Comments on: got2twinkle part II – Suzuki violin

By: TECstudio

TECstudio — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:56:17 +0000

@jelliesjellies I have both active and easily distracted children in my studio all the time. The secret is training parents how to work with their children at home so they know how to organize and pace the activities. Violin is a great activity for these children be cause they need more development of their vistibular system, upper body skills and deep listening activity. I wish you could watch me teach.

By: TECstudio

TECstudio — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:38:27 +0000

@bainpg Very good question. There are many things going on here. One, the heavy end of the bow is at the frog. Two, Small children are still developing strength in their thumbs and will tense up the fingers in their bow holds when the thumb is doing most of the work. Their joints double joint and buckle. Three, It is better to give more work to the larger limbs and develop the child’s core strength before making demands of smaller fine motor muscle groups.

By: TECstudio

TECstudio — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:37:52 +0000

Lastly, the bow balances best close to the frog and this takes the tension out of the fingers. Let the violin carry the wieght of the bow over the shoulder. The hand and the frog of the bow hang from the strings relaxing the bow arm shoulder and elbow.

By: TECstudio

TECstudio — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:37:30 +0000

The child learns that the bow is already heavy enough to make sound with out pressing the horse hair into the string and that developing the ability to relax and balance the bow into the string will give them tone and articulation. I’m doing lots of aditional activities not shown here to develop physical core abilities.

By: bainpg

bainpg — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:07:44 +0000

Just wondering – what is the rationale for having the pre-twinklers play exclusively in the lower part of the bow?

By: bainpg

bainpg — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:07:41 +0000

Just wondering – what is the rationale for having the pre-twinklers play exclusively in the lower part of the bow?

By: Lucas121242

Lucas121242 — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:55:07 +0000

I am 20 yrs old and I just got back into playing the violin since I quite 10 yrs ago and playing with the suzuki method and have trouble with the bowing.

This is really good.

By: TECstudio

TECstudio — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:35:40 +0000

Dear Jellies:

Your welcome to come and observe in one of my programs next time you are in California.

By: jelliesjellies

jelliesjellies — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:56:29 +0000

im a suzuki teacher trainee, and this is really helpful. thankyou very much! any tips on keeping a hyperactive 3 yr old engaged?!

By: TECstudio

TECstudio — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:23:43 +0000

These children are feeling the movement of the bow in its path from the shoulder to the knee. Next they get comfortable with the bow hold on their shoulder before it finally goes up on the open strings. Holding both the violin and the bow takes endurance to last through all 4 twinkles. At the end older students do community service project for local children’s hospital at local food court. See their graduation on Vivaldi now that they are in High school. Better posture, better intonation.