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Carol of the Bells – Easy Violin
It’s November! Can you believe it?!?! 2020 has flown and dragged on all at the same time. I’ve been teaching some classes online and haven’t had time to blog. But hopefully you’ll see some of the fruit of that work sometime. But, here is a free easy Christmas violin arrangement that I just did for my group class. I’ve been working on Christmas music with my private lesson students the last few weeks. There is so much good Christmas music out there. And I’ve just finally admitted to myself that I really love Christmas songs. Although by January I’m usually ready to not hear Jingle Bells for a veeeeerrry long…
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Fiddle Tunes for Beginners
Here are a couple fiddle tunes for beginning violinists. Summer is a great time to add variety into your students repertoire. These tunes can also reinforce techniques that they are learning in their classical literature. But you don’t have to tell them that! Fiddle tunes have a way of making the player and the listener smile. It’s hard to play these happy lively tunes and not smile. These tunes can get into their fingers and spark some practicing! Who knows you might even find your toe tapping. So where do we start? The Orange Blossom Special or The Devil Went Down to Georgia is probably not the best place for…
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Composing with April Showers
Since today is April 1, it’s only appropriate to use do some composing with April showers. We have some of those April showers forecasted for the rest of the week. And appropriately this is the next step for my Twinkle group class in their composing journey. The Beginning Steps Here’s what they have done already this year. First, we used Twinkle rhythm patterns that they already learned. They chose what order to play open A and open E. The could chose one Twinkle pattern to play for their whole composition. You can read more about this first step here at my blog post: A Beginning Step to Composing. Next, still using…
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Prep for Twinkle Variation B
Today we are talking about prep for Twinkle Variation B. Variation B can be hard for some kids to get. It’s really hard for violinist to stop playing! Right? Whether it’s stopping at the end of a song, or just not playing through the rest! My orchestra director that I had growing up used to say, “I don’t like noodles, except in my beef stroganoff.” The fact that I remember that saying 20 years later, tells you how much we “noodled” while he was trying to give instruction in rehearsal. In Variation B that rest seems to make us forget to play the next note. I’ve had several students that…
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Group Class – Dinosaur Day
Yesterday was group class Dinosaur Day! I created a theme lesson all about dinosaurs for our Twinklers group class. Dinosaur Day was a great hit! I first thought of this when a friend posted that she found some dinosaur erasers in the “spot” section at Target. She used them with a student. And the dinosaurs fit right on the bow. I thought how fun would that be to have a dinosaur ride on your bow for a whole group class? The more I thought about more and more ideas came to mind. Since dinosaur is 3 syllables, it would be perfect to practice Twinkle Variation D, the triplets! Triplets can…
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Compose with Puzzles
Here is an activity for beginners to encourage their creativity. And learn to compose with puzzles.. This is the second activity for beginners for teaching composition. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make improvising and creating less scary for violin students. It seems to me that if we include structured activities for improvising or composing, that students will be more likely to try it at any level of playing. Most beginners are willing to try anything. Since everything is new. And they are like little sponges absorbing information and sounds. I’ve also been looking for ways to do the same bow patterns and finger patterns packaged differently. It…
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A Beginning Step to Composing
How can we make composing and improvising less scary? I’ve gotten some horrified stares, some tears, some blank stares when I’ve asked kids to try and make something up on their instrument. So I’ve been thinking about that question. Could we incorporate some creativity using the tool of composition or improv from the very first year a student begins learning the violin? What would a beginning step to composing look like? Suzuki Principles Applied As Suzuki teachers we work to take complex techniques and break them down into smaller steps that students can accomplish. So I started by asking what are the elements or skills needed to compose? As an…
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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,…
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Book Review Beyond the Music Lesson
Here is a book review of Beyond the Music Lesson: Habits of Successful Suzuki Families, by Christine Goodner. Having experienced every part of the Suzuki triangle herself, she is well qualified to write this book. She took Suzuki lessons as a kid, has been teaching Suzuki violin in the Oregon area for many years, and has also been a Suzuki parent when her son began violin lessons. As a violin teacher, I found the book extremely helpful to remind me of things I needed to cover with new Suzuki parents/ partners. Christine Goodner writes in the first chapter what motivated her to write this book: Over the last few years, I have been…
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Children Learn to Smile
Who teaches a child how to smile? Shinichi Suzuki, creator of the Suzuki Violin Method, made many observations as to how and what children learn. He noticed that “children learn to smile from their parents.” He observed that they learn naturally the mother-tongue language of their parents. He also noticed that children learn mannerisms from those they are around and their personalities are shaped by their parents and family members. Who is the teacher? When Dr. Suzuki said that “children learn to smile from their parents,” it implies that smiling isn’t the only thing they are learning. Dictionary.com defines smile as to “form one’s features into a pleased, kind or…
