May 13, 2008
Practice and study
I have been practicing everyday very hard towards the dvd I must make for Candidacy for SAA Teacher Trainer Status. I know that there are many teacher trainers who have something against me for some reason, (Japanese training?) but I must try despite the odds. It is supposed to be a fair process - the judges supposedly will not know who I am. Not everyone was able to study with Dr. Suzuki and I have now 4 older students who want to become teachers. I need to pass on his ideas. I would like to train them officially. One of my students just graduated from CIM with two Master’s Degrees - one in violin performance and one in Suzuki Pedagogy.
I am taking Mozart Book 9, 10 and G Major from Cathy Lee at the local Institute to help me find out what the Americans want to hear when we play Mozart for the DVD… And I found another fantastic way to practice! Once I’m warmed up, I play along with the 19 year old who won 5th place in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2007 - Hyun-Su Shin. I love her playing!!!
There is now an entire blog dedicated to the best classical music on You Tube - www.classicalvirtuoso.com. Isn’t that wonderful?
Anyway - after about and hour and a half of practice - I go to You Tube and put Hyun-Su Shin on full screen and crank up the volume and play along with her! It is so FUN! And so EXCITING!! Sometimes I even follow her fingerings sort of spontaneously - it feels a bit the way group class did in Japan when we played Tchaikovsky all together in a group…
I can say that I am now studying with Hyun-Su Shin. In Japan, when we were each learning various pieces, we would ask each other, “Who is your teacher?” (It meant “which recording are you absorbing?”) “Oh I am studying with Ginette Neveu …” (One of Suzuki Sensei’s favorites - she actually WON the Wieniawski Violin Competition in 1935 1st place over David Oistrakh! Do you know about her?) I studied Sibelius with her. Anyway … I feel that Suzuki Sensei heartily approves of this new method of study with the videos!!
PS Why am I not studying Mozart with Zino Francescatti? Because … he is so romantic that I am afraid the judges here will not like it if I pick up too much of his style… 
Anyway I love Hyun-Su Shin, so all is well. 
LingLing, the Panda Bear Dr. Suzuki named his own Panda bow technique after, passed away today at age 22.