Kathryn Drake

Suzuki Violin Teacher

Which (Non-Suzuki) Recordings I Use

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At the beginning of every pre-Twinkle group class I project a music video up on a screen. While the video is playing I greet all of the students in class, tune their violins, and chat with parents. Often I will turn to just sit and watch the video— modeling my attention to the performance as students look to me for social cues.

This video-watching time gives us a bit of flexibility if the parking situation is especially rough and many students are late, or if a child arrives particularly early and is just sitting and waiting for class to start. I like to take advantage of this ripe time to color their environment with rich music.

What is interesting is that I haven’t yet played a single Suzuki piece for them on the screen.

I take for granted they are listening to a reference recording at home and will hear Suzuki pieces as the hour long class unfolds. But I use the video time at the beginning to show students (and parents) that music can be made in SO many ways by SO many different types of people.

I find that no student, yet, has had trouble being attentive during this 5-10 minute period of music watching. I fear it is partly because of their conditioning to screen watch, but mostly representative of their very natural ability to concentrate (in small doses) on intensely beautiful/interesting things.

Here are a few of my favorite selections for class…


https://youtu.be/5LoUm_r7It8
https://youtu.be/XL95vwU92qo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6oSeODGmoQ
https://youtu.be/kNLC8ROAXjI
https://youtu.be/tZ7aYQtIldg
https://youtu.be/hV2-zFh3tAU
https://youtu.be/RGUEFrFcywc
https://youtu.be/MV6Xs-0jmeQ
https://youtu.be/aaVhqvcpbjY
https://youtu.be/cMT053bfQhM
https://youtu.be/Lgj_4xyUt2s
https://youtu.be/3EDGt5l5_20

I hope you can find a way to integrate a few of these videos, or at least the diversity they represent, into you Suzuki classroom.

Snowstorm in Twinkle Class

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Last weekend we had a lovely winter snowstorm. Two feet of snow stacked up on the ground over a 24 hour period. To commemorate the changing landscape, both of weather and a transition between a group class performance and a few weeks off, we decided to do an extra special activity.

We made our own Twinkle Snowstorm!

Imagine the final result:
13 twinklers (age 4-6) standing in lines.
Each one has a snow flake dangling from their scroll
The snow flakes aren’t yet moving or dipping to the ground, their posture is stable and tall
Teacher and pianist play Twinkle Theme while students stay in posture and listen
Every parent has a camera out to document the moment
We take a twinkly bow, students ask to keep the snowflakes, which of course they can

It was a great success. I want to explain here exactly how I set up the snowflakes and framed the activity to make it wonder-full and educational.

Make the snowflakes

I used this Martha Stewart tutorial to make one snowflake for each member of the class.

I attached fishing line to each snowflake with a paperclip, then tied a large loop at the top of the line. The paper clip gives the snowflake a nice weight so the flakes really hang down.

I transported the collection by looping the large top loop around a dowel. The snowflakes still got a bit tangled, but I would not recommend letting all of the line loose and just carrying by the flake part.

Snowstorm in Class

I introduced the activity by instructing students to their best violin posture (no bows necessary). I told them we were going to hold up our instruments while Ms. Sarah (co-teacher) took a trip outside and back. She put on her coat and hat — it was quite theatrical — and then retrieved the paper snowflakes which were in the hallway.

As she came back inside I exclaimed, “Oh my goodness! Look what Ms. Sarah brought back with her!”

Sarah and I then went around the room looping the snowflake lines over students’ scrolls until everyone had a dangling snow flake.

Students stood with tall scrolls and hanging snowflakes as Sarah and I performed Twinkle Theme.

We let them keep their snowflakes as a souvenir from class.

I hope you try this engaging activity with your Twinkle class. It’s important to spice things up (or cool things down) every once and a while!

20 Suzuki Pre-Twinkle Bow Games

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Here are twenty (!!) games to reinforce basic bow hand posture. These games are ideal for a Suzuki pre-twinkle class of 3-6 year olds.

1. Simon Says

This classic children’s game can easily be mapped onto any posture game. Give students instructions like the ones listed below and make sure to say “Simon Says,” before each one. Sprinkle in a few tricky instructions without “Simon Says” to see who is listening.

  • Pick up your bow
  • Build a bow hold with your bow hand
  • Land your bow on your … (head, shoulder, belly button, knee, etc.)
  • Stretch the bow up to the sky!
  • Land the screw on the ground
  • Draw … (letters, circles, fruit sizes, etc.)
  • Stir soup
  • Shake out your cowhand!
  • Shake your neighbors bow hand

If your students aren’t old enough to understand Simon Says, you can easily turn this into a follow-the-instructions game where the challenging instructions are the trick itself.

2. Stir the Soup

Students start by holding their bows with great posture. Together the whole class stirs on the horizontal plan with the bows as if stirring a big pot of soup. Move around the entire group, asking each student which ingredient they would like to add to the soup — no ingredient is too weird! I’ve had spaghetti, Reece’s, mashed potato soup with my students before.

  • Variation #1: halfway through have students start to stir the opposite direction or faster slower depending on the ingredient
  • Variation #2: recount together as a group which student brought which ingredient
  • Variation #3: before you start set an imaginary colored skittle (student chooses color) on the tip of their bow. Tell students to keep their bows very straight and balanced so the skittle doesn’t fall in the soup! Eat the imaginary skittle together at the end.

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