Here are some basic guidlines for the most important people in the child's muscial life-the parents:
1. Attend the lessons but stay in the background. A child has trouble learning from two teachers at once. You are the at-home teacher.
2. Help your child recall the lesson. This begins in the car on the way home from the studio. TAKE NOTES during the lesson and also encourage your child to remember what they need to work on.
3. Learning to play through Book 1 yourself is helpful. We will assist you to do this along with your child. Consider purchasing an inexpensive beginner violin for yourself. Playing along with your child will help reinforce essential skills and give you a better understanding of your child's musical challanges.
4. Play the current Suzuki CD DAILY. Listening does not have to be active; it can be done while eating breakfast, getting ready for bed, driving in the car, cleaning the house, or during playtime. Your child will acquire listening and playing skills far more quickly and effectively if practice is paired with listening.
5. Playing an instrument is an athletic and physical activity. Repitition is important in reinforcing skills and building "muscle memory". Children take pride in what appear to be "small" achievements. These skills build sequentially and become key elements of the mastery.
6. Keep the violin and bow in good condition. This includes:
-Keeping the bow at the proper tension, remembering to always loosen the bow after practice sessions. ( The bow should be re-haired about once a year.)
-Rosin the bow daily.
-Clean the violin, including the strings, making sure to wipe off all rosin after practice sessions.
-Keep the violin properly adjusted (the bridge correctly fitted, sound post in proper position, pegs and tuners that work, and no unglued joints or cracks.) These adjustments are best made by the teacher and in some cases the luthier (violin maker).
7. Your child should attends all recitals, classes, and special musical events as indicated by the teacher.
8. Avoid making comparisons between your child and others. The only standard that counts is the quality of skill-building. In fact, it is often the students that progress more slowly through the repertoire who become the superior players. They will have had more opportunity to feel secure in their playing as a result of taking the time to constantly repeat and reinforce those skills.
9. Practice with your child until he/she is relatively self-sufficient. Two or more short and positive practice sessions a day are far better than one long one. It is the quality of the practice session that counts, not the length.
10. Working with your child requires both a sophisticated understading of parenting and the dynamics of parent-child interaction as well as an understand of technical skills. I recommend that you purchase "Helping Parents Practice" by Ed Sprunger and "They're Rarely Too Young..and Never Too Old to Twinkle" by Kay Collier Stone to help you with parent-child dynamics and reinforcing techniques. Both books are available at www.sharmusic.com.
(Thanks to Sarah’s Suzuki Violin Studio (Sarah Hartman)-Tempe AZ for some of the ideas listed above.)
1. Attend the lessons but stay in the background. A child has trouble learning from two teachers at once. You are the at-home teacher.
2. Help your child recall the lesson. This begins in the car on the way home from the studio. TAKE NOTES during the lesson and also encourage your child to remember what they need to work on.
3. Learning to play through Book 1 yourself is helpful. We will assist you to do this along with your child. Consider purchasing an inexpensive beginner violin for yourself. Playing along with your child will help reinforce essential skills and give you a better understanding of your child's musical challanges.
4. Play the current Suzuki CD DAILY. Listening does not have to be active; it can be done while eating breakfast, getting ready for bed, driving in the car, cleaning the house, or during playtime. Your child will acquire listening and playing skills far more quickly and effectively if practice is paired with listening.
5. Playing an instrument is an athletic and physical activity. Repitition is important in reinforcing skills and building "muscle memory". Children take pride in what appear to be "small" achievements. These skills build sequentially and become key elements of the mastery.
6. Keep the violin and bow in good condition. This includes:
-Keeping the bow at the proper tension, remembering to always loosen the bow after practice sessions. ( The bow should be re-haired about once a year.)
-Rosin the bow daily.
-Clean the violin, including the strings, making sure to wipe off all rosin after practice sessions.
-Keep the violin properly adjusted (the bridge correctly fitted, sound post in proper position, pegs and tuners that work, and no unglued joints or cracks.) These adjustments are best made by the teacher and in some cases the luthier (violin maker).
7. Your child should attends all recitals, classes, and special musical events as indicated by the teacher.
8. Avoid making comparisons between your child and others. The only standard that counts is the quality of skill-building. In fact, it is often the students that progress more slowly through the repertoire who become the superior players. They will have had more opportunity to feel secure in their playing as a result of taking the time to constantly repeat and reinforce those skills.
9. Practice with your child until he/she is relatively self-sufficient. Two or more short and positive practice sessions a day are far better than one long one. It is the quality of the practice session that counts, not the length.
10. Working with your child requires both a sophisticated understading of parenting and the dynamics of parent-child interaction as well as an understand of technical skills. I recommend that you purchase "Helping Parents Practice" by Ed Sprunger and "They're Rarely Too Young..and Never Too Old to Twinkle" by Kay Collier Stone to help you with parent-child dynamics and reinforcing techniques. Both books are available at www.sharmusic.com.
(Thanks to Sarah’s Suzuki Violin Studio (Sarah Hartman)-Tempe AZ for some of the ideas listed above.)