By Teri Einfeldt, extracted from SAA Website

At least two Alpert Studio students will be attending a summer Suzuki institute this summer. Here are some tips to assist your institute experiences.

Tips for the home teacher:

Explain to the student and parent that the purpose of a master class is not to learn new pieces.

Define and help student prepare a polished piece to play for the private lesson/master class. Often a good guideline is a piece four pieces behind the one on which they are currently working. The home teacher should designate this piece before the student leaves for the institute, and the piece must be in the Suzuki repertoire (even for advanced students).

Students should be expected to practice daily for the master class (and other classes, as well) during the Institute. Parents should take careful notes. The home teacher should be given a copy of the notes after the institute for their own reference.

The student may be asked to do something differently at the Institute—this is a good thing!

Make sure the students arrive with proper equipment:

CD and player or iPod to listen to their piece. Suzuki Books.
Piano Accompaniment, especially for any additional piece outside of the Suzuki repertoire. Metronome and Tuner. Rosin. A properly prepared instrument. Put on new strings, consider getting the bow rehaired before the institute. Check over your equipment!

Let students know beforehand whether they are ready for a new instrument or not. Often, vendors will attract students to upgrades that they are not quite ready for.

Let them know whether to accept instrument setup advice from the institute teacher.

Give the student questions to ask the institute teacher, when appropriate, concerning ongoing issues (such as posture, vibrato, set-up, etc).

Be content with ensemble placements. Remember that this is not the most important part of the Institute, and the chamber repertoire will require additional practice time.
Create an institute checklist to ensure that you have everything you need for a productive and fun week!

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Kinderfiddle preparatory music and early violin program presented by Foothill Suzuki Strings

Can you imagine a violin program that meets the needs of a 3 year old and at the same time professional performing artists?

A revolutionary new program is being used across the country and will soon find its way across the globe. It was conceived by a master teacher who was trained at Peabody Conservatory (and has studied with violin giants Henryk Szeryng, Charles Libove and Eudice Shapiro). Educator, performing and recording artist Mark Casillas has created the Fiddlesticks Violin Education Course, designed to take a violinist from toddler to performing artist.

Drawing upon elements as diverse as Dounis and Kreutzer to the more modern Suzuki Method, the Fiddlesticks course provides a solid foundation for beginning string players and a potent workout for advanced players alike. Foothill Suzuki Strings is proud to offer this program to students in the Inland Empire area of Southern California and beyond.

Patented Fiddlesticks Violin easily develops correct technique and posture

Learning how to hold a violin and bow in correct form and with freedom from tension is often the greatest obstacle to a beginning student. The Fiddlesticks system uniquely solves this problem with its patented “training” violin, which has been utilized by students as young as 2 years.

FSS will offer Fiddlesticks sessions for ages 3 and above in Rancho Cucamonga and La Verne, CA beginning in Sept. 2009. To receive an announcement of exact class times and locations, please visit our registration page.

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Have you ever tried to play a cello outdoors in freezing weather? Playing a string instrument is challenging under any circumstance, but a quartet of America’s concert artists rose to the challenge. The performers braved the elements, actually playing their instruments, though they were playing along with their own prerecorded version of the piece.

Performing Air and Simple Gifts, a new composition by John Williams, were cellist Yo-Yo Ma, clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist Gabriela Montero and the inimitable Itzhak Perlman on violin. This beautiful new composition truly set the tone for the event.

What’s it like to be a featured performer at one of the most historically significant moments in our nation’s history? Yo-Yo’s face pretty much said it all. When the music finally broke into that famous Shaker melody and the theme was passed to the cello, he was positively beaming. Catch the video on YouTube

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The irrepressible Mimi Zweig leads a master class at the String Academy of Wisconsin on the Campus of University of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee.

When accomplished 15 year old violinist Brian Zhang signed up to play for Mimi Zweig, he was probably thinking of Mozart, Bach or Barber. Little did he know he’d soon be taking a 90 minute journey through the A major scale! Ms. Zweig, noted violinist, pedagogue, educator and mentor to many world class musicians (including violin/celeb Joshua Bell) has a way of turning complex problems into simple solutions.

“There’s a Zen to playing scales,” says Zweig, “that can calm even a teenage student who just had a fight with her mother.” Within the scale routine, and its dozens of variant bowings and rhythms, can be found the technical basis for almost any element of violin playing. And today for Brian, the simple act of remembering to play an open D string instead of using his 4th finger, provided a challenge almost as great as the Sarasate showpiece he performed just hours earlier.

Be it playing first base for the Yankees or playing Brahms, the greatest performers and athletes always focus on the fundamentals. The slight over tilting of a head, a bit of tightness in the shoulder joint, a posture that looks a little closed at times: these are among the dozens of subtle elements that never escape Zweig’s eye. She seems to have a certain ESP that brings the most relevant issue into focus within just a few notes of a scale. It’s a pleasure and inspiration for teachers everywhere to see her in action.

So remember, students: If you’d like to get to Carnegie Hall, or even if you just need to polish up your next Suzuki recital, the fastest way might just be playing your scales!

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Master Teacher Darcy Drexler explains the finer points of violin vibrato to seven year old Academy student Margaret Knox.

Every summer, string teachers from across the country (myself included) make a pilgrimage to Milwaukee. They’re here to observe what is arguably one of the finest models of string education in the world. For teachers, it’s a four day intense program of immersion simply entitled Teaching the Violin to Children.

The String Academy of Wisconsin, founded in 1990 by well known pedagogue Mimi Zweig, takes its roots from the teaching philosophies of Shinichi Suzuki and Paul Rolland. These two violin luminaries were certainly some of the most influential violin educators of the 20th century. Currently Executive Director Darcy Drexler, along with Zweig form the core faculty of the Workshop. For violin teachers, it’s a rare opportunity to draw upon years of experience distilled by some of the most effective violin teachers in the world.

For me, a trip like this is great fun. Every day is non-stop violin: lecture, demonstration and recitals. It’s inspiring and motivating, exhausting and at the same time exhilarating. For my students: it means.. well they’ll be finding out soon enough

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