I love spreading inspiring ideas to violin teachers that help you bring out the best in your students and thrive in the heartfelt work you do. I created a new page here on the Music for Young Violinists project called "Things I Love" as a resource list to share with you things that I have used in my violin teaching over the years and had success with. Some of the items listed here are things that have stood the test of time and worthy of praise such as my Korg metronome which has been dropped 100 times in 15 years, rarely needs a battery replacement and still works fine. Other resources may be lesser known products worthy of spreading the good word about like the Poly-Pad shoulder sponge. This page will be growing on a regular basis so please check back soon. Featured on “Things I Love” is Helping Parents Practice (Ideas for Making it Easier) Volume 1 by Edmund Sprunger. This is HANDS DOWN my favorite resource to use in supporting parents practicing with their children. I appreciate this book so much that I have practically underlined every sentence in my copy because it is so clarifying and poignant. Sprunger combines decades of experience teaching Suzuki violin with his formal training in psychology to offer wise and compassionate perspectives that will elevate a parents understanding of why their child is responding or behaving in a certain way. He also offers solutions that are effective and healthy for addressing these specific situations. The book is divided into sections by practice topic and then further broken down into 2-5 page solutions for specific scenarios that a parent would encounter while helping their child practice. This concise organization was done with the busy teacher/parent in mind and makes it an especially convenient tool because you can look up your immediate situation without having to read an entire book. Thank you Ed and please let us know when Volume 2 is available. Learn more about Ed Sprunger and his resources HERE. To celebrate this new page we are giving away Ed Sprunger’s new book: Building Violin Skills: A Set of Plans Designed to Help Parents and Children Construct Positive Practices. To enter, just list one “Thing You Love” for your teaching and music making in the comments below. Winner will be chosen at random at the end of the month.
49 Comments
Sarah
9/16/2016 10:44:26 am
Thing I love? Laminated theory pages. For years I would send students home with a theory assignment, and they would came back having forgotten it, or lost the page, or some other reason. Now I laminate all my theory sheets, and give the student a dry erase marker and a time goal, and they complete the sheet while I tune their instrument. This cuts down on copies I have to make, and ensures the assignment gets done.
Heather
9/16/2016 11:41:11 am
Brilliant! I love my laminator also. They are very reasonable - about $30 at Amazon. Great idea and thanks for being the first person to enter this contest! Heather
Heather Figi
9/19/2016 10:04:05 am
That is such a fantastic idea - I have one also but never thought of bringing it into my teaching. Thanks so much for sharing this Rafael! Playground and tennis balls... as a Dalcrozian-in-training I use them in my own violin practice, and my students get so excited in group class and private lessons when I bring this prop. There are many many different ways to hone different musical and ensemble skills with them; this week I used a playground ball for a game in my preteen Book 2 violin class that had them listen for the end of the phrase (in improvised music and then Musette) and figure out how to arrive somewhere in the room so they could pass the ball to the next person right at the cadence; and bounce-passing back and forth in a 4.5-year-old transfer student's first lesson with me, to engage her and let her do something active and fun while I recapped the lesson and answered some questions from her mom.
Heather Figi
9/19/2016 10:05:49 am
I want to be in your class! This is fantastic and we are learning more and more that by engaging the body the brain learns in a deeper more connected way. Thank you so much for sharing this awesome idea and if you ever make a video of this in action I would love to share with the Music for Young Violinists newsletter group. Best wishes, Heather
Heather
9/22/2016 10:08:36 am
Hello Brecklyn, It's lovely to connect here in the blog world. Your contribution is a solid choice. Never underestimate the captivating power a finger puppet has for a young musician and bonus points for putting it on the tip of the bpw. If you have pictures of this and are willing to share I would love to post. Thanks! H I have a large dice that is a favourite with the little ones. They roll to see how many repetitions of each exercise they have to do. It generally ends up under a table, so I get them to go fetch it too, which is handy for keeping the "wriggles" under control! It's impartial and you can use it for big tasks or small ones. Haven't used it yet for my older students but I intend to!
Heather
9/22/2016 10:07:15 am
Hello Alice, Thanks so much for sharing this idea. So few areas of the learning experience are left to chance and using dice creates this neat element of chance and mystery to the process. I also love that you use them to "keep the wiggles" under control. I will definitely borrow this idea. The hardest thing in the world is for kids to keep still and your idea helps bring some balance to the lesson with an opportunity to move the big muscles. Thanks for sharing and entering the contest. A winner will be chosen on October 1st. Best wishes, Heather 9/21/2016 08:14:04 am
I use magnetic bingo chips as "notes" on a staff. My students love composing their own pieces by laying out the chips on a staff. They seem to really enjoy hearing their piece and begin to connect what the patterns look like with what they will sound like. And of course I have a ridiculously large cartoonish magnet to help with clean up!
Heather
9/22/2016 07:28:30 am
Hi Andrea, Thanks so much for posting a comment and sharing an idea. I have used these before when I was more active in teaching Music Mind Games and can attest to how much the students adore these AND the MAGNET! Best wishes with your teaching, Heather
Naomi O'Shea
9/22/2016 01:06:31 am
I love my rabbit finger puppet that appears when a students left hand tunnel collapses!
Heather
9/22/2016 07:27:19 am
Hi Nancy, Thanks for posting! I imagine your students love this too. Best wishes with your teaching, Heather
Sarah
9/22/2016 08:12:47 am
I love using my iPad! I use it almost every lesson...either for the metronome app, YouTube, recording short potions of a students lesson to play back to them, of fun music game apps. :)
Heather
9/22/2016 10:05:15 am
Hello Sarah, What I especially appreciate about this is that many of us (like me in the 40 and over group) are still a little intimidated by technology. This seems like an easy way to incorporate it and model successful practice ideas for home practice. Thanks for sharing and entering the contest. A winner will be chosen on October 1st. Best wishes, Heather
Erin
9/22/2016 08:36:33 am
I like using colored Pencils! Each week I have a color of the week and use the same color in everyone's books so that we know what is most recently marked.
Heather
9/22/2016 10:03:39 am
Hello Erin, I really love your "colorful" way of staying organized. This is a great idea. Thanks for both sharing and entering the contest. A winner will be chosen on October 1st. Best wishes, Heather One of my favorite things is using "Barrel Of Monkeys" in lessons. For the young ones I build a chain that hangs off the stand after each good job done; when the monkeys hit the floor, the lesson is over. For my older students I hang them in a straight line to keep track of "keepers" when practicing tricky spots repeatedly.
Heather
9/22/2016 10:02:51 am
Great idea! I especially love how you use this in a developmentally appropriate way for different age groups. Thanks for sharing and entering the contest. A winner will be chosen on October 1st. Best wishes, Heather
Laurel
9/22/2016 09:29:32 pm
I'm always using my little Eeyore stuffie and my stack of task cards! For Pre-Twinklers the cards say things like "tap finger 2 on your A string" or "make your best bow hold"; I also have a Book 1 set and a Book 2 set for playing review songs. Cards get placed face down on the floor and the student tosses Eeyore and picks up the card he lands on. The kids LOVE this game and ask for it week after week!
Heather
9/26/2016 09:05:56 am
Hello, Thank you so much for sharing such a joyful idea. I can only imagine how much the little ones love having lessons with you. Best wishes! Heather
Renee Knutson
9/25/2016 11:43:22 am
I love teaching audiation skills!
Heather
9/26/2016 09:07:19 am
Hello, Thank you so much for posting. I learned something new today since I had never heard of audiation. I looked it up and learned this:
Renee L Knutson
9/30/2016 09:48:39 am
Yes, check out http://giml.org/ for more explanation of how it works. Edwin Gordon pioneered the research in how necessary it is to teach them. Amazing stuff!!
Heather Figi
9/30/2016 10:51:22 am
Hello Again, Thank you so much for introducing us to this. It's really neat and I am looking forward to learning more on this website. Would you be interested in writing a blog article for us sharing more? Heather
Renee Knutson
10/3/2016 08:54:17 am
I would definitely consider that. Could you email me and give me some details of what would be expected and a time line? I've never written a blog article before, but would love to help!
Heather
10/3/2016 06:57:34 pm
Thanks Renee, I will send an email shortly! Heather
Hester
9/27/2016 08:58:46 am
With the younger kids To learn the 4 strings I use 4 stuffed animals....they love playing=learning with them. Depending of where you live different animals can be used. Goat/ giraffe/ gecko, duck/ dolphin/ donkey, angelfish/ ant/ alligator, eagle/ elephant/ elk and more... The animals are 'participants' in the lessons.
Heather
9/29/2016 07:51:11 am
Hello Hester, Thank you so much for sharing this sweet idea. I love the concept of personifying the violin to help teach your youngest students.
Jennifer
9/30/2016 10:55:45 am
I love having young students warm up their bow arms by playing their open strings with long bows while I tune them. They feel like they've participated in something really special and it gets their arms opening properly.
Heather
10/2/2016 09:22:33 am
That is such a great idea! Thanks for adding this to the discussion and I am definitely going to be using this idea. This is also so resourceful with limited lesson time. Best wishes, Heather 9/30/2016 10:56:32 am
We play a listening game of "Find the Mistake." I play a song and deliberately make a mistake in pitch, rhythm, bowing, dynamics, etc. and have the students raise their bow hand when they hear it. I stop playing and we briefly talk about the error. I continue in this way until the song or segment is done. I also use this on pieces farther along in the current book to see if they have been listening to the recordings.
Heather
9/30/2016 11:51:37 am
Hello Esther - Thanks so much for this wonderful and super fun teaching idea. Your students must love doing this activity with you! It's such an effective way to build awareness. Thanks for sharing and entering our contest. Heather
Marin
9/30/2016 12:33:59 pm
I love using finger patterns(I use a slightly different order than Barbara Barber's book Fingerboard Geography and the new Suzuki books). They give students another tool to play in tune; by seeing patterns and 'feeling' the left hand shape to knowing whole/half steps in scales and passages. So many ways to use them!
Heather
9/30/2016 07:05:04 pm
Hello, I am so grateful you added this to the conversation. I was not trained in using these but have seen other teachers use them and they make so much sense. They are logical and tactile. I am definitely going to be adding these to my teaching this year. Best wishes and thanks again! Heather 9/30/2016 05:52:10 pm
I love taking pieces the kids know well and changing the character by changing mode. The kids love it. We give a Halloween concert each year and there is always at least one standard song made "spooky".
Heather
9/30/2016 07:06:19 pm
Fun! Fun! Fun! AND, even more importantly, immensely helpful in building technique. I always say when the spirit is fed, the body will work. By making this so fun, the students will focus on this and not how challenging this can be. Great idea thanks so much! Heather
Jennie
9/30/2016 05:55:56 pm
I love using the book "I Can Read Music" by Joanne Martin for 5 minutes at the end of each lesson to train rhythm in my book 1 kids - when they've completed that we move on to "Winning Rhythms" by Edward Ayola - most of my kids love it and they're experts by the time they've completed both books --
Heather
9/30/2016 07:07:24 pm
Hello,
Jessica Waite
10/1/2016 12:29:07 pm
This is a very simple tool, but so very handy: the viometer! It lets me quickly and accurately assess a student's sizing needs. With this tool, I can confidently send my students and parents to the violin shop to get their new size. The kids love it too, and beg to be "measured" when they think they've had a growth spurt. :)
Heather
10/2/2016 09:24:25 am
Great studio addition - I can attest to this. The "Viometer" for anyone reading this costs about $20 at Shar Music. Mine broke immediately after purchasing so the quality is not the best but I have still been able to use it for the last 20 years. Here is a link: 10/1/2016 01:51:33 pm
Lifesavers on the tip of the bow, with lots of games for bow hold or bow control. Up like a Rocket, People on the bus, etc. Even for more advanced students for bow division, slurred staccato, etc.
Heather
10/2/2016 09:25:53 am
Hello, Thank you so much for adding this idea to the conversation. I can honestly say that I forgot about this. It's another great way to feed the spirit while the body works. Very fun and I think my beginners will be doing this at our coming group class. Best wishes, Heather
Paige Anderson
10/1/2016 05:52:29 pm
The thing I love to teach with are Russian stacking dolls. Inside the smallest one I put a little piece of candy. Every time a student repeats a piece or section in the piece to the expected level of mastery, we open up the doll to reveal another. It creates an element of surprise and astonishin motivation, especially for younger students. By the end, it's a win-win: the student is delighted and the excerpt is solid.
Heather
10/2/2016 09:29:36 am
This is so neat! Great idea and I can only imagine how much your students adore this. I just did a quick search on amazon.com for these and there are many to choose. Thanks so much for contributing this idea and participating in the contest! Heather
Sonia Venegas
1/27/2019 10:38:01 pm
I love to use puzzles for repetitions. That encourage students to play more times.
Heather Figi
1/28/2019 06:36:57 am
Fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing, your students are fortunate to have you. Best wishes, Heather Leave a Reply. |
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AuthorHi! It's me, Heather. I absolutely love working on the Music for Young Violinists project and all the many facets: blogging, website, music, teaching materials, freebies, videos, newsletter and giveaway contests. The best part is connecting with you so feel free to drop me a line. You can learn more about me on the "ABOUT" page. Thanks! |
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