Five years ago I moved to Oklahoma to pursue my Masters Degree in violin. I proceeded to stay for my D.M.A. and have found Oklahoma a fertile land for planting violin seeds and gaining an enormous amount of playing and teaching experience. Shortly after my big migration south, I began building a private teaching studio.

One of my very first students in Oklahoma was brand new to violin. She was almost ten years old at the time and had never taken music lessons before and could not read music or play any other instruments. She  was shy, very sweet, and you could tell that she was extremely intelligent. She picked up the basics quickly...like super quickly. She was playing confidently within a few weeks and was reading music almost as quickly. 

My former teacher and lifelong mentor Sally O'Reilly wrote two excellent technique books for the aspiring student; Fiddle Magic, which covers all of the frills and fireworks of violin technique, and Fiddle Rhythms which covers different rhythms (obviously) and introduces real-life examples of each from standard repertoire.

More about Fiddle Magic later (it is one of my all time favorite technique books). Fiddle Rhythms introduces each rhythm separately and then puts it in the context of I-like-(insert rhythm here)-pie. Each rhythm is digested as a food - the menu is an all-you-can-eat buffet of pie types and covers a variety of dietary delights including pizza, rhubarb, peppermint, apple, vanilla, orange, banana, butterscotch and even mixed rhythm combos and uneven rhythmic groupings. After the student has a comfortable handle on the rhythmic pie du jour, real world examples are introduced from a diverse array of music - classical, folk, Irish, Scottish, Children's songs, symphonic repertoire, you name it. Each rhythm is accompanied by illustrations and they are pretty darn cute. Some of my super cool high school students roll their eyes at using books with pictures but deep down I know they appreciate it.

Back to my student in Oklahoma. We were just starting the Chocolate Rhythm (code for a triplet). Triplets are much easier when they are delicious. While working on the 'I Like Choc-o-late Pie' exercise I candidly mentioned that I had never had chocolate pie, to which my student informed me that it is delicious. We continued with the lesson and I didn't really give it another thought.

The next week she arrived at her lesson with a homemade chocolate pie! It was heavenly. I didn't have many friends at the time so I took it home that night and ate the whole thing myself. I probably gained 20 delicious pounds over the course of a week but it was so worth it. I was so surprised and excited by this that I posted a photo on facebook and not too long ago I was reminded of my 5 year anniversary of chocolate pie. 

Then.....

My birthday was a few weeks ago and guess what that very student gave me? Yep you guessed it! She is far beyond learning rhythms and basic tunes and patterns. Now she is in Youth Symphony and will be touring Europe with them this summer. She is also starting to look into music schools, is putting together her first recital program, and is tackling her first Viotti concerto - a far cry from Chocolate Pie. As a token of our 5 year anniversary we took our second pie photo. My how we have changed!

And now.... 

The Moral of this story is that everyone should use Fiddle Rhythms (and shamelessly drop hints to their students about pie). It will feed your students technique, your teaching abilities....and your hungry grad student belly.

Bon Appetite!