Week 14

Lesson Day: 11/15/06

Riley and The Maestro had an excellent practice week. Although the “Death and the Maiden” didn’t seem to go over in his last lesson, it was a hit at home. I think it helped for him to listen to the CD a lot and get it in his head. I need to make sure that Riley and The Maestro are practicing their Twinkle rhythms along with the CD as well. I’m pretty sure they are, but this should really work for The Maestro.

When he gets his bow, the first step should be for Riley to keep it separate from the cello, so it can act as a “carrot” for other practice steps. Then Riley can bow on his cello with his hand on hers, and then eventually switch to put his hand on the bow – but we’ll have to make sure that he has a lot of supervision at first and sticks to official rhythms (Twinkle rhythms or names), plus the “wiggly sirens” he has yet to learn. I’m hoping to get to this point before I leave in 3 weeks.

We started the lesson with The Maestro showing me some things he practiced at home. Ski jumps and knuckle knocks are looking great, especially with the bow hand. Riley pumped the air out of her cheeks with each of his knocks, which brought out a delightful smile and increased motivation from The Maestro.

There was some squirminess and silliness at the beginning of the lesson, and it appeared that The Maestro was testing his limits. I think I could have used a little more Love and Logic with him myself, but decided to let Riley do the disciplining and I could do the cello teaching (this is a controversial topic between different Suzuki teachers). After he called me a “bummer,” Riley’s comment “We’d have to leave our cello lesson if you talk that way” worked quite well today. I think it worked because that “threat” has been reality before. He knows she’s serious about leaving a lesson.

My instinct as a teacher was to have The Maestro first pluck the “Death and the Maiden” (hereafter called DATM) pattern without listening to the music, but I trusted Riley’s suggestion to go with the music first. This was a good choice – he wouldn’t even bring up his cello into playing position until the music started.

Riley got down on her knees and lovingly helped The Maestro figure out strings for the copy game. She provided several pats on the back and affirmative words. That seemed to really help him stay focused.

With a lot of encouragement from both of us, he showed me each of his cello fingers by number. At first, as he struggled a little bit and talked off-topic about my cello endpin. Each time I would try to bring him back to focus on his fingers he would again get off topic. I thought about my DSI readings and how children can escape into language when the motor task is too difficult. In order to help him sense each finger a little more easily, I gently rubbed the base knuckle of the finger I was asking him to show me. That seemed to help a little. I’ll have to remember to help him with that a little bit next time rather than simply sticking my hand out and waiting for a response. Smaller steps.

As promised, I showed The Maestro my endpin after he showed me each of his cello fingers. Then I asked him to show me a rhythm, which didn’t go over so well. He tried to lick my practice bow and Riley responded by asking him again if he was ready for the end bow. He got serious and then showed me a Tucka rhythm (with an extra note at the beginning and about 3 extra notes at the end). The Rocket chant went the best ever, most likely with thanks to the fact that my college students performed it for him last Friday.

The Maestro showed me an excellent bow hold, so I showed him the “The Maestro Elwood” rhythm. His face showed delight at the same time his hand went up to cover his right ear. He asked for faster and faster, so I showed him the “The Maestro K. Elwood” rhythm, as well as the “Matthias” rhythm (one of his friends). Mom tapped out the rhythm on his lap along with me as I played.

Wow, what an attention span today. After the rhythms we brought out the cello again. Some more testing of limits by putting the feet up on his cello. As I was thinking about how to get him on task, Riley found the answer by pointing to a picture of Pablo Casals in my studio. The three of us studied how his feet were flat on the floor. The lesson ended with The Maestro making a wonderful C shape (with the bow hand first and then with the cello hand), and then touched his 4th finger on his treble clef sticker.

At the end of the lesson [33:00] The Maestro played with Mini-Chester. It’s interesting to watch how this little toy gradually loses its excitement as The Maestro becomes more proficient on the real cello.