5 Things I’m Loving This Week–March 25, 2016

This post was originally published on the Plucky Violin Teacher Blog on March 25, 2016 so links and resources may not be current.

Today is a big day!  It’s my baby’s first birthday.  Which also means, it’s basically the anniversary of my first fledgling thoughts of this website.  I cannot believe my baby boy is already a year old.  He even started taking his first steps a few days ago.  He’s hysterically funny, smart, and affectionate.  Not to mention, wild and energetic as can be!

The Plucky Violin Teacher blog has also grown in ways I never imagined and I’ve learned so much.  We have a thriving book club, and a growing readership.  In fact, I set up email list and then didn’t know how to check and see if anyone had subscribed, when I finally figured it out I already had 100 subscribers for about a month.  Haha.  Oops.  Now there are over 500 subscribers to the Plucky Violin Teacher blog, and almost 200 Suzuki parent subscribers.

I love our little community.  I’m so grateful to you for reading and commenting and sharing.  Teaching private music lessons can be somewhat isolating, unless you are teaching in a school you may see your colleagues only rarely.  The internet has made collaboration and community possible for us, and I am so grateful.

To show my gratitude for you guys, I wanted to showcase some of my favorite comments from you!  You all have so much amazing insight and knowledge, and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to learn from you!  It was hard to limit myself to just five comments, because there were so many great violin teaching tips to share.  So here goes, in no particular order, my five favorite comments from Plucky Violin Teacher Readers.

1. Last week in my favorite things round-up, I shared one of my goals to incorporate more fiddle music in my studio and asked for suggestions, and Amy Robinson shared her tips.  Here’s what she says,

“Years ago I stepped outside of my classical comfort zone and did a bunch of fiddle training and workshops. I use a lot of tunes and collections that were passed on through that. For beginners that want to start with fiddling, I like the Scottish Fiddle Tutor book. The collections of tunes by Ceolas are nice and clear to look at. I have a whack of tunes that I find are good starter tunes for students. We do a lot of listening. When they understand the structure of tunes and full sets, they can listen with purpose and use the repetition to learn tunes and interpretation by ear as well. Fiddling made me a much more social musician! The classic tune collections are O’Neills for Irish and the Skye Collection for Scottish. Scott Skinner wrote fiddle music that is more technical- can be more interesting for those of us with a more technical background!”

2.  Alan Duncan shared this incredible comment on my post about our essential question as music teachers.

“The “why” question seems so simple; but it’s not. Thanks for writing about this.
The idea of learning music to achieve some other goal has always bothered me slightly – the idea that music is only a vehicle to get into a well-regarded university, etc. (Although Suzuki himself openly admitted that for him music was a way of building character in children. If children turned out to be good players – then it was a great side-effect!)

For us, answer to the “why” question is much more aesthetic. To experience music is like uncovering another sense that you didn’t know you had. And it’s much more enjoyable and rewarding to experience actively than passively. We need spectators, fans and listeners; but making music yourself is on another level entirely. How could you *not* want that for your children? In some ways, answering this question may be harder for parents who are musicians because it’s so engrained that it’s hard to tease out what exactly is the reason to make music.
You touch on something important, too – the idea that by tuning in to what really turns children onto playing their instruments we can keep them engaged and in love with music. Just being sensitive to where they seem energized helps a lot. There’s a pretty clear roadmap laid out by Suzuki; but there are lots of fun, meandering paths on the side.”

3. Cynthia Faisst shared this comment on my post, “Why You Shouldn’t Quit Teaching Violin To Get a Real Job.”

“It’s easy to forget that Suzuki Sensei lived through a war and saw the devastating effects that it had on children in person. Thankfully, that experience inspired him to persevere. I sense that seeing a world full of refugees, many of which are children would have taken him back to those memories. But I also think he would have delighted in the research that provides confirmation for many of his observations about music and children.

Western Kenkusei often speculated on what the secret was for his long and vibrant life. Instead of growing sad and feeble with old age he outlived tribulation and shared the hope and joy of his in sites with the next generation.

It should fill us all with an obligation to carry on his spirit.”

4. In response to my blog post, “How to Build Your Music Studio Community,” Kristin Hall says,

“Thank for sharing such great, well thought out ideas. I just discovered your site this past week and am loving it! One idea that I did in my studio to help motivate students to practice and create more of a sense of community was a video challenge. I would video one student saying something like “Hi John, this is George and I challenge you to play Perpetual Motion blindfolded!” I would text or email the clip to Johns mother. When John has mastered it, I would video him doing it and send that clip back to George. We would focus on a single book in this studio challenge and if it is a new piece for the kid I would limit the challenge to a section that I thought was doable. If it is a review piece, we want the challenge to be a little crazy like – play it blindfolded, standing on one foot, while taking your shoes off and on, while balancing a stuffed animal on your head, etc. (not all at same time, tho). Kids really enjoyed it!”

5.  In McKenzie’s post, “How I’m Starting My Music Studio From Scratch,” she explained she was moving to Arizona and having to start her studio all over.  I was struck by the kindness and compassion of teachers in the Suzuki community who immediately reached out via email and Facebook.  Terra left this comment,

“It’s so great hearing from a fellow violin teacher who had the same issues/problems I do. I will be moving in 6 months (more school…like a B.M. And M.M. aren’t enough…) and I am so excited to start from scratch in building my studio. Please let me know how I can keep up with your journey!
Also, as luck would have it, I did my undergrad at ASU right in Tempe. I taught some lessons in Mesa, and know some of the local orchestra directors and music shops! Let me know if you’re interested, and I can put you all in contact. I’m sure they will be thrilled to have you!
Good luck, and keep me posted!!”

​The crazy thing is these comments are just the tip of the iceberg!  It was so hard to pick just five amazing comments.  There were so many other lovely comments I could share.  You all are so amazing, and thank you so much for being a part of this thriving community of music teachers.  Stay Plucky, my Friends.