O’fish’ial Suzuki Book 1 Review

It's been a while (almost two years!) since I last posted.  Life gets busy and some things drop off.  However, this week our family got COVID and that means we get to stay home for at least 10 days.  We can't go anywhere, or do anything.  I've felt too sick to clean my house or do laundry, but not sick enough to stay in bed all day.  The result is a lot of new printables created.  Yay!  

Here is a great review game.  In my experience, just about all kids love a good fishing game.  I've been wanting to make a fishing review game for a while now.  I don't have any kids in Suzuki Violin Book 1 anymore, but I have students and I plan to lend this game out. I used brass brads for the eyes that connect perfectly to the magnet fishing pole.

While I had the fish graphics ready I also made an easy chart with all the Suzuki Book 1 pieces.  The idea is to mark off the piece when you play it.  You don't erase the chart until you've played every piece.

Lastly is a blank chart with 60 fish.  Color or cross out a fish for every review song you play.  Have a celebration when you complete the chart.

There you go, folks.  Three games in one printable.  I hope you enjoy it!

Practicing Work-Out!

I got this idea from James Hutchins on the Suzuki Parents as Partners Online conference two years ago.  Since then I've used it a lot with my students and want to have it readily accessible to my students this year so I put it behind the front cover of their practice books this year.

Basically, a "workout" is focused practicing using review pieces.  My "workout" page is just a list of the Suzuki violin pieces in books 1 & 2 in order.  You could make your own "workout" page with your own list of pieces that would be easy enough to practice without thinking about the notes.

I assign a time for the workout.  With my own kids, I like to choose a specific time that is on one of our Cube Timers so that they can just flip it over and practice (so easy!!)  For this specific amount of time my students play through their list focusing on whatever it is I've assigned them.  For some it could be playing with their eyes on the highway, for others, it might be keeping your scroll up.  It could be to help posture points, intonation, or focus.  If the student can play the first piece all the way through with the focus point they can move on to the next piece on the list.  They keep playing through the pieces until the timer dings - then they are done with their workout for the day.  They mark where they stopped and start there for their workout the next day.

I love assigning workouts because it really lets a student focus on one thing for 5 or 7 minutes without the student thinking about the notes or bowings.  For Suzuki students, this is a very efficient way to do their review.

If you are a Suzuki violin student/parent/teacher you may download my workout sheet (I laminate it and write on it with a dry-erase marker so that we can reuse it - and have the student mark their spot with a post-it flag.)  You can also make your own list for different instruments or repertoire.  Let me know what successes you've had with your students using a "workout!"

A Little is More Than Nothing

I have a confession!  I have been the WORST at practicing with my 6-year-old.  The holidays really threw us off, then she got the flu for a week, and now it's super hard to get back into the routine!  She resists every single day with huge tears.  It's hard enough for me to find the time between her school schedule and my teaching schedule - not to mention I have to cook dinner and tend to my other four kids' needs.  When she throws such a fuss, sometimes I'm not even motivated to start the process.  We've been known to only get a couple days of practicing in a week.  THIS IS NOT ENOUGH!!!  I tell my students every week they need to practice AT LEAST 5 days a week.  We have a 100-day practicing challenge going on right now.  And here I am slacking with my own children!  So, I've made a new goal to practice with her EVERY DAY!....even if it's just a little because a little is more than nothing and right now I'm really close to doing nothing.  This girl has so much ability and I can't hinder her by not practicing with her!!!

With everything she's assigned each week she could easily practice 45-60 minutes per day.  Her attention span is just not that long so I'm assigning her 30-45 minutes per day.  On days we don't have even that amount of time we will do less.  This is how we are practicing this week:

I write down everything she needs to do on this whiteboard.  I also write the end time because that is very important to her.  Some things like "Book 2 Skills" is a bunch of warm-ups and technique exercises.  It probably takes 15 minutes to complete this job.  Others are just one piece like "Galop" and "Simple Gifts."  I have broken up the review into three different jobs: the last 3 pieces, Book 2 Review (3 other book 2 pieces), and Book 1 review (3 pieces.)  This week for Book 1 review we are doing the Book 1 review Bingo and she gets a treat for every Bingo.  This really makes her excited to review Book 1.

Each time she finishes a job she erases it.  With the shortened amount of time we are practicing we don't get everything done each day, but I write the next day's assignments in a different color.  We make sure we finish everything every two days.  Some things (like her current piece) need to be done each day.

We are always surprised by how fast time goes once we get started.  The whiteboard provides a visual for her to know what the practice and we can manage our time more efficiently.  Each day of practice is different and I've noticed that once we get started she actually enjoys her playing and practicing.  That's why I'm doing this - so she'll enjoy playing!  So, I'm happy with our practice progress this week!

Practicing Lots of Pieces

We've been in need of fun practicing ideas at our household this week.  The holidays are here and my kids don't want to practice.  My darling 6-year-old has SO MUCH to practice each day, but her attention span is only good for about 35-45 minutes.  So, we get done what we can in that amount of time.  She's learning to read clocks at school so I tell her where the hand will be and she can be done.  I don't always make my kids practice for a set amount of time - in fact, most of the time we just practice until we're done.  Lately, looking at the clock works for us.

One of the many things she needs to practice at this time of year is CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!  She needs to practice 15 Christmas songs and instead of droning through the list, we made this chart together.  I've assigned each of her pieces a number and she randomly picks a number on the chart and plays the song assigned to that number.  We then put a sticker on the number.  I've offered her a piece of candy when she's finished (hopefully by the end of the week).  Just as simple as that and she's happy to practice her Christmas music again.

You can assign your own pieces 1-15 and play this with your children.  This would be a great way to review!  I also made one for a list of 10.

Find these charts here and here.

Enjoy!

Magical Review

During our two-a-day practices, my daughter spends a good part of the evening practicing playing through pieces for her Rocky Mountain Strings group as well as reviewing. For the past nine months, she has been overwhelmed with pieces to learn for two different performing groups, Christmas, as well as keeping up with Suzuki - so I haven't enforced review for a long time. One performing group is done for the year, the other is having its final concert next week and all the pieces are learned. I'm finding that she has more time so I instigated another review routine.

I found this chart in Maurer's String Book. It's great because it enforces the most recently learned pieces in Books 4 and 5 and still allows for a little review of the other books - but it's not overwhelming. Hearing my daughter play these review pieces has been magical. In the past year, her tone and technique have skyrocketed and she played these pieces with such quality! I heard the most beautiful Allegro - which was an excellent example for my 4-year-old who is currently learning that piece. Her musicality in the Seitz Concertos (after stumbling through some of the notes since it's been a while) was incredible!

I affirm that REVIEW is an important and essential part of the Suzuki Method. If my daughter didn't review when she was in books 1-4, this review now that she's in book 5 would have just been relearning all the notes. Instead, she's taking pieces she already knows and adding on layer after layer of musicality!

You can download this review chart at The Practice Shoppe. Enjoy!

More Ideas for Review

I gave all my older kids this paper to remind them of some other creative ways to review.  They each have two different lists in their practice book that they can use....or do one of these ideas.  I can't force them to review, and I figure if they want to do it it'll be more beneficial.  I find that when I remind my older daughter to review she enjoys it quite a bit.

An Easy Practice Game

I finally got back in the groove with practicing with this little game.  It's so simple I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner!  It's been so successful that it's been the standard way of practicing with my 5-year-old for over a month now.  Never has a practicing game lasted so long, but this one has!

BINGO!

I first got this idea from one of my student's moms who always comes up with great ideas to get her 5-year-old to practice.  There are lots of different ways to use this chart - and not only for beginners!

I have two blank charts available at The Practice Shoppe.  One is 6x6 and the other one is a typical 5x5 Bingo chart.  Fill in the blanks with the current practice points (if you don't want to always print out a new chart you could laminate it and use a dry-erase marker.)  Use different things to mark off the pieces such as chocolate chips, goldfish, gummy bears, acrylic jewels, etc.  When a line is completed the student gets all of the treats or items on that line.

You could also print off TWO copies of the bingo chart and cut one up and put in a bowl or ziplock baggy and randomly pull out the different practice points to practice.  When a BINGO is made (a line completed) practicing is over.  My daughter LOVES to play this way because every once in a while her practice session isn't very long (but not very often.)  With this rule, I've told her that if she gets a BINGO before she practices her recital piece then we still have to practice that at the end.

Some more ideas from my student's parent:
Sometimes just for variety, I'll include variations like the following:

"Play ______ with your eyes closed" 
"Play ______ with a distraction"  (I got this from dog training.  You pick something they should know well and have them play it while you are trying to distract them);
"Play ___ Scale to your favorite animal rhythm"  (She has to figure out the rhythm of the animal name, like hip-po-pot-a-mus, then play that rhythm for each note on the scale - she LOVES this);
"Pitch Page"  (sing a pitch page from the I Can Read Music book);
"Rhythm Page"  (clap a rhythm page from the I Can Read Music book);
"Play a piece for your dog" (whatever dog is parked on the couch becomes the audience and she enters the stage, I pantomime opening a curtain, she gets into position, plays, bows, etc.);
"Play your favorite piece"
"Play your most challenging piece"

As a teacher I had a student's mom ask how to motivate her daughter to review Book 1 since she just wants to move on and learn Book 1.  So, I used the same concept and put all the pieces in Suzuki Violin Book 1.  This would be an excellent way to practice Book 1 - maybe a special practice each week devoted only to Book 1 review.

I hope you enjoy this game as much as we do!

Practice Book

The start of the new school year has brought a new level of motivation for me and my kids. I've been thinking of making this practice book for a long time for my students, but I didn't know how well it would get used. So, I decided to make one for my own daughter and see if we liked it. If it's successful I may pass it on to my students.

First of all, I made the cover using one of my photos with her and her violin. This is a cute one from her solo recital last year.

Right at the front of the book, I put the calendar for the whole year through next August. I'm going to use this calendar to put her violin dates (since my calendar is full of our family's activities) so she can see for herself when she has lessons and group lessons. As a kindergartener this year she will be learning a lot about calendars. We will also put a sticker on each day that she practices so she'll have a visual of how much she practices

The bulk of the practice book is the 52 blank practice guides. I have lots of different practice guides, but since I'm sure she'll be in Book 2 before next August I wanted to ensure that this book would last all year.

One of our goals this year is to play every song in Book 1 100 times. This should be a pretty easy goal considering that we play every piece at least every other day. But it sounds like a lot and I'll come up with some sort of reward when we're finished. What I used here was a Book 1 review chart with 25 boxes and I copied it 4 times.

After the Book 1 review chart are a variety of other charts just for fun in case we want to use them. This is one reason I was debating whether or not to bind this or put it in a 3 ring binder. I know that we will want to use other charts throughout the year. But I liked the idea of a spiral-bound book because it will all stay together and it will be easy to fold back so it'll fit on my lap or my stand easier.

And the very last page is a picture that I let my daughter draw so she feels like this is HER book instead of my book. She loves looking at it!

Overall, laminating the front and the back and spiral binding it (I made the copies on my home copier so I'm not counting that cost) cost me $4.50 at Alphagraphics. I hope this will motivate us to practice all year long!

Review Magnets

I was at a Suzuki Leadership Retreat and a friend of mine gave me a box of practice helps that she sold at institute years ago.  Inside were these little review magnets.  It's just a list of all the songs in Suzuki Book 1.  I put them on my magnet board and have my daughter move one over each time she plays one.  She's in Book 4 so reviewing Book 1 isn't happening like it was two years ago, but she still needs to go over them.  The best part is that she's playing these pieces just beautifully!  She adds dynamics or phrasing where she thinks it would sound good.  Her vibrato is ringing through all the pieces.  I'm amazed at the quality of sound that is coming out of these easy pieces.  THIS IS WHY REVIEW IS SO IMPORTANT!  She is learning to become expressive and dynamic with her playing on these beautifully easy pieces.  

So Many Practicing Ideas - So Little Time!

Four kids is a lot to handle and do everything else I want to do!  I never seem to have time to do everything, but I have been working a lot on starting a little business called The Practice Shoppe.  Who knows if it'll work out or if I'll make any money, but I'm noticing that I have a little business side to me that I never knew about.

I have had so many practicing tips and ideas that I need to get more on the ball and update this blog!  Every week it seems like I have a new chart idea and it always works for a few weeks.  Perhaps if I share them with you something will click and you'll find something that you love!

PRACTICE GUIDES!

Some of my students are faithful at marking off their practice guide each week.  Others, never look at one.  I recently put a chart in the parent's hands to fill out if their child wanted to use it.  My own 7yo is a half-and-half practice guide person.  There are weeks when I will fill one out and use it meticulously.  Other weeks I fill one out and it sits in the bag never to be seen again.  Although my own daughter doesn't ALWAYS use a practice guide I still believe that it is the best way to practice most efficiently.  Time is always an issue with practicing and rarely can we get everything done!  But with a practice guide, we can equally practice everything each week - even if it is not daily.  Of course, the new stuff is daily, but other things tend to slide when there isn't enough time.

I feel like I put the same things on my daughter's practice guide each week so I decided to make it a MONTHLY guide this month to see how it works.  Check it out here.  I wrote all her books and exercises at the top, then gradually worked down everything she needed to practice including review pieces.  So far the new practice guide got her attention and she wants to see how many x's she can put on the chart!  This would also be a good chart for ONLY review songs.  Good luck using it yourself.

Review boxes

Practicing review pieces is a fundamental part of the Suzuki Method.  With my 7-year-old in Suzuki violin book 4 she has a lot of review to do and it will just get more and more.  I am constantly thinking of new ways to practice review to keep it interesting.  This week review is one of her 15-minute practice sessions.  I made a chart with four boxes.  I divided the review songs in each of the four boxes.  She gets to choose a box and has to review everything in the box.  The goal is to practice all four boxes each week - only four days of review.  What are some of your ideas for review?

15 Minute Timer

I have a 7-year-old who has to practice at least an hour a day. That is a lot of practicing for someone that young. My idea this week is to break down the practice into four 15-minute sessions. One 15-minute session is working on her newest pieces. When the timer goes off we stop. Other 15-minute sessions include review, Christmas/Group pieces, and her “alone practice.” She’s learning to practice on her own so there are certain things that she practices without me.

So far, this 15-minute method is working well, except we don’t usually get all 4 sessions in each day. But, she’s been a happy practicer and that is so much better than the alternative!

I love using these TimeCubes for practicing segments like this because it is so easy to use! I know we all have timers on our phones, but this has been a game-changer because I don't have to get distracted on my phone.  It's easy enough for a kid to use.  All you do is turn the timer to the side that has the number you want to time.  This picture shows 2 minutes and 10 minutes, but there are different timers with all sorts of times.  Take a look at timers at www.thepracticeshoppe.com.