Last Reminders

We are in the home stretch this week.

This is the last week to submit your repetitions for the 10,000 Challenge.
All the students have made some real strides to change the way they practice.
Congratulations and keep up the reps!

Tuesday November 28th 

is the MANDATORY Rehearsal for this weeks recital.

Saturday December 1st 

is the FIDDLE CLASS show at Chartwell Residence.

Sunday December 2nd 

is the HOLIDAY RECITAL at 2:00 

at Siloam United Church.

• ARRIVAL TIME: no later than 1:45
• DRESS CODE: whatever you'd like as long as it's comfortable and you can play in it
• no reception at this recital but there is a visit from Santa at the end

Parent Ed Recap

First of all: Thank you to all the parents who came out Tuesday night. It was great seeing so many of you together.

We discussed in class how motivation comes in different forms. Some of us seem to instinctively have it, while others may struggle to find it. Motivation can come in waves or it can be constant and the comments I received follow this idea.

On how we motivate ourselves and our kids to make healthy lifestyle choices, many families commented along the lines of: "We just do it. It is expected, so it just happens." or "We do what we like and love. That is the motivation."

Many families also had motivational strategies such as:
a reward system, establishing routines and checklists, doing activities as a family and rewards as a family, visualizing the end result and setting goals, vacations, communication, observation, and modeling the desired behaviour to kids.

Motivation is different for all of us because we all live different lifestyles and we are all different human beings. However, we all have the same end goal of wanting to teach our kids the best habits so that they can go out into the world and be successful. With this in mind, it never hurts to have some strategies in your back pocket. Life is always changing and we need motivation when those times of struggle hit us, and the struggle can be real in violin lessons, in school activities and in any area of our life.

Ways I try to motivate students are:

100 Charts
Prize Box
One Point Challenges (like out current 10,000 challenge)
Providing an all ages/levels group class
Breaking things down into the smallest form so students can find success
Getting the chance to perform in different ensembles
Using social media to share content
Providing the opportunity to see other musicians perform

On that note: Thank you for your input on the participation in attending FREE SHOWS. If there is anything I can do to make getting to them more convenient, please let me know, otherwise I completely understand how hard it is to find time to attend an evening show, especially with little ones. We do what we can.

Check your calendars for Wednesday December 12th, as THE NEXT GENERATION LEAHY will be coming to play at the London Music Hall at 7:00. Let me know ASAP if you are able to attend. All student tickets are FREE and covered by Amy's Violin School. 

As always parents, you are all amazing and I am so lucky to get to work with you and your kids and to have known some of you for years now. You all are a motivation for me. I am grateful everyday to all of you, that I am able to do what I do. Thank you!

Parent Ed Event - Tuesday November 13th

ATTENTION PARENTS:

Our Parent Ed Event is this Tuesday November 13th during group class!

I hold TWO of these nights throughout the school year and it's a great chance to talk about all things Suzuki Violin, stay up to date on everything happening within Amy's Violin School and an opportunity to get to know and hear from other parents who are going through the same process you are!

In light of the motivation the 10,000 Challenge has been instilling in students, we will be talking about what else motivates you and your family to practice as well as make other healthy lifestyle choices.

Another great motivator is to attend local concerts! The Next Generation Leahy is coming to the London Music Hall AGAIN on Wednesday December 12th at 7:00. Some students went to this last year and others have gone previous years and were so inspired by seeing these kids age 5 to teenager perform and play multiple instruments. Don't miss out on this opportunity!

See you all with hot drinks in hand on November 13th!

10,000 Challenge

Knowledge is NOT skill.

Knowledge plus 10,000 times is skill.

We are about halfway through our 10 week, 10,000 repetition challenge and I am loving this challenge for so many reasons.

Every student this past week came to lesson knowing exactly what their practice spots are and was able to play each of them with ease. There wasn't necessarily nothing to improve on, but most spots were polished.

I could see the look of accomplishment on students faces who maybe struggled in the past with playing their practice spots in lesson.

Those who have always found repetitions in practice a breeze and are soaring through repetitions, have found other realizations in their practice.

From a teachers perspective, it has been incredible to not have to do the same practice spots week after week but to work on new material each week with my students. Instead of encouraging the right kind of practice and enough practice at home, I find myself praising every ones efforts, because there has been a shift in effort. Every student is flying through notes and skills and tricky passages. We have gained a new perspective on how to practice productively.

Productivity is the key here (rather than the amount of time practicing). From the few students who have done huge repetitions in a week, what they had to say about it was that it really didn't take that long.

When we can break our practice spots into small enough chunks, and focus just on those instead of run throughs, we can accomplish a whole lot in a short amount of time. Some weeks we may have bigger things to practice like gaining memory of a piece or adding in dynamics, but as long as we have new repertoire on the go or even polishing review pieces, we should never be limited by small spots to improve on. When we take a minute to play one small passage over and over, all of a sudden, we don't just know how to do it, we have mastered it - our knowledge has become skill.

As with so many Suzuki concepts, this concept that we are applying to our violin studies can be applied to any skill set we want to gain. When we can find the small steps in a given situation, we can take what is a new skill and make it manageable and fun, instead of overwhelming.

Keep up the amazing work and keep your repetitions going!