Kathryn Drake

Suzuki Violin Teacher

What Deep Suzuki Teaching PRACTICE Looks Like

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A graduate student in my Suzuki Pedagogy asked me how I was preparing for class and doing well.

For background, our Suzuki Ped seminar class meets once a week with our professor. In our time together we go over the teaching points of pieces, play the pieces, and ask/answer questions about how to best teach. We have occasional written assignments to turn in such as book reports, interviews with parents, or written reflections. At the end of the semester we meet with Carrie as a group and take turns performing and discussing the specific teaching points of the pieces in the books we worked on.

So what he was really asking is how I PRACTICE teaching. [Read more…]

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!

Reading Generously vs. Reading Critically

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Every semester the music education department at Ithaca College hosts a symposium and invites speakers to come present.

This year they invited Randall Allsup, a professor from Teacher’s College Columbia University focused on social justice in music education.

He presented many thought provoking ideas about how equity is different than equality, how our spaces can affirm difference, and how challenging it can be to overcome financial stratification in our field.

The one thing I want to share with you today though is something he just mentioned in passing. He had us read into a project “generously” and then immediately afterward read into it “critically.”

We are often in classrooms, but in the real world too, are encouraged to either not think (be passive) or when we do think to think skeptically. We are taught to look critically at what we’ve been presented, to figure out how we are being tricked, mislead, persuaded maliciously. We are taught to look for the faults. We are taught to see how the project will fail in the future, why we shouldn’t invest in it.

Rarely do we THINK with enthusiasm, with generosity. [Read more…]

How To Explain the Suzuki Method to Another Musician

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One of the greatest challenges of being a Suzuki teacher is attempting to explain the Suzuki Method quickly and clearly.

The method is unlike others, especially other music methods, and therefore it can be MOST difficult to explain Suzuki to another musician, or parent with musical background.

Earlier this semester I had to do just that. I was assigned to teach a day of Strings Class — a course I TA for at Ithaca College– exclusively on the Suzuki Method. The students in our class are incredibly proficient non-string players (winds, brass, percussion, voice, piano) who are either majoring or double majoring in music education. The course is designed to give an overview of string technique and pedagogy while the students learn the basics on violin, viola, cello and bass.

I thought long and hard about how I was going to teach this class.

I wanted to capture the depth of the method alongside its practicality. I wanted to show how beautifully it is sequenced and well thought out for violinists, but how easily the approach could be mapped to any instrument or skill.

I knew we needed to discuss the following core principles of Suzuki
– every child can
– robust learning environment (like that of language)
– set repertoire and emphasis on review
– home practice + lesson with teacher + group class with peers
– knowledge + 10,000 reps = skill [Read more…]

Instruction = Technique + Musicality

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I’ve been attending Suzuki teacher trainer Kirsten Marshall’s Book 4 and 5 class every Saturday. Not only am I observing, she has actually allowed me to actively participate in every class.

On the first day she asked all the students to line up in order by height. She the looked at me, a graduate student in Suzuki Pedagogy, and with a wry smile said, “You too!”

Kirsten’s classes are exhilarating— equal parts energetic and methodical. She is as deliberate as she is spontaneous. Students know how they are expected to be (play, act, think at a high level), but have no idea what the class will hold when they walk through the doors.

I’ve noticed many features of Kirsten’s teaching, both macro themes and micro tips, which I want to share here.

One thing I’ve seen her do over and over again is use a formulaic pattern of instruction when talking in detail about the musical interpretation of a passage.

She firsts describes the passage with a colorful, often evocative emotion or image. She then follows up that description IMMEDIATELY with a handful of technical instructions to make that emotion or image come to life on the violin.

So, for example, she might say…
“The start of this gesture should sound like a bubble bursting in the air!”

And immediately follow up with…
“Start the bow on the string…

Of course the incredible power is not saying one or the other but saying them both.

A musical idea without technical instruction is ineffective.

Technical instruction without a musical idea to serve is one dimensional.

This is a simple idea, but I’m curious how often you actually engage the formula in your own teaching. If you’re anything like me, your instructions could use Kirsten’s finesse.

Suzuki In 2019 – What Does It LOOK Like?

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I’m fascinated by the way our brains choose to summarize a collection of memories, a wide variety of perspectives, or wealth of facts.

What do you think of when you think of your childhood?
What do you think of when you consider the value of algebra?
What does social justice look like to you?

The images we conjure are varied. They are unique and individual to our own narratives.

I remember Carrie Reuning-Hummel asking the graduate students of our Suzuki seminar what image came to mind when we thought of the Suzuki Method.

We went around the table and shared. One person thought of a parent practicing with their child. Another person conjured up the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Yet another imagined a gymnasium full of Japanese children playing the Bach Double in unison. 

Each of us had differing, yet valid, mental images of what the Suzuki Method is.

Our images must, of course, depend on our memories. Our memory of experiences in the method– or our memory of stories shared with us or training imprinted on our minds.

Each of our collections of images which consolidates into a flashing image which represents our view of the Suzuki Method is undoubtedly narrow.

I want to expand my idea what the Suzuki Method looks like. I want to update my vision from a historic 1960’s version, even an early 2000’s vision (when I was a student of the method) to an understanding rooted in 2019. [Read more…]

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.

[Read more…]

Gratitude

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A few weeks ago I performed my masters recital at Ithaca College.

I presented pieces by Bach, Mozart, Part, and Schnittke to an audience of close colleagues and dear friends. The overwhelming feeling I experienced during this recital was that of gratitude.

On the morning of the recital I sat at Gimme Coffee downtown and typed up seven lines of acknowledgment which were printed on the backside of my program notes and passed out at the recital. I bathed myself in memories of learning, the nurturing environment I grew up in, and the seemingly lucky events which, when piled up together, compose my life.

I expanded my mind from this moment, from this place, from the immediate goals and projects around me to all time, all life, all space.

These thoughts and feelings slowly coalesced into the lines I shared at my recital, and which I will share here…

  • This program is not a demonstration of my skills and effort as a violinist, rather a demonstration of the selfless generosity many people in my life have extended. I cannot express in words the gratitude I have for the gifts, known and unknown, bestowed upon me– but I’m going to try.
  • Thank you to you, audience members, who in being present today bring this music to life.
  • Thank you to my mother, father, sister, and grandmother who, to this day, put up with my practice of out-of-tune double stops and unwaveringly support this work of mine (even when it’s not pretty or exciting).
  • Thank you to my violin and pedagogy teachers, Susan Waterbury and Carrie Reuning-Hummel, who inspire me daily in the way they intentionally live out their lives and who both miraculously believe in and help facilitate the turning of my never ending ideas into realities.
  • Thank you to my colleagues at Ithaca College for creating a rigorously rich musical environment brimming with musicianship, professionalism, and optimism.
  • Thank you to my extended family in Ithaca, the community I am a part of, who teach me how to love effortlessly and live easily.
  • And finally, thank you to my teachers of life, Yoshin David Radin and Khadija Marcia Radin, whose wisdom and patience have allowed me to see that in every breath the universe appears, and a violin “performance” is no different than a gentle inhale and exhale.

Finding and expressing gratitude for the miracle that is this universe — our life — is perhaps the most important thing we can do. The Dalai Lama says, “The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” Consider this as you hope to inspire goodness in your students.

Collect Experiences, Process Experiences

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I haven’t updated this space in a while.

It has been an eventful past couple of months! I needed to step away from writing in order to collect ideas and experiences, and now the time has come to process those experiences.

I hope you are taking time to collect and process as well.

In no particular order, here is a recounting of some events which have occurred this year.

CAYUGA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA YOUTH ORCHESTRA

[Read more…]

The Four “Points of Power”

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Carrie Reuning-Hummel, my Suzuki teacher mentor, shared how greatly she was influenced by Kay Snow-Davis’ book Point of Power: A Relationship with Your Soul.

Of course, wanting to understand Carrie’s perspective as deeply as possible, I checked out the book from our library and dove in.

About the Theory

Kay Snow-Davis argues that every person contains natural abilities and creativity — and that ability and creativity wants to be expressed. There are, however, different modalities of those expressions. Not every person will express their talent in the same way as someone else. And when a person to attempts to express their ability and creativity in a way that is against their nature, their “self-esteem is diminished, health is compromised, and relationships lack trust and depth.”

Snow-Davis has identified four points of power. These points of power are the gateways of personal ability and creativity to naturally enter the world.

Knowing one’s specific point of power enables one to determine the areas in their life where they are mentally forcing themselves to live unnaturally and engage in diminishing behaviors and actions.

Furthermore, identifying a student’s point of power can be an indispensable resource for encouraging their natural creativity and ability. I think this is why Carrie loves Snow-Davis’ work.

Four Points

In her book Snow-Davis uses the tree as an analogy to describe the four points of power to readers. There are Roots, Trunks, Branches and Leaves. Each modality has certain needs and characteristics which can be used to identify the power point and then consciously shape an environment to suit that power point.

ROOTS

[Read more…]