A Teaching Tip: Find That Connection!

How long has it been since I shared a music teaching tip with you guys? It must have been several months at the very least. So here is one.

Like I mentioned earlier, Troy loves Vivaldi. And truly, who doesn’t? As we listen to the Four Seasons together, I re-discover the emotional value that this music has and the expressive energy that it bears. And yet the guy himself, even though great in mind, was not that healthy and not that strong. Who would have ever thought, listening to that music?

About a month ago I got this book for Troy. I knew that once I started him on it the right way, he would love it as much as he loves the Handel one…
The only thing left to do was to find that right way.

Last night Troy asked me to play Vivaldi on a CD!!! This time he did not feel like watching Maestro Karajan and Anne Sophie Mutter.
He just wanted to listen.
(To me, my friends, this is the beginning of a new stage in Troy’s musical development which makes me very excited. If he does not need to look at the screen to enjoy music, then he truly enjoys the music in its wholesome and unornamented purity).

Anyway, I picked up the book and said: All right, while you are listening, I’ll look through this book. And I opened it to the first page with a picture of a newborn Vivaldi in the midst of his first cry.

Troy immediately felt that since he had not been officially invited to join me, he had to join me. (Mind you, had he been invited, he would most certainly say no)
So he came up and looked. He loved baby Vivaldi and kept talking about him crying.

So I opened Troy’s 1st year album and showed him his own newborn pictures, including the one of his own first cry.
And then back we went to Vivaldi.
On the next page Vivaldi was 3. He sat in his father’s studio, listening to his father playing the violin and pretended to play too. Just like Troy does. So Troy opened his precious instrument box (where he keeps his musical instrument magnets), took out the violin magnet and pretended to play it.

And that was good for the night: 2 pages of a story of a talented composer and a successful businessman (for, interestingly enough, Vivaldi happened to be both). Most importantly, Troy got interested and will probably ask me to read the book again tonight.

Am I forgetting something? But of course – the teaching tip! Whatever you are reading to your kid, make it relevant to him and his own life. Find that connection and enjoy the success.