Suzuki Method for Adults

Ok...so does it work for adults?

Suzuki Violin Method is originally made for children. Throughout the course of my studying I saw many adults taking it on (mainly parents of students who decide to take classes with them). It did work but I noticed that many of things we teach children aren't needed with adults and vice versa. Also, the way of teaching should be very much different...

I have a couple of adults students now (in their 20s or 30s), and I decided to follow a different approach. It is not Talent Education as it is Ability Education...It might not be a well rounded philosophy but it is one that is working.

As my older students advance, I'm gonna post here weekly lessons...so that Adult students as well as teachers can benefit. The skills addressed in each lesson should take an average of a week to master (given that usually adult students are any how busy at work or whatever)..

The first lesson will be published next Tuesday here on this blog...Hope you'll find it useful :D

Have Fun,

Mahmoud Ibrahim

Right Hand Question...

I have a question about the right hand technique....

Is there a perfect bow hold? does it really exist?

My observation is that (even beyond the schools of bow hold, Russian..etc.) each violinist has his/her own signature bow hold

Just an observation or question...

have fun

Mahmoud Ibrahim

Focus on Style

Hey there,

long time since I last posted anything here...been a bit busy!

Anyhow, here's a quick tip:

When you are teaching a student who has usual technical problems (out of tune notes, posture problems...etc.), it will really help if you focus on style and dynamics of the piece you are teaching instead of focusing on the faulty technique...

I think that this will help your students produce better their sound as they come to understand the style of the music they are playing more. I noticed they also tend to forget about the possibility of making a technical mistake and that automatically improves their technique.

At the end of a one hour class with a focus on style and only hints on out of tune notes and other technique errors, there is much more improvement than if that hour was spent on technique or scales.

Generally, I would say scales and etudes should be the focus of the student at home and the teacher should not spend more than 10% of the lesson on them, especially for advanced students...

Best of Luck,
Mahmoud Ibrahim

Get Your Students in Group Lessons

As you all can see from the sidebar on the left, I learned using Suzuki Violin Method. Now many will agree and disagree about Suzuki's philosophy being wrong or right or whatever, but there's one thing about Suzuki method that I know for sure is great: Group Lessons...

From my experience as a Suzuki method student and -later- teacher I can tell you that it has many virtues on both the student side and the teaching side...I'll be talking about some of those virtues in posts later, but for now I just want to mention one particular thing that I kept noticing lately in my group lessons;

When my students play side by side, it's very easy to notice the subtle differences in their playing characteristics. which in turn can make you see the strengths and weaknesses of your students a lot more clearly.

So get your students together in group lessons -even if you don't use Suzuki Violin Method-, it will sure help you in your teaching as well as help them in their understanding of music.

One funny thing I enjoy is two students of mine who are always on opposite extremes. Like one would go faster than tempo while the other would go slower or one is too tense while the other is too relaxed. Making those two play together is a lot of fun...if you have two students like that, you ought to try it and let me know what you think :D

Good Luck with your teaching,
Mahmoud

Virtualsheetmusic.com Review

I thought I would do reviews of websites, instruments, accessories..etc. that I tried. I am starting with virtualsheetmusic.com which is a website that offers very few FREE music sheets and an extensive archive of pay-per-download scores available for instant downloads as PDFs...

Website Title and URL: Virtual Sheet Music - virtualsheetmusic.com

Service: Offers classical music scores in PDF format for instant download

Free Section: Yes but not very useful

Membership: Yes, costs 37.75$ per first year and less for more years, allows you access to their whole archive. You can also pay per download

My Experience: I have tried many violin scores from this website including the Kreisler Prelude and Allegro Bach partita no.2 ..etc All the scores come in very high quality and look great when printed. Also, they come with the piano accompaniment whenever applicable.

Scores Accuracy: Although most of the stuff I got from them is very accurate including the bowings and the dynamics. I had a lot of problems with my Wieniawski's Polonaise. I bought it so that I could have the piano score since I was gonna play it in a recital and I only had the violin parts. The piano notes turned out to be very inaccurate and some of the violin parts were completely different from all the recordings I have and from the score I was studying. I posted a comment about this on their website but it never showed. I totally NOT recommend buying this particular score from them.

Final Recommendation: This is a very good website and it can totally save the day if you happen to be in need for a specific score in a hurry. However, sometimes the scores are not accurate. A good idea is to check the midi files they have alongside the scores (they are available for free) and compare the music in the midi files to any of the standard recordings you have...If you find differences then don't waste your money :)


Best of Luck,
Mahmoud Ibrahim

Bow Bouncing Involuntarily? - Bad Ricochet :)

Here's another thing I noticed with my students....

On playing down bow slowly (long note), the bow bounces a bit producing a strange "trembling" sound. This happens mostly in the upper third of the bow.

This is actually a bad ricochet :) To play ricochet you lighten your grip of the bow and throw the bow using the upper third of the bow, the result is series of fast down bow bouncing notes...which exactly what happens with my students;

To counteract the extra hard bow grip that beginner students have, they usually make their grip toooooo light...As they continue playing, their hand sometimes also travels away from the normal position (above the frog) towards the leather grip until it -sometimes- covers the leather grip completely,which of course contributes to an even lighter grip. On a down bow in the upper third of the bow this will surely produce "bad" ricochet (trembling bouncing notes)

The key to solve this problem is to make sure that you have your hand in the correct place on the bow, make sure it doesn't migrate forward while playing. Also, try to balance your bow grip: not too hard to produce the squeaking sound and not too light until you are not in control of the bow anymore (producing the bad ricochet!)....

Hope that helped,
Mahmoud Ibrahim

Stop Your Shoulder

Hi Everyone,

I noticed this very often with most of the students I taught...Sometimes, the bow goes straight all the way from the middle to the frog but from the middle to the tip it becomes tilted towards the finger board. This is usually very easy to notice on a down bow more than on an up bow - although it still happens on up bow all the same

Such an unstraight bow is the outcome of the violinist using theor shoulders way too much, so that his/her upper arm would move all the way towards the back until the violinist's elbow is slightly behind him/her. This is sometimes accompanied by less movement on the lower arm and may be also the wrist.

To fix this, watch you uperarm while playing down bow on a long note and make sure that your upper arm does go behind the plane of your body. You can do this playing scales.


Summary:

• Syndrome: from the middle to the tip the bow becomes tilted towards the finger board
• Cause: Your upper arm moves till it's slightly behind you when you reach the tip. This due to excess movement by your shoulder and less movement by your arm
• Solution: Play scales, long and slow notes. Observe your arm and make sure it doesn't go behind you. Starting from the frog, the movement should be from the shoulder, the elbow and the wrist as you approach the middle stop your shoulder (upper arm won't move) and in the upper half of the bow movement comes only from the elbow and the wrist.

Good Luck,
Mahmoud Ibrahim