Resources for Suzuki Violin Teachers: 5 Things I’m Loving This Week April 15, 2016

This post was originally published on the Plucky Violin Teacher Blog on April 15, 2016 so links and resources may not be current.

The review recital last week was so much fun.  Everyone had a good time playing old favorites, and I thought it really energized review in my students’ practice sessions.  I love using review to practice and perfect technique points.  How do you use review in your studio?

Though the review recital was great, it was also only twenty five minutes long!  My shortest recital ever!  Because everyone was playing review, the pieces were a little shorter than they might have been, and eight students (including almost all of my advanced students) were unable to attend!

Don’t get me wrong, I love a nice short and sweet recital, but twenty five minutes might be a little bit too short!

One very sweet moment during my teaching this week was when I found out that one of my students wants to be a violin teacher when she grows up too.  She’s been tutoring another young violinist in her school orchestra, and she’s just loving it.  She will be an excellent teacher, I’m sure!

Resources for Suzuki Violin Teachers: Five Things I’m Loving This Week
1. I loved this tip from Paula Bird about helping students remember the order of the sections in Martini Gavotte.  Woof, Martini Gavotte can be ROUGH.  Speaking of, anyone have any tips for me to help a young student remember when to play m. 7-8  vs. m. 15-16 in Gavotte from Mignon? I’m out of ideas!
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2. Thank you, Claire Allen, for this incredible teaching idea–have your students teach you a lesson.  I think it is fabulous that she let them know the week before, so they could prepare a little bit to teach the lesson.  You can read about it here.

3. Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto in D Major was one of the pieces I played in my Master’s program. (My pick, I was dying to play it!) The beginning gives me chills, especially in this performance by the great Leonidas Kavakos.

4. This is such a good reminder for parents AND teachers. Thank you to Angela Leidig for this great blog post about how to get your child’s practice session started on the right foot!

5. I’ve been waiting to mention this resource because I wanted to make absolutely sure that I loved it before recommending it to anyone. Well, the jury is back on Music Teacher’s Helper. Before I got it, I didn’t think I needed it but now I am NEVER going back. It has streamlined everything from scheduling to finances to keeping track of my music library and more. I also love that they have an app I can use on my iPhone and iPad. It is highly convenient, and my studio parents love the lesson reminder emails. Because I love it so much, I’m now an affiliate and can offer Plucky Readers a monthly 10% discount off the price for as long as you have the service. That’s a pretty great deal. The prices are very reasonable, even for me (and you know I’m crazy cheap.) You can check it out here.

Well, that’s all folks! If you didn’t catch my regular blog post this week you can read that here:
Suzuki Parents and Suzuki Teachers: Finding the Courage to Communicate

What are your favorite online resources and blogs for music teachers? Please share in the comments! I’m always looking for more! (If you have a music-teaching blog, please feel free to share the link in the comments as well!)