violin frustration/vent

[Kim in Appalachia]

I have 3 kids taking violin. My oldest violinist is 11. She's been taking violin for 5 years. We have been with the same teacher. When we started the teacher used pure Suzuki method, but has since changed to include a few more traditional methods. This would include learning scales, arpeggios, finger exercises, and seperate technique work. Overall, the teacher is good. She plays well, has incredible technique and is good at teaching kids.

 

The problem has been with my oldest. She is one of the few students who has not also taken piano lessons. This has become an issue, since the teachers largest weakness is teaching students to read music. My dd is at the point where she can read the notes to me, but reading the notes and playing the correct note at the same time can be a problem. Her eyes sometimes skip a note while she's playing and she get lost in the piece. She's working in Suzuki book 4. The 16th notes are killing her. She is becoming increasingly frustrated. She practices, but I am unable to help her much. While I can read the notes, I honestly don't know if she's always playing the right note.

 

I'm frustrated because I know she's getting discouraged. The teacher has been spending a lot of time on technique (which I know is important) and not always hearing her piece. She sometimes goes 3 or more weeks practicing a section without the teacher hearing.

 

My dd is not the best at practicing either, but typical for an 11 year old. She does practice, but probably isn't as careful as she should be, and doesn't tend to self-correct, but just play through.

 

I am just at a lost. I don't know how to help my dd. I'm also fighting this feeling of frustration. I'm tired of having to do EVERYTHING. I want my kids to have a good education so I have to teach them. I pay someone to teach them their instrument, because I can not play. I know very little about music. At this point, I feel like I have to teach it and I'm tired.

 

How do I help my dd? Finding a new teacher isn't really an option. We would have to travel over an hour south to find one, and it would be hard to do. Plus, because of time contraints I would have to find a teacher who could take 3 students, not just 1.

 

I guess I need someone whose BTDT to tell me this is normal. That my dd will get through this. That there is a way to help her get past this point without the constant tears and frustration. That, yes, I have to teach her because that is how it's done.

 

I need to add that my dd does WANT to play, and I can tell it's important to her, but she's getting discouraged that she can't do it.

 

Thanks for listening.

[Tabrett]

She needs to start with easier pieces than book 4 to learn to sight read. If you could find some easy melody lines that only have 0-2 sharps in the key signature she could practice sight reading the music, but it must be music she hasn't heard or she will be playing by ear.

Naming the notes is very different than playing the notes on the instrument. You could know all the names of the note and not be able to transfer that to the instrument.

Even if you could write out simple melody lines on staff paper for her to try. It doesn't have to be melodic, just notes to practice sight reading.

 

You could also buy some violin books like All for Strings 2 for her to work through. This would help strengthen her sight reading skills in a more incremental way.

 

I'm guessing that if she has been playing for 5 years, her technique is pretty good. I really think you are correct about this being the next level she needs to achieve.

[Danestress]

My children picked up sight reading pretty easily at this age, but I think it's because I helped them some at the piano. If your photo copy simple sight reading exercises, your daughter can practice them at the violin while her sister is at the piano with the same exercises, playing each note right after she plays it, so that if it's not in tune, the violin player gets instant feed back.

 

Is your 11 year old using simple sight reading exercises or is she trying to use the book 4 pieces to learn to read? I would practice on other material that is easier. Wolfhard Etudes are good.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

does she have daily sight reading?

 

my daughter has a tchr that does a combination of suzuki and trad. My daughter has the suzuki book/cd and works through that but also has fiddle work, scales, and sight reading everyday. My girl likes fiddling more and is very into that. If it weren't fiddle, it would be other music that she reads, not just suzuki method. kwim?

 

if she doesn't have it, I would suggest getting a book at the music store and have her do a couple of lines each day. My daughter is supposed to read it silently, say the notes, say the rythm, finger it, play it. She uses a separate book from the Suzuki book; it's just for sight reading. It started out ****really**** easy and gradually works up to more difficult, of course.

 

This is the method she's always used and when my daughter tried out for orchestra recently, she was highly complimented on her sight reading.

 

They use music in orchestra and she uses it in fiddling but they also listen to the songs and get them into the ear so it is more of a traditional approach with elements of Suzuki and with the suzuki songs they do it theh Suzuki way to get the ear trained.

 

sounds kind of complicated but it works for my daughter.

[Kim in Appalachia]

My children picked up sight reading pretty easily at this age, but I think it's because I helped them some at the piano. If your photo copy simple sight reading exercises, your daughter can practice them at the violin while her sister is at the piano with the same exercises, playing each note right after she plays it, so that if it's not in tune, the violin player gets instant feed back.

 

Is your 11 year old using simple sight reading exercises or is she trying to use the book 4 pieces to learn to read? I would practice on other material that is easier. Wolfhard Etudes are good.

 

 

She will not work with her sister. :glare:

 

We did work through 2 Etude books and she did fine with them. It's the longer, more complex pieces that are getting her.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

Ah, my girl is taught to identify and lable sections. A, B, C, B1, B2, et c. She then works through them a section at a time. Looking at an entire work would seem daunting. Breaking it up is gey helpful.