My whole aim is to deepen the lives of my violin students. To help them sense the universe in a whole new way.

I am not a performer. I don’t play in an orchestra, in a chamber ensemble, or gigs on the weekend. My only aim is to be an excellent teacher.

After I graduated from my masters program violin practice went onto a far back burner. I would practice in preparation for a Teacher Training course and of course demonstrate as needed in a lesson, but on the whole I practiced very little.

I justified this by acknowledging the strains on my schedule (working to make ends meet, keep my body and mind healthy, develop my own methodology, and document the process) and my priority on teaching over performing.

However, I began to experience the limitations of this approach.
1) I felt self conscious playing in front of my students and peers.
2) I wasn’t demonstrating a deep level of excellence to my students.
3) I wasn’t on a growth edge.

I think it is possible to be a great violin teacher without being an exceptional violinist, but my own neglecting of practice directly contradicted two of the core tenets of my teaching philosophy.

I believe that students learn far more from the person their teacher is than the direction the teacher gives. Who I am is who my students will become. If I’m not confident, if I’m not on my growth edge, my students won’t be either.

I also believe that violin is a vehicle for deep, inner work. If I have truly dedicated myself to the path of spiritual work then why would I neglect the power of violin practice in my daily practice. Furthermore, if I wish to use violin practice as a means for accessing self-realizationg in my studio then why in the world am I not exploring that on my own?

I ended up developing a daily practice routine that I could sustain– whether on the weekends at home, on a heavily loaded teaching day, or with some extra time in my studio.

• Here it is…
• Bow to my violin
• Mindful tuning
• Suzuki’s tonalization exercise
• Scale and arpeggio with drone and accelerations (new scale every day)
• One Suzuki Volume (with or without accompaniment)
• Working repertoire, one piece at a time [right now Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 in DM]

If I need to move quickly, I can do all of this in 20 minutes. If I have more time I can stretch this work to an hour. I never practice violin more than an hour a day.

Since I’ve recommitted to daily practice I have experienced much more confidence while teaching and demonstrating. I also feel like I’m finding resonant sounds worth sharing with my students.

Their sound is my sound is my sound; my sound theirs. I’m glad to be able to give this quality of sound, through practice, to them.