blog

Term 3 - Spring - Week 1

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:38:13 +0000

Great to be back to classes. D plays very well - great tone. So we move on to practicing "Buttons" ie learning how to place the violin fingers individually - but in tandem with the others. One pushes down to release the other up.

We sign up to a trial of a set of materials from Sue Hunt for a 100 Day Challenge. It looks really good fun and it would be nice to have some new ideas for games and incentives for both of us. The two things that improve my performance most as a Suzuki parent are sleep and enthusiasm.

I am talking to D about this blog and ask her what she would say about Suzuki. She says that "you have to have good tone and good bow hold". "The best things about Suzuki are the hula hoops and the chocolate buttons. I like doing the group class best cos it sounds nice and I like doing everything else, the practice and Sharron's lesson." "The worse bit is when Mummy gets a bit tired and grumpy and we stop playing."

Christmas holidays

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:38:13 +0000

A long break in which to sustain the practice.

The pluses: - we managed to practice most days. Dad took a fair number of practices playing his violin with D so she had a bit of a break from me and lots of practice at playing with someone. The rhythms and timing really improved - and it was really good fun and sounded good. We also found some great sparkly Christmas stickers, and had a web card from Sharron that was played after every practice as an incentive.

The minuses:- we feel like we have been on this plateau for a long time now (half a term plus the holiday) working on fingering and getting good tone and relaxing the fingers. I struggle to vary the exercises so it all becomes rather repetitive.

We don't seem to make much progress - not from lack of D's hard work - but it is just difficult to learn. However one mum said to me that just sustaining the level from one term to the next is the most important achievement so that you can move on again when classes recommence.

Term 2 - Week 10

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:38:13 +0000

In these last two weeks still working on the violin fingering..... D has moved up to the full bow hold using pencil grips to help. Keeping eye on bowing wrist that it keeps rounded and not cocked up. Learn how finger positioning is tone, semi tone, tone on the strings - that each key has a hand shape to it.

Watch some of a DVD of a concert at the RCM by some of Sharron's students. A 6 year old girl playing not just technically correctly but with musicianship. A nice touch - is that the bow that the children are taught to do on the in breath at the beginning and end of each class and practice and to an audience - then becomes their signal as a leader when playing. It was lovely to see the piano accompanist firmly in his place and led in to the music by the young violinists.

Term 2 - Week 8

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:38:13 +0000

Still working on the violin fingering. A new exercise for posture. Holding violin without hand and then flying the fingers and hand into position on the A string one at a time and then flying the hand away again -- all without losing a good posture. And Finger Drumming - tapping each finger in turn on a tin with the hand relaxed - to build up independant movement in each of the fingers.

In the theory class they are doing music notation, and in the group lesson practice for the concert. D can now keep in time with the rest of the group on a single string.

Term 2 - Week 7

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:38:13 +0000

Move up a size of violin to 1/10th. We are renting at this stage. DD2 is taller than DD1 so we think we won't get much use from a purchased instrument at these smaller sizes.

Term 2 - Week 6

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:38:13 +0000

Bread Jam Jam and Bread now so the whole of the variations to be able to practice now. It is hard to learn how to get the violin fingers to work firmly but in a relaxed way. Sharron "solving the problems that's fun to do". And "You aren't scared of anything". D "But black spiders are quite scarey". The bow arm tightens and so does the posture in the effort of getting everything right. An incentive is set of a merit sticker when D can play a whole variation on her own.

We are still using our parcel tags, each with an exercise picture drawn on them, so D can pick which one she does as a lucky dip. The other incentives for her are playing her own made up music, or sticking stickers onto a diary showing that she has practiced that day. Plus the chocolate buttons for doing the harder exercises. We have also a rather sweet bean bag bear, borrowed from Sharron, that sits on D's head to check that she is maintaining her poise.

Term 2 - Week 5

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:38:13 +0100

DD2 is almost two and the big breakthrough this week is that she understands the concept of "if you can be quiet now you can have a piece of cake later". Hooray - group lessons are now much easier.

At home I have discovered the FunkyZilla website. It has lots of wind up dolls and japanese stickers - great for motivation during practice. Particularly useful for exercises are a clockwork pecking bird (to remind of firm pressure holding string down), some monkeys (for I'm a little Monkey aka the scale practice), and a crab (another exercise for developing strength in fingers).

We have a pretty sustained practice - having settled down at managing 6 days a week consistently. It is the weekends that we find less easy to keep as there is less routine. D is moving by herself to 20 - 25 mins practice - though there is a fair amount of downtime in each one between exercises.

Lots of encouragement from Sharron - "hear the D sound" is really useful to use at home as is "who didn't make the perfect sound - was it your bow hand or your violin hand?". The attraction of the difficult - D is most motivated to practice the Yoka ta variation as Sharron says it is too difficult for her.

In the Group class we are starting practice for the end of term concert.

Term 2 - Week 4

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:38:13 +0100

D learns the whole of "Bread", the first phrase of the Twinkle tune and variations ie the tune to the line "Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are". Another big challenge on its way - now we are working on the violin fingering trying to get a balance of enough downward pressure to hold the strings firmly against the neck of the violin to give a clean tone, whilst at the same time not holding loads of tension in the fingers in a rictus grasp. Or as Sharron says rather more poetically " hands soft, little rainbow fingers and a waterfall arm with no muddy puddles". Tabletops is a new game - holding the first three fingers on the string to give flat "tabletops" that can balance a raisin each for a count of 10.

D is now 4 years old.

Term 2 - Week 3

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:38:13 +0100

We move practices to after tea this week. For the last month we have tried 0630 which has the advantage of getting it done early and nobody is tired. The disadvantage is that no one seems particularly awake either! Sharron talks about hard practices - says a little "right repetition" is often best thing to do rather than prolong a poor session. To D "when you look at your bow you are TOO good".

Term 2 - Week 2

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:38:13 +0100

Four new exercises today; double monkey (ie double ladder), A major scale, Ding Dong (crossing strings) and the crust of bread. (The Twinkle tune is in the format ABBA – so bread jam jam bread – so half of the first bread D christens as the crust). Next morning D not keen on the new exercises – it is early and she also prefers doing things she knows she can do. Eventually persuaded to do Ding Dong. Then she reluctantly does the Crust of Bread (the first half line of the twinkle variations). The dawning grin of triumph and excitement as she realises it is a) easy and b) that she is playing a tune herself – is just absolutely magical. She is still playing it as I leave the house for work.

Term 2 - Week 1

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:37:08 +0100

Relieved to have made it. Sharron is brilliant. Goes through everything that D did last term and gives masses of congratulations at the progress D has made and promises her that next week D can play “Bread jam jam bread”. D very gratified.

Early September

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:35:27 +0100

Ladder cracked. Not sure what did it – but she has suddenly got it! Hooray! Muddy puddles have vanished.

Late August

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:34:41 +0100

Practicising getting harder. Just holding in there. But boredom is setting in on the exercises. Luckily Dad plays so D and he can play together. Need to invigorate the games. Term time cannot come soon enough.

Temple Dinsley

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:33:16 +0100

We have decided to do TD non residentially this year both on a financial basis and because Dad could not have DD2 on his own for 4 days and still work.

Arrival at 1015 useful. As newbies D and I take time to suss where everything is. The organisation is very impressive. And everyone is particularly welcome to newbies. Coffee at 1115. D goes for seat across the dining room on our own. I suggest that we might sit with someone else to get to know people – and with great aplomb she gets up and sits opposite Simon and Ingrid asking who they are. Suzuki has lots of side benefits.

At 11 we go to the Gym to do the Welcome Play Together. The Twinkle variations are very neat. On masse they have great power. In the day by day practice I somewhat lose the spiritual and emotional power of music – but even this simple variation played on masse is stunning. She is fascinated by the cellos playing their pieces. She runs back for a hug once. But otherwise she roams and is confident in herself.

There are 4 teaching sessions each day – one individual, one group, and two musicianship (one with Patty). On the Sunday they are concatenated so that everyone gets into the routine and knows where to go. We manage until 4pm. But I cannot get D to take a nap – she normally sleeps 1.5 hours still in the middle of the day. And she is seriously flagging. Late nights over the weekend with her cousins haven’t helped. So we bail out and go home so she can get to bed on time. In some ways she is a little young for this – the 4.5 year olds and up have much more energy. But on the way out she says as we pass two girls playing a duet she stops to listen and says “that’s good violin playing” – so she is getting loads out of it.

The activities available at TD are great – I had brought a load of books etc with me but they are not needed. The art class room and swimming pool are big draws between sessions. Then there are the beautiful grounds. Quite a few people are camping. The site is inside the drive on very soft grass under trees with lots of space.

And there is encouragement for parents too. One other parent says simply maintaining a practice over the summer is sufficient – keeping at the same level means that there is a great springboard for the following term. And one exercise Jane gets us to do is very salutary – counting the number of times our children do what they are asked.

Term 1 - Week 11

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:25:28 +0100

It has been interesting the last few weeks working with D. To begin with we were working how to do things for the first time. Now the focus is on modifying habits. D’s bowhold was very good to begin with. It is now beginning to be driven by her dominant first finger. But what is exciting is that D pointed out when playing this week that her bow hold was good for the first half of the piece but shifted when she changed string. So moving to conscious in/competence.

Had a good afternoon at the Lauderdale extra on Wednesday. Elizabeth took the mixed ability class. The pre twinklers were playing and involved for over an hour which is the longest D has practiced. Spine tingling moments as all the children played together experimenting with dynamics from forte to pianissimo. Awesome sound. D loved the bow hiding game when one person’s bow was hidden and they had to find it by listening to how loudly the other played one of the twinkle variations. Forte was close – piano was far away. Slight disaster afterwards – had promised pizza reward for the terms work to get there and find my purse was not in my bag but at home. Two tired, hungy and disappointed girls.

Weekend practices fun. Dad plays the viola and used to play the violin so got the latter refettled so that he and D can play together. This week they do the twinkle variations together – D on the E string at the moment – but the observation coming in as she moves naturally to the A string when he does. D is becoming reasonably secure in all the rhythms. The “ladder” exercise is still a work in progress. We only do it once each practice session but D is progressing slowly. I think it will take all summer.

Have sussed (it took me rather too long!) how to keep our practices pacey. We have a new rule that the exercises vanish after a count of 5. Faffing is greatly reduced so I am a lot less grumpy. Sharron has all the exercises on fish shaped pieces of paper with paperclips on which are dropped on a blue carpet pond in her classroom. The child has a magnet affixed to her bow and goes fishing for the next exercise. We have gone for a simpler option and have them all drawn out on coloured parcel labels. Over the term we have amassed a large number. As with everything Sharron does it is very clever. One half of the exercises are technique reminders eg the “motorway” to remind us to play the bow parallel to the bridge and the fingerpost. The Twinkle variation rhythms are played to practice this. The other half are the twinkle variations. So D feels she has loads of choice on what she plays but actually ends up doing a lot of the same work but from a slightly different angle.

Downsides this last few weeks? Listening to the Suzuki music has tailed off. So we have assigned listening to a new time and got a Suzuki diary so we put stickers in when we practice and when we play the CD. Basically that means we have given D the responsibility to remember and she is much better at this than we are! We are also getting through vast numbers of chocolate drops. They are too great a temptation for the parents. The other downside is that practices really highlight – at least for me – the bad interactions I initiate with my child. I can really tell when I have had more sleep and I am more patient and matter of fact.

On our own now until Temple Dinsley in late August.

Mid August. On the plus side we have maintained a practice. D is much stronger on the rhythms of the Twinkle variations. And now notices and tells me when her bow hold is slipping. But the “ladder” exercise and the violin hand are going nowhere fast. Not for lack of D’s trying. We do it every practice, and put a sticker on the card each time. So have done it over 30 times now. Feeling very incompetent as a coach – as we have really seen no progress. Need Sharron and her 2 marshmallows to crack this one – looking forward to Temple Dinsley.

Term 1 - Week 10

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:25:02 +0100

Sharron: “you are brilliant when you watch the bow”.

Dad goes to the lesson this week – very impressed. Whilst I am the Suzuki parent we do share some practices each week.

Term 1 - Week 9

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:24:10 +0100

Advice from Sharron on practicing. A short good practice is better than a longer deteriorating one. For new things take a small bit of them and work on it. Don’t try to get the child to take too much in at any one time.

D gets her first merit – which is a special sticker and extra sweet – for progress to date. She is hugely proud and tells Dad.

Term 1 - Week 8

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:23:07 +0100

Introduce the “ladder” exercise. It is hard and we will be with it for a while. It is hard – to learn to have the hands in a piano position relative to the fingerboard, to have the wrist open with a clean “waterfall” (not “muddy puddles”) down to the elbow, and with the fingers (like “rainbows” ) putting enough pressure down to give a secure sound from the strings. Yet the hand must still be free and able to move up and down the fingerpost with ease. Sharron teaches harmonics later to the twinklers to facilitate this as you can’t play harmonics and grip at the same time. “Crab fights” (they are fights in our household) are D’s most popular game. It is a neat exercise to learn how much pressure you need to have in the violin string fingers.

D starts playing her own music this week. There have been a number of thunder storms. So we have 10 mins of music to describe the rain and the wind and the thunder and then the rainbow. First rendition great – but by the third my patience is wearing so null points for me.

Buy chocolate buttons to incentivise “ladder” it needs stronger stuff than raisins.

Term 1 - Week 7

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:56:46 +0100

Inspiring teaching. We have been practicing the concert pieces. But we’ve not really progressed on getting the rhythms right. In 5 mins Sharron has them sorted. She starts off holding D’s hands and bouncing her arms as they both say “everybody down up”. Then Sharron asks D to tell her when Sharron is getting it wrong which D does with great hilarity. Then they play together as they sing “everybody down up”. Then they play together not singing out loud. And that is it – presto! And because that is working Sharron now introduces the A string.

D tells Sharron “Everybody does it good because they learnt it good”. She’s right. (Though maybe the grammar teaching at our end needs a bit more effort).

The concert is the following day and the children have a fantastic time. The rehearsals are professional with no messing. The concert shows off the hard work and competence and talent that the children learn. And they all take part.

Term 1 - Week 6

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:54:12 +0100

It is a delight and inspiration watching Sharron today. D is grumpy today as she has an eye infection. But judicious use of a marshmallow as reward and the excitement of a challenge create a lot of focus. D loves coming to lessons. She is fascinated by all the “stuff” as she calls it in Sharron’s room. She gets very excited by the sweet rewards and the competition to be better than teacher. And she likes watching the lessons before and after hers. The observation continues naturally.

At home it is still early days. Practices are going fairly well but again I think down to the observation and the fact that Dad plays too. D expects to be playing the violin. The hula hoop game is a big draw. We practice very early in the morning whilst we are in a good mood. I am surprised how much time we spend together but practices are around half an hour. On the down side we obviously don't eat at least one day over the weekend as the lack of normal routine means we find it harder to be disciplined. The other downside is my lack of patience. I know that D needs to enjoy it and develop her skills but do we really have to spend ten minutes on the whole game of rosining the bow or thinking what to do next?

This week we are getting ready for our first concert so most of our practice is working on the very clever entry pieces with squeeking mice sounds and “everybody down up”.