May 2006

Montessori School Special Music Session

May 28, 2006 19:53

Got to get them young. Interested in violin and classical music, that is. Inspired by our editor Laurie, I volunteered to do a 1/2 hour show and tell on violin at our son's Montessori school. The staff and teachers at the school were all excited about the idea, and thought it would be excellent exposure for the preschoolers. They gathered the entire school for an afternoon assembly. My son, who attends the school, had asked his teacher if he could play the violin and sing a song. We scheduled several times, but my boss always called a meeting and I had to postpone. Finally, I decided to chance the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. I promised them and they had already told the children, because in the morning when I went to drop off my son, several girls asked me if I was going to play the violin. Indeed I had a close call, my boss suggested a Friday afternoon meeting, but fortunately all of the marketing folks were on vacation.

Friday afternoon arrived, and I left work early. I was actually a bit nervous, and when I arrived, the entire school (must be around 80 children and some parents) were sitting in the central area clapping and singing "Bingo", one of the songs my son was going to play. My son was all ready to play and jumped up and down. He wasn't the least bit nervous. We set him up and he played several songs from his "Essential Elements" book, accompanied by the CD. Then it was my turn. I held up my old Tyrolean violin, that is believed to be 200 years old. It was old, brown, blackened and dented. I asked the children how old their grandmother was, then how old their great grandmother was, and then told them that this violin was older than their great great grandmother. It was a special violin, who used to be a tree somewhere in the forests of Germany. I explained that back then there was no radio, no TV, and definitely no computers. So when people wanted to get together and have a party or a dance they needed someone to play the violin. Then I played the Brahms Hungarian Dance #5. We then passed around my son's 1/8 size violin, while I taught them "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "Every Cat Ate Fish" for them to learn the line and space notes. My son is a real ham and wanted to play more songs, so he played several more familiar ones like "Tisket, Tasket", and the Happy Birthday song while his classmates sang along. He also sang acapella "Amazing Grace", a song I taught him in Sunday school.

Finally we passed out the coloring picture of the violin for them to take home and color, as well as a parent handout I had modified from the one Laurie sent me. It was only 30 minutes, but it was very rewarding for me and I got a lot of good comments from the parents who had stayed while picking up their children. I hope the seed was planted and that the allure of the violin will take hold on some little soul out there.

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Spring Recital Update

May 8, 2006 13:19

Whew! It's over. I played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto e minor 1st movement this Saturday at my teacher's student recital. I had been working on this piece for over a year already and polishing it the last few weeks incessantly. I know that my family is probably sick of hearing the concerto, but I just love the musicality of it.

As it turned out, I read all about performance anxiety from this board, and the Oliver Steiner page, and decided that it was okay to be nervous and jittery, and that I would not play it as well as in practice, and that I would miss a few notes. And funny thing is that I was not as nervous as before and actually ended up enjoying the piece. I was the last student, so you can imagine that if I had been obsessing on each detail and fearing that I'd miss each passage I would have had plenty of time to stew about it. Instead I did enjoy the rest of the recital, and when it was my turn I was pretty calm. Too bad that my two friends who showed up could not stay, as the recital started late and was very long. But my family was there, and most of all I really enjoyed the piece. I did miss some notes, and a chord, yes, it's always where you never miss during practice and can't believe why you changed your fingering and missed. But since I was not demanding perfection, I just went on and kept going.

I also found it helpful to not practice that much on the day of the recital and just go about my normal activities. I did take an Aleve and an Allegra right before, so that my allergies and any sore muscles would not act up. Wouldn't have wanted to sneeze or cough during my playing.

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More entries: January 2007 • December 2005

May 2006

Montessori School Special Music Session

Spring Recital Update

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