Helping your child prepare for the Recital and Certificate of Merit Tests

With the recital coming up and for some, Certificate of Merit evaluations, parents want to know what they can do to help their child. We all want our children to do well and succeed. When we have success in accomplishing our goals, that is a such great feeling ... it really is fun and builds our confidence. But getting there takes a lot of hard work and practice. It doesn't happen by accident. 

The problem is that sometimes when our children hear the words; "go practice your violin, do your homework, do your chores... they respond with long faces, dragging feet, or sometimes even a fight. Does that ever happen in your house? They love playing their violins, they love coming to class; but practicing often times seems like something they are being forced to do. So how do you get your child to practice at home without a fight? Here are a few suggestions. 

Encouragement is probably the best way you can help your child. Ask them to “play” their pieces for you on a regular basis. Make practicing a fun game by doing pretend recitals or performances in your living room. Most importantly, just listen to them play. Tell them what you like about their playing. They really need to hear this and it is a great way to build their confidence. If they are playing for you, then they are practicing. Win! Win! And you get to enjoy hearing their progress and engage with them in the process. Don’t worry about correcting their mistakes; I will do that in class. You can, however, ask them if there are any specific areas that Ms. Jill asked them to work on and ask them to show you. 

If they are in my Certificate of Merit program they should be working in their theory books regularly. Check in with them and see how they are doing. They can give the best performance ever for their evaluation; but if they don't pass their theory test they will receive a RAL (Remain At Level). They are both equally important to succeed. They should be completing their workbooks by the end of December, if they haven’t already. That leaves January and February for review and practice tests (I have the practice tests). Also, they should be going through the sections in their books in the proper order and not jumping around or skipping sections. If they are falling behind, help them to come up with a plan to complete their books on time. Also remind your child that all the information they need to answer the questions is in the book. Encourage them by making sure they are reading all of the information prior to and in between the questions. If they are stuck have them come to my theory study hall or ask me in class. 

Help by working with them to put together a schedule for practicing and studying theory. Help them to stay accountable to what they have committed to. If your child is practicing 20-30 minutes a day they will improve significantly more then 1 or 2 days of lengthly practice a week. Students just starting do not need as much time in the beginning; but they do need time with their instruments on a daily basis. If you are listening to your child play regularly you will be able to tell if they are progressing. 

Below is an interesting matrix that I came across recently that demonstrates just how important practice and family support is in how students progress with their music-making; or anything they want to accomplish.

If you have concerns about your child’s progress in their violin playing or have any questions about how you can help, please feel free to contact me. I am here to help, and I care about every one of my students and want them to succeed.

Ms. Jill

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Is it time for new violin strings?

You may be asking, "Exactly how long do violin strings last?" "How do I know when it's time to change strings?" "What brand of strings are the best?" "How can I make my strings last longer?" You can spend hours searching the internet and find a lot of different answers to these frequently asked questions. And truthfully, there isn't just one simple answer. Answers really are unique to the violinist and dependent on various factors such as practice habits, performance schedule, budget, instrument and personal preference in regards to desired sound.

Confused? Yeah, this can be mysterious topic for sure. I thought I would jot down a few notes and share with you here in hopes that this will take some of the mystery out of the topic and help you to determine what are the best choices for you.

Playing Time

General speaking, strings will last for about 300 hours of playing time. That opens the door to the question of "How much should I practice?" which is a whole different article. But back to the point ... The math here really depends on time spent in the practice room and performing. But the hours of playing time is only a fraction of the equation. If the style of the musician is on the softer/gentler side the strings will last a bit longer than that of a player that has a heavier bow arm or more of a fast and furious style of playing. 

String Care

There are things you can do also to care for your strings that will extend the life a bit. First is to make a habit of wiping the excess rosin from the strings with a clean cloth before putting the violin back in the case. Yes, this can make a horrible screeching sound. While it is somewhat unpleasant it is totally normal. You can also wipe your strings with a tiny bit alcohol to clean them if they become caked with rosin. Personally, I only do this when I know they are at the end of their life, but I'm not quite ready to change them. If you do this, you must take great caution to make sure no alcohol touches the wood of the violin as it will ruin the varnish. 

Dull Tone

Another indicator that you are ready for new strings is if the tone you are producing becomes dull. Also, if you notice that your strings don't tune well and you just can't seem to find the right pitch, your strings are probably ready to be changed. 

Breaking in New Strings

It is important to know that when you first put on a new set of strings it takes a little bit to break them in. They will go out of tune a lot of first until they are done stretching. This usually takes a day or two. With that being said, if you have a performance coming up you probably don't want to change strings right before your performance. I usually try to change mine at least a few days before performing publicly, or if possible a week.

Choosing a Brand

Quality strings can make a huge difference in the tone that you produce. There are a lot of determining factors regarding what string to choose ... i.e. budget, playing level, desired tone, etc. Some strings are more durable than others, and different strings produce a wide variety of tones. I will share a bit here about my own personal experience with strings. Thomastik Dominants are a very popular string. They are durable and fairly reasonable at about $50 a set. They sound good on most student violins as well as some higher end violins. A lot of professional violinists use these strings exclusively. I used to, until I purchased my current violin. The Dominants seemed to produce a very harsh sound and I wasn't happy with that. I have also used Evah Pirazzi and Evah Pirazzi Gold. These sounded awesome on my old violin; but they sound horrible on my current violin. The Evah's are a bit pricey ranging from $85-116 for a set. My current favorite is Obligato's. They are also a bit pricey as well at around $100 per set; but I love the tone they produce. It's a very warm and colorful tone. And they are fairly durable. Below is a chart that Shar Music put together that can be very helpful in choosing strings. I am also available and happy to help recommend strings that I think would be suitable for your situation. If you are a student of mine and need a string change, I am also happy to help change strings during our lesson time. I plan on creating a video tutorial as well for those of you that want to change your strings at home.

I hope you found this article helpful. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Happy practicing!

Ms Jill
GriffinViolin Studio