Listen to the Bird Tweet

Listen to the Bird Tweet is a great pre-twinkle song that helps us on our journey to Twinkle. The words are were created by Susan Kempter. Students play the rhythm from variation A in Suzuki Book 1 four times. At our school we first teach it using just 1 open string. So all 4 repetitions of the pattern are on one string. (But like any good Suzuki exercise, it can morph into whatever you need!)

How this post developed:

We have been doing lots of different pre-twinkle songs in group. Songs like, Up Like a Rocket, Pumpkin on a Fencepost, Chicken on a Fencepost, Open E Concerto, Open A Concerto, Open Strings Blues, This is My Violin, Here is the Bow, Here is the Violin… One of the new mom’s asked me if there were recordings of these songs. When I said “No.” She mentioned that it would be really helpful. Which got me to thinking… isn’t teaching songs by listening one of the foundational building blocks for Suzuki? The argument could be made that the parent learns the song and then repeats it at home for the child. Which is very legitimate reason and fits into the Suzuki philosophy.

I had made one quick recording using Garageband on my Mac to help teach the parts of the violin. Another mom in the class mentioned how helpful the recording was in doing the activity at home. Hearing my voice singing it like we do in group class helped that practice segment go smoother.

This reminded me of all the times I looked at my mom (who has two performance degrees in piano…) and said, “Miss Betsy didn’t do it that way.” Now I cringe thinking of those snippy little comments… now that I realize how much my mom knew. (Amazing how smart our parents become after we are adults!)

Resources

With our holiday concert coming up, I recorded the songs that we are doing on the program and emailed them out. You can’t over-communicate with parents of beginners. So much about Suzuki and violin is so new, and the more information and helps we give them, the more successful they are as practice partners and the more successful our students become!

Since we are performing Listen to the Bird Tweet on open E, I created some resources to go along with it. There is a coloring page with the words we use at our school. A recording with the introduction and at the speed we are going to play it. Then, I wrote out the accompaniment I created so our accompanist could play the way the kids were used to hearing. One of the other teachers mentioned in passing in the hallway that there wasn’t an accompaniment available. So, here’s the accompaniment I created and the handout I give to parents.