Grace Notes: Brief Tips for Suzuki Teachers
by Diana Galindo, Heather Watson Hardie, Jane Kutscher Reed, Jessica Meyer, Alicia Randisi-Hooker
August 15, 2011 / ASJ 39.4 / Topics: Grace Notes, Performance, Practicing, Teachers, Teens, Tone
This new column will feature a variety of brief tips for Suzuki teachers. To submit your own tip of 150 or fewer words, please email [javascript protected email address] with “Grace Notes” in the subject line.
The following tips were presented during the session “Great Ideas for Your Studio: Mini-Presentations” at the 9th SAA Leadership Retreat in May 2011.
Correct posture is a key element of playing with ease and producing a beautiful tone. At the first lesson, after you have shown the child and parent the best posture, ask them to take a picture of the student during home practice and bring it to the second lesson. My students come through the door proudly carrying their pictures. The teacher can assess whether the concept of posture was understood. As a piano teacher, this is helpful, because parents often have trouble with the foot stools and cushions.
–Jane Kutscher Reed, Suzuki Piano Teacher and Teacher Trainer
Have fun together! The studio that plays together stays together. Attend a concert or institute together or meet up at a pizza parlor one night. Have group class parties and celebrations. These can be rewards for meeting goals or just because. If the kids develop a rapport, they never want to quit (this goes double for the parents).
–Heather Watson Hardie, Suzuki Cello Teacher, Director, Greenwich Suzuki Academy
For those students ready to practice on their own, we do a teen night seminar and dinner on how to practice where each student prepares and demonstrates a different practice strategy from The Piano Student’s Guide to Effective Practice by Nancy O’Neill Breth.
–Diana Galindo, Suzuki Piano Teacher and Teacher Trainer
On transitions from parent-driven practice to independent practice: I have found that if I work thoroughly to involve students in the process of practicing beginning at about age nine, the transition to practice on their own develops much more smoothly. I have drawn from a life-long study of practicing, through reading many books and taking courses, to formulate a system of practice charts, strategies and record keeping which helps students make the transition to ownership of their progress as cellists. Through the use of these materials, parents and students learn to define what practice is, set goals and keep records that allow them to chart their progress. Parents learn how to practice first, then we together work with the student to efficiently use the materials. Gradually, the student is able to assess his or her own readiness for independent practice.
–Alicia Randisi-Hooker, Suzuki Cello Teacher, Director, CelloLeap Studio
I encourage my students to attend my performances and give them a listening guide to direct their attention to specific aspects of the music. Examples of questions are, “Do you feel like this is more of a song or dance? Why? I hear the middle part as a crying song. Can you hear that when I play?” Or “Listen to the piano. What is it saying to the violin? Is it agreeing or arguing?” By asking specific questions, I share my thought process in performance preparation. I also hopefully plant a musical seed in each student to further develop artistry.
–Jessica Meyer, Suzuki Violin Teacher, The Hartt School Community Division, Founding Member of the West End String Quartet
Diana Galindo has garnered international recognition as a pianist, singer and master teacher in 4 continents. She has appeared in numerous piano and vocal performances in Australia, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Puerto Rico and Peru. Since receiving a B.Music in Piano Performance and a minor in Voice from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Ms. Galindo has been a featured presenter at conferences world-wide. Principal piano teachers include Andrew Mihalso, Paul Parmelee and master class instruction with Larry Graham. She continued graduate studies with Miquel Farré of Barcelona. At the local level, as well as in International competition, she generates gold medal student winners in piano. She was elected to the National Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and was the SAA Piano Conference Coordinator in 2002 in Minneapolis. A former faculty member of Northern Arizona University as Instructor in Piano, Galindo currently teaches through her studio in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Send a message to Diana Galindo
Heather Watson Hardie is the director and founder of the Greenwich Suzuki Academy, a private Suzuki music school founded in 2004. GSA has developed into a thriving program with more than 120 students and nine highly trained Suzuki faculty teaching five different instruments. Heather has been a Suzuki cello teacher since 1998 and maintains a private teaching studio of more than 20 students. She is married to Dr. Nicholas Hardie, a fabulous partner in life and cello pedagogy. Heather has an MA in cello performance and Suzuki pedagogy from New York University and a BM in cello performance from Baylor University. Her primary cello teachers were Dr. Gary Hardie and Marion Feldman. She has completed Suzuki training with Pamela Devenport, Carol Tarr, Jean Dexter, Irene Sharp, David Evenchick, and Carey Cheney, registering Books 1A-10. She has also been greatly influenced by her late mother, Claudia Watson, and her mother-in-law, Dr. Julia Hardie.
Send a message to Heather Watson Hardie
Jane Kutscher Reed is a Suzuki Piano teacher from Taylors, SC. She earned her degree in Piano Performance from the University of Findlay, in OH. In addition to her private studio she is a Suzuki Teacher Trainer, an ECC instructor, and teaches at workshops and institutes throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Bermuda. Jane also offers seminars in Suzuki parent education, the art of teaching, music reading games, and presents motivational lectures. Mrs. Reed is a facilitator for the internationally recognized Love and Logic Parenting Curriculum. Through her business, InsightEdventures, she offers seminars which develop positive parenting habits.
Send a message to Jane Kutscher Reed
Jessica Meyer, violinist, has performed throughout Europe and the Americas. Highlights of Ms. Meyer’s career include performing with Musica Las Marinas in Brasil, collaborating with the Orquesta Sinfonica de la Toluca, in Mexico and soloing with a chamber orchestra at the Hartt School of Music. Currently an active performer in the Hartford area, Ms. Meyer is a founding member of the West End String Quartet, a group that strives to bring new and uncommon repertoire to their concerts pairing them with traditional works. Ms. Meyer also performs with the Springfield, Hartford, and New Haven symphony orchestras as well as with Infinitango, a Hartford based tango ensemble. Ms. Meyer is a registered Suzuki violin teacher and chamber music coach at the University of Hartford and Wesleyan University. She coached the string trio awarded first prize in the 2011 Rayburn Chamber Music Competition. Ms. Meyer received her MM at the University of Hartford in violin performance with an emphasis on Suzuki pedagogy and her BM from Texas Christian University. Her primary teachers include Burton Kaplan, Katie Lansdale, Curt Thompson, Delmar Pettys and Stephanie Arado.
Send a message to Jessica Meyer
Alicia Randisi-Hooker has been an active cellist and Suzuki teacher for more than 25 years. She completed long term Suzuki training through Book 10 with Annette Costanzi (UK), and has taken many additional units of teacher training at the and in addition to the first practicum ever offered at the Ithaca Suzuki Institute. She has served as ensembles coordinator at the 2004 SAA conference in Minneapolis and as president of the Greater Knoxville Suzuki String Association. Alicia has enjoyed teaching at several SAA Institutes and many workshops and summer programs around the US, and is a supporter and faculty member at the annual Tennessee Cello Workshop. She has been the Artistic Director at the Academy of Children’s Music in suburban Philadelphia, and has maintained private studios in Pennsylvania and Texas, prior to moving to Tennessee, where she maintains a studio called CelloLeap. A veteran of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and many others, she is also president of the Tuesday Morning Music Club and is soon beginning a venture to promote the serious performance of chamber music in her region. She resides with her husband, a neurologist, their two cats, and is the proud mother of two wonderful young adults.
Send a message to Alicia Randisi-Hooker
