Suzuki Violin - Discussion

[smurf]

Mr Kang only teaches at Jurong East right? That's too far for me.

[mommyNg]

Hi Chamonix,


Great to hear that playing along with the CD works!!! You may already be doing this, perhaps you may want to devote some part of his practice session to work on just on his bow hand and pitch without playing along with the CD? I hope I'm not giving you possibly spurious ideas... how about changing the tempo of the songs? Otherwise, just treat playing-along-with-the-CD as a bonus lor.... :D. As for pitch, does his violin teacher talk about working on tonalization with him? It should help with getting the right pitch.

Your son's resolution to learning the violin is half the battle won!

[smurf]

Is it necessary for 4 year old to go through Suzuki method, or can they already read notes (aka beansprouts words)? :?

[phankao]

chamonix:

In the beginning, it's so difficult to get them to practise more than 15 mins. Always complained about feet pain, chest pain, shoulder pain etc... But as time goes on, they are able to take longer period of practices. 100 times, of course not in one go lah. They are allowed to rest in between or practise at different times of the day. Too bad, I wasn't disciplined enough :oops:

Hah, tell me about it. Even my 10year old was into the feet pain, shoulder pain, body itchy, head hot. That was when I was trying to get him to be serious in the last few weeks before his exam. The practices were not long per se, just that I don't like to waste time, so I wanted him to be serious and *chop* *chop* during the practice (I was the accompanist *LOL*). :x :x :x Luckily he did well, so being strict was not so bad after all, lah. I'm all for serious but short practices - efficiency & quality practices.

[phankao]

chamonix:

Sama sama here. My son thought the violin make beautiful sound. Now he knows it's hard to play the instrument well. I understand what you mean about not knowing his preference. My friend's son wanted drum lessons but gave up half way. Now he is requesting for guitar.

Violin is probably one of the most difficult instrument to learn. Intonation is soooooo important. We sure endured lots of the cat scratching sounds when our boy first started. :stupid: :!:

[Mamamal]

Hi


My child is currently learning suzuki violin, just finished Book 4. As his school work is piling on, I would like to engage a 1-to-1 private, qualified teacher (female preferred) to teach him, at his own pace. My child has lots of homework to do during the wkdays, hence limited time to practice violin. Worried that he may not be able to cope with next level. I am open to either to continue with Suzuki or even classical (ABRSM exam). Venue can be either student’s or teacher’s. I am residing in the west.

If anyone has any contacts, please let me know ? Thanks.

[lovebearsallthings]

My boy is turning 4 soon. I am interested to start him on music, but I’m deciding between piano and violin.


My boy can’t sit still. Do you think he can start with an instrument which requires efforts in maintaining posture etc at 4 years old? Half of me is torn between waiting till he is older, and yet the other half hopes to use music to instil in him some form of ‘quietness’!

Could you share your experience as a parent? I read that a lot of children complained about pain. But did they continue with it? I guess it requires a lot of perserverance on the children - and I’m wondering if this is a good age to start, without getting them frightened by music lessons. What do you think? Thank you!

[Mamamal]

4 years old is a good age to learn a musical instrument, be it piano or violin. The main reason why we started our child on music was to channel his energy somewhere, to learn instrument, and to cultivate music capabilities in him. Most importantly, the process of learning helps to instill self-discipline in him, though at this point of time, after five years, we are still waiting to see the results we wanted. Agreed that it takes a lot of patience and perseverance, both on parents and child. Sometimes, i felt very ‘heart pain’ whenever i saw my child crying while practising, as it was tough trying to figure out the right note and intonation. Of course, all the hard work would be duly rewarded when you play a nice piece.


As to whether to learn piano or violin? I know there are kids who learn both… it’s a matter of time management. What’s more important is the child’s interest. No harm letting the child try out the instrument. Understd that you need only a keyboard to start Yamaha lessons, and a cheap china-made violin (less than $100).

[mommyNg]

My dd1 also the kind who cannot sit still! At first I thought perhaps she should start learning the piano especially since I play the piano and I can coach her a bit, but she showed no interest when I propped her onto the piano bench a few times when she was younger. One day, probably around 4 years old, she was hitting the piano keys with her cousin just for fun, and then the next moment I heard her crying. I saw her sitting on the floor near the bench crying. Apparently she (couldn’t sit still) was moving her butt left and right until she fell off the bench! ‘:roll:’


Since then, I have decided not to start her off with piano, else more accidents would happen … ha ha! ‘:lol:’ Anyway, this is not the main reason lah, the main reason is that she told me she wanted to learn the violin (likely after she saw one of her preschool teachers played the violin during music time, and she probably like the sound and the way her teacher played the instrument). This is a good sign, just like chamonix’s son… many times I wanted to give up when we struggled during practice sessions at home, but every time she said no, said she wanted to continue learning the violin. She’s been learning for about 1 year now…

Some things I like about Suzuki violin:
1) first few songs are popular folk songs, which helps to keep them interested
2) listening to the CDs helps her pick up the songs very fast
3) play-by-ear helps train her pitch, intonation and musical memory
4) playing from memory helps build up a repertoire very quickly and hone musical performance ability
5) the master class can be a good and fun channel to motivate the kids to play better
6) the philosophy that every child can learn to play the violin, through continued exposure and encouragement

It not only requires a lot of perseverance on the children, it also requires a lot of perseverance on the parents too! 4-5 years old is a good age to start. Best if can expose to the Suzuki violin CD at a younger age. A kind and patient teacher helps, I think.

[metz]

Hi Smurf,


If the child knows his/her alphabet well, it shouldn’t be an issue learning to read musical notes. My neigbour’s daughter started classical piano at 4 years old.


Hi phankao,

With your family musical background, it’ll definitely be more of a breeze for you to start your toddler/preschooler on violin.

Great to know that all the pain related complaints are normal. It can be rather infuriating when they whined about the pains. Sometimes, I just threaten to discontinue the lessons if the pains were so bad.

For a tone-deaf person like me, violin is definitely beyond me. In the beginning, I don’t dare even make my son practice b’cos the violin was frequently out of tune. I had no idea how to tune it. It was only later when I bought an electronic tuner that he started practicing more regularly. Hopefully, the tuner will turn out to be a wise investment for us.


Hi lovebearalthingsl,

One reason my friend sent her son for violin lessons was to train him to stand still :!: , No joke, it’s true.

At first, I was half hearted to start my younger child on violin too. I used to think it’s impossible for kids to start on musical instruments that early. Not only posture & discipline, but also dexterity as well. But my daughter proves me wrong. In fact, one advantage of starting early is that my girl has yet to learn to use brute force. Hence, it’s easier for her to draw the bow on the strings without scratching them too much.

Both my kids complain a lot on pains, especially in the beginning. But slowly, the complaints dwindled. Still hasn’t reached the point of zero complaints but I can see they are learning to deal with the pains. They would still continue to practise even though they might whine a little.

Another thing I observed from starting early is that their physical dexterity improves. I’m not sure it’s maturity or the violin practices, but both my kids’ handwriting are much better than before.

Perhaps a good point to start is to enroll your son for piano/violin group lessons? Usually, it’s better to start kids with group lessons as it is more fun. If your son likes music and is progressing well, then you might consider changing to private 1-1 lessons.


Hi MommyNg,

As a person with zero knowledge on music, I’m all ears for more suggestions.

His bowing is quite alright (as long as he concentrates) when he plays slow. Problem is he doesn’t like to play slow. He might start slow but tempo becomes fast halfway. Before I start him on playing with the CD, he is forced to play slow but he will forget the notes now and then . Sometimes, I think he feel it’s a chore to play slow. But after last week’s lesson, there’s more improvement now. His teacher encouraged him to play both ways (as what you suggested). He’s now more willing to play slow. And for learning new songs, instead of just using notes CDE, I’m also using Do-Re-Mi. Seems like it’s working on him

I’m wondering about tonalization too. Will check with his teacher during the next lesson.

My kids can sit pretty still but can’t stand still! My son used to get scolding for not concentrating during lessons. Whenever he plays the violin, his body will sway (a little) all over, sometimes to the extent that he may lose his balance. His teacher thought he was trying to be funny. Then he realized that was not the cause when he saw my daughter having the same problem. They just have problems with balancing whenever they concentrate on playing. I'm suspecting that it could be due to their left-handedness.

:celebrate: My kids too will scream murder whenever I threaten to withdraw them from violin. At one point I was so tired that I truly wanted to withdraw him, he kept begging me and finally asked if he could pick up violin again later on. I felt so cruel then. I suppose as parents, what we can is to persevere and support them.