I clean a lot of little violins. Our rental program goes down as small as 1/32, and there are six more sizes between that and a full. Every time one comes back to me, either as a return or an exchange for the next size up, I go over the whole thing and touch up any dings and fix anything that needs fixing and give the whole instrument a good cleaning so it's ready for the next person.
Now, on the smaller instruments in particular I've had this recurring problem with stains on the front of the violins. They are always on the treble (right) side on the lower bout, and they run diagonally across the instrument. It looks like someone spilled pop or water on the varnish, and it's hard to remove. It has puzzled me for the longest time because I don't know how or why anyone would be drinking anything while holding their violin, and it happens more often than made sense.
But I finally figured it out.
I was helping Mona practice today. She's working on the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and the bowings in it are a bit complicated. Mona wants my help but doesn't listen. It can get very frustrating for both of us sometimes when the music is hard and she's struggling. On her third time through when I corrected her again about the same spot where she kept getting it wrong, a large tear rolled down her cheek and plopped onto her violin. Onto the front, treble side, lower bout, and it slid diagonally off the edge of the violin.
Those stains are tears. And they don't polish out easily.
My own space apart from the babble of the internet
Showing posts with label practicing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label practicing. Show all posts
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Random Parenting Things That May or May Not Have Helped (Babble)
When I was pregnant for the first time I got a lot of advice, most of
it welcome, some of it weird. One friend who gave birth to her first
child six months before I did gave me a book she read that she credited
with helping get her daughter to sleep through the night at three or
four months old. I appreciated the thought greatly, and my friend is
one of the more graceful and inspiring mothers I’ve ever met, but I read
the book and disagreed with it. I did the opposite of what it said,
and my daughter was sleeping through the night at three or four months.
The main thing I learned from that experience is that it can be very hard to tell what works. Parenting habits, particularly when dealing with the mysteries of a baby, develop a lot like superstitions. There are a lot of healthy well-adjusted babies who would probably sleep through the night at three months as long as you weren’t doing something ridiculous. (And for those of you with kids who never sleep through the night, I have great sympathy and I’m not for a moment suggesting you are doing something wrong, I’m just describing my own situation.)
If the night your kid finally sleeps happens to coincide with the same day he or she had rice cereal for the first time, you might be inclined to think that had something to do with it. Or if you tried a white noise machine, or swaddled the baby differently, or stood on your head next to the crib all night. Who knows? Babies change so fast it’s very hard to pin down causation for many behaviors. But we want to feel like we understand as much of it as possible, and human beings instinctively look for patterns, so often when I hear parents swear by things that worked with their babies I always remain a little skeptical. All of my babies slept through the night at three or four months. Lucky me I think they were all wired that way. I don’t take credit for it, only for managing to not get in the way of it.
My children are not perfect by any stretch. Aden is always negotiating everything and it’s exhausting. Mona has no volume control. When Quinn is tired he will look for any excuse to be upset so he can run from the room screaming and put himself to bed and have it somehow be my fault. (Once my offense was to ask him if he wanted a spoon so he could eat his soup, and he looked at me, lower lip trembling, and finally burst out with, “How could you ask me about the spoon!?!? before he ran up the stairs and passed out on my pillow.) They don’t know how to separate when they get on each other’s nerves. They leave the back door wide open and then whine to me about the bugs that got into the house. They leave their shoes everywhere. But honestly, they are WAY better than I was as a kid, so I know better than to complain. I get many compliments on my children out in public because they are generally cheerful and polite and kind to other people.
So I’d like to believe I’ve done something right. But what? I have no idea. For the most part my parenting philosophy is to keep my kids relatively safe and healthy, provide them with lots of opportunities to learn about the world, love them, and otherwise stay out of their way. They will teach me who they are. I can let them know I expect certain things, like respectful behavior, but I don’t feel it’s my place to mold them in any significant way. As a result when people ask what techniques I may have employed to achieve certain outcomes, I usually come up blank.
And the truth is, I only know how to parent my own kids. I can’t even parent Aden the same way I do Mona because they are very different people. I have doubts that whatever may have worked with them might translate to another kid, but maybe it could. So here are some things we’ve tried. Some of them may have worked, and some may have been coincidence. Here are some random child rearing stories in areas where we seem to have done okay, offered up for your consideration or amusement, and if they help, I’m glad.
Sharing: When Aden was a baby we used to hand her things, take them away, and give them right back. We wanted her to develop a sense of not being in a panic when something was taken away, because its absence was temporary. We have always explained sharing to our kids to mean that “You get it back.” Each of our children is entitled to one or two things that they do not have to share, just like there are things their dad and I have that they can’t touch. Aden will still, on occasion, share her precious pink bunny with her brother if he needs cheering up, or with a visiting child if she believes it will improve a situation, but I think it helps her to know she doesn’t have to. We have very few issues with sharing in our house (or anywhere). On the rare occasions where the kids are bickering over some object, I declare it’s mine and I get to keep it until they can work something out amongst themselves. (I’m amazed how often they look relieved and let me just keep it.)
Sleeping: When all our kids were babies we made noise during the day. I did not want to have to tiptoe around during nap time, so all my kids learned to sleep with the bandsaw running or the radio on or us walking around doing what we needed to do. The only problems we’ve ever had with naps were related to the unfortunate timing of school pickups, etc., and we never found a good solution to that. For sleeping at night, I used to feel pretty strongly that kids should sleep in their own beds. We had a co-sleeper for all of our kids as babies, and somewhere between three and six months we’d move them to a crib in the next room most nights. I never let my kids cry in their crib because I didn’t want them to associate it with any negative feelings. (My kids only really cried if something was wrong, anyway, so to have ignored it would have been a very bad idea.)
All of them moved to real beds at around eighteen months. (We’d start with just the mattress on the floor, then in a couple of months put it up on a frame with a rail.) All of my kids share a room and have learned to block each other out in order to sleep. Recently Aden was unhappy that Mona kept turning on the light after I put them to bed, but when I talked to Mona about it, it turned out she just wanted to draw on her magnadoodle before going to sleep. I lent her a small headlamp for awhile and that helped, and then a few weeks ago I actually discovered a magnadoodle that comes with a little flip up light! Now she uses that and Aden can roll over in the dark and go to sleep. But for the most part, they prefer to sleep in the same room, and sometimes they even have sleepovers in each other’s beds. If something happens in the night and they come to my bed to cuddle, they nearly always go back to their own beds on their own before the night is over. They like their beds.
The glaring exception to all of this is Quinn, but he’s spent so much of his life with his dad deployed it makes it hard to know what to do with him. There was a stretch between eighteen months and about two and a half years old where he slept in his own big kid bed, but then Ian left and we moved and blah blah blah, so now the kid’s a nomad. I ask him each night where he wants to go, and his sisters are nice about making room for him in one of their beds if he wants to crawl in with them. I suppose we could put our foot down about making him use the bunk bed he picked out at Ikea, but frankly I don’t care. I think it will sort itself out soon enough.
Bedtime: When Aden was two we used to have issues with her wanting to get up after we put her to bed. We had a couple of strategies for this. The first was, if possible, we all went to bed at the same time. Then when Ian and I were sure she was out (usually about half an hour later), we’d get back up and have grown up time for a little while. The only problem with that was often we were so tired ourselves that we’d pass out and not finish any of the things we’d planned to get done.
My favorite solution was to convince Aden there was nothing worth getting up for. She once insisted she wanted to do what I do, so I sat with her in the dark facing the wall in the family room. She was very patient and I almost cracked it was so boring. She kept suggesting we could turn on the TV or play with some toys, and I kept telling her we couldn’t do any of those things at night. I told her when she went to bed, I sat like that in the dark until it was my bedtime. It took over 25 minutes, but eventually she decided grown up time was not worth participating in and she never left her room without a good reason after bedtime again. We’d hear her, sometimes, awake in her room, but she never bothered to come out. Why would she?
Now that they’re older and they know we’re not staring at walls, the rule is if they come out after bedtime they have to help clean. It’s nice, because every once in awhile Aden or Mona really can’t sleep, and they come find me and ask what they can help with, and we end up having a nice time picking up toys or folding laundry together. If I pick a chore they don’t want to do they occasionally just put themselves back to bed, but most of the time they help and it turns into rare and pleasant one on one time. During summer I don’t believe in bedtimes. (Ian’s been known to keep them up so late they beg him to let them go to sleep.)
Manners: This one I think is just pure modeling. I say please and thank you and you’re welcome, I remind them to say please and thank you and you’re welcome…. They are very good about it. I’ve often overheard them together in the breakfast nook asking each other politely to pass things and saying, “Oh, that’s so kind of you! Thank you!” and “You are very welcome!” Lately Quinn has taken to just saying things like, “Water,” and then I usually pick my own noun and say something like, “Ceiling.” If he’s tired he gives me an irritated look, but most of the time he rephrases it to include a please and make it at least sound like a request. (I admit complete failure, however when it comes to how Mona eats. She can’t stay in her seat very long and she uses her hands instead of utensils way too much, but most people understand, and we’re working on it.)
I’ve had to work with Aden a bit about being nice when accepting gifts she didn’t like and she’s got that one down, finally. Mona loves almost everything so it hasn’t come up the same way. (She once opened a birthday gift from Ian’s mom and it was wrapped in bubble paper. She exclaimed so happily about getting bubble paper that when I told her there was something inside it she looked at me as if I’d just told her she could eat chocolate for dinner the rest of her life. That was a very satisfying birthday.)
Why: I think most kids hit a phase where it’s hilarious to see how much time you can waste by asking, “Why?” over and over. I answer the questions for as long as they interest me, and then I usually end it by saying, “Zee.” They just drop it at that point.
Practicing: I think for most kids who do something like play an instrument it’s probably a good idea to do that on their own, but when they are small they need direction. I like helping my kids practice. It seems to help to keep it predictable, and until recently I used to do it in conjunction with bath time. While one girl was in the bath I’d do violin nearby with the other one. When they were starting out, to entice them to play we used to have practice time be dessert time. They got a marshmallow after each little thing they did, so they loved to practice and developed a habit for it that now doesn’t involve any sweets. Also, lately I’ve tried to learn the piano accompaniment to whatever Aden’s working on. I don’t play piano so it keeps me humble.
One of the best things I ever read was an interview with Isaac Pearlman, who said sometimes when he’s teaching violin and he finds himself getting frustrated with a student who can’t do what he’s asking, he switches his own bow and instrument to the opposite hands and remembers what it’s like to not be able to do it either. I find that idea very useful in parenting, not just teaching, because we forget how much of what we do did not always come easily and had to be learned.
Shopping: Because of Ian’s deployments I’ve had to do most of my shopping with at least one kid in tow. In terms of them asking for things I have them pretty well trained to know that they are more likely to get something if they don’t ask. They are good about not touching things if I talk to them about it before we go into the store and remind them about it in a nice way once we’re inside. To get them to stick close inside a store I usually pretend I’m trying to lose them and they are on me like glue. (If I feel like at least one of them is wandering too far away I say things like, “They’ll never find me over here!” and then they are all at my side again.)
Parking lots are hard when you have more children than you have hands, so I usually tell the third kid to hang onto my butt. I’m sure it looks absurd to other people passing by (assuming they even notice or care) but if it involves a butt kids laugh, and I know exactly where all my kids are. I taught Aden very early how to ask a store employee how to page me if we get separated. Usually if I don’t see Aden anywhere I start walking toward the service desk and halfway there I hear my name being announced over a loudspeaker. She uses my name in those situations now, but when she was too little to remember I had an actual name I told her she should have people ask for “Aden’s mom.”
In grocery stores I’ve always let them help find food or bag things or push a cart and it keeps them busy and happy. When Aden and Mona were too young to really help, I’d let them think they were helping by asking them to find certain letters or numbers or colors around the store.
Restaurants: The best tip I have if you end up in a nice restaurant with small kids (this happens to us when someone else without small children insists) is to let them order dessert first. It comes quickly, they are happy, they sit still and eat while adults talk, and usually they have enough room left to eat their meal when it comes. Most of the time we aim for kid-friendly places if we have to eat out, but even if it isn’t we get a lot of mileage out of playing I Spy. There are a couple of regular places we go to eat where I Spy is such a part of the event they launch in as soon as we are seated. I Spy is good because it makes them stop and really study their surroundings. (And it doesn’t have to be a real game. When it’s Quinn’s turn he usually says something like, “I spy with my little eye, that lightbulb right there!” and then Aden says, “You mean that one?” and he excitedly tells her, “You’re right!”)
If possible I bring something for them to draw on/with, and I usually have backup food like cereal bars or crackers in case whatever we order doesn’t work out for them. My kids are very nice in restaurants, they always thank the waiter or waitress, and when they were small Ian and I took turns doing a walking tour of the whole place until the food arrived which helped a lot. Always ask for extra napkins up front. Assume something will spill, and when it doesn’t it feels like victory.
General Good Behavior: I wrote awhile back about how the whole positive reinforcement thing wasn’t working for us, but I do tell my kids when I like what they do, I just usually do it at the end of the day or at some more random moment. They love being told when they’ve done something right, just not usually when they’re doing it.
Me: I’m never afraid to apologize to my kids if I think I’ve been out of line. When I yell I tend to explain what drove me to it and how they can help avoid driving me to it again. (But they must like hearing me yell, because the simple fixes they could be doing to make that go away never happen.) I never say, “Because I said so,” but I do sometimes ask them to trust me and I’ll explain why later. I never pretend I’m perfect or always correct. I don’t pretend to give them choices when they don’t really have any. I tell them I love them often enough that it should be boring but they still smile. They know their dad and I are happy and in love and that nothing is more important to us than our family. I want them to think of me as a safe place to be, and most of the time I think they do.
So if there is anything in there that you think you can use, go for it! We all need ideas and new perspectives sometimes. I could use advice about getting Aden to put her face in the water at the pool so she can take real swimming lessons. Anyone been through that yet? (And no, seeing her friends or sister do it doesn’t help.)
The main thing I learned from that experience is that it can be very hard to tell what works. Parenting habits, particularly when dealing with the mysteries of a baby, develop a lot like superstitions. There are a lot of healthy well-adjusted babies who would probably sleep through the night at three months as long as you weren’t doing something ridiculous. (And for those of you with kids who never sleep through the night, I have great sympathy and I’m not for a moment suggesting you are doing something wrong, I’m just describing my own situation.)
If the night your kid finally sleeps happens to coincide with the same day he or she had rice cereal for the first time, you might be inclined to think that had something to do with it. Or if you tried a white noise machine, or swaddled the baby differently, or stood on your head next to the crib all night. Who knows? Babies change so fast it’s very hard to pin down causation for many behaviors. But we want to feel like we understand as much of it as possible, and human beings instinctively look for patterns, so often when I hear parents swear by things that worked with their babies I always remain a little skeptical. All of my babies slept through the night at three or four months. Lucky me I think they were all wired that way. I don’t take credit for it, only for managing to not get in the way of it.
My children are not perfect by any stretch. Aden is always negotiating everything and it’s exhausting. Mona has no volume control. When Quinn is tired he will look for any excuse to be upset so he can run from the room screaming and put himself to bed and have it somehow be my fault. (Once my offense was to ask him if he wanted a spoon so he could eat his soup, and he looked at me, lower lip trembling, and finally burst out with, “How could you ask me about the spoon!?!? before he ran up the stairs and passed out on my pillow.) They don’t know how to separate when they get on each other’s nerves. They leave the back door wide open and then whine to me about the bugs that got into the house. They leave their shoes everywhere. But honestly, they are WAY better than I was as a kid, so I know better than to complain. I get many compliments on my children out in public because they are generally cheerful and polite and kind to other people.
So I’d like to believe I’ve done something right. But what? I have no idea. For the most part my parenting philosophy is to keep my kids relatively safe and healthy, provide them with lots of opportunities to learn about the world, love them, and otherwise stay out of their way. They will teach me who they are. I can let them know I expect certain things, like respectful behavior, but I don’t feel it’s my place to mold them in any significant way. As a result when people ask what techniques I may have employed to achieve certain outcomes, I usually come up blank.
And the truth is, I only know how to parent my own kids. I can’t even parent Aden the same way I do Mona because they are very different people. I have doubts that whatever may have worked with them might translate to another kid, but maybe it could. So here are some things we’ve tried. Some of them may have worked, and some may have been coincidence. Here are some random child rearing stories in areas where we seem to have done okay, offered up for your consideration or amusement, and if they help, I’m glad.
Sharing: When Aden was a baby we used to hand her things, take them away, and give them right back. We wanted her to develop a sense of not being in a panic when something was taken away, because its absence was temporary. We have always explained sharing to our kids to mean that “You get it back.” Each of our children is entitled to one or two things that they do not have to share, just like there are things their dad and I have that they can’t touch. Aden will still, on occasion, share her precious pink bunny with her brother if he needs cheering up, or with a visiting child if she believes it will improve a situation, but I think it helps her to know she doesn’t have to. We have very few issues with sharing in our house (or anywhere). On the rare occasions where the kids are bickering over some object, I declare it’s mine and I get to keep it until they can work something out amongst themselves. (I’m amazed how often they look relieved and let me just keep it.)
Sleeping: When all our kids were babies we made noise during the day. I did not want to have to tiptoe around during nap time, so all my kids learned to sleep with the bandsaw running or the radio on or us walking around doing what we needed to do. The only problems we’ve ever had with naps were related to the unfortunate timing of school pickups, etc., and we never found a good solution to that. For sleeping at night, I used to feel pretty strongly that kids should sleep in their own beds. We had a co-sleeper for all of our kids as babies, and somewhere between three and six months we’d move them to a crib in the next room most nights. I never let my kids cry in their crib because I didn’t want them to associate it with any negative feelings. (My kids only really cried if something was wrong, anyway, so to have ignored it would have been a very bad idea.)
All of them moved to real beds at around eighteen months. (We’d start with just the mattress on the floor, then in a couple of months put it up on a frame with a rail.) All of my kids share a room and have learned to block each other out in order to sleep. Recently Aden was unhappy that Mona kept turning on the light after I put them to bed, but when I talked to Mona about it, it turned out she just wanted to draw on her magnadoodle before going to sleep. I lent her a small headlamp for awhile and that helped, and then a few weeks ago I actually discovered a magnadoodle that comes with a little flip up light! Now she uses that and Aden can roll over in the dark and go to sleep. But for the most part, they prefer to sleep in the same room, and sometimes they even have sleepovers in each other’s beds. If something happens in the night and they come to my bed to cuddle, they nearly always go back to their own beds on their own before the night is over. They like their beds.
The glaring exception to all of this is Quinn, but he’s spent so much of his life with his dad deployed it makes it hard to know what to do with him. There was a stretch between eighteen months and about two and a half years old where he slept in his own big kid bed, but then Ian left and we moved and blah blah blah, so now the kid’s a nomad. I ask him each night where he wants to go, and his sisters are nice about making room for him in one of their beds if he wants to crawl in with them. I suppose we could put our foot down about making him use the bunk bed he picked out at Ikea, but frankly I don’t care. I think it will sort itself out soon enough.
Bedtime: When Aden was two we used to have issues with her wanting to get up after we put her to bed. We had a couple of strategies for this. The first was, if possible, we all went to bed at the same time. Then when Ian and I were sure she was out (usually about half an hour later), we’d get back up and have grown up time for a little while. The only problem with that was often we were so tired ourselves that we’d pass out and not finish any of the things we’d planned to get done.
My favorite solution was to convince Aden there was nothing worth getting up for. She once insisted she wanted to do what I do, so I sat with her in the dark facing the wall in the family room. She was very patient and I almost cracked it was so boring. She kept suggesting we could turn on the TV or play with some toys, and I kept telling her we couldn’t do any of those things at night. I told her when she went to bed, I sat like that in the dark until it was my bedtime. It took over 25 minutes, but eventually she decided grown up time was not worth participating in and she never left her room without a good reason after bedtime again. We’d hear her, sometimes, awake in her room, but she never bothered to come out. Why would she?
Now that they’re older and they know we’re not staring at walls, the rule is if they come out after bedtime they have to help clean. It’s nice, because every once in awhile Aden or Mona really can’t sleep, and they come find me and ask what they can help with, and we end up having a nice time picking up toys or folding laundry together. If I pick a chore they don’t want to do they occasionally just put themselves back to bed, but most of the time they help and it turns into rare and pleasant one on one time. During summer I don’t believe in bedtimes. (Ian’s been known to keep them up so late they beg him to let them go to sleep.)
Manners: This one I think is just pure modeling. I say please and thank you and you’re welcome, I remind them to say please and thank you and you’re welcome…. They are very good about it. I’ve often overheard them together in the breakfast nook asking each other politely to pass things and saying, “Oh, that’s so kind of you! Thank you!” and “You are very welcome!” Lately Quinn has taken to just saying things like, “Water,” and then I usually pick my own noun and say something like, “Ceiling.” If he’s tired he gives me an irritated look, but most of the time he rephrases it to include a please and make it at least sound like a request. (I admit complete failure, however when it comes to how Mona eats. She can’t stay in her seat very long and she uses her hands instead of utensils way too much, but most people understand, and we’re working on it.)
I’ve had to work with Aden a bit about being nice when accepting gifts she didn’t like and she’s got that one down, finally. Mona loves almost everything so it hasn’t come up the same way. (She once opened a birthday gift from Ian’s mom and it was wrapped in bubble paper. She exclaimed so happily about getting bubble paper that when I told her there was something inside it she looked at me as if I’d just told her she could eat chocolate for dinner the rest of her life. That was a very satisfying birthday.)
Why: I think most kids hit a phase where it’s hilarious to see how much time you can waste by asking, “Why?” over and over. I answer the questions for as long as they interest me, and then I usually end it by saying, “Zee.” They just drop it at that point.
Practicing: I think for most kids who do something like play an instrument it’s probably a good idea to do that on their own, but when they are small they need direction. I like helping my kids practice. It seems to help to keep it predictable, and until recently I used to do it in conjunction with bath time. While one girl was in the bath I’d do violin nearby with the other one. When they were starting out, to entice them to play we used to have practice time be dessert time. They got a marshmallow after each little thing they did, so they loved to practice and developed a habit for it that now doesn’t involve any sweets. Also, lately I’ve tried to learn the piano accompaniment to whatever Aden’s working on. I don’t play piano so it keeps me humble.
One of the best things I ever read was an interview with Isaac Pearlman, who said sometimes when he’s teaching violin and he finds himself getting frustrated with a student who can’t do what he’s asking, he switches his own bow and instrument to the opposite hands and remembers what it’s like to not be able to do it either. I find that idea very useful in parenting, not just teaching, because we forget how much of what we do did not always come easily and had to be learned.
Shopping: Because of Ian’s deployments I’ve had to do most of my shopping with at least one kid in tow. In terms of them asking for things I have them pretty well trained to know that they are more likely to get something if they don’t ask. They are good about not touching things if I talk to them about it before we go into the store and remind them about it in a nice way once we’re inside. To get them to stick close inside a store I usually pretend I’m trying to lose them and they are on me like glue. (If I feel like at least one of them is wandering too far away I say things like, “They’ll never find me over here!” and then they are all at my side again.)
Parking lots are hard when you have more children than you have hands, so I usually tell the third kid to hang onto my butt. I’m sure it looks absurd to other people passing by (assuming they even notice or care) but if it involves a butt kids laugh, and I know exactly where all my kids are. I taught Aden very early how to ask a store employee how to page me if we get separated. Usually if I don’t see Aden anywhere I start walking toward the service desk and halfway there I hear my name being announced over a loudspeaker. She uses my name in those situations now, but when she was too little to remember I had an actual name I told her she should have people ask for “Aden’s mom.”
In grocery stores I’ve always let them help find food or bag things or push a cart and it keeps them busy and happy. When Aden and Mona were too young to really help, I’d let them think they were helping by asking them to find certain letters or numbers or colors around the store.
Restaurants: The best tip I have if you end up in a nice restaurant with small kids (this happens to us when someone else without small children insists) is to let them order dessert first. It comes quickly, they are happy, they sit still and eat while adults talk, and usually they have enough room left to eat their meal when it comes. Most of the time we aim for kid-friendly places if we have to eat out, but even if it isn’t we get a lot of mileage out of playing I Spy. There are a couple of regular places we go to eat where I Spy is such a part of the event they launch in as soon as we are seated. I Spy is good because it makes them stop and really study their surroundings. (And it doesn’t have to be a real game. When it’s Quinn’s turn he usually says something like, “I spy with my little eye, that lightbulb right there!” and then Aden says, “You mean that one?” and he excitedly tells her, “You’re right!”)
If possible I bring something for them to draw on/with, and I usually have backup food like cereal bars or crackers in case whatever we order doesn’t work out for them. My kids are very nice in restaurants, they always thank the waiter or waitress, and when they were small Ian and I took turns doing a walking tour of the whole place until the food arrived which helped a lot. Always ask for extra napkins up front. Assume something will spill, and when it doesn’t it feels like victory.
General Good Behavior: I wrote awhile back about how the whole positive reinforcement thing wasn’t working for us, but I do tell my kids when I like what they do, I just usually do it at the end of the day or at some more random moment. They love being told when they’ve done something right, just not usually when they’re doing it.
Me: I’m never afraid to apologize to my kids if I think I’ve been out of line. When I yell I tend to explain what drove me to it and how they can help avoid driving me to it again. (But they must like hearing me yell, because the simple fixes they could be doing to make that go away never happen.) I never say, “Because I said so,” but I do sometimes ask them to trust me and I’ll explain why later. I never pretend I’m perfect or always correct. I don’t pretend to give them choices when they don’t really have any. I tell them I love them often enough that it should be boring but they still smile. They know their dad and I are happy and in love and that nothing is more important to us than our family. I want them to think of me as a safe place to be, and most of the time I think they do.
So if there is anything in there that you think you can use, go for it! We all need ideas and new perspectives sometimes. I could use advice about getting Aden to put her face in the water at the pool so she can take real swimming lessons. Anyone been through that yet? (And no, seeing her friends or sister do it doesn’t help.)
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Kids and Music Lessons--Free Advice! (Babble)
As a violin teacher and owner of a music store, I get asked all the
time about when or if kids should start playing an instrument. In case
Babble readers happen to have those same questions, I thought I’d take a
moment to share my thoughts and opinions.
The first question I get from most people is: “How do I know when to start my kid on an instrument?"
When the kid asks. Interest is the first indicator of talent. Some kids see a cello and they just know that’s what they want to do. It speaks to them. Depending on how old or responsible the child is determines how deeply you can dive in, but if they show an interest, do something. Find recordings, see live players, go to a music store and let them touch whatever it is that got them excited.
As a player and a teacher I have to say the most important thing is that it has to be the child’s idea. That may sound obvious to a lot of people, but having taught children who were forced into violin by a parent, it’s not obvious to enough people. There are lots of ways to expose your child to music, like by going to concerts and visiting friends who play, and certainly getting him or her involved in some kind of lessons or class if he or she asks for it, but performing is not necessary for appreciation.
Forcing children into something as difficult as violin will often turn them against it. I once asked a boy with a lot of talent during a sample lesson with me if he even wanted to play violin. He was so openly hostile with me at every turn, and he looked me right in the eye and said, “No!” I asked him what he’d rather do, and he said wistfully what he really wanted to play was guitar. I took his mom aside and told her there was nothing wrong with guitar. Guitar is wonderful. She was really perplexed because he was good at violin and felt it was her duty to make him continue. I told her it seemed to me that there was no joy in it for him. If that was true, what was the point? If guitar made him happy, what was wrong with letting him use his talent there?
Now, I have also been approached by parents with kids (usually in the twelve to sixteen year old range) where the kids wanted to quit, but had nothing else to replace it with. I grilled a girl once who wanted to quit piano about what she would do with that time instead. Basketball? Pottery? Chemistry? Ornithology? No, she admitted openly she wanted to just lie around and watch TV. I told her whiling away half-heartedly at piano was better than nothing so she should keep playing until she found her passion.
But for the most part, try not to project your own musical hopes onto your kids. I let Aden beg me for a violin for a year before I was sure she really meant it. Mona plays because she wants to be like her sister and I know once she’s old enough she will jump ship for trumpet. Which is fine. I can’t help her with trumpet, but I’ll support her as best I can when we get there. (Quinn likes being like his sisters, and since I own a violin store he’s got a 1/32 size to play with, but he isn’t ready for lessons.)
Which brings me to the next question: “How young can they start?”
Depends on the instrument. Violin and piano primarily involve finger dexterity, so you can start as young as the child is willing. I have a violin in my store that’s a 1/64 size in case there is ever a one-year old with the maturity to handle it, but violin in particular is only limited to the abilities of the child. Other instruments that involve using your mouth, such as clarinet or trumpet, you need to wait until closer to age nine generally. From what I understand from my wind and brass friends, the structure of your jaw, etc., play a role that requires you to be more developed, plus there are no fractional sizes that are an appropriate weight or size. That’s why you don’t see prodigy trombone players, but you do see teeny tiny violinists or pianists at talent shows and on TV. As I said, Mona has been eyeing the trumpet since she was really small, but she knows she has to wait. In the meantime, violin uses the same clef, so at least she’s learning to read the right music and developing her ear. We visit trumpets periodically, and she’s looking forward to turning eight because that was the magic age I said we could give it a try.
“Do you really need a teacher?”
Yes. You really do. I have taught too many people who had to unlearn some horrible habits to feel comfortable telling anyone to just mess around on their own at the start. Bad habits on violin prevent people from reaching their musical goals and make the whole experience less enjoyable. Violin is worthwhile, but hard. There are a million picky things that you won’t catch by yourself without training. Get a good foundation, then mess around all you want. It’s less frustrating that way. If you are lucky enough to have strings offered at school it’s a great way to start, but to really advance it’s good to have private lessons too, and use the school experience as a supplement.
“How do you find a teacher?”
Most music stores, if they don’t offer lessons on the premises, usually have lists or business cards of teachers. Ask around. Talk to parents who have kids who play. And ask for a sample lesson! You need to find a teacher that your child clicks with. Don’t be afraid to switch if it isn’t right. I know some parents who never keep their child with a teacher for more than a year or two just because they want him or her to experience different instructors. Sometimes talented high school students are even up for giving lessons at a much cheaper rate, and that can be a good deal for everyone. Once you start looking actively, you’ll likely be surprised at just how many musicians and teachers there are in the average community.
“What about Suzuki Method?”
Here’s where my own personal opinions will probably get me in trouble. Suzuki supporters tend to be very vocal, but I’ll say what I think anyway. I’ll start by pointing out that any child with talent and enthusiasm will probably thrive using almost any method, as long as he or she gets exposed to all the skills needed to succeed. That said, I have issues with strict Suzuki method. Now, most people when asking about Suzuki are really asking about violin or piano for young children. They don’t know specifically what Suzuki means, just that small children they’ve heard playing it sound great.
And they do! Suzuki materials are wonderful, I use the books myself when I teach because they are affordable and universally recognized by other teachers and students, but in traditional Suzuki method players learn to play by ear before they learn to read music. The concept is that we learn to speak before we learn to read language, so in music we should rely on our ears first, and our eyes second.
Maybe in certain circumstances that works, but from my observations, it leads to problems. You can play many instruments like guitar without reading music and it may never matter, but to play a violin family instrument and not be able to read music easily can be a disaster. I have met more musicians who took Suzuki method than I care to count who told me they played through high school and then finally had to quit because the stress of not being able to read the music made the whole experience too unpleasant. And some of these people play beautifully! But reading was such a low priority early in their education that they never developed a comfort level with it to make orchestra or chamber ensembles possible. If no one played their part for them first so they could hear it and try to commit it to memory, they didn’t know what to do. And who has the time to memorize the entire viola part to a Dvorak symphony? My own practical experience playing weddings and concert halls tells me that reading is essential to having the most opportunities open to you as a string player.
Does that mean you should avoid signing a child up for Suzuki lessons? No. Because Suzuki generally involves work in a group and that can be a lot of fun for kids and if the teacher is dedicated and nice it will probably be great. But tell the teacher you want to make sure your child will learn to read music. Even a lot of classes listed as Suzuki are often hybrids and the teachers incorporate reading earlier than is traditional for the method. Some people call themselves Suzuki teachers because they have the specific training for it and they know people will know that means they teach children, but it doesn’t mean they actually teach that way. Ask, and go with what seems reasonable to you.
“Should I buy or rent an instrument?”
At my violin store I usually recommend for anyone in a fractional size or just starting out that they rent at first. It gives you a safe way to try it out for a bit and see if it’s even something you want to continue. If you plan to use a small instrument for a really long time because you expect to pass it down to other children, then it can make sense to buy one, but otherwise I don’t see the point in getting saddled with small violins that you don’t know what to do with later. See what kinds of programs your local stores have. Lots of places have buy back programs or rent-to-own opportunities. There are also some online companies that rent to anywhere, so if there isn’t a store in your area that rents there are still ways to get started.
Just as with teachers, though, don’t feel you can’t switch. Just because you get sucked into one store’s program and have some kind of discount available doesn’t mean when you’re ready to buy that you shouldn’t look elsewhere. Ask a teacher to tell you if he or she thinks an instrument is good enough; is it easy to tune, is it comfortable? You can’t tell everything by the price of an instrument, but obviously the more expenisve it is the more likely it is to have fewer quality issues.
That said, violins under $200 tend to scare me. Most of the outfits I rent retail for about $450, but there are certainly decent ones out there for less if you look. Most people looking to buy a full size violin when they move on from renting tend to budget between $1000 to $2000 for their first decent instrument. That’s considered cheap in the violin world, so be forewarned! (The ones I build myself cost around $4000.) Also, not that it isn’t possible to find a good instrument on ebay, but I’ve never seen one walk into my store. People find crazy things that they think were a good deal and then bring them to me to fix up, and most of the time it would have been cheaper to buy something in town that already worked. Craigslist can be a better way to go sometimes, since it’s local and you can see the instrument and possibly even take it someplace to be looked over before you buy it. Students need something reliable that is in good enough condition that they aren’t fighting it all the time. I’m amazed how often adult students in particular are willing to assume odd sounds they make when practicing are their fault, when many times it could be the instrument itself.
So those are the most common questions about starting music lessons that I get. (Not counting the most common one which is “Do you give lessons?” and the answer to that is I’m not taking any new students right now. That was one of the things I had to give up to be home with my own kids while Ian is away. I had the most wonderful studio of little viola students in the Progressions program at the Milwaukee Youth Symphony, but my own kids need me more right now, so I resigned at the end of the last school year. I miss those kids, but the new teacher they got to replace me is excellent, so I know the kids will do well.) I love music and I love helping other people get involved in music so I’m always happy to field more questions if anyone has any.
Making music has been one of the great joys of my life. Watching the greatest joys of my life make their own music has been astonishing. I’m sure I’ll cry at every recital. (Even if Mona switches to trumpet.)
The first question I get from most people is: “How do I know when to start my kid on an instrument?"
When the kid asks. Interest is the first indicator of talent. Some kids see a cello and they just know that’s what they want to do. It speaks to them. Depending on how old or responsible the child is determines how deeply you can dive in, but if they show an interest, do something. Find recordings, see live players, go to a music store and let them touch whatever it is that got them excited.
As a player and a teacher I have to say the most important thing is that it has to be the child’s idea. That may sound obvious to a lot of people, but having taught children who were forced into violin by a parent, it’s not obvious to enough people. There are lots of ways to expose your child to music, like by going to concerts and visiting friends who play, and certainly getting him or her involved in some kind of lessons or class if he or she asks for it, but performing is not necessary for appreciation.
Forcing children into something as difficult as violin will often turn them against it. I once asked a boy with a lot of talent during a sample lesson with me if he even wanted to play violin. He was so openly hostile with me at every turn, and he looked me right in the eye and said, “No!” I asked him what he’d rather do, and he said wistfully what he really wanted to play was guitar. I took his mom aside and told her there was nothing wrong with guitar. Guitar is wonderful. She was really perplexed because he was good at violin and felt it was her duty to make him continue. I told her it seemed to me that there was no joy in it for him. If that was true, what was the point? If guitar made him happy, what was wrong with letting him use his talent there?
Now, I have also been approached by parents with kids (usually in the twelve to sixteen year old range) where the kids wanted to quit, but had nothing else to replace it with. I grilled a girl once who wanted to quit piano about what she would do with that time instead. Basketball? Pottery? Chemistry? Ornithology? No, she admitted openly she wanted to just lie around and watch TV. I told her whiling away half-heartedly at piano was better than nothing so she should keep playing until she found her passion.
But for the most part, try not to project your own musical hopes onto your kids. I let Aden beg me for a violin for a year before I was sure she really meant it. Mona plays because she wants to be like her sister and I know once she’s old enough she will jump ship for trumpet. Which is fine. I can’t help her with trumpet, but I’ll support her as best I can when we get there. (Quinn likes being like his sisters, and since I own a violin store he’s got a 1/32 size to play with, but he isn’t ready for lessons.)
Which brings me to the next question: “How young can they start?”
Depends on the instrument. Violin and piano primarily involve finger dexterity, so you can start as young as the child is willing. I have a violin in my store that’s a 1/64 size in case there is ever a one-year old with the maturity to handle it, but violin in particular is only limited to the abilities of the child. Other instruments that involve using your mouth, such as clarinet or trumpet, you need to wait until closer to age nine generally. From what I understand from my wind and brass friends, the structure of your jaw, etc., play a role that requires you to be more developed, plus there are no fractional sizes that are an appropriate weight or size. That’s why you don’t see prodigy trombone players, but you do see teeny tiny violinists or pianists at talent shows and on TV. As I said, Mona has been eyeing the trumpet since she was really small, but she knows she has to wait. In the meantime, violin uses the same clef, so at least she’s learning to read the right music and developing her ear. We visit trumpets periodically, and she’s looking forward to turning eight because that was the magic age I said we could give it a try.
“Do you really need a teacher?”
Yes. You really do. I have taught too many people who had to unlearn some horrible habits to feel comfortable telling anyone to just mess around on their own at the start. Bad habits on violin prevent people from reaching their musical goals and make the whole experience less enjoyable. Violin is worthwhile, but hard. There are a million picky things that you won’t catch by yourself without training. Get a good foundation, then mess around all you want. It’s less frustrating that way. If you are lucky enough to have strings offered at school it’s a great way to start, but to really advance it’s good to have private lessons too, and use the school experience as a supplement.
“How do you find a teacher?”
Most music stores, if they don’t offer lessons on the premises, usually have lists or business cards of teachers. Ask around. Talk to parents who have kids who play. And ask for a sample lesson! You need to find a teacher that your child clicks with. Don’t be afraid to switch if it isn’t right. I know some parents who never keep their child with a teacher for more than a year or two just because they want him or her to experience different instructors. Sometimes talented high school students are even up for giving lessons at a much cheaper rate, and that can be a good deal for everyone. Once you start looking actively, you’ll likely be surprised at just how many musicians and teachers there are in the average community.
“What about Suzuki Method?”
Here’s where my own personal opinions will probably get me in trouble. Suzuki supporters tend to be very vocal, but I’ll say what I think anyway. I’ll start by pointing out that any child with talent and enthusiasm will probably thrive using almost any method, as long as he or she gets exposed to all the skills needed to succeed. That said, I have issues with strict Suzuki method. Now, most people when asking about Suzuki are really asking about violin or piano for young children. They don’t know specifically what Suzuki means, just that small children they’ve heard playing it sound great.
And they do! Suzuki materials are wonderful, I use the books myself when I teach because they are affordable and universally recognized by other teachers and students, but in traditional Suzuki method players learn to play by ear before they learn to read music. The concept is that we learn to speak before we learn to read language, so in music we should rely on our ears first, and our eyes second.
Maybe in certain circumstances that works, but from my observations, it leads to problems. You can play many instruments like guitar without reading music and it may never matter, but to play a violin family instrument and not be able to read music easily can be a disaster. I have met more musicians who took Suzuki method than I care to count who told me they played through high school and then finally had to quit because the stress of not being able to read the music made the whole experience too unpleasant. And some of these people play beautifully! But reading was such a low priority early in their education that they never developed a comfort level with it to make orchestra or chamber ensembles possible. If no one played their part for them first so they could hear it and try to commit it to memory, they didn’t know what to do. And who has the time to memorize the entire viola part to a Dvorak symphony? My own practical experience playing weddings and concert halls tells me that reading is essential to having the most opportunities open to you as a string player.
Does that mean you should avoid signing a child up for Suzuki lessons? No. Because Suzuki generally involves work in a group and that can be a lot of fun for kids and if the teacher is dedicated and nice it will probably be great. But tell the teacher you want to make sure your child will learn to read music. Even a lot of classes listed as Suzuki are often hybrids and the teachers incorporate reading earlier than is traditional for the method. Some people call themselves Suzuki teachers because they have the specific training for it and they know people will know that means they teach children, but it doesn’t mean they actually teach that way. Ask, and go with what seems reasonable to you.
“Should I buy or rent an instrument?”
At my violin store I usually recommend for anyone in a fractional size or just starting out that they rent at first. It gives you a safe way to try it out for a bit and see if it’s even something you want to continue. If you plan to use a small instrument for a really long time because you expect to pass it down to other children, then it can make sense to buy one, but otherwise I don’t see the point in getting saddled with small violins that you don’t know what to do with later. See what kinds of programs your local stores have. Lots of places have buy back programs or rent-to-own opportunities. There are also some online companies that rent to anywhere, so if there isn’t a store in your area that rents there are still ways to get started.
Just as with teachers, though, don’t feel you can’t switch. Just because you get sucked into one store’s program and have some kind of discount available doesn’t mean when you’re ready to buy that you shouldn’t look elsewhere. Ask a teacher to tell you if he or she thinks an instrument is good enough; is it easy to tune, is it comfortable? You can’t tell everything by the price of an instrument, but obviously the more expenisve it is the more likely it is to have fewer quality issues.
That said, violins under $200 tend to scare me. Most of the outfits I rent retail for about $450, but there are certainly decent ones out there for less if you look. Most people looking to buy a full size violin when they move on from renting tend to budget between $1000 to $2000 for their first decent instrument. That’s considered cheap in the violin world, so be forewarned! (The ones I build myself cost around $4000.) Also, not that it isn’t possible to find a good instrument on ebay, but I’ve never seen one walk into my store. People find crazy things that they think were a good deal and then bring them to me to fix up, and most of the time it would have been cheaper to buy something in town that already worked. Craigslist can be a better way to go sometimes, since it’s local and you can see the instrument and possibly even take it someplace to be looked over before you buy it. Students need something reliable that is in good enough condition that they aren’t fighting it all the time. I’m amazed how often adult students in particular are willing to assume odd sounds they make when practicing are their fault, when many times it could be the instrument itself.
So those are the most common questions about starting music lessons that I get. (Not counting the most common one which is “Do you give lessons?” and the answer to that is I’m not taking any new students right now. That was one of the things I had to give up to be home with my own kids while Ian is away. I had the most wonderful studio of little viola students in the Progressions program at the Milwaukee Youth Symphony, but my own kids need me more right now, so I resigned at the end of the last school year. I miss those kids, but the new teacher they got to replace me is excellent, so I know the kids will do well.) I love music and I love helping other people get involved in music so I’m always happy to field more questions if anyone has any.
Making music has been one of the great joys of my life. Watching the greatest joys of my life make their own music has been astonishing. I’m sure I’ll cry at every recital. (Even if Mona switches to trumpet.)
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