Fall Recital

Our Fall Recital was held on November 12, 2011. Everyone did a wonderful job! I'm so proud of you all for your hard work and dedication. It's nice to have students who practice and enjoy making music, and sharing their talents with others. Keep up the good work!

Institute 2011

The girls and I had a great time attending Intermountain Suzuki String Institute this summer. Thank you so much to all our friends and family that donated or contributed to fund raisers so we could attend!

The first night we were graced with a performance by the lovely and amazingly talented Jenny Oaks Baker. It was amazing to be up close and be able to watch her play. So inspirational!

Mrs. Debbie Moench was Elise's master class teacher. She is from right here in Salt Lake, and she is an amazing teacher. Elise had a great time and learned so much!

She was teaching the whole class how to be a "shoulder champion."

This year Institute offered a "storytelling" class as an enrichment option. Susan Reed was the teacher of this class. What a unique experience. I loved Susan's musical style and the way she teaches stories/ideas/concepts with music. She is also a fellow homeschooling mom. I felt very inspired by her. The highlights for the girls were, learning a musical story version of "Peter and the Wolf" and acting it out, and making cranky theater boxes with their own story on them.

Elise in her technique class.

Macy's master class teacher was Sylvia Khoo from Singapore. She had a lot of great teaching ideas. She gave all the girls a souvenir keychain from Singapore on the last day.

Timothy Durbin is one of everyone's favorite teachers at Institute. We were so excited that Macy was able to be in his performance class this year. He kept us laughing the whole time!

Elise in Performance class, on t-shirt day. The Institute provides a t-shirt for each student every year. Brook Moes was her teacher for this class. I think this was his first year at our Institute. He had many great ideas. I love going to Institute to observe and steal teaching ideas!

Taking a break outside in between classes.

Macy in Master class, waiting for her turn. I love that adorable headband. One of the vendors in the hall was selling them. :)

Ainsley, waiting to play in the Fiddle Concert. This is another enrichment class option - Swedish fiddling. I hope more of my students can attend next year!

kids in the fiddling concert

Macy and her friend Emma waiting to play in the final concert.

Elise waiting to play in the final concert.

More kids in the final concert

Tiny little tot! :)

Thank you for your inspiration, Dr. Suzuki!

Fun pictures

We had some really fun family pictures taken last week. I wanted to share them with you! If you're in the market for a photographer, I definitely recommend Holly. She is very reasonably priced, and both times we have used her we have loved every picture she has taken. She is very cute with little kids and babies, and she's creative with her posing. Check out her blog HERE , for pricing and other info.

On to the pictures!

The Wasatch Youth Ensemble

This is for all students that are in late Book 3 or higher. Darbi Green has started The Wasatch Youth Ensemble, and open auditions are happening right now. They will be performing at ISSI this summer. I know one of the songs they're doing is Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson. Darbi teaches the kids fun pop songs that she has arranged and choreographed.

The group will be performing at different venues around Salt Lake. I think it would be a super fun experience.

If you want to audition, talk to me about it so we can prepare you! Go to this website for more info.

http://wasatchyouthensemble.org/violin_performing_group_utah_riverton_ensemble/Movie.html

I went to the SAU Parent/Teacher convention last Saturday. It was so great! Today I want to tell you about the "Musicians and Muscles" class I attended by Dr. Craig Buhler. Dr. Buhler was the resident chiropractor for the Utah Jazz for 23 years. He talked about bio-mechanics, stretching, and taking care of our bodies to avoid injuries from playing instruments.

Pain and inflammation are the alarm system our body uses when something is wrong. Our body is telling us we have stressed and traumatized an area of our body. So many of us ignore these alarms and just medicate them - or choose surgery to "get rid of the problem". Your body is not telling you that you are deficient in ibuprofen or cortisone. We never treat the cause.

I have been playing the violin for 22 years. I first remember having pain in my neck and back when I was a sophomore in high school. I didn't really know why, but I knew it was from playing the violin. I have just been dealing with the pain as much as I can for the last 17 years. I was diagnosed with tendonitis and over-use syndrome. I have been to 4 different chiropractors, an occupational therapist and a physical therapist. I almost gave myself Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in college. I was playing violin 2-3 hours a day, typing 4 hours a day for work, taking notes in class and doing all the other things we do with our hands. I took lots of ibuprofen, used wrist braces and did the best I could to deal with the pain.

When Dr. Buhler talked about bio-mechanics it made a lot of sense to me. We have many systems in our bodies. When a system is under stress it cannot work properly and it affects how the other systems work. Our hands have the most amount of bones in them and we use them for many many things. They are a highly sophisticated instrument. We need to understand how our body works and use it properly to avoid causing stress or injuring ourselves.

This applies to musicians a lot. We use our bodies in ways that are not normal. Especially violinists. To play the violin is mostly a unilateral practice - we mostly use the left side of our bodies. The muscles and bones on the left side of our body either become over-developed or over-stressed. We must counter-act this by stretching and working the right side of our body equally, to avoid pain.

Technique is the most important factor in avoiding injury as a musician, athlete, or even a typist. "Practice makes perfect" ?? NO - "PERFECT Practice makes PERFECT." Because we can practice something the wrong way 100x and we will be perfect at doing it the wrong way. As a violin teacher, I try to teach proper technique from the very beginning. I talk a lot about how technique affects the tone and quality of our playing. But it also helps our bodies avoid injury. We need to look at the long-term outcome of our actions.

Another interesting thing Dr. Buhler discussed was people who are "double-jointed". He said that term means that muscles/joints are under-developed or weak. As teachers, we should not reinforce the collapse in the "double-joint". The small muscles in our hands are among the most important - they need to fire in the appropriate sequence in order to function properly. The more we work on developing those muscles and joints, the stronger they will get. This will also help in playing the violin, because the fingers will be able to respond more accurately and quickly.

A bad habit I have is popping my own neck. It feels sore, I feel like popping it "helps" it feel better. But really I'm creating a hyper-mobile, over-rotating joint, and it makes it more difficult for a chiropractor to adjust the joint that is actually locked. Apparently you need "training" to properly "manipulate" a joint... :) Dr. Buhler said, "I always tell people, 'Would you perform your own appendectomy?' " HAHAHA

So, how do we help our children avoid injuries? I feel that I am learning more and becoming more qualified to teach proper technique and stretching exercises to properly develop muscles used in playing the violin. I still have a lot to learn. I would like to have a mandatory stretching class this month. I really want everyone there so we can maximize my time and help everyone learn to avoid the pain that I have caused myself. Right now I am planning this class for next Friday, April 29th at 4:00 at my house. It will be 30-45 minutes. I'm not sure how long. If you have more questions after that we can go until 5:00 or so. This class is free. Please make every effort to attend. If you have a conflict and that day absolutely doesn't work, let me know ASAP and I will see about possibly doing another class, depending on how many people can't come.

I have been going to the chiropractor this week to get myself properly re-aligned. It's been about 8 months since the last time I went. I need to do a better job of stretching in between visits, and keeping up my maintenance adjustment schedule. I feel so much better when I do. Also, a big thing that has helped me is Calcium, Omega 3 fatty acids, and Aloe. If you need a suggestion about where to get excellent supplements, tell me. I am a Registered Nutritional Consultant with Symmetry Direct, and I have been using our products for 8 years. When I am good and keep my body regulated with the proper minerals and vitamins, I function a lot better.

Herriman Talent Show

The girls and I performed a modified version of "Millionaire's Hoedown" at the Herriman City Talent Show on March 26, 2011. We had a great time!

I'm on YouTube...

Check out my channel on youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/user/musiciansguild?feature=mhum