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Happy Review Year!
Review: “to view again”
“To examine with great care”
Now that the turkey has been eaten, gifts unwrapped and family visited, it’s time to jump back into routine and ahead into the New Year.
If your child and his or her instrument have had a vacation from each other, this makes January a very good month to focus on review. Putting on your tape (or CD) as much as possible and playing learned pieces wil help restore your child’s confidence when they realize that they’ve forgotten their last few. [Don’t worry! It won’t take long to bring them back!!]
One of the most important components of the Suzuki method is review. Facility with an instrument comes from playing learned pieces over and over (and over and over) again, just as vocabulary accumulates by using learned words and adding to them. Review pieces are where your child can really let loose and PLAY…as opposed to practise.
Another very important aspect of the Suzuki method is the Group Class. The Suzuki method promises that through group playing the students will gain many important skills such as:
- the ability to perform without stopping to make corrections
- learning to focus and block out distraction
- building quick accurate responses
- playing with and listening to accompaniment
- learning to feel comfortable in and out of the limelight
This promise can only be fulfilled, though when a student has a solid repertoire to play. Group class playing is based on the assumption that every piece a student has learned can be performed at any given moment.
So… How about Friday nights as “Review Nights”? Or a “Pizza and Review” Saturday or Sunday afternoon play-through party with a few of your child’s Suzuki friends? Or starting a tradition of Saturday night family concerts?
Many good ideas can be found to make review a fun part of the practising week. As with listening, however, seeing that review is carried out is the parent’s responsibility. So if you still have room for one more New Year’s Resolution, why not add: More Review.
Happy New Year!
Judy Olmstead-O’Regan