So I’m procrastinating right now. I should be working on my final assignment of the semester — a scavenger hunt for my Bibliography and Research class — but instead I’m drinking matcha on the third floor of the library and writing this blog post instead.

The scavenger hunt, what I should be working on, is the last of a series of scavenger hunts we’ve attempted throughout the semester to demonstrate our ability to use the resources Prof. Shanton showed us in class. She gives us a source list, usually 10-20 print and web resources, and a list of obscure questions we must track down the answers to. Her questions send us on roundabout journeys to the periphery of available information we have access to in the Ithaca College Library.

I’ve learned about composer’s complete works editions, the grove dictionary online, music term dictionaries, WorldCat, dissertation archives, composer’s digital archives, the Hathi trust, and many many other resources. (Two of my favorite resources discussed in class are score facsimiles aged by hand to mimic the composer’s originals, and Slonimsky’s Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven’s Time.)

I was musing, as I do when I procrastinate, about how I can use a scavenger like this with the students and parents in my studio.

One thing I often mourn is the loss of the ability to trade check out CDs to students. Listening to gifted and borrowed CDs from my teachers was a huge part of my musical development. I didn’t know what solo Bach or Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto was until Tim and Kristi lent me their recordings. It is much harder to guarantee a student will spend time with a recording of music from Spotify than a track from a CD they can repeat in the car on the ride home. Without a physical music collection of my own, it is difficult to  introduce parents and students up to the world of music (especially classical).

Scavenger hunts might help me guarantee that students and parents are taking advantage of the digital resources available.

If I could create my own scavenger hunt for an incoming parent, I would want them to have to navigate through the following sources…

• SAA website
• American Suzuki Journal
• Nurtured By Love by Suzuki
• Helping Parents Practice by Ed Sprunger
• Teaching from the Balance Point by Ed Kreitman
• Informational Suzuki blogs
  • http://suzukiexperience.com/
  • http://teachsuzuki.blogspot.com/
  • http://www.suzukitriangle.com/about/
• Suzuki recordings on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and YouTube
• The local symphony’s event calendar
• CD/online music collections at the local, public library

If I were creating a scavenger hunt for my students, I would want them to look through …

• The Story of the Orchestra: Listen While You Learn…
• Fun books about the childhood of Mozart, Vivaldi, and Bach
• Spotify (particularly the search function and classical music playlists)
• A concert program from their local symphony
• Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
• Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf
• Berlin Philharmonic’s YouTube channel
• Video’s of music making like these…

I don’t know how realistic setting up a scavenger hunt is. The last thing I want to do is overload families while they are doing the most difficult work of transitioning to habits that are essential for learning violin. However if setting up a fun game encourages students and parents to use the resources you know are available, then I think drafting a scavenger hunt is more than worthwhile. If anything, creating and distributing the list will help you find sources and realize what your families are missing out on.

Okay, enough about teaching… It’s time for me to complete Prof. Shanton’s scavenger hunt!