Monkey Song and A Scale

Dear Parents:  Following are the links to the demos of the important Pre-Twinkle steps that you are doing or soon will do with your Pre-Twinkler.  Please let me know if you have any questions! The pieces should be taught and practiced at home in this order: Flower Song (see preceding blog entry) Monkey Song, Ed Song (in preceding blog entry) and finally the A Scale.  Happy Practicing!

Welcome Pre-Twinklers!

We are excited to have many new students in the Godfrey Studio this fall.  At this time I particularly want to shout out to our adorable Pre-Twinklers, Emma G and Liam H.  To assist our wonderful Suzuki parents in getting those beginning songs going that build the strength, skills and focus leading up to the Twinkle Variations, I am attaching some short instructional videos.  They include The Flower Song and The Ed Song.  The Monkey Song and The A Scale will follow.  Happy Practicing!

How to Help Your Child At His Lesson

• Attend lessons regularly and teach your child to be quiet and respectful if there is a lesson in progress when you arrive.  That way s/he will learn that there is something important going on!
• Please turn off your cell phones but if you absolutely need to use it, please step quietly out of the lesson room.
• When you practice at home, use the same routine and sequence of events that you observe at the lesson. Use the same language and practice the same exercises that I use.  Be creative as well.  If you find a phrase or a Game that helps in daily practice, share it with me!
• Often a child will appear forgetful at his lesson, or do poorly in exercises or pieces that s/he did well at home. Do not become alarmed or interfere too much when s/he is trying to pay attention to the teacher. S/he may not be too familiar with me. By helping too much, the closeness between teacher and student may be delayed.  Be careful with excessive enthusiasm as it may also distract from the teacher-child interaction and concentration.
• Sometimes I will invite the parent to participate so pay close attention to the lesson!
• Don't worry about your child making mistakes, because the lesson is a learning process.
• Good practice is always the cure for not-so-good lessons.  Ask me for more guidance in practicing  if you need it!
• Utilize my Worksheets and write down the important points as I present them.  Study the notes before practice times.  If you do this, your student will make steady progress and will soon be ready for the next step in his learning.
• Younger brothers and sisters are always welcome to come, to listen, and to learn.  However, if they steal away your attention from the child in the lesson, or distract the child himself, other arrangements should be made.
• Show interest in other students but avoid making comparisons between your child and others.  Each one of us is awesome!  Each one of us is unique with a personal environment specific to our needs.
• We have a very supportive family in the Godfrey Studio.  Thank you for your commitment and support at home and in the lessons!  Thank you for your desire to keep LEARNING!!

Violin Olympics

Violin Group Lessons on February 22 were a lot of fun.  In the Twinkle Group we earned gold medals for best bow hold (Olivia A) best bow game (Mason) best Twinkle variation (Olivia G) best Fiddle song (Ethan) best Lightly Row (Sabrina) and even more Twinkle events!  We played "London Bridge is Falling Down" and Chantelle got the gold medal for getting under the bridge the most times without getting caught!!

In the Book 1-2 group we had a great time playing the Olympic Theme by ear and even the first phrase of our national anthem,. The Star Spangled Banner.  We practiced some pieces from Book 1 such as "O Come Little Children", "May Song:" and "Long Long Ago".  We reviewed our Song Words to Book 1 pieces and we played a lot of Book 2 such as "Musette" and "Hunters Chorus".  Everyone earned a gold medal for an excellent violin technique such as keeping the bow on the highway, good dynamics "piano" and "forte" with crescendos, or good Giddy Up bows on Hunters Chorus.

Miss Ruth earns a gold medal for good teaching early on a Saturday morning!

In the Book 3-5 Group we played The Star Spangled Banner in a beautiful duet version.  We also sight read national anthems from the countries which received many medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics such as Canada, Austria, Germany and Russia.

Some of our music from Advanced Group and Books 3-5

In the Advanced Group we got a lot accomplished on well known work called Canon by Johann Pachelbel, a German composer from the Baroque era or pre-1700's.  We studied and marked the fingerings and bowings.  We noticed that the three violin parts are exactly the same except for a few bars of music at the end.  Each part enters exactly two measures behind the one before it.  The Advanced Ensemble will give a wonderful performance of this piece on the Spring Recital.

Erik, Victoria, Shalese and Whitney at the Advanced Ensemble

  

Excellence and Fun From the Start!

Isn't it great to play the violin or the viola?  When we first start with the Suzuki method it is SO exciting.  To hear the sound of beautiful violin or viola tone, see the teacher demonstrate and after learning many essential pre-twinkle skills to finally replicate the magic--please Mom can I do it again?  That is the moment we want to have over and over, progressing with each repetition, motivated by each small success.  I love putting myself in the child's shoes and experiencing this with each new beginner.  Difficult as it may be at home to find the perfect time of day to practice and re-create this bubble in yours and your child's life, whenever you do, it is like adding another day of sunshine or rain or good earth to the growing seedling.  While working hard on the essential skills such as posture, bow hold, sound of bow on open string, or doing a whole pre-twinkle song perfectly many times,  remember to take a break and play a bow game, or do the marble test, or some cross crawl brain gym (such as marching while crossing hands to opposite legs).  Or, just stop and run around the room!  Remind yourselves how many skills you are learning, and learn to identify them to your child and praise them for success whenever you notice it.  Recently I perused a list of skills learned in Twinkle, and Book 1.  31 Twinkle skills and 44 Book 1 skills, quite amazing!  Remind me to give you a copy of this list for your reference.  Below are the first several Pre-Twinkle Violin and Viola skills:

1. Rest Position
2. Bow
3. Holding Steps
4. Stance: endurance+focus
5. Sidedness
6. Finger numbers
7. Bow hold
8. Up+Down
9. Arm circles
10. Rhythms: clap, tap, soap
11. Bow on violin
12. Quick finger placement

There are many more!  Please enjoy these photos of our newest Twinklers and their Great Starts!!

Olivia's best bow hold

Aubrey's perfect posture

Chantelle has a beautiful bunny!

Isabella starts her Twinkles

The Marble Test is great for Ethan's posture!