The Things that are Inspiring and Motivating Me on my Plucky Journey

This week has been a little rough, Milo has been waking up early and fighting naps and bedtime, so I haven’t gotten as much time to myself.  I’ve had to work extra hard to stay motivated and excited.  Looking back, I think my efforts paid off.  I’ve been acting happy and engaged in lessons, despite sleep deprivation, and my studio seems pretty motivated overall.
Here are some of the things that lifted me up this week, I hope they help you too!
1.  I love a good laugh, and I love violinist, Ray Chen.  This compilation of his comedy videos made me snort with laughter.  Bruce thought it was pretty hilarious too!  Be sure to check them out!
2.  I think one of the most difficult things for a young student to grasp (pun, haha) is a relaxed and beautiful bow hand.  I have used these Bow Hold Buddies with some of the worst offenders and they really help!  I have found that they need them for a few months (one as long as a year) and when I take it off, the bow hand is much improved.
3.  Michael Hopkins String Pedagogy Notebook is an AMAZING resource for string teachers.  There are so many amazing videos and I just cannot believe he is offering all of that information for free.  He must be some kind of saint.  Seriously check it out.  It’s so comprehensive and just incredible.  Wow.
4.  This video of James Ehnes playing the Preludio and Gigue from Bach’s Partita No. 3 is just lovely and clean.  It brightens my spirits every time I hear it.  Also, his left hand is just so beautifully efficient.  I love that.
5.  Bruce and I went to see Jurassic World this week, and it was not as dumb as I thought it would be.  So that was a pleasant surprise!  I really enjoyed it, though, the two brothers in danger was just a little too close to home.  Maybe I’m hormonal?  Nah…
But seriously, when the kid asks Chris Pratt “Who is the alpha?” his answer just cracks me up.  It’s so funny.
Well, all in all, it’s been a fantastic week, I’ve had the opportunity to make music with wonderful kids every day, spend time with my adorable boys, and all sorts of great stuff.
Life’s so good, everybody!
Play on!
What has you smiling this week?  What has lifted you up?  Please share so we can all smile together!

My Before Lesson Routine

​Over the last year I have been incorporating routines to keep our household running smoothly.  The simple act of unloading the dishwasher first thing every morning makes the whole day so much nicer.
I quickly complete a quick list of cleaning and laundry tasks each morning and evening, which sets me up for success for the following day.  As I’ve streamlined some of these chores, my life has felt much less overwhelming.


I often feel disorganized and unprepared for my lessons.  I fumble through papers and music, and struggle to find the things I need.  Sometimes, I just can’t seem to focus.
However.
If I am intentional about the twenty to thirty minutes before I start the teaching day, I can make everything easier on myself.  Before I start my day, I have a sequence of activities that make me feel less frazzled.  And I look much more organized and professional in front of my students’ parents!
1.  I fill a water bottle.  This may be an indicator that I talk too much, but my mouth and throat get really dry while I am teaching!
2.  I close the door.  I need to physically and mentally shut the door to the rest of my life.  It is sometimes hard to ignore the crying baby upstairs, but I trust that my husband or sitter can handle those crazy boys.
3.  I light a candle.  This may seem silly, but I love the flickering light of a candle and a nice scent in my studio.  This just makes me feel more zen and patient with my students, and helps create a welcoming atmosphere.
4.  I pray or meditate for a moment.  Another seemingly silly thing, but saying a quick prayer for patience and love prepares me mentally and emotionally.  It’s a good reminder of the the kind of mentor I would like to be for my students.  Sometimes repeating a mantra helps me, too.
5.  I gather the books I know I will need.  This includes my own copies of the Suzuki books, supplemental materials, etc.  I place these on a second music stand that I keep near my chair.
6.  I review my notes on last week’s lessons.  Do I have any new ideas on how to help “Suzie” understand relaxed bow hand?  What is the next step for “John?”
7.  I check my payment records.  Am I missing anyone’s tuition?  Who do I need to remind to bring a check or pay online?
8.  I gather any materials I might need for games, activities, or practice charts.
9.  I check for cancellations.  If someone has texted or emailed to cancel their lesson, then I call someone from my “sick list” and offer them that time.
10.  I play a little.  It is good to get my fingers loose, and students love to hear their teacher playing as they come in the door!
These are the things I need to do to feel  prepared and calm for my lessons.  Feel free to try this routine, or even better, come up with your own!  In the past, I rushed down one minute before my first student walked in, and then I felt frazzled and crazy the rest of the day.  Giving myself some time to get into the zone has made me much more productive and efficient.
How do you prepare to teach each day?  Do you have a pre-teaching routine?  Please share with us in the comments!

I have been really excited about the increased engagement in my studio.  Before I went on my maternity leave in March, I was feeling really discouraged and hopeless.  I felt like nothing I did ever made a difference, so why try?

Well.

Let me tell you, it does make a difference.  I can already see a little more excitement and sparkle in the eyes of some of my students.  Others it may take longer to reach, but I’m feeling good about continuing to try.  My increased excitement seems to be contagious.

I love it.  I’m actually looking forward to teaching every morning, and that is HUGE for me.  I even feel less guilty about leaving my boys because I honestly feel like what I am doing is having an impact.

I’m almost in tears with gratitude for this change in my attitude and in my heart.
So here it is, some awesome stuff to bring a song to your heart and a smile to your lips.

1.  I just received a copy of Sassmannshaus Violin Recital Album Volume I in the mail.  I cannot wait to start some of these pieces with my students.  Each one has a teacher duet and accompaniment and they are awesome.  I think they will correspond well with the Suzuki literature, and provide a much needed respite from Suzuki Books 1 and 2.  Check out this darling duet featuring Dr. Sassmannshaus and one of his students.  I could just die of cuteness.

2.  I tried using this awesome practice idea from Teach Piano Today.  My students loved the little “creatures of habit,” and they ACTUALLY DID IT.  The idea is to hang up the creature somewhere they will see it throughout the day, and to practice one specific spot from their repertoire each time they pass it.  It really helped some of my kids!

3.  If you haven’t heard of Igudesman and Joo, prepare to be delighted.  This comedy duo are not only absolutely hilarious, they are also pretty incredible musicians.  Share with your students for a good laugh.

4.  In the spirit of amazing performances, I just had to share one of my most favorite pieces.  Here is “Primavera” from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla (one of my most-loved composers!)  Gidon Kremer really captures the intense beauty of this fantastic piece. Listen to the other movements too, they are pretty monumental.

5.  I couldn’t help but include a little happy anecdote about my babies.  Milo has just learned his full name and his age.  I probably ask him what his name is about twenty times a day because I love how he says, “Feh-win.”  The kid cracks me up.

Sending you love from our house full of music.
Brecklyn

I would love to hear what’s been on your mind this week.  If you have something  you would like to see here next week, please share your tips, thoughts, and favorite web resources with us in the comments.

This week was my first full week back from my maternity leave.

I taught a couple lessons last week because one of my substitute teachers was out of town, but this week is my true return to the studio.

I’m not going to lie, I was really dreading coming back to teaching.  Two babies is pretty awesome and overwhelming, and I was nervous about leaving my sweet two month old.  Then a few weeks ago, I started planning our studio’s upcoming activities and goals, and I got super pumped!  Now I am really excited and happy to be back.  It has been so fun to see my students again, and having a few babies-free hours each day is nice too!

As I have said before, I am a total geek.  Violin geek, mostly.  So I wanted to share the things that have inspired and motivated me this week.  Maybe there will be something that will inspire and motivate you, or just put a smile on your face!

Here are Five Things I’m Loving This Week:

1.  This amazing post from Bulletproof Musician about the habits of great artist-teachers. Go read it.  I’ll wait…Pretty great stuff, right?  I was especially inspired by #4 and #5.  These are things I really struggle with, as it’s hard for me to focus on just ONE technique problem, but I think keeping these things in mind will help me to pick the right one and stick with it.

2.  This pretty fantastic performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Ray Chen and Kent Nagano conducting the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.  His playing is just fantastic, and the expressions on his face are just hilarious.

3.  I know I have a whole post on this, but I’m still kind of going crazy over Memrise.

4.  As you may know, Mimi Zweig is one of my main muses, so I really enjoyed watching this masterclass.  What she says about the thumb at minute 3:43 made right hand thumb position so much clearer in my mind, I am going to be checking all my students thumbs now!  (And revamping my own right hand position!)

5.  Last, but most definitely not least, my sweet boys!!  Milo has been running around the house singing “The Bare Necessities” on a loop, and Graham has started laughing.  He is very ticklish.

Life’s good, everybody!  Smile, play (violin), and have a great day!

​What’s inspiring you these days?  Have suggestions for staying motivated?  Please share!

This blog post was originally published on the Plucky Violin Teacher site on June 1, 2015, so links and resources may not be current.

Sometimes I have a hard time concentrating when I practice.  A really hard time.  I generally have issues concentrating, and those are exacerbated when I sit down to practice violin efficiently.  (It truly is a miracle I’ve made it this far.)  There are a number of things that distract me from focused, efficient practice, such as:

• Food (food is very important to me)
• Calls from my student
• Emails
• The mess in my house
• An itch on my nose
• The spider crawling across the carpet
• The ticking of the clock
• Bills to pay
• Telling my husband something “real quick”
• The inviting sunshine outside
• Netflix

The list goes on and on…  You name it, I will start thinking about it in order to avoid focusing on practice.

So, what do I do to get myself back on task?  I’ve heard many times of using a timer to help students practice, but I never considered it as a technique that would be applicable to me.
I’ve started using the TimeTag on my iPad or phone, and it has changed the way I practice.  I can keep track of how much time I spend on each piece, write notes on what I did, and color-code everything.  It makes my Type A brain so happy.  Of course, you don’t need an app for this!  You can use the timer on the microwave, or an egg timer, or whatever you want.

When the timer is running, I know it is time to practice, and therefore it is not time for anything else. It is not time for getting a drink, going to the bathroom, or sending a quick email.  It is practice time.  If one of those things absolutely must be done, I stop the timer, get it done, and come back.

It surprised me at first how slow the time went before I had reached an hour of actual practice time, but then I realized how much of what I considered my “practice hours” must have been filled with puttering.

As I mentioned, another perk of using the timer, is how I can keep track of how much I practiced each piece.  When I have a TON of music to learn, it can be overwhelming!  I create a “tag” for each piece on my TimeTag app, and then I can keep track of how much I have practiced each piece over the past months.  It is important not to get too bogged down in one piece, I want to get through every piece or excerpt every two days.  I give myself twenty minutes for each piece, and the timer keeps me aware of how much time has passed.  Because I know I only have a limited number of minutes for each piece, I am more likely to focus and really get things done.

The timer has proved to be incredibly helpful as I prepare for auditions or recitals.  When it’s crunch time, I really have to be intentional about how I practice violin efficiently.  I highly suggest the use of a timer as a practice tool for students and professionals alike!!

So far I haven’t used this with my students, but you can bet I am going to be encouraging using a timer at home practice sessions for sure!
​
How do you stay on task when you practice violin?  Have you tried using a timer?  Do you think it helps or no?

Somewhere down the line, they almost inevitably fall into the trap of thinking that new pieces equal progress.  I become the bad guy when I put on the brakes, and insist on good intonation, relaxed bow hand, or efficient left hand technique.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the allure of a new piece as much as anyone, and try to assign new pieces fairly frequently,
but…
Why is it so hard to motivate students to refine and perfect the current or review pieces?  Why is it so darn difficult to convince the student or their parent that the “soft, bent thumb” is actually important?
We live in an over-stimulated world.  We get distracted from checking our Facebook feed to check our email.  There are thousands of little red “notifications” on our home screens screaming for our attention all the time.  As a society, many of us are no longer practicing the patience required to stick with a job until it is superb.
I love this quote from Janos Starker, “Without discipline, there is no art.”  Our students cannot truly play beautifully, or express themselves through music, unless they have the technical prowess to play with precision.  Why should we keep trying to teach good technique when it seems like no one wants it?

Because it is right.  And it is good.  Because children need to learn the joy and pride of a job well done.  Because we can help them become amazing human beings who have grit and are tenacious.
What can we do?  Do we hold on to our ideals and insist on beautiful playing and lose our students?  Do we give in and listen to poor playing all day long as we feel our souls shriveling away on the inside??
No. We remember why it is important.
As teachers, we know what it takes to make the violin sound good.  We’ve spent countless hours studying violin technique and pedagogy, not so we could teach a lot of pieces (crappy sounding), but so that we could teach how to play the VIOLIN.  Our students come to us with this goal.  To learn the violin.  If their technique is solid, and their foundation is strong, the student can eventually tackle any piece himself.
We do it for our own happiness.
When we aren’t true to our principles, we cannot teach with integrity.  It is a disservice to us AND OUR STUDENTS when we succumb to pressures to allow poor playing to become acceptable.  If you think it doesn’t sound (or look) good, they probably don’t either.  Despite their resistance, no one really wants to play poorly.  And I don’t really want to sit through thousands of crappy sounding lessons, either.
So how do we insist upon a high level of playing, but keep the attention and interest of our students?
GAMES!
We can use games in the lesson to make repetitions exciting, and we can teach our students and their parents to use games in their home practice.
I used to think that I didn’t have time to play games with students in their lessons because of all of the work that needed to be done.  Now I think, I don’t have time not to play games!
My students are so much more receptive to criticism and change when it comes in the form of a challenge or as part of an exciting new activity.
Be courageous.  Stick to your guns.  We can’t expect a child, or even a teen, to know beforehand the satisfaction of a job well done, our part is to help them get there. I am giving all of us permission to accept nothing less than our students’ best efforts, and ours as well.
Do you  struggle to retain your students when you lay down the law?  How do you keep them interested when you have to slow them down for technique issues?

I enjoy folding my babies’ laundry.  I love the teeny socks and sleepers.  I love thinking about the kissable little feet that go in those socks, and the sweet cuddles from little ones in those sleepers.
This was not always the case.
Every time I saw a load of tiny clothes in the dryer, I groaned.  I complained about matching a thousand mismatched socks.
But guess what?
That didn’t do me any favors.  I still had to fold that laundry and put it away.  And I had to do it again the next day.  (Really!  I wash those little dirt burgers’ clothes every. single. day.)
Eventually I thought, I am going to have to fold these clothes approximately 365 times a year or more.  I can grumble and feel annoyed about that.  Or I can pretend I like it.
I decided to pretend I liked it.  Miraculously, somewhere around folding party number 45, I actually started to like it.  Ok, ok, I started to tolerate it.
We all know that self-talk is extremely powerful.  It can even affect us at the cellular level.  We can use this to our advantage in our studios by modeling and encouraging positive thinking.  Here are a couple ways to use this music teaching tool in your studio.

1.  Model.  Any time we can frame a request in a positive way, we are going to get a better reaction.  Rather than saying, “Don’t squeeze your thumb”  try, “I loved ____, let’s make it even better by trying it with soft, relaxed thumb.”  Speak positively about your own playing, practicing, and violin experience.

2.  Encourage.  When you hear negative or disparaging self-talk, help the child to replace it with something actually productive.  For example, I have a ten year old girl who told me, in no uncertain terms, that she hates note-reading.  She hates it so much it is a huge fight to practice her note-reading at home and her reading is really suffering for it.  We decided to replace that talk with three repetitions of “I LOVE NOTE-READING!” every day when it was time to practice.  I know she thinks it is ridiculous, but somewhere along the line, she’s going to start to believe what she is saying.
If our students are constantly telling themselves,

“I’ll never get that shift.”
or
“My thumb is stiff, that’s just the way I am.”
or
“I’m not good at vibrato.”

Those things automatically become law.  It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

No matter what you do, you can’t fight what your brain now perceives as reality.

If we can teach our students how to harness their words and thoughts, and use it to actually help them, think what could happen!  Cheesy?  Maybe.  But why not?
It could change everything.

​Do you have a student whose negative self-talk is halting their progress?  How do you help your students stay positive and upbeat? Share with us in the comments below.

I don’t know about you, but I struggle to teach music theory.  I often feel as if I don’t have the time in lessons, and the things I do teach quickly fall on deaf ears.
In addition, I hesitate to buy expensive music theory books, or ask my teenage students to buy them, because they all seem to be overwhelming college texts, or cheesy workbooks clearly designed for small children.
So, what are we to do?

A few weeks ago, I discovered a free language-learning app called Memrise.  It is designed to teach foreign language skills using a game like format, and you earn points based on the tasks you complete.  I was excited to review my pitiful German skills, so I quickly got started.
Upon exploring the app, I was delighted to find that, not only could you study languages, you can memorize a whole variety of topics.  Most importantly, you can study music theory, history, and ear training!!!!
I know.  I was pumped too.
So why should we use Memrise to teach these skills to our students?
1.  Repetition.  The app is designed to ask you for the same information in a variety of ways.  It keeps coming back to you over and over until it is LOCKED DOWN.
2.  Mnemonics.  For each fact or piece of information, they offer a few different mnemonic devices.  So if one doesn’t work with your particular brain, there probably is another there to help you!
3.  Portability and Access.  Nearly everyone has a smart phone these days, and teenagers are never without theirs.  It’s not too hard to play memrise for a couple minutes in the car or while waiting for the bus.  A music theory text or workbook isn’t going to be with them at every second of the day.  If your students don’t have a smartphone, they can access Memrise from their desktop computer.  It’s awesome.
4.  Price.  It’s free.  I love free.  Playing the violin can be pretty pricey.  It’s always nice to give your students (and their parents) a freebie!
So, if I haven’t convinced you that Memrise is the way to go, just go to Memrise.com or download Memrise from the iTunes App Store or Google Play.  You won’t be disappointed!  They should be paying me for this glowing review.  Haha, I wish.
Coming soon, step by step instructions on using Memrise to complete our studio’s Summer Theory Challenge.
How do you teach music theory skills?  Have you tried Memrise?  What do you think?  Share your tips and tricks here!