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Had to Share
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My 7yo son just “finished” Suzuki Violin book 1! Woohoo!
He plays things like Bach Minuets etc…
For those that know Suzuki…. he is just “finished” it… he hasn’t “graduated” it. (BIG difference!)
Yay! Violin – eek. I can’t imagine the practices you would have to endure as they learned how to use the bow…LOL. I’ve always heard wonderful things about Suzuki style though, how thoroughly grounded they are with the consistent practice of all material.
Well, lets just say that we are not always following Dr. Suzuki’s advice of “Practice only on the days you eat”… lol. Although we did go about 450 days in a row (excluding sick days) quite a while ago….
My 7yo (Delta) has just finished his 4th year of lessons… My 5yo (Echo) has just finished her 2nd official year of lessons (and 1 year before with me teaching her…) and the 3yo (Foxtrot) has been doing some basic exercises with me for a while….
I have to say that some of the noises that can come out of the violin are not very musical! lol.
It takes a while just to learn how to hold the violin (it is held between the sholder and chin without hands… the left hand does NOT hold the violin… it needs to be able to move!) It also takes a while to learn how to hold the bow… they start by making “bow bunnies” which is making a “specific” bunny shape with their bow hand. Then the bunny “eats” a “carrot” It is all learned small step at a time.
Delta can now play from memory… 17 suzuki songs (counting the 6 variations of Twinkle as 1), 5 Fiddle Songs, and a few other random ones like Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells. He will be playing a song this fall at the church primary presentation. He is learning to read music and is doing well at that too, although he can’t read as complicated of songs as he can play at this point
Echo can play 9 Suzuki songs from memory (again counting the 6 Twinkles as 1), 3 Fiddle Songs, and knows part of Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells.
Foxtrot can do a bow, find playing feet position, hold the violin properly for the length of a whole twinkle, Hold the bow properly (sometimes), clap the first twinkle rhythm, place the bow on the A string without making a sound, sort-of play the first rhythm on open A (needs work!), name all the strings, and point to the various violin parts as I name them, handle the bow for various exercises (done to songs like “up like a rocket” and “Wheels on the bus”) and is learning how to put the violin on her sholder herself. (This all has taken a while! lol!)
Oh, and Golf (almost 1) generally stops crying if the kids play or sing Twinkle to her…
Oh, and don’t forget the listening we (I) do… listen to the CD each day (well 2 now… book 1 and book 2), listen to them review their songs, and then also practice. Because there are 6 variations of Twinkle… you get Twinkle in your head sometimes! Oh, and often I put on the just learned songs for each of them, and the song in process, and sometimes the next songs too on random and repeat for a while in the day…. Sometimes we listen to the book 3 songs too. (We actually started unofficially doing Suzuki Piano at home, before I decided our Piano needed too much work) Can you guess why we don’t do Composer Study at this time yet???
My sister did Suzuki when she was a kid, and although I was younger than her, and missed most of her violin years (she quit when she was 12… was out of Suzuki and with a different instructor after age 7 or 8)… I found when we started Suzuki with the kids that I “knew” all the songs!
Probably more than you wanted to know… but you have a proud mommy here…
I had a good friend growing up who began Suzuki violin I think when he was 3. He did extremely well, finished the program when he was 14, got to meet Mr. Suzuki in Japan, played all over the world. He’s now a concertmaster with an orchestra. It’s a good program and a great accomplishment to move through the levels. We always had fun “celebrating” when he moved up.
LOL, I’m glad you explained all that – it is a huge undertaking and accomplishment. I’m with you, composer studies would not be on the radar with all that going on!
Well, with the list of things that Foxtrot is doing, and keeping in mind that she is nowhere near playing Twinkle yet… you can see why it can take a year to a year and a half easily for the 3-4yo beginner to be able to play Twinkle! There are SO many skills to learn!
That said, Delta and I started at the same time (here the parent is expected to learn at least up to Twinkle, preferably up to Perpetual Motion (about 1/2 way through book 1), and if possible up to the end of book 1. Now… Delta’s first teacher only worked on me up to Twinkle… and our current teacher has just given me a few pointers here and there (about once a year I steal a bit of lesson time….) – but Delta is now ahead of me. I plead the case that I had a difficult pregnancy and then a small baby (not to mention 2 to 3 kids practices to monitor)…. so my practice has been VERY sporadic…..
As for Composer Studies…. I figure we are getting it in… just not focusing on one composer at a time… most of the time learning nothing about the composer… and most of it will be from the baroque period (and obviosly leaning towards violin music..)
Congratulations! My youngest just started at the beginning of December and is doing very well. Suzuki has been such a blessing.
A is 10 yo and her instrument is violin.
I was concerned about some of the non-melodic sounds that could come from a violin, but A hasn’t really produced much of that. However, in the group lesson yesterday the instructor taught them how to do Old McDonald and the sound for the mouse set my teeth on edge, just a touch. My darling dd noticed that, and guess which animal sound she tried out first upon arriving home? Ah yes, never wince! LOL.
Let me guess – they are doing the mouse on the other side of the bridge…
Most of the sounds coming out of our violins are musical (not always with every note in tune…) But the “hiccup” in May Song (where they are playing on the A string, and hold the 2 finger down while playing a quick E string) tends to cause a bad squeek (sometimes with me too) – the squeek can happen if their 2 finger is touching the E string slightly… or it can happen just because of the quick movement on the bow.
I learned long ago to try to do practice when dh isn’t around, as he gets irritated by any squeeks or off notes more than I do….
I was concerned about some of the non-melodic sounds that could come from a violin, but A hasn’t really produced much of that. However, in the group lesson yesterday the instructor taught them how to do Old McDonald and the sound for the mouse set my teeth on edge, just a touch. My darling dd 
noticed that, and guess which animal sound she tried out first upon arriving home? 
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