You know those fantasy books where the protagonist learns a new skill in, like, one week and is suddenly better than everyone else in the entire world?

I want to read the book where the protag needs to learn the skill in no time flat, and so gets stuck doing endless technical drills for six to eight hours a day, and feels like their very soul is being sucked from their body. That would be realistic. #MusicLessons

I confused a student today while using The Hobbit as a metaphor for sonata form. Not because she hadn’t read the story (she had), and not because the metaphor doesn’t make sense (it’s there and back again, and Mirkwood & Smaug are in the development 🤷‍♀️), but because I kept referring to “Bilbo” and she only remembered the “Baggins” part of his name. 😂 #MusicLessons #SonataForm #Violin

Hanging out in instrument-specific forums, I see a lot of young violinists & violists asking basic questions that they should be asking their teachers. I’ve been feeling a bit judgy about that, but today it’s occurring to me… what if they don’t feel free coming to their teacher with that question? What am I doing to create space in my studio for students to feel like they can ask whatever they want to ask? #MusicLessons #ViolinLessons #ViolinTeacher

Working with ADHD string students 2/?

One of those cues is how willing the student is to be redirected to the task at hand. If they’re happy to refocus on what we’re trying to work on together, then they’re doing their best to engage, even if they go “Squirrel!!!!” 0.5 seconds later.

#ViolinTeacher #MusicLessons

I’ve been thinking about how I teach my ADHD students. 🧵

On days when they are having trouble focusing, I do try to distinguish between when they really are trying their best and their brain is simply not cooperating, and when they are goofing off and not trying. I do this pretty instinctively, but I realized yesterday that it might help to slow down & think about what cues my instincts are picking up.

1/?

#ViolinTeacher #MusicLessons

A student is working on memorizing the first movement of a Haydn violin concerto. Here are her flash cards, so she can practice different sections of the piece out of order. I suggested this idea to her, and they turned out so great and she really likes using them! #Violin #ViolinTeacher #MusicLessons #AmPracticing

A student is working on memorizing the first movement of a Haydn violin concerto. Here are her flash cards, so she can practice different sections of the piece out of order. I suggested this idea to her, and they turned out so great and she really likes using them! #Violin #ViolinTeacher #MusicLessons #AmPracticing

The Bulletproof Musician is so consistently helpful! #violin #ViolinTeacher #MusicLessons https://bulletproofmusician.com/19-things-that-great-teachers-do-insights-from-the-approaches-of-three-renowned-artist-teachers/

I'm not going to lie, the FACE and Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge mnemonics for reading treble clef drive me NUTS! Why? Because they obscure the fact that the staff is simply the musical alphabet.

Learning the mnemonics doesn't help students expand the alphabet up and down ledger lines or into different clef signature. #EarlyMorningMusicRant #ViolinTeacher #MusicLessons

Last app for the day: the IMSLP app. How is this app free??? I don’t even know! Not only does it provide an easy place to search, download, and store any of the hundreds of thousands of out-of-copyright music PDFs available from the IMSLP website, it also allows you to easily upload and organize your own music in any number of ways. Annotating, combining in folders, adding to set lists… seriously, I don’t know how this app is free. #ViolinTeaching #MusicLessons #Violin

The next app isn’t even music-specific, but my young students love it!! It’s the Decide Now app, with a wheel to spin to randomize results. I’ve created several wheels specifically for music, and my Suzuki book 1 kiddos love spinning the wheel to see what song they’re going to review in their lessons! I have another wheel set up for the pitch clock, to randomize keys for advanced scale review for older students. #ViolinTeaching #MusicLessons #Violin

https://decidenow-app.com/

Next app is also a metronome app: Time Guru. I refer to this as the Evil Metronome app, and it fills one crucial niche that TE doesn’t provide: it has the ability to randomly silence some of the beats! You can choose what percentage get silenced, and whether that’s gradual or right away! #ViolinTeaching #MusicLessons #Violin

Ok, I’ve been meaning to make a list of my favorite apps to use while teaching. Let’s do this!

I feel like all pros know this one, but it’s so excellent & versatile: the Tonal Energy tuner & metronome.

Things I love: the visualizer helps students understand cents in their pitches, so they start to get that pitch is not as simple as “I’m playing this note or I’m playing that note.” Also the metronome settings are so flexible. #ViolinTeaching #MusicLessons

Shared the Maud Powell recording of Dvorak’s Humoresque with a student. I’m never sure if they’re going to like it or think it’s super weird because of the style and the ambient sound of the recording equipment. #violin #ViolinLessons #MusicLessons https://youtu.be/fXNhfEhzMgc

Teaching elementary kids is a hoot.

Comment from student yesterday: “Remember when I was younger and Etude was so hard for me?”

Me: flips through their assignment notebook to see when they finished Etude. It was July.

💀💀💀

#Violin #ViolinLessons #MusicLessons

Lord save me from know-it-all freshman music majors in TikTok comment sections. I’m reading this one’s comment screed on “how to use a metronome,” and sobbing into my tea in sympathy for their studio teacher. #MusicLessons #MusicTeacher

Happy things: my student pointing to a pic of Florence Price on one of my books: “That’s Florence Price!”

It’s a small victory, but at least one of my students can recognize on sight an important composer who isn’t a white male. We’ll take the win for today! #MusicLessons #Violin #ViolinLessons

🤬🤬🤬 Motherforking violin shop… you know PERFECTLY WELL that no violinist buying a step-up instrument should be purchasing it the day they try it out!!! You KNOW I want to check over my students’ prospective instruments before they purchase them. And yet you STILL let one of my students walk out of your shop without telling them they could take it out on approval or that they SHOULD have their teacher see it before they make a purchase!!! #violin #ViolinLessons #MusicLessons

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

For the love of Corelli, children, PRACTICE!!! I teach you good practice strategies—you can usually fool me into thinking you’ve done a good week’s worth of practice with just two or three sessions. But for the love of the great clef of treble, just PLEASE take your instrument out of its case.

#violin #MusicLessons #TeacherRants

Things I yell at violin lessons that make *no* sense out of context:

“Get to the frog!! Get to the frog!! Get to the FROG!!!”

#violin #MusicLessons