Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Mckinleys first violin lesson




I taught Mckinley her first violin lesson on Monday. Don't get me wrong! I do know that my daughter is a three year old. I'm really not the type of mother who forces her child into doing things like playing the violin when she is three. However, Mckinley has been very interested for quite a while, and the other night she said she wanted to come to orchestra with me to play her "biolin."
We had to special order new strings for her violin because it is so tiny. (It's a 1/10 size violin.) But she has been so excited to see her violin and practice the little things I've taught her. I actually don't teach Suzuki method violin, and really have no idea how I'm going to teach her because she is so young, so if anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.
I have taught very young students in the past, and found that it is really so challenging and takes so much patience, especially if the child does not know how to read. Although, it is also very fun because children are actually very eager to learn new things at this age. Her first lesson was really funny because I wanted her to be practicing things with her bow hand, while she wanted to be playing "music." You can tell by the pictures who won the argument. (Her bow hand is totally incorrect.) But that's ok. We have plenty of time to practice, practice, practice.

"Some say you should practice until you get it right, but the ones who know, say you should practice until you can't get it wrong."
-- Marjorie Bagley, Arcata String Quartet.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow the memories are really flooding back! Is that my old violin? Oh Abby! You really should look into some Suzuki Methods, but make sure that you compliment those teachings with reading and writing music. She needs both good ear training and good music reading skills to be good. Cute, cute, cute!

Amber said...

Oh my goodness she looks SO CUTE!!!

Eric and Brandi said...

I love that she wants to learn to play. So cute!!! I only hope I can be as good as you are with your daughter and that I can become as smart in my music as you are in yours to teach my children one day. Good luck and as Jackie always said practice, practice, practice!!!