I can’t believe that after 12 years in Boston we are picking up and relocating. Just like when I moved from Utah to Boston, the hardest thing is saying goodbye to my students and the community we have built here. I am so thankful for the past 12 years. You have seen me bring home my babies, have survived a worldwide pandemic, and so many other things! Most importantly, you have welcomed me into your lives and we have made so many beautiful memories and so much beautiful music. I will miss you.

Thank You Thank You Thank You,
Libby

Week #1

Violin Review List:

Mississippi Hot Dog Twinkle, Mississippi Mississippi Twinkle, Go Tell AR (happy and sad), Allegro, Etude, Happy Farmer, Hunter’s Chorus, Two Grenadiers, Minuet in G, Gavotte in G Minor, Bach Bourree

Violin Reading:

Cabbage Easy (Recording below): Fairfield Fiddle Farm Vol. 1 pg. 4

Cabbage Hard (Recording below): Fairfield Fiddle Farm Vol. 1 pg. 32-33; If

Violin and Piano

Rhythm Practice (Winning Rhythms): Pg 2, a-e; try to do the rest of the page by yourself. Keep a steady beat and keep counting!!!

Flashcards

Listening

Brahms’ Violin Concerto

Mozart Piano Concertos

It is here! Packets with all the information you could possible want/need will be going out at lessons starting tomorrow. Digital copies are included below.

Happy Back to School!!!

Fall Semester 2014 Practice Chart

Fall Semester 2014 Weekly Schedule

Fall Semester 2014 Semester Calendar

Fall Semester 2014 Policies, Procedures, and Contract

Fall Semester 2014 Parent Practice

Fall Semester 2014 Letter

Fall Semester 2014 Group Lists and Rep Sheet

Fall Semester 2014 Current Trade List

I know some of you have started reading our book Nurture Shock and I wanted to share a little bit of it with you. I hope you all can read it. It is great! If you haven’t found a copy of it yet you can order it here or I know the library has several copies of it.

In the first chapter “The Inverse Power of Praise” we read:

“The presumption is that if a child believes he’s smart (having been told so, repeatedly), he won’t be intimidated by new academic challenges. The constant praise is meant to be an angel on the shoulder, ensuring that children do not sell their talents short.

“But a growing body of research…strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it.”

A bold statement! And one that I did not agree with originally. Bronson goes on to share the findings of a woman named Dr. Carol Dweck from her studies on praise. He talks about different kinds of praise. When praised for innate ability or talent, children react one way and when praised for effort, children react another. I find these studies fascinating. Another article about Dr. Dweck’s work can be found here.

Have any of you read this?

What are your thoughts?

There was an article in the New York Times titled “Is Music the Key to Success?” I encourage each of you to read it, Do you believe there is a connection?

This fits right in with our discussion on the Non-Musical Benefits of music study–providing us with prominent successful examples of playing an instrument. 

I received this email from another mom (who happens to be my mom…) and thought it was particularly appropriate with our recital coming up on Saturday:

I want to share with you two of the parent responses I received to my question about the non-musical benefits of taking music lessons. Thanks for your replies!

Stephanie said:

“I think the non-musical benefits include learning to concentrate, gaining confidence, appreciating incremental success, developing respect for others and their talent.

I also think there are many benefits to parents besides listening to great music.  Along the way, I have gained some really valuable parenting perspective.  The band teacher at the middle school is particularly magical and he stressed how much kids need praise for what they get right.  He has some sort of formula for a praise to criticism ratio that has been good for me to remember along the way.  He is good to remind parents about just how hard it is to learn to play an instrument, not that it’s not worth the effort, but that it is effort.  Music has helped me push my kids in ways that I thought were good, like “just learn the first line today,” rather than letting them abandon a piece.  I often remind them at the end that what once seemed impossible is now totally playable.”

“I think there’s a huge benefit in having to practice something over and over as a means to perfection (see Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers). I also think that the repetition required to get a piece performance-ready is a built-in failure/reward system. One of the things that is less and less available to children is the opportunity to fail at something over and over and the intertwined ability to learn from the failure. Playing a piece beautifully requires a lot of playing it less than beautifully and persisting until it gets better. Extrapolate that out to, say, medical research, and someone who learned persistence in the face of failure or only partial success is going to be better prepared to fine-tune a pump for implantation, or more likely to conduct more rigorous studies of a new medication.

We talk a lot about wanting our children to succeed. I’d rather have mine fail, hard as it is for all of us when that happens. If they learn that failure isn’t final, that picking up and starting over is always an option, that they will most likely fail repeatedly at any skill before getting it right, they’re going to be more resilient and resourceful adults, people who have the confidence that they can do hard things.”

I received some great responses back to my Parent Education question from last week about the non-musical benefits of taking music lessons. I’ll be sharing some of those next week but this week I wanted to give you my list. Read through and see if you agree/ disagree or if you can think of additional things that should be added.

Every parent enrolls his or her child in music lessons for a reason. For many it is simply because that child has expressed an interest in playing or maybe it is because the parent played or plays and wants to pass on that legacy. I started playing at the age of three, the third of four children to begin violin at a young age. We all played because my parents saw value in taking a musical instrument–not just musical value but physical value, developmental value, social value, aural value.

That is what I want you to think about this week: what are some of the non musical benefits of taking a musical instrument. The last time I sat down and wrote them out I came up with over 50 of them.

I’d love to hear what you come up with!

Hello Studio!

Fall/Winter Semester 2013 being September 3^rd. I can’t believe how the summer flew by!

At the beginning of each school year I encourage each of you to re-familiarize yourself with the Studio website (millerviolinstudio.com) and the Studio’s policies and procedures. All information I distribute to you can be found somewhere on the Studio website. It is meant to be a resource for you and I hope you use it as one.

On the main page you will find a list of upcoming events which includes important studio dates (ex. recitals, group events, etc) as well as a section titled “Featured Post.” Here I re-post important information distributed via email as well as pictures, recordings, repertoire lists, practice ideas, and the like.

All Studio policies, as well as current group class and repertoire lists, can be found under the “Teaching Philosophy” and “Studio” tabs. “Calendars and Events” includes a calendar link to my Google calendar as well as a pdf copy of the monthly calendar I email out each month. FYI: the Google calendar only shows approximately 1 week of lessons at a time, leaving the following weeks blank. If you are looking at the schedule far in advance, reference either the monthly pdf version of the calendar or the semester calendar distributed at the beginning of each semester.

Below you will find pdf copies of the following (hard copies will be distributed at the first lesson of the semester):

–       a summary of all studio policies and procedures and a contract stating you have read and agree to all studio policies and procedures

–       a Fall/Winter Semester 2013 Semester Calendar

–       a Group Class List for Fall/Winter Semester 2013

–       a September 2013 Calendar

–       a copy of my weekly schedule as well as a Trade List to be used when rescheduling students. THE TRADE LIST IS THE ONLY DOCUMENT THAT WILL NOT BE POSTED ON THE WEBSITE. You will receive a hard copy of it as well as an email of it. I do not want to post my students’ (your) personal information on the website.

As always, if you have questions, feel free to contact me any time.

I am excited for the fall. It is one of my favorite times of year and there are fun things planned for this semester!

Libby

Fall:Winter Semester 2013 Policies and Procedures

Fall:Winter Semester 2013 Semester Schedule

Fall:Winter Semester 2013 Group Class Lists

MVS Sept 2013 Calendar

Fall:Winter 2013 Weekly Schedule

Fall:Winter Semester 2013 Trade List