violin playing revisited
I am wondering how to approach teaching an adult student, who used to be of a fairly high standard but has not played for 5 years. She wants to learn for the love of it. She has a lovely technique, left and right hands. I have started her off with a grade five study, to get her left hand used to shifts again but am at a loss as to what/how to teach her. Any suggestions?
Replies (39)
Sorry to be blunt, but there is no amount of advice you could get online if you are at a loss as to how to teach her. If you are being paid for teaching, you should only teach up to the level that you are able and not accept payment past that. If I were you, I would recommend some more advanced teachers to her so she doesn't waste her money.
Lisa
Adults tend to be quite forgiving. Have you asked her what she wants to learn or what her goals are? She's far enough along to have signifcant input...
Define 'fairly high standard', and be aware that the student's definition may not be the same as yours. If her technique is indeed lovely and you're stumped for a way forward, than it may well be a case of referring her as Lisa suggested. However, on the few occasions I've been approached by a similar student, I've often found that certain staple techniques were never learned well to begin with: things like shifting, vibrato, even basic string-crossing and straight bowstrokes. Sometimes it's necessary to revisit these aspects of playing and literally relearn them in order to make further progress.
shoot everybody could stand to work on that stuff, i've had my teacher ask me to help him work on that stuff.
I'm like your student in that I'm trying to return to former days of glory! Or at least be able to play Kreisler's sicilienne and rigaudon all the way through again without mangling it... I'm having some success going through my old etude books and notebooks from where I left off. Hrimaly, Wolfhart, Sevcik, Dancla, Preparing for Kreutzer... there's a lot of material there I never even got to. Good luck and tell her she's not alone! Just review and be patient.
Also, you say she has good technique, but pay attention and correct any bad habits right away! I'm sure I've picked up a few that will haunt me before long.
I agree with Tom that five years is nothing. Backing off for five years, maturing, letting her body heal perhaps, and coming back might even put her ten years ahead of where she would have been otherwise. She will come roaring back really, really fast.
I'm kind of at a loss about why you don't know what to do with her too. She probably needs work on muscle tone, finger independence, and sight reading.
I'm not a violin teacher but I am a teacher, or rather was, and have done a fair amount of remediation and such. The first step in teaching someone is to have a clear set of goals in mind that you are working toward. This should be fairly straightforward if you have a student who started as a blank slate under your hands and you already have a standard program where these are set out for you, and for each step of the way you know what skills are the most important to accomplish. Now however you have someone in front of you who is at an unknown place and probably all over the place. If, as Lisa suggests, she plays so well that you have nothing to teach her, then you should pass her on. But I don't think you are saying that. You're in a muddle as to what to do with her - because the goals are missing.
This may be an opportunity for you to grow into new areas in teaching. You already have some kind of curriculum/system that you are following and within each of those grade levels there are certain skills and milestones that you are looking for, I would imagine. What if you created some kind of checklist out of that, something to guide you in first of all assessing where your new student is at? You could use the material already at your disposal: studies, pieces, scales whatever, to check for these things. You could work forward or backwards. Once you know where she's at, where her strengths and weaknesses are, you can create a plan or program that can be relatively informal since you only have one individual student ... or even off the cuff from lesson to lesson. I could even imagine that the "checklist" period where you're trying to find out where she is really at, could take a couple of lessons and then peter out. For one thing, if she's rusty, her playing might improve simply as she gets back in the swing of things.
Music teachers: would this work?
Thankyou to Inge S for your patient advice. You are exactly right in that my problem lies with where the goal posts are at the moment. I will sit back and assess her over her next few lessons.
To everyone else who scorned my question without offering any advice, if you are all so knowledgable, what are you doing on this site reading all the questions??
I'm glad if it was helpful. Remember to create that checklist for yourself first. I have a feeling that when you review what you have been doing in teaching you will be amazed at how many tasks you have actually been accomplishing all this time. It may enhance your overall teaching as you develop a new awareness of the process - who knows? All problems are opportunities (I tell myself as I gird myself for the next practice).
Sarah -- I am glad you found some of the advice from people helpful. I hope you were not referring to me as one who scorned your question. I was concerned that your description of your student's situation and the problem were not clear enough or detailed enough, and I had some trouble understanding. I apologize if you thought I was scorning the question.
Greetings,
the message requesting advice was posted on Feb 8th. It is now Feb 9th in Japan.
Personally, I was extremely busy yesterday and I wanted a little time to think about your question.
I therfore found your comment about being scorned extremely rude. Please ask yourself if people are going to respond to someone who is disrespectful to people who give up quite a lot of time to help others whenever they can .
I would also point out that there is no obligation on anyones part to respond. This is the Internet, not a contractually obliging situation. People do what they can, when they can in the spirit of goodwill.
If you persist in writing this way you will be making a fool of yourself in front of many violinists, some of whom may be important to your career someday.
Cheers,
Buri
Fighting violin teachers would be great on tv.
I in no way meant or wish to be disrespectful and am not interested in creating enemies. Therefore I apologise to anyone who was offended. I just felt that some of the responses I got were slightly personal and contained no helpful advice at all.
However, my apologies!
xx
Ps. I was not refering to those who hadn't responded, as I know that everyone's time is valuable. I was refering to a couple of the responses I got that basically told me my student was wasting her money on me. That was uncalled for.
Sarah:
Here was your question:
"I have started her off with a grade five study, to get her left hand used to shifts again but am at a loss as to what/how to teach her. Any suggestions"
You gave two pieces of information to your reading public: 1. You are at a loss as to what to teach her. 2. You are at a loss as to how to teach her.
Personally, I still feel the advice I gave you (and it was advice) was good. A qualified teacher (and I have no idea what your experience is, although your question is quite telling) would instantly know what and how to teach an adult who has taken five years off.
I know within seconds how to evaluate a person's foundational weaknesses. I met a new student today and it took me 15 bars of the piece she chose to play for me to find out her most foundational weakness (among many). So I addressed that first in my assessment to her. I spent an hour and fifteen minutes (for which I did not charge her) explaining how she is doing things and the results she is getting as a consequence of her movements, and then explaining what I would teach her, in the order I would teach it, and why. I answered all her questions and gave her a realistic idea of what it would be like to study with me by teaching her a partial lesson.
She went home with a lot of information to digest. I even gave her a list of questions to ask other teachers in case she wants to compare what she would learn with me with what she might learn with others and I told her that other teachers would do things differently than I would so she wouldn't think that there was only one right way. She can now make an informed choice and I am fully confident that if she comes to me, I can address and solve her problems.
I'm sorry you didn't like my answer, but you may not be experienced enough for this particular student. I don't know. If the shoe fits, wear it and do her a favor. If it doesn't, then ignore me. No big deal. I wasn't rude to you and you don't have to be rude back because you didn't like what I had to say.
Lisa
I should add that if someone asks me how to do something that I don't know, I say I don't know it. I would consider it ethically wrong to take on a student that I didn't feel confident I could help.
Sarah,
Let me also add as an explanation to my words above:
Say someone came to me studying the Elgar concerto. I don't know it. I would certainly tell them I don't know it. I would offer to help as an experienced pair of ears. For instance, I could help with intonation problems, bowing mishaps, fingering suggestions, little tips on how to improve technical issues. But I wouldn't have the experience with that piece of music. I would feel obligated to let the student know that so they could make an informed choice to stay with me or not. It wouldn't be fair to them otherwise.
Here's another: I am often approached to teach viola. I always give the student the pros and cons of studying viola with me before they commit to lessons. I tell them I can teach the technique of playing the viola, and the beginning pieces, which are often just transpositions of beginning violin pieces. I can offer them a good foundation in basic skills. But I do not know the viola repetoire and I would tell them the same as I would for the Elgar above. I let them know that at a certain point I would want them to transfer to a "real" viola teacher.
Here's another thought: If you were to tell the student that you felt you could help her (as has been suggested) but it would take you several lessons to really get a plan together, don't you think you should do that so the student can decide for herself if she wants that? And why would you charge her (not that I know whether you are or not) for time you need to formulate your plan as a teacher? Those are the kinds of things I am responding to in your posts.
I also wanted to let you know that had you asked teachers how they evaluate students to formulate those kinds of plans, you would have gotten a different response.
Lisa
I apologize for suggesting the several weeks idea, but Sarah cannot be held responsible for that. It has served me well with students whose teachers were at a total loss and who ended up making phenomenal progress in a short time as the problems and solutions shaped themselves over that time period. Often preliminary conclusions reshaped themselves during that preliminary timeframe. I wouldn't expect my methods to work for other teachers in my field: only those who work in my way. I was hoping that this might work here to, and apologize if I stepped out of bounds. I cannot draw any conclusions whatever my personal impression may be, since while teaching is my trained profession, teaching music is not. With teachers (and students) coming in all shapes, sizes, and flavours, I do appreciate your advocacy on behalf of students. After all, I am one myself.
Sarah,first let me say that it can be extremely rewarding teaching a more advanced adult as you can discuss issues like interpretation,techniques and style in much greater depth than with a beginner.
Do you have an overall lesson scheme.I myself am very traditional and give all of my students,even the beginners excercises,scales, studies and repetoire.When a new student arrives it is a good idea to start slightly below the presumed level.Excecises can be used to correct technical faults or to improve tone quality.Do you have a book of Fischers Basics?Scales for an advanced student will be 3 octave ones.Start by going through them all detachè then work through various bowing styles to see where the weaknesses are.It would be a good idea to start with Kreuzer,the first studies are not very difficult and again you can do a back up on bowing styles and bowing distribution.Repetoire,maybe you should ask what she has played and what she would lilke to play and see where that fits in with your overall scheme and overall assesment of her abilities.Make sure that you yourself know all the material that you are giving her well so that you are able to demonstrate and discuss.Good luck
As this is the internet, I'm not surprised with how abrasive some of the replies to your question have been. Don't take it to heart! It's obviously a new experience for you to take on a student who has had prior advanced training (you may not wish to derail someone else's efforts to mold this individual--a sign of respect). It's also obvious that you wish to grow and develop your own abilities as a teacher (a sign of maturity). Unfortunately, you've also obviously chosen the wrong medium for expressing those concerns! Don't be easily irked by critics who don't know the whole story. You'll fall into the trap of defending yourself as others have pointed out. Do you have a mentor or someone you personally trust to guide you in these complicated (and, yes, ethical) matters? If you can, turn to your own former teachers for advice. And I don't mean just violin teachers! Trust me, you have already done this person good by seeking outside opinions... it's evidence that you have her best interests in mind.
I am second to James. Sarah, I'm sure YOU KNOW exactly how to work with your new student! You just wanted some other ideas than you already had when you first met with student. Right? In this case, I like what Inge and Janet suggested you. You just had to formulate your question more correctly... So you got some reaction on what was written...
If you read the thread about producing a nice sound, you would notice, that this question went from my student (and also my daughter). It doesn't mean that I don't know how to work on this problem (by the way, this student already started working on Tchaikowsky's C-rto). But I got so many different aspects pointing on improving sound quality, I'm very thankful to all who shared own experience and knowledges with me and my student (I have an agreement with my daughter to forget mother-daughter relationsip during violin class:) I am writing this because I want to recommend you to read this thread and others like this as well. You definitely will find something you need. It's really difficult to give you some advice without seeing your student.
Good luck!
I took Buri's "x" off. There is no reason to demerit that post according to the moderation guidelines. (She says again.)
And I'm sure there are folks who think that post sounded harsh (is that why the person who did not take credit for the demerit also didn't give an explanation for it? (she asks again)). But I don't read it that way at all. Sometimes stating the truth as one sees it can sound harsh, but isn't meant harshly at all. In my opinion, the best thing to do is to clarify whether that was the intention. In my short experience on the board I can observe that Buri spends hours writing posts that he believes will help others (at a computer screen that he has informed us makes him physically ill), which he has put a lifetime into in terms of research, practice, and communication. To demerit that because he expressed a truth is, in my opinion, unwarranted. There is not one sentence in his post that is not a factual one.
James, if your comments are directed towards me, I would have preferred that you address me directly to clarify what bothers you, rather than generalize about the people involved or the potential of the internet.
Rita, while I appreciate your empathetic stance, I think if we all responded to people's posts by what we thought they meant, rather than what they actually say, we could really get into a tangle of misunderstandings. I responded to what Sarah actually said without making any assumptions of what she really meant to say. I did not do that with any spirit of harshness at all.
I did respond to this thread because one of the saddest things I experience as a teacher is to teach students who have invested money, time, and hard work at something they love only to find out that what they have learned is not adequate to continue. It is so difficult for students in those circumstances to reprogram new habits which will be more successful for them. It breaks my heart to see the frustration and defeat that can engender in a caring student. Not only is it frustrating to the student, but the teacher also. As a teacher, sometimes it is all I can do to patiently explain the steps necessary to relearn something over and over and over and...
So my response to Sarah was not only to her exact words posted, but also to other teachers who may be doing the same thing. It isn't fair to a student to teach when you don't really know what to do. At that point I hope, for myself as well as others, that teachers would honestly pass on a student to someone else who may be more qualified at that time. That is the spirit of my posts.
IF, in fact, Rita, you are right that Sarah posted something she didn't really mean, and really wanted some ideas about how to evaluate and plan lessons for a student that she had less experience teaching, I would have chosen to spend just as much time sharing as much as I know on that subject, because I very much think that it is important for that to be discussed. I would have been interested as well to hear from other experienced teachers about how they do those evaluations.
Lisa
Lisa, thank you for removing Buri's demerit. I was going to do same... Actually I've never placed any 'X' to somebody. Maybe it's my own wickness...
In all situations I usually first try to find something positive rather than negative and pointing on this positive thing start to "polish" it (that's about my strategy with students, of course, not with all of them, it depends..., you know...). So my students usually don't feel frustrated a lot (I say 'usually', not 'always'). About evaluating... well, for example, when a student plays any gradually acsending/descending, even very short passage detache, just consisted of 4-5 notes, it is very easy to notice many things like fingers' articulation, coordination between both hands, sound quality (or detache quality), balance between bow's speed and dynamics (I never use the word 'preasure':) and so on. Sorry, Lisa, I'll continue later, maybe tomorrow... Must go to orchestra rehearsal...
I appreciate your concern, Lisa, but why did you think it was your post that inspired me to write my note to Sarah? My comments were not directed at you or anyone else other than her. I felt no need to point fingers at who's comments I found were a little too assuming. Readers will decide that for themselves anyway, right? Read my post as objectively as you read Mr. Buri's--I'm sure you'll see that my comments were actually directed toward the originator of this thread. If I offended you or anyone else by what I said, it was unintentional! And don't worry... Nobody bother's me ;)
Greetings,
I think I`m going to pass on the stuff being passed around now . To me this is one of the weaknesses of the Internet as a means of communication: you read soemthing from your reading/life experience perspective and think `what an as%4%&` and respond accordingly. But the same thing over a pint of beer at an ASTA conference with real contact would probably get much closer to what we mean or how we want to help people.
A teaching issue very much on my mind at the moment is the assumption that we are experts, we diagnose and then prescribe. That is how teaching is explained to us, it seems perfectly reasonable w, partly becaus e in many ways it is.
But taken to its extreme it also creates situations somewhat like the following:
1) I cannot diagnose and offer an instant solution therefore I will have to fake it.
2) I am comitted to my diagnosis and will follow no other avenue even if it wrong or the student feels it is wrong.
3) Teacher x gives better instant dianoses than teahcer y, therefore x is a better teache rthan y.
4) I can only improve on the violin if someone tells me what is wrong with my playing every week.
And so on...
The problem we are constantly juggling with concerns balancing giving lots of advice , which is easy , and not giving advice because it may help the student more to find out for themselves even if it take s longer.
In the case of the original post, I feel somewhat that sara is looking for some kind of `more expert
diagnosis and cure because she takes her job very seriosly. The teachers who come on line and ask questions have in a sense made a much bigger comittment than those who have questions but are not willing to admit to them or ask them.
So, given that Sara has a lot of material to work with?@?[within the student- perhaps that would be a place to start.
You can ask questions about where the student wants to go, what they are disatisffie d with and so on. Personally I would be really interested in the reason why the student stopped and why they restarted. Within those two moments lies a great deal of information. Resisting the temption to provide quick answers is the hard part. If the studnet answers her own questions then those answers may tell you a lot about what the student believes is correct about violin playing and may be a wrong turning.
I don`t think you need to have -a lot- of criteria. Great teachers do tend to have lsits of basic erorrs with which they can guide students forward rapidly, but this diagnostic approach is set within the context of understandint the student in depth. For example, Mr. Bron has a list of 12 or 15 (?) basic types of error but he also admits that learning what goes on inside the student and the emotional /spiritual needs takes much longer. The Russian teacher Grach in his recent Strad interview said soemthign similar i think.
I think if you have about three basic criteria (maybe intonation, tone quality and phrasing) then you can keep these in mind as you listen to the student play and consider which feels the most deficient. But you may not want to express this rdirectly. Rather, encourage the stduent to identify spots they are not happy with and then guide them towards a specific complaint they have and then thinking about the reaosn why that happens. At this point you may have a more focused idea of the kind of exercvises to prescribe but it is still better to encourage the student to suggets soem kidns of exercises . Do they have that capabilty or not? Encourage them to experiment
.Having said all that, I also think it would help to have the most diagnostic book in the known universe (`Les -Basics- avec knobs` ) which may help you feel more confident about the reason things are happening and how they can be helped , even if you keep the knowledge to yourself for any reason at a given mmoment,
Anotehr really helpful book is `The Aret of Practicing` by Gerle. Working through the patterns is an excellent eway of improving anyones playing and they are presneted in such a way that the stduent is encouraged to be completelky creative in making their own exercises. An excellent example of balancing `teaching` and letting the student explore stuff on their own
Cheers,
Buri
Er, Sarah - I'd love to hear how it goes with your new student. I think that goes for the rest of us. Do let us know. :-)
Thankyou Buri, for the time you took to write your message.
You are right in assuming that I do in fact know 'how' to teach and I certainly know how to play. I have been a professional violinist for 12 years.
My problem lies in that I have only in the last year or so started teaching again. I know what technique I want to teach my students and I know how to deal with all the traps and bad habits that students can develop.
My question really was more about specific reportoire that I could consider teaching her, outside of the official exam syllabis. As it has been a while since I have taught an adult, I am still finding my way with what pieces suit what levels. As I am in Australia, we use the AMEB exam system and I was refering to that when I said level five. Sorry to confuse everyone.
I apologise for not being clearer in my original post. When this post started to turn somewhat 'unhappy', I decided it had become a bit difficult to now try and explain myself and backed out gracefully. The last thing I wanted was to do was cause a disturbance.
However, I do find it interesting that all of the kids and teenagers who come to this site with questions on how to even start teaching, have not received responses such as mine did. Surely if some of you think that teaching is better left to the 'professionals', shouldn't you be condemning these kids as well? Not to mention some of the other questions with obvious answers that come up on this site?
Having said that, I understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and certainly entitled to express it.
I think that this website is wonderful and I just hope that everyone who uses it feels that they can ask a question without being ridiculed or shot down. After all, aren't we all in the process of learning??
I'm sorry but I think Lisa was out of line.
Sarah did not say, "I am at a loss as to how to teach..."
She said, "I am wondering how to APPROACH..."
My mother is a university professor of doctoral students for 25 years. But even she sometimes says she isn't sure what to do with a certain student or a class situation or syllabus.
I don't think it is very polite to tell people you think they aren't qualified to do a job when you don't know anything about them except that they had the humility to ask for advice.
I also think it is not necessary to be "BLUNT" with anyone.
And even if lots of incompetent teachers are taking money unfairly that doesn't give anyone the right to take it out on one teacher and impute other people's faults to them.
And by the way, I think summing up a student in 15 seconds might not be fair to the student. There's a lot more to anyone than what they play the first time for a teacher they don't know. Like how they learn in the long term. How fast do they improve?
It sounds like Sarah's student doesn't have any technical problems or salient feature that can be targeted. So it makes sense to take time and ask opinions from other (friendly) teachers to create a good course of study. I would rather have a teacher who spent some time and was open to thinking about different approaches than someone who thinks they know it all in less than a minute.
And I would rather have a teacher who takes an individual approach than someone with a one size fits all only my method is best.
Sorry if now I've been blunt.
Sarah:
If you feel my comments were to ridicule you or shoot you down you very much misunderstood my posts. Too bad you are not considering them more than that.
Nick:
She did say exactly that.
When I am not sure of what to do with a student, I ask them what they would do.
I haven't told anyone they are not qualified to do a job. What I said was, IF they are not, they should pass.
I didn't say I summed up a student in 15 seconds. I said I knew within 15 bars the areas that the student was most deficient. I do exactly what Buri described in his post in the introductory session I spend with a prospective student. I ask a ton of questions and listen to all the answers. I listen to the student play. I tell them my plan of action, which is only the beginning of a journey. All that is just a prelude to actually learning how a student works (or doesn't) and how to relate to them. You assumed a lot.
Especially about the one size fits all. That remark was uncalled for, which is not the same as blunt.
Lisa
Lisa, Every time I look at this board lately all I see is you putting others down and then denying you are doing so. Maybe you could make your posts a little clearer if people are misunderstanding your point or taking your words the 'wrong' way. Just in the last day I saw you call a kid 'immature' and worse and now this person thinks you are insulting their teaching. Maybe your problem is in the delivery. JMHO and sorry if I have offended. Peace,
Vidal
Folks, a word to the wise - let it go. I moderate a professional forum and I have seen disputes turn into hatred and long term enmity. I don't think it will happen here but still. This is an amazing forum if you consider the incredible variety and range of professional, amateur, beginner violinists, teachers who have studied with Delay, teachers who are beginning high school, instrument makers etc. etc. It is amazing that such a complex group can get along, communicate, and have patience with each other. On top of this we are communicating with each other by leaving little messages in outer space. Actually, back to that in a moment. It's not such a great medium for real communication. I mean, I can't even tell whether the person called Nick is really a guy called Nick, or perhaps a cute spotted and incredibly talented puppy dog with human thoughts and musical abilities who wishes he could play the violin if only he had hands instead of paws, and whose real name is Rover. (Sorry Nick, yours is the first name that sprang to mind.) We also come from many cultures and backgrounds. In some cultures bluntness is valued and in others there is such a vague politeness that "You should come over for tea some time." may actually mean "You will never set foot in my house in a million years." The potential for miscommunication in terms of the signals we set out can be very great.
Oh yes, the bulletin board metaphor. These words appear on my computer screen and so they seem private, like writing my diary in a little locked book. One day I shocked myself by realizing what this really is. Imagine there is a community square someplace that thousands of people pass every day. That square has a bulletin board on it, and the messages you post are pieces of paper that stay up on that bulletin board, naked and exposed for everyone's eyes, day in and day out. The thought made me much more careful about what I post and is probably the cause of many of my mysterious deletions.
My own choice when someone seems to cross my professional ethical line or sense of standards has been to write the person privately rather than publicly. People are super sensitive about their professions in particular. We should be aware of that.
I personally am excited to find out what will happen with this new student, Sarah. And Lisa, though the bluntness of your words also caught me by the throat, I think that you care an awful lot, maybe almost too much. That is a wonderful attribute in anyone.
Big group hug, everyone?
Note to self: don't write when you have the flu and a fever. Remember the "bulletin board".
"Just in the last day I saw you call a kid 'immature' and worse and now this person thinks you are insulting their teaching."
Reading is a fine art.
Lisa
As a professional translator I can tell you that reading, writing, and interpretation of what you have read and what has been written is a most difficult art. I often think that music is less treacherous and more understandable in both the reading and the interpretation. Best wishes.
Here Inge you have hit the nail on the head.Violinistic abilties aside here on this board we have English mother tongue speakers,used to be mother tongue speakers more than 20 years ago (of which I am one).Those who have English as a second or third language,those who have little grasp of the language.There are those that write flowingly and with wit,there are those that are brief and to the point.There are those that use words in a professional way and there are those who can hardly string a coherent sentence together.It is hardly a surprise that sometimes thetre will be communication breakdowns and misunderstandings and will someone tell me (in my ignorance) what lol means,I've been dying to ask for ages.
Laugh out loud
In return, can someone tell me what the 'x' was that was mentioned earlier? The demerit? What is that?
Sarah, LOL :) I DON't know too! I use it to delete all my junk mail. Also I see it on some unwanted responses here. But what does it mean?
Inge:
Arf! Arf!
I listen to my master play the violin every night... and howl in envy. Woof.
Signed, Nick (Rover)
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February 8, 2005 at 07:24 PM · I am having some trouble understanding how someone who used to play at a high level could be having trouble getting used to shifts again after just five years. I stopped for 25 years and shifting was not that much of a problem after I started up again. How good was she? Also, I do not understand what level five means unless you are referring to the ASTA system. All that said, you need to find appropriate scales, etudes, and concerti or sonatas for her level or, perhaps, slightly below. It cannot hurt to get her doing Kreutzer or Vivaldi and Bach concerti just to get her going again.