Ground Rules for String Instrument Handling

When I was in seventh grade, I was putting my violin away backstage after my junior high orchestra concert.  I’m pretty sure we had just nailed the simplified version of whatever piece we were playing that night.  As I was loosening my bow, a random audience member, who should not have been allowed backstage, walked by carelessly, letting her legs trample whatever path they pleased, and although it shouldn't have happened, and I was being careful with my instrument, I suddenly heard a heart-stopping *SNAP!*.    My bow stick had snapped in half!

Broken Violin Bow

I was HOR-RI-FIED!  Not only was my bow broken, my mom was going to KILL ME!!  Well, things turned out in the bow department (they glued that cheap bow back together, and my mom bought me a [no joke] $30 bow to take to school), and in the mom department (well, I’m still alive, so…), but the moral of this story is: stringed instruments are very fragile, so don’t break your instrument. :)

When I start a new student, I find it a good idea to establish some Ground Rules for caring for their instrument.  This is especially important for young children to avoid any instrumental disasters.  This is in addition to the routine care, such as how to rosin the bow, clean rosin from the instrument, tighten/loosen the bow, etc.  Here are my rules:

1.  Your violin is yours.  No one else’s.  Don’t let friends or siblings play it/play with it.  I reinforce this by always asking the student for permission to tune their instrument or make any adjustments, to give them a sense of ownership and responsibility for their instrument.

2.  When you are not playing your violin, it needs to either be in rest position or in your case.  Don’t leave it lying around, especially on the ground!

3.  Your instrument is NOT a toy.  No sword fighting or other such nonsense.  (Don’t show your students my logo with the two pirate kids sword fighting with bows.  Bad idea.)

Broken Violin

Those are the main three that I like to stress from the very beginning.  There may be other important things that I am forgetting.  What sort of ground rules do you set with your students with regards to instrument handling and care?

Fill Up Your Music Teaching Well!

You can't pull water from an empty well.  That's what I was told when I began learning German a few years ago.  My teacher was trying to tell me that if I don't have German in my head, I won't be able to use it when I need it.  If I haven't learned the grammar, learned the vocab, applied and practiced it...then it won't be there when I need it.

Fill Up Your Well of Music Teaching Resources!

As music teachers, this applies as well.  If our well of teaching approaches, games and activities, repertoire, etc. is empty, then guess what?  We got nothin'.  When we need it most, nothing will be there, and our students will suffer because of it.  What's worse, we will be stuck using the same boring approach for every student over and over again...  Lame.

This blog, Music Lesson Pirate, is an attempt to share with you the ideas and experiences that I have as a private violin teacher.  Many of these ideas can spill over into other instruments/voice as well.  I hope that someone somewhere may benefit from it, be able to store it away in their teaching well, and use it for a student/students who will benefit from it.  Every student is different, and not every approach works with everyone.  If we as teachers are constantly striving to improve ourselves and learn and grow from others, I believe we will be better prepared and able to help our students to be successful and to enjoy their musical experience.

So that's it.  That's what this blog is about.  As I wrote in my blog description above, the best teachers are the best thieves.  So let's "pirate" each others' ideas and become the best teachers we can by filling up our music teaching well.  After all, it's not really stealing if we give each other permission! :) In fact, while I'm on it, please don't actually steal from other people.  Because that is also lame.  But willingly sharing and collaborating with others rocks, and everyone can benefit.  Yay!

I don't profess to be the most bestest, most awesomest person ever, but just hope that this might be useful to someone, somewhere.  Even if that ends up being just me.