A Beginner Christmas Practice Story
Where the idea came from
I have 6 beginners that I started this year and I’m teaching the pre-Twinkle beginner group class at the Centenary Suzuki School. So, my brain has been full of all things beginner. We had our holiday concert last night and played all of our favorite beginner and open string songs. Songs like, Up Like a Rocket, and Pumpkin on a Fencepost, Listen to the Bird Tweet and Open String Blues.
It will be 4 weeks before we have group class and so it got me to thinking about how to keep them practicing over the holiday break. So I created a beginner Christmas practice story. It’s a little bit of a rif on the poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Instead of St. Nic showing up at your house with toys, Dr. Suzuki comes to visit to practice with you. I included a couple of vintage pictures of Dr. Suzuki. I think it’s important that beginners understand who Dr. Suzuki was and what a great thing he did in teaching little kids just like them to play the violin. In this beginner Christmas practice story it takes you through playing the 5 variations from Twinkle.
I will say that once you start working on rhyming sentences it’s hard to stop. I started thinking in rhymes! Get to the car, it won’t be far… The other new thing I learned is that there are rhyming websites for those who write rap. You can type in a word and it lists words that rhyme with the word you typed in. Who knew?
Skills and techniques used in the practice story
The skills required in the story are playing open E and playing open A. Then knowing all the Twinkle Variation patterns. We use these words in our school:
Mississippi Stop Stop – Variation A
Ice Cream sh! Cone – Variation B
Jack Rabbit Eats Carrots – Variation C
Mississippi Alligator – Variation D
Strawberry Popsicle – Variation E
So you will find these patterns throughout the story. In the story I put in 5 times on each repetition and on each string. I have some students who are working on placing their fingers on the A string and E string, and so I may tell their practice partners that they can adapt the story to include those.
Goals in using a practice story
I’ve had some parents mention to me that practice at home could go twice as quickly if their child was more efficient with their time. Practice time sometimes stretches an hour, when it could just be 10 -15 minutes. I know, little children aren’t supposed to be efficient, but much of the delay is due to them, rolling on the floor, suddenly having to go to the bathroom, needing a drink of water, hiding from their parent…You know all the tactics they use to delay going to bed!
I thought with this Beginner Christmas Practice Story that this would keep their imaginations engaged moving through their strings, from one pattern to the next pattern. And hopefully make practice more enjoyable. There is a little break in the middle, where they can listen to their CD play Twinkle or go to the bathroom. Hopefully this Christmas practice story gets those receptions in a little quicker and more often over this break.
***Update – I tried it in 6 lessons today. And we had a bunch of fun. It helps kids see the agenda for practicing. And gives them a clear starting and ending point. I also told them that the narrator for the story might change some of the repetition times, or might included some other pieces they know. I showed and explained to the mom’s where they could insert “See the Little Monkey” with fingers instead of Mississippi Stop Stop on open strings.
Directions
- Print out the story on card stock. You can upload the pdf file to CopyMax or FedEx Office. Select landscape. (I asked for holes punched but their machine couldn’t do it.) I printed mine in black and white so that the kids could also color it and maybe get in some CD listening too.
- After picking up my copies. I brought them home and punched 2 holes on the left side of each set.
3. Cut 2 lengths of twine, ribbon, yarn or wrapping ribbon for each book. I didn’t measure mine, but they were about 8 inches each.
4. Then, thread one piece of the twine (ribbon or yarn) through each hole.
5. Carefully open up the pages so that two pages lay next to each other. You want the cover facing up! This should ensure that the book will lay flat when you open it and you should have enough slack in the twine or ribbon so that the pages can turn.
6. Then tie a loose knot in the twine or ribbon. Don’t make it to tight, but it does need to hold the pages together.
7. You can tie a bow the the remaining length or I did think about just leaving it with the knot and trimming the ends a little. Either way will work!
Walla that’s it! You’re all done!
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