As I recorded my own pre-screening audition last semester, I also found myself making recordings of my students’ playing for the annual String Project Honors Recital tape submission.

Though I was playing Mendelssohn, Bach and Paganini while they were playing Lightly Row, the Ant Song, and Witches Dance, there were similarities in the way we all responded the camera lens.

By focusing a camera on the live performance of a piece, suddenly mistakes and inconsistencies were glaringly obvious. It seemed as if the expectations of our own playing increased tenfold as soon as we went from listening to ourselves while playing to watching a video after playing. My students and I found reserves of energy to make a piece just that tiny bit better to capture on video that we didn’t know we had.

Encouraged by the changes in my own playing and in that of my students, I began taping other students who weren’t attempting to audition for the honors recital. With the tool of the camera, we were able improve their playing as well. [Read more…]

One of the skills Dr. Duke identified last semester as an element of expert teaching is “behavior management” in lessons.

This term is usually used to discuss the particular ways children are wrangled so that they do exactly what we want them to in lessons. But Duke asked us to look beyond student behavior to the sum and meaning of relational behaviors between students, parents, and teachers.

Trained in our family units, school, and communities to be socially appropriate (for efficiency and comfort’s sake), socialized humans are compelled to be polite. We ignore issues, we resist conflict, we justify bad behavior, we avoid hard conversations, we deliver fluffy compliments, and we seek simple, clean solutions to discomfort. These compulsions are the oil that keep our social machine running smoothly.

So the biggest challenge new teachers face is in switching their mindsets and behaviors from friend to teacher. As a teacher it is irresponsible to be polite. It is irresponsible to ignore issues, conflict, and bad behavior because those are often symptoms of challenges it is your job to help students overcome.

In a teacher to student relationship you are managing at all times the health of your student. Sure, as a bi-product of that healthful development your student will make some beautiful sounds on a violin, but much more importantly you will guide them toward becoming a beautiful human.

So if you are having issues with student behavior, take a close look at your own behavior. Are you acting as the teacher? Or are you acting as you’ve been socially conditioned, as a friend?

The complex dynamics of your relationship with your student can be hard to sort out while teaching. So I recommend you follow this process Dr. Duke led me through last semester. [Read more…]

I performed Paganini Caprice No. 5 yesterday in studio class, to a public audience, for the first time. The first time performing anything, but especially something as technically demanding as Paganini, is terrifying. The problem is that you don’t yet know what you don’t know. You don’t know where the memory slip will be, whether your hands will clam up or run away from you, you don’t know how you sound will project to a live audience.

But, at the risk of stating something obvious, it is impossible to perform multiple times without performing the first time. So I did.

[Read more…]

If you meet with your student for 30 minute lessons each week, you are seeing them for a mere 0.297% of their week. And if you hope that your work in the lesson will transfer into any tangible developments on the instrument, you better make sure your students know exactly what to practice at home.

Creating my own chart and getting consistent in my use of it revolutionized my studio. In my opinion, a simple, clear process for sending home practice assignments is essential.

Below you’ll find my practice chart (download your own, clean PDF here), instructions to use it, and some ideas for clarifying practice assignments. [Read more…]

Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.”
// Dr. Schinichi Suzuki

A few months ago my girlfriend approached me with the opportunity to transcribe a chant. She learned of the chant from Lydia Strand, who co-wrote it with Duncan Hilton. The chant is one Lydia used in Contemplative Action Circles as part of a community who takes seriously and integrates contemplative practice and non violent direct action.

The chant, which addresses risk, fear, and hope in the midst of both, was especially powerful in an instance Lydia describes in her own words this way

In May, I think it was May 12, 2016, there were five or six of us from this core team of the contemplative action circles who decided to support non-violent direct action and civil disobedience action in West Roxbury to stop a pipeline from going through. And that day, we decided how we were going to embody disruption was that we were going to go onto this worksite, sit in a circle, hold hands, and chant. So, I remember sitting there with my people, singing this chant, and actually needing it – actually needing that courage in the face of bulldozers and the police. And so, it became more than a theoretical practice of drawing on courage, and it became an embodied practice of solidarity and integrity with what I believe – the story of love.”

This story spoke to me; it spoken to the musician in me.

[Read more…]

My fifth full length, observable violin lesson is now up on my Youtube channel! This one features my pre-twinkler, Hayley, in her eleventh violin lesson.

In this video you will see me and Hayley review what “tone quality” means. As her skills and understanding mature, I decide to begin tone builders (Mississippi Stop Stop on the open E string)! Before we finish the lesson I make sure to teach Hayley’s mom how to practice tone builders at home correctly.

You can watch the video in it’s entirety here or on youtube. [Read more…]

I don’t know who shared this bit of wisdom with me, but one of the truest things I’ve heard said is, “Teaching violin is more about teaching your students which muscles not to use than which muscles to use.”

As I’m sure you know, teaching what not to do is difficult.

I’ve talked before about the complexity and necessity of relaxation, but most important is understanding that “to relax” (the directive) is not sufficient. Relaxation is a skill that must be taught and must be practiced.

Since writing “The Most Difficult Technique: Relaxation,” I have developed some hands on activities for actually teaching relaxation in lessons. [Read more…]