We started our Fall Semester on September 3rd, and this school year is already off to a busy start! Each student got to start off the semester with a sweet treat, made by my mother (and I helped)!
We have some exciting things planned for this month, including a trip on the 28th to the Grand Rapids Symphony where students will be able to participate in a “Play-In” in the lobby before the concert. This concert is especially fitting for my students to see as it’s titled “For the Love of Violin”!
Each of my students is also starting out the Fall Semester with one month of reviewing their old songs. Once everyone is done with their review songs, then each student gets to pick a prize out of my prize box! A key component of the Suzuki method is reviewing a unified repertoire and playing with others, and we are able to do that in group lessons and with lesson overlaps!
I’m looking forward to all of the opportunities this semester has in store for us!
I was so thrilled for my students to have an opportunity to play music outside of the Suzuki repertoire and to do so in such a casual setting. Before now, my students had only had recitals to perform at. My goal for the next school year is to increase the number of fun performance opportunities for my students so they aren’t all high-pressure situations like a recital.
Dr. B and I played duets for about an hour, and then we had our students play 6 group songs: Twinkle Variation A, Carnival in Rio and Bow River Fiddling from Magic Carpet Violin, Cabbages and Swallowtail Jig from Wee Violin, and Old MacDonald.
We are so thankful to the Ada Village Farmers Market for hosting us and can’t wait to go back next year!
Last month, we enjoyed lovely performances from nearly every one of my students. I am so humbled by the growth my studio has shown in the past three years. At my first recital, I had 13 kids perform. I had nearly 30 perform this time!
Since we have grown so much, we had to find a new venue for our recital this year. Thank you very much to St. John’s United Church of Christ for hosting us!
We had solos, duets, a trio, and even a quartet! I am so proud of the hard work everyone put into their performances. We were accompanied once again by the skilled Noah Seim and I even tried my hand at accompanying as well! Grand Rapids area teachers should consider hiring Noah for their recitals – he is fantastic at accompanying young students.
At every recital, my students start with the first variation of Twinkle. Everyone gets to play as a group regardless of how young or old they are. One of my students’ parents got a great picture of us playing twinkle, but there were so many of us that not everyone is pictured!
This year I started including Pre-Twinklers in performances. At the start of the show, we sang the Rest Position Song and “played” Pop Goes the Weasel. Later in the program, all of my Pre-Twinklers played an open string duet with me from the books Wee Violin and Magic Carpet Violin.
Towards the end of the program, my more advanced students played some ensemble music.
And now with the recital behind us, we are well into the summer. I’m enjoying slower days and sunny weather, while also looking forward to getting back into the swing of things next year!
What a year it’s been! I’m so thankful for all of the opportunities I’ve had this past year and it makes me feel very fortunate to look back on what I’ve been able to do. When we are caught up in the grind and just getting by day to day, it can be hard to remember how much we have accomplished. I encourage everyone to do a yearly reflection and give yourself some credit for your hard work too!
Below are just 5 (of many!!) highlights from this past year.
I performed at 26 wedding ceremonies.
I originally started the year with a limit of 24 weddings. After the whirlwind that was 2021, I felt that I needed to limit the amount of weddings I was doing for my own sanity and for the quality of my performances. I ended up adding on 2 more, but am proud of myself for sticking so close to the original number I gave myself! A lot of planning goes into each wedding, so limiting them ensures that I am consistently providing my best work.
I started the year with 15 students and ended it with 27.
This is especially crazy, because my goal was 20! I am finally at a point where I don’t need to rely on gigs to supplement my teaching income. The constant plugging myself and posting on wedding sites appear to be in my rearview mirror- and hopefully I can keep it that way!
I recorded an album!
Albeit small (only about 30 minutes of music), my string quartet worked very hard and hired a sound engineer (Chris Avison at McBride Studio) to record music for my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary. They have exclusive access to the full album, but you can listen to clips on my About Page.
I Completed Book 2 Training.
It seems so long ago that it wasn’t even part of this year, but in February of this year I completed my Book 2 training with Jenna Potts. It was a very thorough class and I learned so much about teaching and Dr. Suzuki’s philosophy. I’m really looking forward to continuing my education in the Suzuki Program!
I held my first studio recital!
Words cannot express just how much pride I felt when I watched my students, aged 5-adult perform songs that they had worked so hard to prepare. My heart was bursting to see even my most nervous students perform so well. Each student put in so much work and the reward was a beautiful performance.
I’m looking forward to using these experiences to help me grow in 2023!
I had my first ever student recital. We started the event off with a group rendition of Twinkle Variation A, then 13 of my students gave beautiful performances. All of them played so well, and it’s so impressive to think that about half of them couldn’t even play the violin this time last year!
My grandma played the piano for 13 of the 14 who performed (one played solo). She also was great! I am so thankful to her for sharing her skill with us and helping make the day special. She committed lots of time to rehearsing, as each of my students got to rehearse with her in a lesson, at a dress rehearsal, and at my June group lesson.
Thank you also to Davin with Sound Check at Lowell United Methodist Church for allowing us to use this space. It was the perfect size for us!!
Buddy & Bean Flower Farm put together a beautiful arrangement to honor my grandma, and I really recommend her work !
I can’t forget my mom, who made cookies and fruit kebabs for everyone!!
And lastly thank you to my students and their families!!! I am so proud of everyone who performed and I am so happy with how far you all have come. Happy Summer!!
Did you know that violins come in multiple different sizes? It’s true! While most adults play on full size violins, there are 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/10, and even 1/16 size violins for children. Whether your child is 3, 7, 14, or even if you’re an adult student yourself, getting the right size violin is crucial to learning the instrument. For children who need a fractional sized instrument, getting them the right size violin will allow them to handle the violin much better than they would with a violin that is too big.
Won’t my child grow into a full size violin?
While, yes, your child will very likely grow into a full size instrument, there are several reasons why this logic will end up hurting them in the long run. First, when I say “hurt”, I partly mean that quite literally and physically. Holding the violin is not natural – meaning no other time in life are you likely to hold up your left arm over to the side of you in the way you would to hold a violin. Even without an instrument to hold up, your arm is probably going to get tired after a few minutes of holding it up if you’ve never done this before! Violins seem like such little things, but they’re heavy when you hold one for extended periods of time. If your body hasn’t developed the necessary muscles and endurance to comfortably hold a violin for extended periods of time, we risk injuring the student by overusing the muscle. The smaller the violin, the lighter it is. If your child has the benefit of being able to start on a smaller size instrument, you will be doing them a favor as they will be able to develop their muscles slowly over time rather than rapidly putting stress on them.
Second, a smaller child is set up for failure if their instrument is too big to handle. We need to be able to move around freely on the fingerboard in order to play the instrument. There is a lot of work in the first year (and many times longer) with posture (holding the instrument correctly). The most common thing I see when a child has an instrument that is too big for them is that they’re not able to hold it properly. They need to have a straight left wrist in order to comfortably access every note on the fingerboard. If they’re struggling to reach the top of the neck of the instrument in the first place, they don’t have a chance of keeping that wrist straight. This will cause (on top of constant nagging from their teacher) them to play out of tune, making it extremely difficult for them to develop their ears. Playing in tune is a challenge when everything is set up right – it’s near impossible if the student also has other factors working against them.
All of this is sure to frustrate the student, and in my experience, they will be more frustrated than they will have fun. They will hurt, their teacher will be nagging them constantly about their posture, and they won’t be able to make a nice sound with their instrument. No child wants to fail. Having an instrument that is too big for your child will likely result in them losing interest.
Buying multiple instruments for my child as they grow sounds expensive.
I have great news! In a lot of areas, you can rent string instruments. When your child outgrows theirs, you turn in the violin for a bigger one. I recommend renting your first instrument to everyone, even if they’re an adult student who will be starting on a full size instrument to begin with. Here’s why: how many times have you or your kid been ALL about something, totally invested, can’t get enough… just to lose interest in a few months? I love the violin, but I’m not foolish enough to believe that it’s for everyone. It’s a rewarding, but very challenging, skill. To put it bluntly: the violin is too hard to enjoy if you just “kinda” like it. Renting an instrument is a smart option financially if you’re unsure of the commitment.
In Grand Rapids we’re lucky to have Meyer Music – your one stop shop for getting sized, renting, and helping with repairs for your instrument. If you go during normal business hours during the week, they’ll even change a broken string for you while you wait. All included in the rental fee! If recommend Meyer Music to all of my new students. If you’re not in the Grand Rapids area, Shar Music does online rentals. Even though they’re based out of Ann Arbor, they will ship you a rental instrument. They’ll help guide you through the process of measuring your child to see which size violin is right for them as well.
I would love to hear from you! Let me know what your thoughts are about this below!
I’ve thought about starting a blog for some time now, but I’ve gone back and forth about what I wanted the first post to be. It seemed so complicated and I felt a lot of pressure to make it amazing, but honestly, I don’t want this to be complicated. There’s a lot of things in this business that are complicated and this doesn’t have to be one of them. So I thought the best first blog post would be about the very thing that inspires me to keep playing my instrument the most: my students.
Dear Students,
Teaching you has changed the way I look at music. I love when you are excited to play, because it makes me excited to play too. When I see you struggle, my day is brighter after we work to help you succeed . You come to me each week with different experiences, moods, and personalities and that helps me grow. When you tell me your ideas, I become a deeper musician. Each lesson is a new experience and I love sharing what has greatly influenced who I am with you. As I watch your life be shaped by music, you shape my life in return. I know you come to me to learn, but in reality, I learn from you.
My bond with you is special. It’s not that of a friend, or a parent, but as a mentor to teach you what I have learned from my mentors and my own experiences. I care about what happens to you outside of our lessons, and I know you share things with me that you may not share with others. I listen to you and I take these things home with me. Sometimes that makes my job hard, but I consider myself lucky to have your trust and I don’t take that for granted.
My hope for you is not to go on and become the next Julia Fischer or Joshua Bell. Don’t misunderstand this: I want you to be inspired. Instead, I want to help you do what makes you the happiest. If that means being a professional athlete, I will teach you discipline. If you want to pursue a business degree and become an entrepreneur, I will teach you time management. If you want to care for others, I will teach you compassion. Should you decide you want to pursue music, I will do everything I can to give you the tools you need. My hope for you is that you leave my lessons with the confidence to tackle any task you face and the self-compassion to let yourself fail. And when you do fail, as all of us do, I hope I will have taught you that you have the courage to get back up and try again when you’re ready. If I can teach you these things, then I will have given back half of what you have given me.
She committed lots of time to rehearsing, as each of my students got to rehearse with her in a lesson, at a dress rehearsal, and at my June group lesson. 
!
