Playing With the Cello

Charlotte likes to play with her cello.  As in, the cello becomes a playmate.  Waiting for Solomon and Nova to finish orchestra rehearsal last winter, the cello got dressed like a snowman.  Sometimes Aria pretends to be a very special kind of human cello (I think she mostly likes to hide in the case, which is just her size.) On the way to Charlotte's cello concert last spring, I overheard the following conversation:

Charlotte: Hello Cello

Cello: music sounds

Charlotte: I like Happy Farmer and May Song.  

Cello: music sounds

Charlotte: We are going to play Happy Farmer today.  

Cello: music sounds 

Charlotte: What do you like to play?  

Cello: music sounds

Charlotte: I like harmonics too. 

Cello: music sounds 

Charlotte: What is your favorite color?

Cello: music sounds

Charlotte: Between orange and red.  That's nice, I like those colors too.

Cello: music sounds

Charlotte: My favorites are green, blue, silver and purple.  

Cello: music sounds

Charlotte: What is your favorite thing to do? I know, I bet it's playing music, right?

Cello: music that sounds like 'no, no, no, no, no'

Charlotte: It's NOT?!

Cello: music sounds 

Charlotte: You like to be put away in your case?  What to do you like about it?  

Cello: music sounds 

Charlotte: Mom, she said she likes the soft velvet inside and the chance to rest and take a nap.  

What is your second favorite?  Playing music? NO?

Cello: music sounds 

Charlotte: Getting your end pin pulled out?  Why?  Does it tickle?  

Cello: music sounds

Charlotte: She said it's like a massage.

Cello: music sounds

Charlotte: Oh, I see.  She was just kidding, her favorite thing to do is play harmonics.  The other two are her second and third favorite.

And here they are, playing Happy Farmer by Robert Schumann (Note: this is from her group class a few weeks before the recital.  If I find the video of the recital, I'll put it up).

Suzuki Group Class

Between this blog and Facebook, I've posted plenty of things about my oldest three playing musical instruments.  But the solo stuff is only half the story.  If you are a Suzuki parent, you'll know what I mean.  Group class happens just as often as our individual lessons--at least for strings (that's once a week folks!).  An intensive note reading class happens around third grade, followed by the addition of orchestra to the Saturday morning lineup.  Both photos above and below were taken the morning of a play-in, where all the groups get together and play.  The orchestras also played, which triggered a dress code.  The kids are wearing the unofficial Suzuki uniform--dress black and whites.   

What is group class?  What does it look like?  What does it sound like?  Well, it changes as the kids age, but it starts out as pre-orchestra and ends up more like mini ensembles or sectionals. Think early childhood music classes to begin.  The first one starts out with no instruments (except the instructor's guitar) and plenty of parent involvement.  We sing, we do dances and movement, we get to play with lummi sticks and shaky eggs.  We explore musical concepts like dynamics, tempo, staccato and legato.  We sing fun and silly lyrics to Suzuki songs.  Here is Charlotte's first group class performing 'Apple Apple Apple Dumpling' (AKA Song of the Wind from Suzuki Book I).

As the kids get older, they play review songs together. Rounds and the like help them get used to playing together. They play games like 'hid the rosin', a musical version of 'hot and cold.'  They take turns playing solos for each other.   They try to sound like 'one big violin' (or cello).  They get to know a new teacher.  They get to know each other.

If a particular song is going great, a group might perform at a Friday Night Recital together.  Last year Solomon's group class really settled in to a piece by Telemann.



 

*Note: I am including both stills and video for video selections where possible as videos have failed in the past.

 

A December Violin Recital

Solomon and Nova participated in a Friday Night Recital this December.  Each Suzuki teacher is a little different.  While their previous teacher did studio recitals like clockwork each November and May, their current teacher has no studio recitals at all.  Instead we do a sort of 'a la carte' version by participating in school wide recitals (which also means there is a variety of instruments, which is fun).  Typically kids will choose songs that they have played for quite awhile for these, so they will be really polished.  Solomon and Nova each chose an old favorite--Witches' Dance by Paganini for Nova, and Gavotte by Becker for Solomon.  

We made good use of happy hour at Kindee, a Thai fusion restaurant down the street.  We tried a little of everything, making a meal of many appetizers.  Charlotte was very fond of the calamari until she found one that looked like what it was.  The cranberry cream cheese puffs and tempura green beans were favorites.  Ariadne was all about the sauce.   It was fun to take the kids out to a fancy restaurant, and we had the place ourselves for most of our meal.

The kids did very well performing.  Nova whipped right through her song and was all smiles at the end.  Solomon started off beautifully, just like he had played it umpteen times already that day--and then encountered his first case of stage fright.  It had to happen sometime, I suppose.  He found a good spot to jump back into the song and finished admirably.  Though he was less than happy about the way it went, I think it was a valuable experience.  Resiliency is an important trait that you can't build up without a few mistakes. 

Little sisters like the stage too!

21st Century Suzuki Music Practice (but really this post is about the importance of VISUALIZING PROGRESS)

 

The Suzuki method-or Talent Education as Shinichi Suzuki referred to it--got started about a lifetime ago, right before World War II in Japan.  Dr Suzuki grew up in a wealthy family that ran a violin factory.  They had switched from making more traditional Japanese instruments.  Suzuki recalled using unfinished violins as baseball bats as a boy.  Then he heard one played and everything changed.

Suzuki ended up going to Europe as a young man to further his studies of the instrument.  He was friends with Einstein, and studied violin with the foremost musicians of the day.  When he returned to Japan he had an epiphany.  All children learned their own languages effortlessly.  Even dialects that were considered very difficult for outsiders, like the Osaka dialect, were mastered young children who grew up surrounded by their sounds.  Suzuki applied that same notion to music, teaching violin to very young children, calling it talent education.  The Suzuki method was introduced to the United States in the 1960s.

Technologically speaking, a lot has changed since then.  Even since the 1970s and 1980s, when many present day Suzuki teachers who were themselves Suzuki students learned, technology has covered a lot of ground.

So today, I take notes on a computer, record new skills or special practice spots on my smart phone, and look up famous performers on YouTube for inspiration.  My iTunes is full of play lists that say things like 'Winter Listening 2014.'  I can search all Gavottes and do a little 'name that Gavotte' game in seconds.  I use an online tuner nearly every day.

But as we embark on Suzuki with our third child, I've found that some of the most important tools are really nothing new at all.  VISUALIZING PROGRESS is huge.  When our first two were starting out, we were resistant to sticker charts and rewards, having read studies on the dangers of extrinsic reward systems.  I now look back on that as young (and foolish) parent idealism.

This winter when Charlotte was working on getting through all the bowing of the many variations of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', nothing motivated her like a monkey chain.  For every section of the song, she got to add a monkey, and that was more than enough motivation for her--for more than a week!  It did not undermine her desire to play music, not at all.  In fact, it provided valuable feedback, letting her know how much she had accomplished and giving her an idea of how much was left to go.