THE SUZUKI FANFARE December 2017 Volume XXX No. 2 Dear Suzuki Students and Parents, It has been a semester filled with performances. Sato Center students performed in September for the CIM Annual Board Meeting, in October with the CIM Orchestra in Severance Hall and in November with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra at Playhouse Square. In December the Sato Center Bass Ensemble followed by the violin, viola, cello ensemble, performed for the CIM Holiday Circlefest. In addition the Sato Center has hosted four afternoon Solo Suzuki Recitals in Mixon Hall as well as fourteen Saturday morning Spotlight Concert Etiquette sessions. The October Halloween play-in was a delight with students & faculty dressed up in their Halloween costumes performing choreographed Halloween stories written by Laura Shuster and Erin Reidhead. The Sato Center for Suzuki Studies trains conservatory students to be Suzuki teachers. Abbey Hansen and myself have had the pleasure of training around 20 cello and 20 violin & viola conservatory students to this fall. These young teachers have learned a great deal through observing our program and receiving hands on training with our students in group and private teaching. I know you have enjoyed seeing them in your classes and hearing them perform on Spotlight. Over break I hope that you will take the Listen Like a Maniac Challenge as outlined in the Fanfare. Students that have taken this challenge have found more enjoyment in their home practice and have made significant progress in learning new repertoire. Stephen and I are traveling to Maryland for Winter Break. I wish everyone a restful holiday break with family and friends. See you at Group Classes on January 6 th! For the happiness of all children, Kimberly Meier-Sims Director, Sato Center for Suzuki Studies Cleveland Institute of Music 1
THE SUZUKI FANFARE Volume XXX, No. 2 December 2017 The SUZUKI FANFARE is published five times a year in conjunction with the Sato Center for Suzuki Studies of the Preparatory Division at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Submissions can be sent to: FANFARE C/o Preparatory Department Cleveland Institute of Music 11021 East Boulevard Cleveland, OH 44106 For information, please call (216) 791-5000 Kimberly Meier-Sims, Director Sato Center for Suzuki Studies Laura Shuster, Coordinator Sato Center Projects Viola Studies, Preparatory and Suzuki 2
THE SATO CENTER IS LOOKING FOR NEW STUDENTS! Prospective parents or guardians and young musicians are invited to attend the upcoming Suzuki Orientation Meeting Saturday, January 6 2:00-3:00 p.m. Room 217 at CIM. Come and meet the Suzuki faculty, learn about the program, and view live performances. Email Laura Shuster if you re interested in attending. STUDENT NEWS Niko Ustin, piano student of Tanya Groys, is cast in the Cleveland Playhouse s production of A Christmas Carol. This is his second year in the production. FACULTY NEWS Abbey Hansen taught at the Michigan Cello Festival in Ann Arbor Michigan in November. Her children Dylan and Lydia were among the 100 cellists who participated with help from Dad, Jason. 3
Meet our new cello faculty member Elizabeth (Ellie) Glorioso is an American cellist based in Cleveland, Ohio. She holds a Bachelor s in Cello Performance from Butler University and a Master s Degree in Cello Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy from the Cleveland Institute of Music in the studio of Sharon Robinson. As a fully-registered Suzuki cello teacher Ms. Glorioso is passionate about teaching children how to be good global citizens and pursue excellence in all areas of life. She not only teaches in CIM s Sato Center for Suzuki Studies drawing students from all around Greater Cleveland but has also developed a flourishing studio in Shaker Heights. Ms. Glorioso is co-founder of the Cleveland-Harare Music Exchange, a program that enriches the music education of students in Harare, Zimbabwe through intensive lessons and high-level performances. ARE YOU LISTENING LIKE A MANIAC? Michelle Horner, Suzuki guitar teacher and Suzuki mom, challenged her daughter and guitar students to take the Listening Like a Manic Challenge. Her daughter resisted the idea but after giving it a chance for two weeks had amazing success in her home practice, lesson preparation, review practice, and found that it was easy to learn new repertoire since she already knew the pieces in her head. Here are some of her ideas to get started. Current Piece Listening on your mp3 file listen to your current piece for 1 hour a day or put the recording on a listening look for 10xs a day Entire Book Listening Make a Super CD from the Suzuki book you are studying. Start by recording each piece 10xs. Play the recording daily at home, in the car, etc. o e.g. Chorus 10xs o Musette 10xs o etc. 4
Would you like to join the 2017-2018 100-Day Practice Club? In order to count practice days, students must listen daily and practice daily. Daily Listening puts students in a holding pattern. Daily Listening and Daily Practice counts towards the 100-days. SAY YES to the 100-Day Practice CHALLENGE! The 100-Day Practice Club requires that students listen to their Suzuki recordings daily, without fail. To get started: CAREFULLY READ THROUGH THE RULES BELOW! Download practice chart by going to - cim.edu/suzuki and clicking on 100- Day Practice Chart. Keep track of your daily practicing and listening by placing a sticker on each day that you practice and listen to your Suzuki CD. Upon completion of the 100 days, hand in the chart to your private teacher. Look for your name in the next Fanfare 100-Day Club Practice Corner. The rules are: 1. Each participant must practice and listen for 100 days in a row. Listening must be part of the practice day! 2. Listening to the Suzuki pieces must occur, EVERY DAY! If practicing is missed for one or more days in a row, but daily listening continues, participants can continue the 100-day practice challenge and not have to start over. On the days that practicing does not occur students will remain in a holding pattern in the 100-day count until daily practice & listening resumes. 3. If the participant does not practice and listen to his or her Suzuki CD for one day, he or she must start back at day one of the 100-day practice challenge. VERY SAD! 4. The idea of this club is to instill strong practice & listening habits. If you don t succeed the first time, try try again. WE ENCOURAGE EVERY STUDENT & TEACHER to become a member of the 100-DAY PRACTICE CLUB! Happy Practicing! 5
NEED INSPIRATION TO START THE 100-DAY PRACTICE CLUB Check out Hilary Hahn s Article on her 100 days of practice at: http://stringsmagazine.com/hilary-hahn-commits-to-practicing-for-100-days-in-a-row/ ****************************************************************************** Graduation Recitals Leo Albrecht, Violin Book 1 Katie Lee, Viola Book 2 Andrew Heinzen, Violin Book 3 Ella Cole, Violin Book 5 Sophy Gao, Violin Book 6 Sachin Singh Bass Book 2 ~~Congratulations!~~ 6
Practicing through the Holidays Well, the holidays are upon us and the wanted to suggest a few ways KEEP going through this busy time of year and just as importantly to make it fun! Plan to spend 10 to 15 minutes of your practice reviewing. Write out the names of all your review pieces, each on a separate piece of paper. Find small boxes or small containers in your house to place each review piece. Find two larger containers and label them Successfully Reviewed and Needs Practice. Ask someone to hide the boxes throughout the house. (Boxes must be visible and not hidden inside something!) As you find the boxes, open them up and play the review piece written on the paper. If piece is in good shape, place paper in the Successfully Reviewed container if not, place in Needs Practice container. Continue reviewing for a designated time, or until all pieces are reviewed. Day 2, hide boxes again. Start practice by choosing one or more pieces from the Needs Practice container. Then resume looking for boxes that were not opened the day before. HAVE FUN! Kimberly Meier-Sims Choose three review pieces (or more!) to work on over the holidays, always focusing on playing with a beautiful, rich tone. Then, perform a mini concert for your family and friends! Ellie Glorioso For one practice session, the parent is only allowed to say POSITIVE things (this includes non-verbal cues). Abbey Hanson Practice in Santa Hats! By the fire! By the fire in Santa Hats for the Elf on the Shelf! Put names of your review songs in a stocking! Instead of using dice, creatively use a dreidel to define each Hebrew letter as a song or scale and spin it to see what to practice next! Laura Shuster 7
Gift Ideas for your musician! CD: Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin album, Hush a favorite of all cellists everywhere, or Yo-Yo Ma Songs of Joy and Peace album (has some holiday tunes, but mostly about joy and peace, collaborations with TONS of really cool musicians (James Taylor, Chris Thile, Diana Crawl, Rene Fleming etc). It is WONDERFUL. Abbey Hanson CD: Jaqueline Du Pre: The Early BBC recordings 1961-1965 CD: The Goat Rodeo Sessions: Yo Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile. Ellie Glorioso Magic Rosin is a popular gift for string students! I also enjoy reading the book From Suzuki to Mozart: a History of the Repertoire in Suzuki Violin Books 1-10 by Hadley Johnson. Tickets to the Cleveland Orchestra is also a great idea. Laura Shuster Hundreds Chart Fun Mystery Picture Activity Books by Lauren Thompson. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/product/place-value-. These charts have seasonal pictures that come to life as you color in the squares. The website is set up for teachers but parents can purchase individual books. The cost is around $4.00 each. I may order some myself! Kimberly Meier-Sims 8
Theoretically Speaking Sight reading it can be a dreaded word, something you feel you either can or can t do! Not true. Sight reading is a skill that everyone can develop, and you can use your theory understanding to help. The first step to improving your sight reading is to practice it! But, isn t practicing sight reading a contradiction? Not at all. Like any other skill, sight reading gets better by doing it regularly. Just try to follow some of these tips: 1. Try to do sight reading on a regular basis as part of your practice time. Choose pieces to read that you don t already know, and have not heard. They shouldn t be too long, and they should be slightly easier than the pieces you play in your lesson. 2. Sometimes the difficulty with sight reading is putting it all together reading the notes with the rhythms with the technique. If this is your difficulty, try practicing reading just one skill at a time. Using a piece of music, or writing out pitches on a staff board, try just playing a series of pitches with a steady beat. Or, try playing a series of rhythms on a single pitch. Before reading a short piece on your instrument, you might first try speaking the rhythm on a neutral sound, then reading the note names in rhythm, then singing the notes in rhythm and finally playing the passage. 3. This brings us to pre listening. One of the reasons we practice ear training on melodies, rhythms and intervals is so that we can listen to the piece in our heads and know the sounds we expect to hear before we play them. Try moving from reading the notes as above, to reading them in your head, trying to hear what you think the rhythm and pitches will sound like. When you sight read the piece, see how close what you play matches what you heard in your head. 4. The individual pitches and rhythms in music come together to form patterns. Before sight reading your piece of music, look for the bigger patterns. In example 1 below, I see a sixteenth note scale and a downward arpeggio, not individual pitches and rhythms. Group rhythms into units of beat (for instance two sixteenths and an eighth), and practice these different rhythmic patterns so that when you encounter them you can process them as one unit of sound. In example 2, the melody repeats a rhythm and interval pattern (motive). Seeing this motive, I can more easily play the whole passage. Example 1: (A scale and arpeggio) Example 2: (sixteenths-eighth third/second) 5. As you glance over the music that you plan to sight read, also look for passages that you think might be difficult. Since you won t have time to work out everything, it helps to be able to quickly isolate the trouble spots. Plan how you will play this difficult section when you get to it. 6. Practice looking ahead as you sight read. It s hard to sight read if your eyes don t stay ahead of your hands. One way you can practice moving your eyes is to have someone cover up the music with a card just before you play it, forcing you to read one or more beats ahead of what you are playing. 7. Once you have listened in your head, found patterns and isolated the trouble spots, go ahead and sight read the piece without stopping. When you are done, analyze how you did. What went well? What mistakes did you make and why? Once you identify your mistakes, do some problem solving. How could you fix the mistake, and therefore approach a similar problem with better results the next time it occurs in a piece of music. Now go ahead and sight read the piece one last time. Did it improve? Over time, you will notice that your skills do get better and better. Did you forget what your theory homework is for the week? Remember to check the theory bulletin board outside of room 201. Teachers post the assignments on a chart here each week. 9
What Does the Robinson Music Library At CIM Have For You? Music scores and books for children and adults at all levels are available for check-out at the Circulation Desk. Listen to recordings or watch videos of great performances from our Media Lab collection (downstairs.) Have a group of 2 or more? Ask about our group listening rooms! How Can I Borrow? Sign up for a Library card at the Circulation Desk on behalf of your child. You may borrow 10 items at a time (scores and books.) Want to avoid having to re-activate your Library account in person each semester? Contact Eric at eric.farnan@cim.edu in advance as soon as you have registered, and he will re-activate your account. Questions? Visit us at https://www.cim.edu/library or ask a Library staff member for more information. Library Hours Sundays 11am-10pm Mondays 8am-10pm Tuesdays 8am-10pm Wednesdays 8am-10pm Thursdays 8am-10pm Fridays 8am-5pm Saturdays 9am-10pm 10
2017-2018 CIM Sato Center for Suzuki Studies Calendar Main Campus 12/20/17 Fall Semester Holiday Break Begins Friday, December 22 CIM Main Open Wednesday, January 3 Make-Up Weeks Wednesday, January 3-12 Fall Group & Theory Classes Saturday, January 6 New Parent Orientation Saturday, January 6, 2:00-3:00pm, Room 217 FINAL Fall Group & Theory Classes Saturday, January 13 Spring Semester Spring Classes Begin Tuesday, January 16 Solo Recital Saturday, January 20, 2:00-3:30 pm, Mixon Concerto Afternoon Sunday, January 21, 1:00-5:30 pm, Kulas Solo Recital Saturday, February 17, 2:00-3:30p.m, Mixon Achievement Days Tuesday-Saturday, February 20-24 Spring Workshop Friday, March 16-18 Prep Spring Break March 26-April 1 NO GROUP OR THEORY Saturday, March 31 Preparatory Orchestra Concerts Saturday, May 5, 11:30 am, Kulas May Play-In & Picnic Saturday, May 12, 9:00-11:00, Kulas 11:30-1:00, Potluck Picnic (final group & theory classes) Make-Up Week May 14-18 CIM Commencement Saturday, May 19 NO CLASSES OR GROUPS Summer Semester Classes Begin Monday, May 21 Memorial Day (CIM closed) Monday, May 28 Classes End Friday, June 29 (Fall Group/Theory Classes: Sept. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; Oct. 7, 14, 21, 28; Nov. 4, 11, 18; Dec. 2, 9; Jan. 6, 13) = 16 classes (Spring Group/Theory Classes: Jan. 20, 27; Feb. 3, 10, 17, 24; Mar. 3, 10, 17, 24; Apr. 7, 14, 21, 28; May 5, 12) = 16 classes 32 weeks of group and theory classes 11