On Thursday, September 7th I gave a talk to the North Texas School of Talent Education community.

I’ve been learning from Daina and Charles for years. It was an honor to present alongside them and a few other amazing colleagues.

I’m going to give a brief description of what I said and share my handout.

I believe in recording every single lesson.

I have footage dating back to 2015. I have 35 students. I record up to 1,400 videos a year.

I don’t share these videos– but I do record them.

And I wish more teachers did this.

Why?

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I use an unusual device to show which pieces are review: the humble popsicle stick.

I only do this in Book 1.

Once a student knows

• every note,
• every bowing,
• every trick,
• and doesn’t add anything extra (note, sound, scratch)

they earn a popsicle stick.

On the popsicle stick I write the name of the piece and the date they earned it.

As their review collection grows, so does their popsicle stick collection.
With their popsicle sticks they can play some simple and fun review games such as…

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This year we welcomed two brand new families into our studio.

So now we’ve looped through my onboarding process two more times. I’ll share each step below.

Keep in mind I work in a large Suzuki school with a registrar and many other teachers. By the time I talk with families they’ve already had many questions answered by our registrar.

Once assigned to me we move forward with scheduling and parent education.

Step 1: Scheduling, First Call

Once we’re introduced I send our studio lesson schedule. They select a few good times for lessons.

I’ll also use that email to schedule a 20/30 minute phone call.

I’m a big fan of BAMFAM (Book a meeting from a meeting). Usually they’ll also reserve a lesson time on their own between our first email and first call.

Step 2: Call

During our phone call I ask or discuss the following…

1. Why are you starting lessons now?

2. Why Suzuki? What do you know about it?

3. My history and training

I started at 4 with my mom. My parents are not music professionals. Neither play a string instrument. Decided I wanted to be a teacher early in high school. Bachelor’s degree in performance. Master’s degree in performance and Suzuki pedagogy. I’m all in on teaching– this is my only job– and continue to do teacher training. When you come into the studio I commit to your family from now until 18. You can move or step away, of course, but I am committing all my effort to help you succeed for at least the next decade.

4. Set studio expectations

I want to teach everyone but I am limited by time. I ask for THE four things that guarantee learning from every member of our studio. Come to lesson. Come to group. Listen every day. Practice every day. The child needs the full support of the parent (or primary caregiver).

5. Process for getting started.

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We’ve developed a tradition of gift giving for the first week of school.

I want families to receive as much value from being in our studio as possible. A gift is an easy way for me to add disproportionate value (low time, low cost, high reward).

Here is what we included in our Back To School gifts this year.

I used manilla envelopes as the gift bag. Their name and stickers written on the outside.

I wrote and signed a welcome letter. Folded in a copy of our Studio Handbook and recent Transparency Report.

We put in 2 HB Black pencils with great erasers. My favorite pen: Pilot Precise V5 Extra Fine. And an assortment of stickers.

There were two crown jewels!

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These are lessons I’ve learned from training for a marathon this year. I go on 5 runs a week and am learning from an excellent coach, Jeff Cunningham.

These lessons are painfully obvious in running, but I think can be applied more systematically to learning the violin (where mistakes aren’t as painful).

1. Consistently Good > Occasionally Great

This is one of Jeff’s quotes that has changed my life. His concept is that all we need to be successful is a stack of good days. And consistent good effort will always beat out a single, occasional perfect workout. In fact, the effort it takes to be perfect will probably disrupt all of the other systems in your life that support consistency. 

So just stay good. Stay consistent. Ignore the desire to be perfect. Perfect is often an illusion that lets you of the hook.

There are many days we I can’t complete the scheduled workout perfectly because I don’t quite enough time or the exact right conditions. Rather than giving up, I just get done what I can. It is good enough, but not perfect.

Thankfully, good is all we need.

2. Don’t control outputs, control inputs

I can’t will my body to run 26.2 miles at a particular pace. 

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I’ve defined 2023 as the year I take on the marathon.

In high school my two loves were violin and running. Obviously I have taken violin quite seriously and continued to play it in college, in graduate school, and then in teaching and performing since. Running did not get the same treatment.

In high school I was the captain of our cross country team and attended the regional meets beginning sophomore year. I had a real passion for the sport and pushing my perceived limitations. 

I loved that our sport was another sport’s punishment. I loved that we did more than most before most had even gotten up for the day. I loved spending time with a group of people who voluntarily chose to wake up and run at six in the morning– while in high school.

Some of my clearest memories are races, practices, and recovery sessions with my cross country team mates.

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Many of my private violin students participate in their school music program. In Ithaca, all students from the third grade on can start to learn an instrument in public school. 

The popularity of the instrument programs is high because of an incredible music outreach program. The local professional orchestra will do presentations for every school in the county, demonstrating the unique beauty and play-ability of each instrument. In fact, many of my students choose to learn a second instrument in school other than the violin.

I want to capture a few frameworks that help this situation be as musically productive as possible.

1. Should we do the school music program?
   1. For violin I say, emphatically, yes. I think it’s helpful to reinforce school music and bolster the program with students who play really well. It also gives my students opportunities to play in different ensembles, work with a different teacher, and usually exercise a lot of reading skills. By the time they are in third grade my students are often well set-up and reading, so I don’t feel there is a risk to having two teachers.
   2. If the child wants to play a different instrument I make it clear that our expectations for violin practice–listening, group attendance, and lesson attendance– will not change. If the child has slack time in their schedule that they want to use for clarinet practice, for example, then they are welcome to do so. If they are already so involved in other activities that would require taking something away in order to add something in (otherwise the music practice time will be split). It is wild to me that children are making this choice in third grade, but it is an essential lesson to learn. Our resources, especially time, are finite.
2. Reach out to the school music teacher.
   1. It feels really good to me to send a note to the school music teacher to introduce myself, especially at the middle school level. I send something short and sweet about being a certain student’s private teacher, and to reach out anytime if they need support with their school music.
3. Attend concerts.
   1. This semester I attended two concerts that happened during the day at local elementary schools. I was blown away by how touched families were that I was there to support. 45 minutes of my time on a Wednesday morning is worth it if that cements a commitment to our relationship forever. I want them to know that I care about all of their efforts, even outside of our studio, and especially in music! 
   2. Unfortunately band and orchestra concerts at the middle school and high school level are often scheduled in the evening while I am teaching, but I will try to get the ones that I can!
4. Working on school music in the lesson.
   1. I will check up on school ensemble music and solo pieces (for NYSSMA solo and ensemble) very occasionally. Perhaps once at the beginning of the year, once in the winter, and once before the end of the school year. If I know my student is about to have a performance I will listen and offer teaching points on their playing. I think there is a disproportionate benefit to the student feeling extremely prepared for an audition or concert. That being said, I don’t want it to completely take over our lessons, so I put a limit from day one. I’ll listen to this in our lesson today, but it is your responsibility to maintain and practice this music at home. I’ll often put a note to practice in the ‘reading’ category on their practice chart. We will also put time boundaries like 10 minutes a day so it doesn’t take overwhelm practice. I find being explicit is much more helpful than assuming they will regularly practice the music or weigh it with the same importance (not too little, not too much) as I do.
   2. If my student is not in a violin program I do not hear their music, but I will ask about it and try to draw connections to what we are doing in the lesson.

School music programs are a big life experience for students so I don’t want to ignore them, I want to help my students get the most out of them. I hope these frameworks are helpful!

I am not a Suzuki certified teacher trainer. I am just a very passionate Suzuki teacher sharing the experiments I’m running in our studio. Visit the SAA to look into Suzuki Teacher Training.

I’m going to do a brief breakdown of my teaching points in Lightly Row.

I used to teach this piece concurrently with Twinkle theme and used it to develop independent fingers and alternating bow division. I have changed my strategy– especially after studying the Step-by-Step approach with Daina Volodka Staggs and Charles Krigbaum. Now I lean heavily toward a prepared second finger and “waiting bows.” Let’s dive in.

Preparation

1. Students have been listening to the Lightly Row reference recording from day 1, but once we’ve added the longer bowing to Twinkle theme I will assign an “Outrageous” listening project: 10 times, in a row, every day.
2. Cuckoo. I use ‘The Cuckoo Song’ from Step-by-Step to develop the E to C# tunnel. First we sing it, then we pluck it, then we play it. This also makes a fun call and response game in group class.

The jewel of Lightly Row, in my opinion, is that E to C# tunnel that allows students to move in thirds. We’ll see this come up again in Song of the Wind (arpeggio), Go Tell Aunt Rhody (returning to the A phrase), O Come Little Children (beginning), May Song (arpeggio), and Long Long Ago (in the A phrase). The prepared 1st and 2nd finger assure the note will be in tune and the tunnel assures the hand placement is correct and there is not squeezing. As I see Suzuki do a lot, I think this is an example of setting the bar very high very early so the only option for the student to succeed is for them to perform the tunnel skillfully. 

Draw attention to scratchy sound and noisy neighbors because those are the aural signals to students and parents that the tunnel is not in place. Do not move on to the piece until the child can successfully play Cuckoo with no extra noise. Do not move on to Song of the Wind until the child can play Lightly Row with no extra noise.

Introduction to the Piece

Once Lightly Row becomes the working piece (Twinkle becomes a review piece) I then explain that Lightly Row is four sentences long. I teach them one sentence per week by rote, plucking. In the meantime we develop the “waiting bow.” Drive the bow from ¼ to ½ and on long notes you drive the same speed, but then wait the turn on the tape until it’s time for the next note.

We described the form of Twinkle as Bread, Cheese, Cheese, Bread. Sometimes it is helpful to describe Lightly Row like a Pizza: Crust, Cheese, Veggies, Cheese.

If you student has trouble in the third sentence with only playing 4 B’s or too many B’s, try saying “BBBB 123.” I think this helpfully differentiates between the repeated notes and the scale gesture. It also makes much more sense musically than saying, “Play 5 B’s!”

Putting it All Together

When the fingers can pluck the notes from each sentence without any extra notes, and the bow is smooth, rhythmic and ringing, we can put the bow together with the fingers.

We start with the first line because it is the most challenging bowing and makes musical sense to the child. While starting in the middle of the piece demonstrates a really durable understanding of the music, I don’t think we should work on that skill right away in Lightly Row. In the first sentence I will often teach parents how to pattern the bow, and then have them use the “1. I drive you ride, 2. You drive I ride, 3. You drive alone” sequence.

I find the easiest line to put together is the second because of the consistent bowing.

Next Steps

As I alluded to earlier, I want to make sure students can play line by line and start on a different line than the first. Sometimes we will even mix up the order (fun if student directed) so they play a completely out of order piece.

I also add a “magic ending” where the child takes of the string, does a backwards C, and hovers in the air.

We can do 1,000 things at once. But we can only focus on 1.

I find myself telling parents and students this often.

Yes, we can walk, chew gum, and hold a conversation at the same time. But when we were learning each of those skills we had to give it our full effort. It is only after extensive practice that we have the chance to do all of them at the same time.

In the lesson and at home in practice we are being selective and essentially ignoring almost everything so that we can actively change just one thing. Those other skills will go on in the background. Just like how we can continue to breathe or stand without thinking about it. But we won’t ever try to change multiple things at once.

Frustration arises in practice not because we aren’t doing enough, but because we are trying to do to much.

Simply ask yourself this question. “What problem are we solving?”

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I returned from a workshop this weekend full of ideas about the bow hand. I see so many students plagued by tension and unable to rest the bow hairs on the string. These are the first things I do to target a locked up bow hand.

Three Important Concepts

1. Strength you can release is POWER
   Strength you can’t release is TENSION
2. Very rarely does the bow hand hold up the bow. The string holds up the bow.
3. Bow arm train analogy. The upper arm is the engine of the bow. The forearm is the energy. The palm is a vacant cargo car. The fingers are passengers sleeping in the passenger car. Of course the entire train moves, but only the engine leads. Everything else must follow. (Many students think the passengers drive the train).

Three Important Restorative Exercises

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