I used to think teaching ideas were always organized in sequences. A student starts to learn vibrato in Book 2 and, in order to do so, they go through step A, B, C, etc.

Then I learned another great method, from Charles Krigbaum and Daina Volodka Staggs, where teaching ideas are organized by the calendar. For everybody in the whole studio, no matter which piece you are working on, we work on skill A in September, skill B in October, skill C in November, etc.

Another example is to have a process ready in order to prepare for Youth Orchestra auditions. You always use the piece you performed at studio recitals the prior semester. We schedule a mock audition on this day. We use this much of your lesson for these many weeks leading up to the audtion.

Using patterns, routines, and rituals like these drastically reduce the load of mental complexity for students. They help you get to everything with every student, even when travel, sickness and other unexpected events get in the way.

One that I now lean on heavily is the New Violin Bootcamp.

Every time a student of mine comes into the lesson with a larger violin I go through the following process with them.

WEEK 1

1. Set the violin high on the shoulder X however old they are. For example, an 8 year old would set their violin 8 times.
2. Keep the violin in play position for 60s while they listen to their favorite song. They only hold the violin with their head, no hands supporting the violin.
3. 10 X Red Pattern. Play up and down a “Red” finger pattern ( 1 23 4) with focus on soft, spread hand and accurate intonation
4. 10 X Butterflies. Carry the bow in the air and gently land on all tapes. Frog, 1/4 tape, 1/2 tape, 3/4 tape, tip, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, and then frog counts as one lap. They do 10.

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I check in on each element of the “orientation” when they come back to the lesson the next week. This is usually where I can intervene with any issues in their set up or intonation.

If everything is going well I assign the following.

WEEK 2

1. 10 X Red, blue, and yellow pattern. Play up and down a combination of the patterns. “Blue” finger pattern ( 12 3 4). “Yellow” finger pattern (1 2 3 4).
2. 10 X Advanced Butterflies. Fly just tip to frog gracefully and without any sound when you land.
3. 10 X Out, In, Float, Sink. Start the bow at the 1/2 mark. Go “out” to the tip, “in” back to 1/2, “float” to the frog, “sink” to the 1/2. That is one lap. The student does this 10 times. Focus on smooth sound, expert bow arm choreography, and letting the string hold up the bow.

I check up on this in our next lesson and usually we are good to go on the new instrument.

If there are any lingering issues I might assign one more week of Orientation.

I’ve played around with different words like New Violin Accelerator, or New Violin Bootcamp. I like that Orientation doesn’t have any military connotation.