Time Management: Own it and be free!

Time is finite. It is one of the most important constants in life. How we use our time and prioritize greatly affects our behaviour, choices, and quality of life. I think time management is one of the most important life skills one can learn and own; and I try to integrate it into my teachings and lessons with all my students regardless of their age.

Since young, I honestly have a very poor concept of time; if I don’t have a phone or clock with me, I lose track of all time. But what I’ve really achieved over the years is being able to manage my time at a high level and work around my weaknesses. There are usually too many excuses for not completing a task etc. I get asked quite often on how I’m able to manage so many different things at once yet still have the time to relax and chill. It takes years to build that skillset; I strongly believe that we all have much more time than we think if we prioritize.

When we create awareness and develop skillsets on time management, we achieve these in the process:

1. Prioritization
   - Learn to filter out what’s most important at any given point of time regardless of its significance.

2. Efficiency
   - Learn to make the best out of every situation within a limited time frame.

3. Respect & Ownership (This is huge)
   - Self-respect and respect for other people’s time can bring you far in your life in all aspects; personal, social, career.
   - Owning this life skill and the regulating the processes leading up to it will be beneficial for life.

Just like music, when you understand the fundamentals and structure of rhythm, pulse, groove and how it flows in the bigger picture of the music, only then can you truly be free with time. This is the same for life. I’m always thinking of ways to incorporate these life values into our music lessons. I constantly go through different charts, writings, and drawings with my students; for them to understand their own time and life better.

Music is a medium to channel those values. Kids are sponges, whether they absorb or own the knowledge is up to them. But we teachers have a duty to shine light on paths or thoughts that they might not know, so that they can make better decisions in their own lives. I think that’s the true purpose of education. Knowledge opens up endless pathways. (A topic for another day)

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We usually narrow down a student’s busiest day of the week, so that we can see exactly how much more “free time” there is despite the chaos. Students would often realize that they have a lot more time than they think when you can visually* dissect and assign priorities accordingly.

*24hour bar/pie/ cake chart varies accordingly to students’ timetable and needs

Once we establish how much time could be allocated to practicing, we further narrow down what are the problematic areas to work on during that session. You train your mind to work more efficiently when you can filter out what’s most important to work on when practicing. Mindless practicing gets you nowhere. The allocated time could be used for both physical, and/or mental practicing, and I’m a strong advocate for the latter. Mental practicing takes a lot more effort; it is harder to teach that, but it works wonders overtime if the student persists as well.

Having short attention spans aren’t an issue if you know how to work around it. Some of my students have 7-8 mins attention span or less, and I fully empathize coz I’m like that too. Don’t make students feel less of themselves just because they cannot focus. There are always underlying reasons for certain behaviours. We must figure out ways to embrace and empower that instead; bringing light to how they can manage their own practice time with certain tools (e.g. alarm) and reminders (writing down these charts and pointers). Overtime, these can slowly shift behaviours and mindset.

Learning to manage my time is probably one of the most positive life skills I’ve acquired as it has a ripple effect on other parts of my life and work that needs to be managed as well. Personally, alarms and Google Calendar have been the best tools that I use. Since I have a poor concept of time, I pre-set the alarms throughout the day according to the different tasks needed to be completed so that I really get things done within that time frame; be it admin, teaching, or miscellaneous work. This might seem intense, but it really works for me! =) The altMBA experience last year had further enhanced this prioritization and making time for chillaxation is crucial for me.

When older students like these express how they’ve benefitted from our time management lessons, it really energizes me to continue what I do daily, so thank YOU students for being the light and fuel of my teaching and learning journey.

I would highly encourage all teachers to incorporate these time management lessons into your teachings: it aligns students on what’s important to focus on for their practices, giving them the tools they need to start efficient practices and in turn, you’ll see improvements in their playing!

Happy teaching! <3

Different types of bow strokes

Why are there so many bow strokes with so many different names?! How are they related and how do we play them?! What’s the difference between a Détaché, Martelé, Spiccato and so many other bowings?? How do we notate this and that? These are some of the common questions that are being asked with regards to the different types of bow strokes.

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There are tons of information, videos, books, details out there. But I realized that the written information out there on bow strokes are all over the place; they were either too wordy, too vague, or just not visually satisfying to absorb. “Why isn’t there a clearer/simpler visual of all these wonderful bow strokes and information?” 🤔

With references to the teachings and contents by Leopold Auer, Ivan Galamian, Samuel Applebaum, James Kjelland and many more, I thought: Why not create an infographic on the different bow strokes? This “research” process has been tiring yet intriguing and fun as I’ve learned some terms that I never knew as well! We’ve been playing and executing these techniques without knowing the names of it and it’s been a refreshing experience for myself.

I hope that this infographic will be useful for anyone who needs it. There are many more names/terms to the bow strokes, as well as notations for the strokes that I have not included (or couldn’t fit it into poster><). The mixed use of notations are endless but I’ve tried to be as precise as I can in including the least- most commonly used bow strokes.

I hope to include videos to these strokes eventually for better clarity. As usual, I’ll be updating and refining these overtime. Feel free to share it if you find it useful!=)

Cheers to a better string community!🥰

Resources for Violin students

There are so many resources out there for different levels of students- these are just some of what I’ve tried during the course of my teaching over the past decade and have found them incredibly useful. Hopefully these can help to serve as a guide for anyone who is looking to teach or learn. (not in any order of preference etc) There are definitely many more out there that I’m still in the process of learning and working out what’s best for my students, and this list will be updated=)

I strongly believe that each individual is unique- hence I’ll always be open to try out different resources; to find the best approach and fit for each student as they progress. On top of these, I come up with my own games, exercises, listening assignments, sharing of videos, books as well as working on aural skills and music history with my students.

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I’d like to think of these resources like a buffet; there are so many options and you get to pick and choose which ones work best for your students. Some kids are very visual and some are very mature for their age- the layout of the books matter and I spend a lot of time at bookstores going through new and old materials to learn and find out what else could be good for students of all ages.

Music learning should never just be about taking exams- but sometimes an exam structure could help motivate some students. The repertoire from the ABRSM Syllabus could aid in the learning process. However, the fixed mindset of “Music = ABRSM certificates” is way too common, especially in Asia and this is what most of us music educators are trying to change. This will be a topic of discussion for another time.

I don’t teach using the Suzuki method, but I use their books as more of a repertoire book. It’s important for students to be listening to different genres of music as well, ranging from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th century and contemporary repertoire and jazz. Listening to other instruments will greatly improve their overall musicianship as well!

There are just way too many violin sonatas, concertos and show pieces out there and maybe I’ll sort them out another time- but by this stage of advanced learning, students should definitely be working on some of these repertoires.

What has driven me as a teacher is the curiosity of what’s out there and I hope to impart and share the same curiosity and growth mindset to my students and anyone who might find this beneficial!

Take care during this period of uncertainty and stay safe!=)

6 fun ideas to motivate your child to practice

Finding motivation to practice is a universal problem. For parents who are involved in their child’s learning progress and practice sessions at home, these are some of the ideas and methods that could work; especially for ages 12 and below. The key is to constantly improvise and work out a routine with your child. Find out what works and what doesn’t- have patience!

In a society where everything is so fast- paced and students have so much to cope with academically, it is hard to focus and calm your mind. This is where music learning can address that and hone the skills to improve focus and mindfulness.

Dealing with low self esteem

I’ve come across many young students who are hesitant to even start playing on their instruments during lessons. It may seem that they are looking for all sorts of excuses to avoid playing and if we are not mindful enough, we could just easily classify them as “rascals/rebels”. However, I’ve come to realize over the years that most of them behave this way due to a similar root of the problem: A very low sense of self esteem.

This comes out in many different forms in my students, namely: 1) Extremely negative towards situations 2) Beating themselves up in every possible way 3) Easily anxious 4) Does not persist long enough to find a solution to a problem

It’s a very long journey in guiding kids with low self esteem, but I have seen some of them transformed overtime, even if they have stopped learning music. What has worked so far for them and myself is to constantly pen down their thought process and draw them out. Visualizations work wonder for kids and anyone who’s receptive to them!

In this particular example, this student is extremely temperamental and has an extremely low sense of self esteem. His most common phrase is “I can’t do it!” When I started to draw out how his brain was working ( he named the wall of negativity “Trump wall” lol..) and broke down the reasons why he thought he couldn’t do it, he was able to see his own thought process clearer. ( He had fun penning these down as well!) Once we sorted these out, he was much more receptive to play on his violin and work through problematic passages. This of course took many months to cultivate the awareness of this mental barrier in him.

The goal is not to change the students, but to at least bring out the awareness of their own problems and to see an improvement through music. We can only do that much within a weekly lesson. The practice of mindfulness needs to build from home and the communication with parents on this is crucial as well.

It’s always a learning journey for myself as well whenever I deal with my students. Growing with them is not an easy path, but definitely a rewarding one when you start seeing more smiles and sparks in their souls <3

Matters of the mind #3

“No that’s an up bow.... No that’s a down bow... down? Down? Yes down, not up!” (Repeats this throughout the lessons)

A problem that a lot of my little ones have: Getting confused with the direction of bowings and the signs for it. After many countless futile attempts of re-phrasing my words throughout numerous lessons, I decided to attach this to the bow and this has worked out for most students after sometime! 🤗

Use a washi tape to tape any paper to the bow so that it does not leave a sticky mark on the bow.

What happens when young ones don’t remember what or where their pinky should be on the bow? You tape a cute paper sticker to it and they remember it for life 😂 It’s actually a lot (sometimes too much) of information for them to remember how the physical mechanisms work when they first start learning an instrument.

It’s important to identify the root of confusion for them and work out a solution around that; while keeping it interesting and fun for them!😄 Try it!

It’s very interesting to see how the human mind responds to different approaches in teaching. Kids are inspiring as they have some of the most creative ideas that you get to learn from as well. What matters most is to find out what works best for every child and the possibilities for solutions are endless, as long as you keep searching!

Matters of the mind #1

I’ll be having a series of #tryit posts that I would love to share=)

This method has worked so far in reminding my little ones to keep the violin leveled:

To point Mr Strawberry or you-name-it towards the music and not let him, or any other cute characters of their choice fall down🤣😍🤩

1. Get some cute paper sticker bookmarker, or even get them to draw their own characters if they wish!

2. Use washi tape to secure it to the scroll so it doesn’t “damage” it.

3. Monitor the results and see if they have been reminding themselves during their own practice sessions.

Gotta constantly create what works for them individually. Try it!😄

#kids #musiceducation #violinlessons #washitape #tryit