My nearly nine year old son and I like to practice in the morning before school. It is nice to have practice accomplished before the day even really begins. Additionally, at the end of the day when we’re exhausted and hungry and dinner needs to be made, homework accomplished, and screen time is begged for, we don’t
At Hartt (University of Hartford School of Music) last week at their Suzuki institute I attended a discussion called, “Words that work: Language to Promote Effective Practice” led by Dr. Susan Bair. Here are are some of my notes from the discussion combined with some of my own thoughts. 1. From time to time, remember why
Building a box violin is often the first step parents take towards working with their children to learn the violin. I don’t do this in the lesson as parents can work with their children solo on this lesson. It is useful to look at the picture of the violin in Suzuki book one to
For those of you following my blog thinking about quitting your corporate life. Ahem. Don’t. Pause. Well do, but there are financial impacts, of course. I’m working on making the transition to the dream and have been saving for this for some time. The reality of piecing together a family life with dual incomes of
When my son was young I wanted to introduce him to music. We first tried the clarinet. I tried to remove my tendency to throw myself into any activity in search of mastery from the practice by having our babysitter take our son to lessons and supervise practice. Our son learned to play a few
I often get this question. I’m not sure, the right hand, the bow hand is hard because it is mostly responsible for the tone, and tone production requires so much awareness of the muscles and how they can be manipulated to create sound with incredible flexibility, precision, speed and accuracy. The left hand has also
Some days I feel like time management is the hardest part of a lesson. When a scale or etude repertoire is on an edge for a student, there are really too many options as to what to teach or focus on. Intonation, bow speed, shifting? Lessons with Dorothy Delay famously didn’t start or end
Cynthia Huard reminded me yesterday to do what I need to do be performing yesterday. Self care is so important. Before concerts I like to run my hands under warm water, do some yoga and be quiet and undisturbed for a bit before going “on”. Sometimes it is hard to remember to do
Come August I will be a job lighter. I will be leaving my full-time day job to pursue music. After 18 years at UBM (www.ubm.com) working on web analytics, I’ve decided to change careers and follow my passion for music. I will be leaving UBM on August 1 to pursue a career as a violinist and music teacher.
Well of course he did. But here’s what he says about practice. “I was only seven when I attended the Conservatory and was much more interested in playing in the park, where my boy friends would be waiting for me, than in taking lessons on the violin. And yet some of the most lasting musical
Emily Sunderman 