A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
- Henry Adams, 1907
A student, lets call her T, came to me about a month or so ago for violin lessons. She wants to do Grade 5 and upon listening to her play for the first time, i was thinking 'what on EARTH did her previous teacher do to her???'
Her tone was so airy - like eating sponge cake. She couldn't read notes on the 3rd position if she was presented with sight-reading. She passed Grade 4 on the dot. She hadn't learnt vibrato at all. i was wondering who her cruel ex-teacher was. Don't people realise that these early years on the violin are SOO important to the development of a kid's playing?
Anyway, I've had about 4 lessons with her now and today I played through one of her exam pieces with her on the piano. Her mum was in the next room, and after the lesson, commented 'my daughter sounded so good just now! I'm really impressed and you have whipped her into shape.'
Yes, T has finally managed to start using a bit of vibrato and actually play with a tone more suited to a triple layer chocolate cake - heavy and sustained. YAY! BYE BYE SPONGE CAKE!
That made my day - seeing my kids improve just makes me smile with delight. Now I just pray that she continues improving and pass her exam in March with flying colours! :)
- Henry Adams, 1907
A student, lets call her T, came to me about a month or so ago for violin lessons. She wants to do Grade 5 and upon listening to her play for the first time, i was thinking 'what on EARTH did her previous teacher do to her???'
Her tone was so airy - like eating sponge cake. She couldn't read notes on the 3rd position if she was presented with sight-reading. She passed Grade 4 on the dot. She hadn't learnt vibrato at all. i was wondering who her cruel ex-teacher was. Don't people realise that these early years on the violin are SOO important to the development of a kid's playing?
Anyway, I've had about 4 lessons with her now and today I played through one of her exam pieces with her on the piano. Her mum was in the next room, and after the lesson, commented 'my daughter sounded so good just now! I'm really impressed and you have whipped her into shape.'
Yes, T has finally managed to start using a bit of vibrato and actually play with a tone more suited to a triple layer chocolate cake - heavy and sustained. YAY! BYE BYE SPONGE CAKE!
That made my day - seeing my kids improve just makes me smile with delight. Now I just pray that she continues improving and pass her exam in March with flying colours! :)
1 comment:
I am an music teacher myself.
I liked your blog very much.
I invite you to know the mine.
Is about classical music. I am brazilian, do you speak portuguese? Because your name is portuguese.
Sorry my bad english.
Nádya.
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