Small Steps

As I often tell my students, "This is hard, but you can do hard things."
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The idea of finally creating the supplemental practice guide that I have been dreaming up for the last few years is daunting to say the least. What if I miss a step and confuse the students? What if I forget to include a skill? What if it doesn't help anyone and was just a waste of time? What if it frustrates a master teacher and negatively effects my budding career? What if I'm not a good enough teacher to be taking on this project?

But...

What if it helps just one student? What if it works?

The Background

My first teaching job after moving to Tucson was at the Tucson Youth Music Center, an organization which pairs children of low income families with music local music teachers. I have met so many wonderful students through this organization. Each one has taught me something about the power of adaptability, kindness, and curiosity. It was upon working with my first class that I decided I wanted to undertake formal training to become a better private violin teacher.

The summer of 2020 I participated in the Kaleidoscopes for Violin Book 1 training which was created by the wonderful Elise Winters. Elise has extensive knowledge of both the violin and early childhood development. Her Kaleidoscopes method changed my life by creating a sort of step by step process through the first year or two of a student's violin training. After the training, I felt entirely prepared to go into the next school year and take on all of the new students I could find.

Unfortunately, the training had not prepared me for all of the students I am lucky enough to have.

Determined to fine the answer of how to better serve these students, I applied for a Medici Grant through the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts to pay the tuition of Suzuki for Violin Book 1 and Kaleidoscopes for Violin Book 2 training over the summer of 2021. Again, I learned so many new ways of analyzing songs, teaching new techniques and breaking down milestones. I learned how to create a connection with music and with students. I felt prepared.

Of course, I was still not where I had hoped to be. I still had student struggling to make the progress that other students were easily achieving.

The Project

In working with many families facing time and financial constraints, I have found the biggest factor in the success of my students is delegation of practice responsibilities. Traditional Suzuki and Kaleidoscope methods require the time of a practice parent who serves as the at home teacher and practice referee. While this guidance is ideal, it is simply not possible for many American parents who tend to have at least one job as well as the schedules of multiple children and other family members to juggle. Delegating some activities to be completed by the student individually allows for progress to be made, albeit more slowly than is possible with an unburdened practice parent.

After a few years of having to trail and error my way through practice assignments, it is finally time to compile a list of practice methods that can be used by students in the ideal practice parent setting, played as a game with siblings or peers, and completed individually between homework assignments or during a quite moment at school.

Over the next eight weeks I will slowly work my way through the songs of Kaleidoscopes for Violin Book 1, creating outlines of practice techniques aligned with each song's teaching points for all three practice scenarios (practice parent guided, siblings/peer games, individual).

Week 1: Begin at the Beginning

It is bizarre to be that after years of teaching some of these songs every week, I still don't always have a clear idea of their unique purpose in the Kaleidoscopes curriculum. My project for this week was to go through each song and designate between one and three major teaching points that are important to master in each piece.

An adult student recently commented that I must be tired of hearing the song "Boil Them Cabbage Down" and "Let Us Chase the Squirrel" after hearing them every week for the last few years. I told him that I associate the songs with the achievements of people I care very deeply for, my students. The process of identifying the major challenges of each piece allowed me to reminisce further on all of the people I have watched grow though both their proficiency on violin and as people.

I look forward to beginning to outline the practice methods for the first three songs next week!