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This podcast episode looks at two ideas that may be useful to ease the friction associated with practicing: activation energy and juggling. For many people, finding a way to adjust or minimize the amount of energy it takes to activate or initiate the practice session will help immensely to ease the pain of getting the practice going. Juggling provides us with easy to understand metaphors and observations of how a practice session for learning music might be structured.

I mentioned a few resources in the podcast episode. If you are interested in any of these resources, please consider using the links I have provided here. You are not under any obligation to buy anything, but if you decide to purchase any of these resources and use the links provided, the podcast receives a small benefit at no cost to you.

I started my juggling experience with this set of materials. Everything I needed. Click on the picture for more information.

I have used these balls recently and enjoy them. Click on the picture for more information.

Here is a link to a terrific juggling instructor:

Juggling Video (3 balls): Niels Duinker breaks down the juggling experience into small steps that make it easy to understand, practice, and progress.

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If you are a parent of a beginning violin student and looking for help in between lessons, consider my book The Twinkle Project as a resource of teaching points, learning steps, and games and activities to assist the parent in practicing at home. I include a great deal of information, tools, worksheets, and checklists to assist parents. A parent who struggles to remember what to do in between weekly lessons will find all the answers in this book.

Many teachers will also find this book a helpful resource because it gathers in one place all the information to be used to teach a beginning violin student from the initial start up steps to the point of performing all the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star variations. I have included all the tiny steps that I use when I begin a young violin student.

wonderful resource and guide that has all the nuts and bolts organized so nicely for the twinkle stages of study … looking forward to sharing with parents as a useful tool towards goal setting, pacing and achievement! — MD Suzuki teacher

For more information about The Twinkle Project, including the two short movies that explain why I wrote the book and give a good overview of what the book is about and what it contains, visit here. You can purchase the book here.

If you have questions or answers or you would like to comment or leave me a voice mail, you can do so at (512) 537-6356. If you would like to send me an email, you may do so at paula@teachsuzuki.com. I welcome comments and questions about this episode and am interested in hearing about the perspective of other parents and teachers.

You may find more information and useful articles on my blog at: Teach Suzuki Blog.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

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