Some Design Work

It's not amazing, but it's been fun to do. They're graphically-appealing, consistent teaching tools for music lessons.  Feel free to print them off and use them with your students if you like them well enough! Just right click on the image, select "open link in new tab", and print off through your browser. :)

1. Beat Division Worksheet (Level One)

In Suzuki method, beginner students are taught correct time using phrases, punctuated with a rhythm as you say it.  For those of you who are musically inclined, you can understand an example of this by saying "Mississippi Hot Dog" to the rhythm of four sixteenth notes and two eighth notes.  This method is enacted because counting them properly involves some math and comprehension that most children who do Suzuki method are too young to understand.  So, the counting patterns are taught in word rhythms. As a musician, I would rather start the child later, when they can understand the universal method of counting rhythms as early in their musical development as possible, than start them so very young, and not teach it till they have been playing for three to five years as the Suzuki method does.

Anyway, this worksheet is intended to go along with Suzuki book 1 or any elementary instrument course as a  fun way to teach basic beat divisions without word patterns.  Simply have your student draw a line from the symbol to the name, and then to the proper method of counting it.  Numbers in parentheses indicate rest counting, as I count rests in whispers and notes at normal volume.

2. Beat Division Worksheet (Level Two)

Like the other, this is a worksheet to speak to proper counting of rhythms. Unlike the other, it involves more complex rhythms such as triplets and dotted rhythms.  Your student will, no doubt encounter dotted rhythms before triplets and fairly close on the heels of the basic rhythms above, but this worksheet drills beat divisions of one and three, while still maintaining knowledge of the "twos".

3. Violin Anatomy Study Page and Testing Guide

While the other pages speak to really any instrument, obviously this page is really only helpful to those of us teaching violin.  I recommend printing this off as a kind of poster for your student (or child) to see frequently, learning the various parts of the instrument.  This will help them communicate better with the teacher.  I also recommend having the parent or an older friend of the student test the student on it throughout the week, so when he/she goes to lessons the next time, the teacher can do the same, and the child will get a perfect score! It will also help the parent understand the teacher's recommendations regarding the instrument (i.e. the teacher recommends the bridge be replaced, and the parent knows exactly what he/she is talking about.).

Well, that's the fun stuff I've been doing recently!  I hope someone will enjoy it! There may be more later, though, so stay tuned for other things.

The Violinist's Vacuum

Yes, you read that right.  This is what happens when you start teaching something.  Things start popping up as pedagogy tools all over the place.

When you're teaching violin, pencils are used to teach proper bow technique, balls are placed to help keep the correct distance between your palm and the neck of your instrument, and popsicle sticks with Velcro straps force a beginner student to keep the right wrist position.  But I'm guessing that few teachers implement vacuums.  While my student cannot afford such an expensive pedagogical tool, I delight in sharing with you the ideal vacuum for instructing your violin pupil in proper bow hand fluidity.

The "Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Vacuum - Model NV356".

Now.  Why is it that I would highly recommend this vacuum to violinists of all ages and abilities?  Because of its swivel head feature.

This vacuum is steered by rotating the handle.  This means (drumroll, please) that you can vacuum your room simply by turning the wrist.  You can turn it the way you turn most vacuums, too, but for violinists, the ability to rotate your wrist independent of your elbow and shoulder is crucial to good form.  Another plus is that it also puts little to no strain on the muscles between your individual arm joints (shoulder to elbow, elbow to wrist).

Violinists, particularly fiddlers, need their arms to be as relaxed as possible in playing.  Training one's arm to remain in a root position from the shoulder to elbow allows the elbow and wrist to do their thing.  One thing, perhaps the thing, that violinists need to look out for is tightness in their joints, and the absence of fluid motion.  Tight muscles lead to fatigue, and even bad circulation by cutting of blood supply.  This vacuum, if used with its swivel head feature, would help fiddlers and classical players alike reinforce that circular wrist action so necessary for good form--in a common, everyday, extra-practicing section of our time.  And for those of my readers who don't play this awesome instrument, I would say two things:

- Number One -
Consider picking it up.  Hah!  You probably felt that coming.

- Number Two -

I would still get this vacuum.  The swivel head feature reduces strain on the joints and muscles that everyone could benefit from.  Relaxed form is crucial not just to musicians but all people who want to live an ache-free life.

Yes.  *sigh*.  Who knew musicians and vacuuming could be such good buddies? ♥