Every year that I take Suzuki Teacher Training I write pages and pages of notes. Though I’d like to review my notes more, it doesn’t really happen. In the last few years, I’ve started ending the course by creating one page of key takeaways. I tuck it into my planner and skim through before I begin teaching for the day. Last month, I attended the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute with two of my kids. Though it wasn’t officially a teacher training class, I still learned a lot.

Here’s my list:

Every section of music is either a song or a dance. Decide what you’re playing
.-Susan Crawford
Spot for success. Choose one repetition spot and each day track how many repetitions it takes to get five accurate repetitions. A score of 5 out of 7 means that there were seven repetitions and five met the standard you chose.
-Susan Crawford
Invite students to simply observe for a specific focus. What is observed, changes
.-Susan Crawford
In a group class invite everyone to say, “Self, how’s my bow hold?”
-Andrea Yun
Experiment with eyes in three places; left hand, bow, extended past scroll. What feels right for this piece?
-Susan Crawford
Hold bow at the tip and draw different shapes with the frog to strengthen pinky.
-Chris Bedoya
You play with two bows- the bow and the elbow.
-Wilfried van Gorp
Put your shoulder rest to your ear and call Dr. Suzuki, “I’m so sorry, they don’t listen to me.”
-Wilfried van Gorp
Silence reminders: put bow on head-unicorn, bow on forehead-narwhal, bow on nose-pinocchio, bow on chin-beard, bow held out in front- Darth Vader.
-Ben Kulp
Beautiful Heart, Beautiful Tone. It means when you want to make a beautiful tone, you have to look in your heart for your kindness.
-Koen Rens
Stop and bow whenever the group’s attention wanders. That way they practice only performing with their best attention. Gradually increase the length over time.
-Wilfried van Gorp
Three kinds of practicing robots:
Metronome robot that sways back and forth.
“I’m an artist” robot- so focused on getting a particular sound that you stop hearing the overall effect.
Happy Mistake Robot- makes mistakes without even noticing.
-Susan Crawford
Posture Game- students go to another room while one student sets up excellent posture except one bad technique. When everyone comes back in they have to identify the one thing to fix.
-Chris Fiore
Practice double stops with a mute to change how you hear.
-Susan Crawford
Practice first finger extension by making a phone with your 1st and 4th finger. “Hello?” -Chris Bedoya


A notebook full of new ideas has boosted my energy in the last few weeks of teaching. Looking back through this list I realized I’ve already put most of these into good use in private or group lessons. My students’ favorite new idea has been these yes and no buttons I saw Wilfried van Gorp use. They have invited some wonderful giggles to the lesson.

Have you attended an institute or conference that filled you with great ideas? What was your favorite?