Happy New School Year!

I am sure you are looking for ways to streamline and organize the school year, (I know I AM!)

So here is a blog post I found from a Suzuki parent about how she takes notes at lessons so that they really can make a difference at home in practice and review. I thought it was a good idea, and it may help some of you. If you don't want to be as detailed as this mom is, at least try to bring a notebook and pencil or pen to every lesson. Some moms record video of some lessons for either later review or to practice along with the recording. One of my Suzuki "Grammas" even puts these videos on a blog that she creates for each of her grandchildren so that they will have an online 'memory book'!

So HERE GOES -

Melanie Drake said:Aug 17, 2014

14 posts

I wanted to share my new note taking strategy with teachers and other parents in case it’s helpful to anyone. It’s such a simple (and obvious?) idea but it seems revolutionary to me at the moment.

I’ve been a Suzuki parent for six years. For six years, I sat through lessons and took notes sequentially on loose-leaf paper in binders. At each lesson, I would draw a line on the paper and start taking notes from the lesson. Of course, the notes fall into two main categories: information specific to a piece, general information (exercises, scales, etc.). At home practice, I would reference the notes from the previous lesson, especially on the first day of practice following the lesson. For the most part, notes from previous lessons were not referenced again. This has worked fine, but did I really remember everything from all of those lessons?

I only recently realized that my note-taking strategy was probably less than ideal. My new strategy involves the following steps:

ONE TIME SETUP:
1.) I made a single-sided copy of the books (hopefully not breaking a law in the process). Since many book one pages include two songs, I was sure to include just one song per page.
2.) I put the pages into a binder such that each piece has an adjacent blank page for notes. (The blank page is just the back of the previous page in the binder. The first song needs an extra blank page before it.)
3.) I went through all of my old lesson notes for the book. If a note pertains to a specific piece, I hand copied the note on the page adjacent to that piece. (Not surprisingly, I found a few things that I had forgotten.)

ON-GOING USE/MAINTENANCE:
1.) During practice, I reference the notes and music for each song that we review. Before my son plays a piece, I quickly read through the notes/goals for the piece to refresh my memory. Since I also keep a list of measures to work on, I ask him to first practice those measures usually with a goal in mind (e.g., memory). Before he plays a full piece, I try to give him one of the listed goals to focus on.
2.) After my son plays a piece, I may update the list of measures to work on during the next practice session. I may circle measures on my own copy of the music (because I can!).
3.) During a lesson, any additional notes pertaining to a piece are written directly on the notes page for that piece. Again, I can write directly on the music even if the actual Suzuki book is on the music stand and completely out of my view.

So, the notes for each piece consist of:
- teacher directives
- my own assessment from the previous practice session on what needs more work

There are no hard rules about taking notes. You can include whatever is useful to you. The notes are dynamic (i.e., they are modified based on my current assessment) and they include the full history of working with a piece so that I don’t lose sight of the goals.

Since the Suzuki method (or at least our school) requires that even early pieces in each book be maintained at a performance level for the book graduation requirements, I think it’s helpful to have a comprehensive list of goals even for early pieces. Yes, the older pieces must be in memory, but they must sound good too. It’s a tall order, right?

I should say that this strategy is relatively new to me and somewhat untested. In theory, it seems much better than what I was doing before. I have a few other ideas such as using a large post-it note on the notes page for new pieces. Prep work for learning the new piece can be written on the post-it which is later removed once the prep is no longer necessary. I still need a general area for notes and exercises not pertaining to a specific piece. This is just a section of loose leaf paper at the back of the binder.

This method is also helpful because my son will not let me mark his music while he plays. He’s really sensitive about that; at best it’s a distraction and at worst it’s an insult to him. I now have my own copy to mark as I please and to reference in lesson! If I write anything in my notes while he’s playing, I still need to do so secretively.

Also, since I could, I highlighted the various sections of each piece using different colors (A section = yellow, B section = green, etc.) in my copy of the music. This could be a fun exercise for a kid. I think it’s helpful to be able to visualize the form in this way. Again, it’s my personal copy of the music so I can do what I want with it. :)

I’m not sure how this method will scale as my kids progress. Right now, I have kids studying books 2 & 3 and one about to start book 1. I play along with my book 3 guitarist during practice, so I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to apply this new method for him.

My other motive for sharing this is to solicit feedback. Feel free to share other ideas you may have about taking notes and reading/using notes!