RISING STRINGS AT YOUR SCHOOL

RISING STRINGS AT YOUR SCHOOL

Emphasis: A Musical Foundation

SURE START develops physical technique while nurturing the rising string player’s oral skills thereby ensuring ease both in singing on pitch as well as in moving rhythmically – thus defining a significant difference between Suzuki Method and RISING STRINGS-SURE START.

An ideal SURE START class meets for 40 minutes, twice weekly – consecutive days will work!

            Class size: 15 to 20 students. Student teacher ratio: 6/1

            Student age: While at age four some students are ready for stringed instruments, the five-year-old will be equally happy to have waited. An expanding musical foundation, growing out of sequenced oral responses, offers secure pitch and rhythmic awareness.  Performance confidence is a natural outcome. In other words a musical foundation offers an essential advantage both for vocal endeavors as well as the study of any instrument.  Students are never too old for SURE START.

    Each session introduces new materials. Repeated exposure plus response secures skills. Initially songs include words but the goal is singing melody independent of verbal cues – with these melodies then “found” on the violin.

The musical methodology is based on the Music Learning Theory of Edwin Gordon, PhD., author of the Iowa Tests of Musical Aptitude and Musical Achievement.

The physical or technical skills grow out of Paul Rolland’s Action approach.

            Sessions present

· Songs that include words and movement

· Songs that require a response

· Songs in at least four different modes

· Echoing (orally) tonal patterns

· Echoing (chanting) rhythmic patterns

· Student-invented, oral patterns

· Right-hand, arm, skills

· Left-hand, arm, skills

· Applying skills dulcimer-style (violin on a table)

· Applying the above in “resting” and playing positions

             Initially students sing or chant rhythmic or tonal patterns. The purpose is similar to building vocabulary to understand a language. Showing how the patterns are drawn introduces notation. The emphasis is always aural as opposed to visual. The violin fingerboard remains clear of markings. Children learn to play what they sing, however, before they apply notation. This emphasis on a chanting or singing-based foundation defines a significant difference between RISING STRINGS/SURE START and the Suzuki approach.

 Student Materials:

Each child should have a quality, fractional rental instrument. (Robertson link at www.theWholeString.com.) Ideally, initially  these remain at the School. Care givers are welcome observers. Their support is especially welcome re singing the CD materials and using the required software.

            Software: AUDIATION ASSISTANT

            CDs: GIA’s JUMP RIGHT IN, THE INSTRUMENTAL SERIES, Violin, CD 1, CD2,

            Fretless: SURE START CD

            The School must provide an appropriate teaching space.  We are happy to offer staff orientation sessions.

            Commitment: SURE START is a two-year program.

    Fees: Two 40-Minute Classes per week: Upon request.

Teacher Profile

Helen Martin

Helen Martin grew up in Philadelphia where she studied with Jasha Brodsky at the New School and Jani Szanto at the Philadelphia Musical Academy. She began her college studies as a scholarship student at The Eastman School of Music, but transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington, there joining the class of Josef Gingold. During her junior year, Martin was the Principal Second Violin in the I.U. Opera Orchestra. 
Teaching is Helen Martin‘s primary focus. She has worked with students in both public and private schools as well as in conservatories here in the U.S. and in London (UK). She taught String Techniques at Moravian College and was Head of the String Department at the Community Music School in Allentown. Through her studies under Edwin Gordon at Temple University, she has restructured her teaching approach, highlighting the language aspects of music, and extending her curriculum to include foundation classes (Music Play) for parents and younger children. Helen Martin has also brought an emphasis on Chamber Music to her Fretless Studio. She has programmed works by Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok, and Shostakovich during its first four years.