As I go back now, it's the same. A lot of my harp friends from when I was eight are still there. Except, they are the harp teachers and harp moms instead of the students. Some of their children are students and it's so fun to see everyone and how they have changed. Sometimes, even the original harp moms are there. Some of my friends have multiple children attending so they call on their moms or dads to come help. Parental involvement is so key to the Suzuki method that you really need a parent with the student in the classes, so if you have multiple children, you might need help keeping up with double or triple the classes. It was so fun to see some of the original moms and talk with them.
Every time I go to Institute, I just feel so grateful and blessed that I could grow up and be a part of the harp and Suzuki community. It is wonderful. I love the Suzuki Method. It's focus is on love, nurturing, and making beautiful people through music. All the original teachers who taught me when I was eight and every summer thereafter are still there (including the original who traveled to Japan to study with Dr. Suzuki and who developed the whole program for the harp) and they give me big smiles and hugs when they see me. It is really interesting to be around people who have literally watched me grow up. To be part of a community like that is fantastic. Lots of the teachers live all around the country and I only see them at Institute, but they are part of this larger community that includes me.
I did teacher training for Book Four. I've taken it before, but only as an auditor (long story) and they've changed a lot of the repertoire, so it was time for me to take it again. In teacher training, you spend a week basically going through each song in the book and discussing what technique and principle that each song is supposed to introduce to the child. We talk and share tips for learning the pieces and make sure that we know all the teaching points. Then we spend hours throughout the week observing other teachers teach students in the masterclasses. It's a great learning experience.
At the end of the week, there is a big concert with all the children. When I was younger, Suzuki camp always included the other instruments like violins, violas, guitars, etc. and the final concert was everyone on stage. Utah has so many harpists that it has its own camp now. So, the final concert is just harps - but it's 80 harps on stage and it's very cool. Even though I've seen and participated in the concerts for my whole life, I still love them and think that they are amazing. The students were really playing at a high level this year and there were several very young and very advanced players.
This year I had two students attend and it was so great. I've been teaching Elise via Skype since she is still in Houston, it was great to be with her and give her some live lessons. My little student Ashlynn is brand new. She's really a prodigy and keeps shocking me with how quickly she is picking things up. She has only been taking lessons for three months, but is already halfway through the book. There is one particularly difficult song that usually takes most students several weeks/months to be able to play hands together. Ashlynn had her hands together after one day and within a week the song was basically polished and we moved on. I REALLY wanted her to attend institute, but it was out of their budget. I emailed my friend who is the Institute Director and asked if she could waive the late fee since they weren't even taking lessons when the deadline was. My friend agreed to waive the fee, then I told Ashlynn's mom that I would waive my lesson fee for the month and they could stay overnight at my mom's house during the week instead of paying for the dorms. It made it financially possible for them and I'm so glad they could attend!
I also want to note that Ashlynn is only nine and she earned $3000 herself to pay for a harp and lessons. She pays me in cash each month and hands the money straight to me. She has wanted to play the harp for years and when they found me as a teacher, her mom started researching things that Ashlynn might be able to sell to make money. She had some wholesale contacts and they decided on these scarves. They made a website and then Ashlynn bought the first batch and all subsequent batches with her own money. Here is her website. I'm putting it here in case anyone wants to support here, and the scarves are cute! It really is amazing. She went door to door to sell and took them to craft shows. She is very shy and I asked her mom how she was able to do it. The first time there were tears, but her mom said that she just looked at her and said, "Ashlynn, how bad do you want to play the harp? How bad do you want this?" So, she swallowed her tears and started knocking. Honestly, I don't know if I could do that with my kids, but I am amazed and impressed! Ashlynn appreciates her lessons SO much. She worked for them, she earned them! They're already brainstorming ideas to start earning money for a pedal harp in the future.
Me and the other book four trainees with Delaine, our teacher trainer.
With Elise
Phala Tracy, one of the harp teachers, has been coming up with all these ways to teach music theory to kids. Here is her time signature song, they sang it in the final concert. The words are, "The top number tells you how many beats in a measure, the bottom number tells you what kind of note gets one beat."
"I own a lot of pickles, I keep them in the door of the fridge. I get the lids of the jars mixed up some times. I say, "Aye" to old Ian at the local pickle store. Yay modes!"
This song teaches all the modes and the melody goes up a half or whole-step as you reach the next mode. Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolidian, Aeolian, Locrian. So, if you have trouble remembering which mode is which, you can sing the song and know!
Lastly, I'll put up a video of the final song from the concert. It's a very famous harp song, Seguidilla by Carlos Salzedo. It's a great song and the kids learn it in book two. They look forward to it and are so excited when they are advanced enough to play it. The little kids tapped out different rhythms on the harp while the others played. On the far left in the front, there is a little girl with Down Syndrome. It was so sweet. Her older sisters play and so she is taking lessons. That's why I love Suzuki. It's all about using and teaching music to enrich a person's soul. I love one of Dr. Suzuki's quotes, "Where love is great, much can be accomplished." We don't teach just to have the best little prodigies, we teach everyone who wants to learn. This little girl hasn't even learned taka taka jump jump yet, but she had a little hand cymbal that she could to the taka hand position and it would ding in time to the music. So sweet and moving. She was working really hard to get it to ding in the right place.
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