themselves."

"I learned that my teaching simply cannot compensate for a lack of practice - or listening to the reference recording, for that matter. There really is no substitute for practicing and listening."

A father of a student said, "You know, having gone through this with my first two children, I've learned that you just have to trust the process."

"Children aren't the only ones who grow and develop in this rich process of taking violin lessons."

" A positive environment also includes waiting for the seeds of talent to sprout into skills." 

I could go on and on and on! 

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.