Influences to my Teaching Philosophy
In every way that I use my voice or body to create or to work or to relate to others, I use my mind and heart first. Only in the last few years have I begun to learn to notice this initial part of the process. Modern society quickly teaches us to ignore or rush past our deeper thoughts and feelings. This keeps us from fully utilizing and integrating our brains, hearts, and bodies to create beautiful music – even, a beautiful life!
A lot of my ideas come from the Art of Freedom ( https://www.artoffreedom.me/ ) Alexander Technique (AT) classes I have attended since January 2018. In August 2019 I completed a 6 week course taught by Art of Freedom founder Jennifer Roig-Francoli and Primal Alexander (TM) fonder Mio Morales, certified Alexander Technique Teachers, called Beyond the CyCle (TM): Learning to Teach/ Teaching to Learn. The classes I have taken have taught me ideas and processes that have helped me transform my thoughts and movements, which will influence how and what I teach my violin students.
In the corporate engineering world I went through many training courses on transforming work culture for the better. A popular phrase for many of these courses was “go slow to go fast.” This means that if you take the time to do something the right way at the beginning stages, the task will be accomplished quicker than if you try to cut corners and “just get it done.” Identifying and changing habits regarding violin performance can definitely feel like a “go slow to go fast” process.
Depending on how observant the student already is, he or she may notice immediate benefit from these processes. It may also take quite a bit of time to recognize how much the student’s mental and physical habits are improving. This is why I will be filming lessons for the student. These video files will not be shared to anyone beyond the student, and I ask that the student also keep the lesson videos confidential.
Zen Violin 