Teaching

Not much happening in the studio in July and August.  These three teenage turkeys showed up to rehearse for a day of performances though.  They asked if I would be photographing their faces.  "No", I said. "Your knees."

Knees are such a lovely part of our anatomy.  Even Scooter is impressed.

These two brothers had the audacity to grow inches and inches over the past few months, outgrew their violins and needed new ones. The new ones, of course, needed markings--little narrow tapes for finger placement. I use racing stripe tapes in three colors from the auto store.  It's sticky, pretty, and narrow enough to keep little fingers fairly accurately in tune.  T is very proud of his new violin!

B, his brother, got his new violin and finger tapes two weeks ago.  He decided to cheese for the camera at the very last minute.  

One day of teaching, five students, about an hour and forty five minutes, lots of repetition, lots of encouragement, lots of attention to bow strokes and intonation and dynamics and especially to ensemble playing, a few minutes of tuning and sticky tapes and peeling backing off the adhesive, and then a visit from a cellist who came by to get a gig folder.   An afternoon of satisfaction and blessing--priceless!

Teacher Gifts: For and From the Violin Teacher

Kelly's Korner today is a commentary on gifts to teachers.  Throughout the past 40 years of teaching violin students I have received some awesome gifts from students and their families. The gifts range in monetary value from very little to quite expensive. Here is a list of some of my faves.

1. More music--CD's of classical music or scripture songs or Christmas music. Itunes gift cards or Amazon gift cards also buy more music.  You can never have too much.
2. A ream of hole punched paper, ready to go from the printer to my students' notebooks.
3. A hand-crocheted angel for my Christmas tree
4. Gift cards to bookstores, Starbucks, Chili's, and movie theaters
5. Violin ornaments--my Christmas tree and garlands are loaded with them
6. Big coffee mugs with scriptures printed on them
7. Homemade cookie dough, ready to bake
8. Homemade bread.
9. Hand made tea towels with seasonal themes
10.  Soft ornaments for the lower branches on the trees that my children, and now my grandchildren, can touch safely.
11. Mechanical pencils--orchestra musicians never have too many.
12. A big bowl  filled with everything for a night "in" with my Muffin
13. Framed photos of my students posing with their best "violin posture"
14. One red rose
15. A handwritten note explaining why you love to make music

Gifts I love to give to my students
1. Gift of musical interpretation
2. CD's with my favorite music in a sampler
3. Ornaments with musical themes--miniature instruments or music symbols
4. Pencils
5. Mini rosin
6. Picture frames with photos of special moments we have shared
7. A harmony--the second, more difficult part to a song for which they have already learned the melody
8. Silly putty--It strengthens the fingers, and who can resist it?
9. Small silly objects they can use to learn a new skill--sticky frogs to hold under their "frog fingers"; small balls to balance on the strings to improve posture; stickers or objects they can use as a focal point
10. Games to improve memory skills
11. Hugs and praise

On the Mend

Speaking of broken... This morning was interesting. C. has this class of 3 women, M., E., and T. She asked Becki an I to come this morning and minister to them, as they come from broken backgrounds--lots of disfunction. They are leaning how to pick up their lives and do something toward getting jobs and restoring their families. Becki took charge and showed a DVD of the Francis McNutt School of Healing. I was a little uncomfortable with it, because it was so low key that it bordered on too gentle for women coming from these circumstances. Also, the DVD’s are targeted to people who want to teach about healing, not who are there to receive healing. Anyway, God always uses these things no matter what. We prayed, paired off one on one and were supposed to lead our “person” through prayers of forgiveness. T. told me right away that she had already gone there, forgiven, and all parties involved in hurting her were deceased. So, I just used the Presenting Jesus tool from Sozo and asked her if she would be willing to revisit one hurtful place in her life and ask Jesus to show up in that. She chose her birth. She was born to a 14 year old mother, product of rape, and her mother tried to get rid of the pregnancy in every way possible, then walked away after the birth. T.’s biological father’s parents found out about the baby and came after her, because they were Methodist ministers and felt obligated, but the son was also a child abuser, so they brought her into that situation as well, and never really loved her. She has survived all that and many accidents that should have resulted in death, and knows that God has kept her alive, but has admittedly taught herself not to feel anything at all. So, with much trust in Jesus to do this thing for her, to set her free in one area of her life, I asked her to close her eyes and just try to return to the place of her birth, to see if God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit were there with her. I asked what she saw and she said “nothing”. I asked her to look again and see if she saw Jesus, the Father, or the Holy Spirit. All she saw was light. Light is good! I told her that Jesus is the Light of the World that shines in Darkness and asked where the light was in the room. Right over the bed. Who is on the bed? She is the baby on the bed! Is the light moving, shimmering, doing anything? No. Just staying right there. So, I took that as a very positive sign that Jesus has always been there as a Light for her, shut down the ministry session, spoke into her life by telling her she is an overcomer and that God wants to do great and mighty things, based on the seriousness of the attacks against her life, and that she can always look at that light and know that He is with her and has always been. She kept talking for about 15 minutes, and took the brochure from the church with the healing ministry number. I pray she will seek more prayer and more ministry in the future. There were tears falling before she left, so I know that the Holy Spirit touched her in some deep place and began healing a part of her.

And your point is….?

Upon waking today I was excited that it was Wednesday, Bible study morning. Our group is studying Wising Up, a study of Proverbs by Beth Moore and I have learned so much. Last night before turning out the light I read through Proverbs 22. There is such a rich diet, right in that chapter! It seems like the verses about economy, frugality, wisdom with money, are all highlighted by the Holy Spirit.

Sure enough, today’s study was Wising Up with Money. Beth shared some very personal experiences, including mistakes, with money. She taught ways to be foolish and ways to be wise with money. I was blessed. Then we had a discussion.

The discussion seemed to reflect great anxiety in the lives of members of the group who are old enough to remember the Great Depression, or the effects on their families. Nannie also displays great anxiety right now, as she reflects on the GD. After class, L and I went to lunch and concluded that we aren’t living any differently than we were last week, economically speaking. Actually, she paid 23 cents more for pasta this week, and I paid almost 50 cents less per gallon of gasoline, so all in all, we are living more abundantly than last week.

So why the fear, anger, frustration and anxiety? God is in control, and I pray daily that every indiscretion of every candidate running for elected office on November 4 will be exposed. We should know where their weaknesses are, right now. They should enter office in humility and a spirit of serving the people by whom they will be elected, right?

After lunch I began teaching and found only two students who had adequately prepared by practicing and listening to their CD’s this week. Many of them are too busy—over scheduled with extra activities. Most of them only practice three days a week. Many of them never listen at all. I consider it the parents’ responsibility to play the CD and to observe at least a portion of each practice session. Certainly the parents should be able to watch each child and to encourage good violin posture and excellent tone. There comes a point where students are responsible for their own technical maintenance, but the parents are paying for the lessons and should be interested in the product—good tone, progress in understanding theory, adding to the repertoire.

In my policy letter I explain parents’ responsibilities, along with the students’ and mine. Mine include providing performance opportunities. I have several to which I committed the studio, gave two months to six weeks notice of the dates and listed the repertoire to be performed. The snare is other activities and conflicting schedules. Several families cannot commit to the performances because of the Nutcracker and because of sports. The rehearsals and games are not scheduled in advance. These families will not know their availability until a few days before the performance because directors and coaches schedule the exact times at the last minute.

My point is that my commitment to the performances was made in August. I thought the students were committed then also. Now they aren’t, and it isn’t their choice, or fault. My real point is, what is the point? Of a committment? A performance without practice? Two weeks without listening to the CD’s, which is the performance standard? Earning a gold medal on a test or winning a certificate or gold cup from a judge if you do not share the music you have learned with an audience? Why play only for yourself, halfheartedly, when you can give a rich gift of beautiful music to an audience?

And why do we say we trust God with our lives when we don’t really trust Him with our elected and appointed officials and our own money? I think I have a point here, but if I comb my hair just the right way, maybe it won’t be obvious