Funny how quickly I lose my good attitude.  I was ready to teach…and then I just didn’t have enough patience today.  The kids were annoying me to NO end.  I ended up giving them a variety of lectures (different lectures for different groups/kids) involving a) not talking while I am talking and how RUDE that is b) how I want them to have good posture or c) how hard I am working for them to refer to notes by NAME and not “1” or “3”.  I was also tired…so I was happy to have a chance to grab some coffee…

I ordered a “red-eye” which is coffee with a shot of espresso (naughty, I know!) and when I got up to the window the barista asked if I would like another shot for free.  Evidently the machines only make two shots at a time, so they have an extra on occasion (when it’s not going to be used for the next order, for instance) and he said if the person seems nice enough when they aren’t too busy, they ask.  I briefly thought about it (would it make me shaky?) and said, YES.  I have a serious caffeine problem.

I made it through the day though, and then my home students were delightful.  I have two new adult students (off the waiting list, yay!) late on Monday and I was a little concerned, but they are both going to be easy to teach and interact with.  I love it when I am comfortable with students and can just enjoy giving a lesson.  Plus there just aren’t THAT many school Mondays left (less than 8) until summer…believe it or not.

It’s really my own fault I was tired today because I overbooked myself yesterday.  The day was to end with a viewing of Lord of the Rings with friends to prepare for the upcoming “live” performance, but that started late because dinner ran about an hour late (went to Market Pub House in the Loop with Joe and Michelle…the food was fine, but the service was super slow.  I guess they were busier than anticipated).  Before than I had plans to go to the Art Museum with Melissa, but evidently doing that on the nicest day all year means that everybody and their mother PLUS their entire family was in Forest Park and there just wasn’t anywhere remotely close to the Art Museum to park.  We were planning to attend the special exhibit about the Mayans (I actually haven’t been at all yet, so special exhibit or not, it was a good idea), but after looking for a place to park, we decided getting coffee would be a nicer way to spend the afternoon.  We ended up at Benton Park Café, where I had been before.  It’s a very cute little place.  In any case, we’ll have to return on a weekday perhaps to try the exhibit.  Or on a hot and humid or rainy day.

from the Benton Park Café website

Tomorrow I will be more rested and will have less need for coffee.  I have two days off from teaching, so hopefully by Thursday my patience will have returned (ha!), and perhaps I’ll have even scheduled a haircut by then.

There are two events the next two days that interest me, and lucky for me I am on quasi-spring break or I would not be able to go to either of them:

Tuesday, March 22 at 7:30 pm:  Recital: Will James, percussion and Peter Henderson, piano.  Will is principal percussion of the SLSO and a friend of mine.  Both he and Peter are fantastic musicians.

Wednesday, March 23 at 4 pm:  Rebecca Skloot gives a lecture at Washington University.  Awesome!

Oh, yes, lots of culture coming up!  (to make up for my failed Art Museum attempt…and in case being a full time musician wasn’t enough culture.)

Yesterday I got up early as usual to get ready and head out to St. Peters (about 45 minutes west).  I happened to glance out the window…and it was snowing!  I checked the traffic and it said the traffic was a mess, the roads were a mess, etc, so I made a snap decision to cancel my morning.  I didn’t want to mess around for a very small amount of money and two classes.  Sorry guys!

I taught the rest of the day as the snow changed over to rain and became very slushy.  I had a new adult student today, and another new adult next week (the adults are easier to squeeze in as they can come a little later than kids).  Do other teachers find they are getting more adults wanting to play?  I have quite a few 20-somethings.  I’m glad—I think anybody can learn violin at any age if they are willing to practice a bit, and it’s a great skill to have.

I got really upset today at something a student said (I didn’t show it).  One of my students had mentioned the Japanese tsunami/earthquake situation, and I was concerned they might be worried about it, so I asked “how do you feel about it?”   They thought a bit, and then said “well, more people will be in hell now.”  I was completely shocked.  I asked what they meant, and evidently they had been studying Japan and learned that the primary religion was Buddhist, and therefore those people were going to hell, as they weren’t Christian. What’s more, the student didn’t seem that concerned either way.  I just didn’t know what to say, so I quickly changed the subject.

I went to the bathroom after the student and cried a bit.  Where is the compassion for people?  Where is the love for humanity?  Where is the concern for others?  How is a child being taught this? 

I’m almost done with the book I’ve been reading “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson. The book has been an emotional read (perhaps I was also quite raw from reading it beforehand) that really brings to life the atrocities brought upon African Americans in the past, particularly the Jim Crow laws in the South—some being in place into the 1970’s—the decade of my birth!  Something that seemed so long ago to me suddenly seems so real and so recent, and the author does a terrific job really bringing the stories to life (I highly recommend reading this book.)  What really hits me is that not only are some of the people who were treated in this way still alive, but those who TREATED THEM THIS WAY are still.  And imagine what they may have taught their children. 

I’ve mentioned I was raised in the south, and racism was very present in my hometown.  Racism is still very much alive in our country today everywhere, no matter what anybody wants to think.  If it’s not African Americans who are being judged and discriminated against, it’s people of Arab descent, or SCHOOL TEACHERS.  Why can’t we all just respect one another and live together, and realize we can all coexist peacefully?  Don’t we all want similar things in life?  Food, shelter, love?  Isn’t the world a more interesting place with all different kinds of people?

Being a Suzuki teacher is about teaching love.  Where love is deep, much can be accomplished.  Suzuki was a from Japan.  Maybe that is why that comment hurts so much…to think that somebody could condemn such a wonderful, loving man to hell…it’s just ridiculous to me.  It makes me nauseous.

When you realize that “pancake patrol” has finally succeeded in helping your students have straighter wrists…and they sound better!

When you realize that your pre-teen or teenage student needs someone to listen to them complain about their day or their asshole classmates as much as they need somebody to help them work on their shifts and double stops.

When your student gets that happy face when they finally “get” something tough or tricky.

When your students learn a new piece that they really love.

When you play an example for your students and they are blown away by how awesome the violin can really sound…

On a serious note, I lost one of my favorite students today—he was my first student here in St Louis, and now the family has decided not to continue.  I’m sad.  I absolutely loved teaching him, and his mom was awesome too. I will miss them!

On another serious note, does anybody else have the situation in which your adolescent students sometimes confide things in you that aren’t super serious, but yet you think maybe the parents should know?  One of my students seems to be having trouble getting along with classmates at school and there might be a little bit of bullying going on (him being bullied, perhaps)…I try to just chat it up with him and make him feel like a normal, good, decent person, and hopefully to help him realize that IT GETS BETTER but I don’t know if I should do more?  Basically he’s a bit nerdy and socially VERY awkward but has a great heart.  And I think some kids might be very mean to him at school and maybe pushing him around a bit?  Thoughts?  Suggestions? 

If you don’t know who Mark O’Connor is you can visit his website or his wikipedia page to learn a bit about him.  He is a fiddle player who has become a very successful “crossover” artist.  I performed with Mark O’Connor when he played his Fiddle Concerto with the Youngstown Symphony many years ago.

A couple of years ago Mark announced that he was coming out with a brand new method for teaching children.  This method would involve listening and would have ten volumes.  This method would be brand new and completely revolutionary.  This method would involve American music.

Well, as a Suzuki teacher always looking to improve my teaching, the idea of a revolutionary method is exciting!  However…the Suzuki method already uses listening, has ten volumes, and (let’s not forget) was brand new and completely revolutionary, no matter how much people like to dump on it.  Before the Suzuki philosophy swept the United States there were not enough string players coming through school to fill our orchestras…nowadays there are so many good players auditioning for each spot in an orchestra that very few get a job.  The concept behind the Suzuki Method wasn’t to create professional musicians though—it was (and still is) to help children become better people.  To make the world a better place through music.  Or as Susan Kempter said the other day, to offer an alternative…

Okay, so where does that leave us?  A few weeks ago I learned that there was to be a teacher training seminar for the first two Mark O’Connor method books at Webster University.  The cost:  $100, which INCLUDED the two volumes with CD ($29.95 each, only sold at Shar).  What a fantastic deal!  I signed up immediately. (You know I love my teaching seminars).

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to meet Mark—he was in town on Wednesday and Thursday, but I wasn’t able to get to the workshop until the teacher training officially started on Friday night.  His assistant and editor Pamela Wiley was teaching the course. 

Did I have preconceived notions about the method?  Yes, I’m sorry to say.  I’m suspicious of people who seem to be out to make a buck at the expense of children, and selling the book at only Shar smells like buck-making to me.  Additionally I felt (in advance) that much of what Mark said about his method was insulting to the Suzuki method since that truly was a revolutionary method.  Group classes, listening to recordings repeatedly, parental involvement, very young children playing the violin, and teacher training…all of those fantastic ideas are FROM the Suzuki method (philosophy) and that in today’s music teaching take for granted as things that people do. 

I do have students that grow tired of the Suzuki repertoire.  Often these are students who aren’t progressing the way they should because they aren’t practicing or listening.  But perhaps they just aren’t inspired.  I also have students that do not use the Suzuki method (modified OR full-fledged).  For these students I am constantly looking for better ways to teach them.  THAT is why I jumped on this workshop!  Plus, did I mention it was only $100?

I showed up Friday night with a friend.  We checked in and received our books.  Class started, and it was pretty evident that the teacher was a disciple of Mark O’Connor.  She firmly believed in everything he was doing, which is good for a teacher of the method.  It was also pretty evident that this was not a method for beginning teachers to teach, but for those already pretty well versed in teaching…okay, fine, it’s brand new.  But subtle jabs towards Suzuki kept coming “This is SUCH a better way to teach low 2” or “ HERE is how you really play up-up bowing” or “This is much easier for children to learn than Allegretto.”  Okay…maybe I’m overly sensitive.  But again—let’s not pretend that Suzuki doesn’t make the method possible!  Without ALREADY trained Suzuki teachers teaching all over the US, there would be no real framework for the O’Connor Method to spread. 

Enough of the negative.  What’s good about it?  Well—it’s all American music.  Which is just fantastic for students to relate to.  None of those dead European composers (well, other than Dvorak?!).  Plus each piece or song has a little story about it’s history, which is really interesting and informative. 

But the cool part is:  the children are encouraging to start improvising RIGHT away.  Usually people are trained in a classical manner and then learn improvising, or perhaps start on the fiddle and learn to improvise but never really learn in a systematic way.  But with this method, perhaps kids can improvise in a variety of styles and play classically as well (I say perhaps because there are only two volumes so far, and nothing is proven.)  In just a few days, I myself have learned so much more about improvising and a variety of styles (olde tyme fiddle, blues, irish fiddle) than I have in my life.  I even feel I could teach my students to do this!  And if you start early, well, you won’t be so scared later in life.  Four year olds improvising!  Well, that is almost as exciting as thousands of children playing the same song together .  Why is improvising important?  Well, creativity in music (as in life) is always an important skill.  Improvising is one part of creativity.

I doubt I will become a true Mark O’Connor method teacher like Pam Wiley, but I will certainly use the songs and ideas in my own teaching.  Another teacher told me the thing they liked best about the workshop was how Pam had really embraced these new ideas after teaching Suzuki for such a long time—she felt it meant that she would be able to keep growing and changing as a teacher throughout her life, and that you can teach an old dog new tricks.