Friday, November 20, 2015

Progress Tuesday

AE:
Learning: Bach Bourree
Working Piece: Gavotte in D Major / Humoresque for recital
Struggle: bow hold!
Looking forward to: Seitz 1
Favorite Piece to Play: Gavotte in g Minor

AM:
Learning: nothing...
Working Piece: Lully Gavotte for recital, Boccherini Minuet, Scherzo
Struggles: Playing in tune especially when she shifts
Looking forward to: Humoresque (she has tried to play in by ear....
Favorite Piece to Play: Berceuse

K:
Learning: finishing Lightly Row
Working Piece: preparing Twinkle A for recital
Struggles: opening her bow arm from the elbow
Looking forward to: Allegro (and apparently also Humoresque... I am not going to tell her that it will be a couple of years...)
Favorite Piece to Play:  Twinkle Theme

E
I think I have hit my stride. We go by the list, we have a complicated review system and a system of Blue/Green/Yellow/Red cards that they earn. The better the card the more iPad time they get. There is a times to keep me on track and specific assignments from the teachers help immensely!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Update & Little Violinist

It has been a while since I posted, but an update is over-due. Our big Suzuki challenge now is we have 3 kids playing. K started violin in March (after 1.5 years of Early Childhood Suzuki classes). I was really hoping she would do piano, but she was set on violin, so violin it is.

Last summer we attended our second Suzuki institute with AE and AM. AM was chosen to play at an afternoon recital and both girls did orchestra.

We moved this summer. We now live in a big city with a great school with a much bigger Suzuki program. All 3 girls have private lessons, group classes and theory. AE & AM are also in orchestra.

After a year of my husband practicing cello with AM, I have taken back all the practices (seems to make sense to specialize, he does homework and math with them). So my schedule every day is roughly this:
7:50 - 8:10am: K's practice (she just turned 4, so somewhere between 15 and 20 min seems just right)
7:30 - 8:30pm: AE's practice
8:30 - 9:15pm: AM's practice

So overall I do a bit over 2 hours of music every night, but I love it still and I think we are getting into a good rhythm.

Here is where we are at:
AE (end of Book 3): Finishing up Gavotte in D Major, previewing Bourree, preparing Humoresque for recital
AM (beginning of Book 3): Finishing learning Scherzo, working on Boccherini, and preparing Lully for recital
K (barely out of twinkles!): Learning Lightly Row, working on Twinkle Theme and practicing Variation A for the recital.