Many of you have inquired about paying ASTEC or Institute enrollment fees by credit card. The answer has always been a clear “no”, as we have not had the kind of accounts that allowed us to accept credit card payment. However, UWSP has arranged for on-line credit card payments for tuition beginning with spring semester 2002.

I am pleased to tell you that Suzuki is going to be the next area at the University to have on-line registration and credit card payments. Of course, you will be able to fill out the forms by hand and pay with cash or check but we will have one more option for our spring semester enrollment. If you wish to pay by credit card you will be able to access the form on-line and enroll using your computer. For those of you who wish to pay by credit card but do not have access to a computer, we will have a computer set up for your use at the Suzuki House. For security reasons, UWSP has decided to offer credit card payment for on-line registrations only. This means that no member of the UWSP faculty or staff will be able to take your credit card, or your credit card information and fill out the on-line form for you. In the system that UWSP has decided to implement, only the bank that is handling the credit card transactions will have access to your credit card numbers. UWSP will be informed within minutes if the payment has been successfully processed. The idea behind this kind of security is that the fewer people that have access to your information the better your security. With this system, there is no possibility for credit card fraud by design or by mistake at UWSP as no one in Stevens Point will ever see your credit card numbers or have access to them in any way.

Spring semester enrollment forms will look pretty familiar. You can fill the form out as usual and pay but check or cash as is your habit, or you can follow the instructions to register on-line and pay by credit card. Those who select credit card payment will only have the option to pay in full at the time of registration.

One big change is that beginning in 2002 there will be a $15 penalty assessed for those enrollment forms and first payments that arrive after January 22. There will also be a $10 late payment fee assessed for future payments during the semester that arrive after the due date. Most of you have been very conscientious about filling out the forms and sending in your payments in a timely fashion so this policy will not have any effect on your households. However, the small percentage of families that are weeks or even months late with the enrollment form and payments will change and make tracking student loads and our accounting much easier.

The story sounds familiar; you come to your lesson and your teacher asks you to play your polished piece. You’ve been working hard on it all week and followed through on all aspects of the assignment. You’re concentrating as hard as you can and trying your best, yet, some doubt starts to creep in: I wasn’t playing that passage that out of tune at home… I’ve played the runs much better and cleaner... Is this really my best tone? You finish and you can’t keep the slight look of disappointment from your face. Your teacher notices and asks you why you look so downtrodden and you say, “I played it better at home.” Whoa! How many times has he or she heard that? The statement is so well known that a clever person even used it on a button. It was there at the Suzuki Institute last summer in the sale bin right next to, “Cellists are Frog Lovers.”

I often hear this statement at lessons after a student plays through a piece of music. They say that their playing invariably goes better in the comfort and safety of their own practice space at home. After thinking about this statement for a while I began to examine why this feeling is so prevalent. It led to a couple of questions: What are the factors that differentiate the satisfaction with our work at home from the lesson playing? Why can you play with confidence and feeling in one situation and not the other? It prompted me to explore some strategies that would help change this perception and outcome.

Here are a few ideas that will improve the quality of your work at home and your satisfaction with your lesson experience.

At Home-Be an Active Listener

Why do things seem to go so well at home? There are several factors that probably contribute to this perception. On one hand, you probably do play better; you’re more relaxed and you don’t feel the pressure of having your teacher sitting across the room from you. In addition, you are probably more at home in your own practice space. The surroundings are familiar. You’re used to the chair and the acoustics of your room and you are the one in charge of how to structure the practice session.

On the other hand you might not be listening with the same critical ear that you do at lessons. When you’re at your lesson, you are aware that there is a trained observer listening to your performance and you are probably listening more attentively to your playing then you would at home. This might also lead to a less critical self-appraisal than the one you would make at your lesson. I think this can be said for all string players, pianists, and other instrumentalists. When we are playing our magnificent instruments, it is easy to get caught up in the beautiful sounds that we are making and perhaps stop listening in a detailed and attentive way.

The challenge in the practice session is to listen carefully to your playing and reserve a portion of your brain for self-evaluation and a cataloging of things that you both enjoyed in the playing and those that need to be worked on. One thing that I recommend is to imagine one of your important musical mentors or teachers standing outside your practice area listening carefully to your work. You’d be surprised at the difference in your attention to detail with this image in your mind.

Making the Most Out of The Lesson

The Importance of the Warm-up

Often students come to the lesson right from school without having had contact with the instrument that day. Sometimes this is difficult given the busy life styles of many of you but I would encourage you to be creative in your efforts to make time for a warm-up before your lesson. This will help, even if you only take your instrument out for ten minutes during study hall at school or at home right before the lesson. These ten minutes or so can make the difference between feeling comfortable at the lesson or feeling tense and not ready. Hopefully, you have taken the time to go through a number of warm-up exercises, whether they are tonalizations, scales or review pieces, or a combination of the above. Go over some of the “hot” spots in your working pieces-you know which ones they are. Warming up properly lets the muscles relax, gets your fingers and bow armed “primed” and puts you in the best possible position to get the best results at your lesson.

I find that this lesson day practice session is perhaps the most important time to practice and a careful warm-up will enhance your lesson experiences and put you in the strongest position to do your best and duplicate your home playing experience.

Get There Early

When time permits, get to your lesson a few minutes ahead of time. You can use the time on the way to the lesson to do some listening if you have a tape or CD player in your car. During that five or ten minutes of time between home and your lesson you can listen to your working piece several times. Give yourself time to “decompress” outside of the studio. Take out your music and slowly go over significant technical and musical issues in your head. You will find that this “practice” away from the instrument can pay big dividends in terms of your concentration level and readiness when you get into the lesson. Allow yourself a few quiet moments to get into the lesson frame of mind and leave your school issues behind.

Having Fun at the Lesson

There are a couple of things that you should keep in mind when going to your lesson. First of all, you should know that your teacher is one of your biggest fans and supporters. He or she wants to hear you playing at your best. Your teacher isn’t there to catalogue your “mistakes” or keep a running count of your out-of-tune notes. A colleague of mine in the music department shared having some of these same issues with students. He advised them to “check their egos at the door.” I think I know what he means by this; he wants the students to go to the lesson with the goal to learn and take in as much as possible and not have their sense of self-worth hinge on their lesson performance. Your need to sound perfect and self-critical ear are at peak levels when you play at the lesson. It is okay to give yourself permission to make a few mistakes and not have a flawless performance at the lesson. This will allow you to relax and enable your musical ideas to flow freely and without self-judgment. It will let you play with ease, warmth and a greater freedom of expression.

As a teacher, I am more moved by a performance that is heartfelt, expressive, and spontaneous. Your teachers are not there to keep a running count of what has gone wrong. Have this in mind when you come to your lesson. Give yourself permission to not be perfect. You’ll find that the lesson will be more rewarding for you and perhaps even fun!

These are but a few ideas that can make your work at home and at the lesson more rewarding for you. Perhaps putting them into place will create the need for a new button-it has a catchy feel to it:

Motivation is not something that we give students, it is something that we preserve and nurture through a positive learning environment. With that opening idea, Ann Marie Novak began her parent orientation session entitled “…First, you gotta create da mood…” and proceeded to cover the why’s and how’s of creating such an environment.

Consider the way a child acquires language. He is immersed in a language-rich environment, picking up the nuances of the language through his ears and through non-verbal clues while being encouraged by teachers, who are more coaches than instructors. To be certain, there will be some moments of instruction involved, but there is no question that the acquisition of language is due in large part to environmental factors. Since the Suzuki philosophy posits that the way in which children acquire language should be the paradigm for learning music, it is important that we set up a musically rich, nurturing environment for our music students.

Ann Marie pointed out that there are actually three environments that our students experience: the physical environment, the intellectual environment and the emotional environment. The quality of these environments affects our students’ motivation to learn. For example, a student’s motivation might be dampened by an uncomfortable bench or poor lighting (physical environment) or by lack of access to sound recordings or information needed to learn (intellectual environment) or from feeling that the teacher’s or parent’s love and acceptance is conditional on his ability to perform (emotional environment). The motivation to learn is naturally present in children – it is our job as parents and teachers to set up the conditions that allow them to grow.

While the session provided practical information on optimizing all three environments, the presentation on the emotional environment was particularly striking, because it dealt with the way we treat our students and therefore raises questions about us as parents and teachers. Are we meeting our children where they are, taking the time to solve their problems or are we unconsciously pushing them to where we think they should be? Do we take pleasure in the progress that they do exhibit or do we wish that they were further along? Are we looking forward to enjoying our time of learning with our students or are we wondering how we can get them to comply with our wishes? Does our agenda override their needs? Are we finding our joy in the students themselves or does our joy depend on what they accomplish? Do we tacitly acknowledge a system of values that posits student A to be more valued than student B on the basis of his ability to play certain pieces? As a teacher, I came away thinking how easy it is to create an unhealthy emotional environment, an environment where students are compelled to comply rather than allowed to grow.

There were many helpful suggestions to create a better environment for our students from both Ann Marie and the parents who were there. As always, the session was a warm, pleasant experience supplemented by great desserts – Ann Marie’s famous angel food cake (with raspberries!) made its debut for the 2001-2002 season. In all, it was a wonderful environment for us to grow in our understanding of what helps our students to learn.

The session was videotaped so if you want to get more information about enhancing your student’s learning environment, see Mimi Johnson about borrowing the video. The next talk will be on practicing. Even if you’re an experienced Suzuki parent, I encourage you to come to the meeting – you’ll come away enriched and encouraged.

PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS

The following is a list of the remaining session in the series:

December 11	Tuesday	7:30 PM	Suzuki House, Room 107	“Practicing: The Great Quest”
February 19	Tuesday	7:30 PM	Suzuki House, Room 107	“Note Reading 101: A Survival Manual for Parents”
March 12	Tuesday	7:30 PM	Suzuki House, Room 107	“Do You Hear What I Hear?”
April 16	Tuesday	7:30 PM	Suzuki House, Room 107	“The Art of Reviewing With A Purpose”

CALENDAR

Saturday, December 1 & Sunday, December 2 – Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra “A Singing Celebration” with Amy Bils, guest soprano, Sentry Theater, 7:30 p.m. on 12/1 and 4:00 p.m. on 12/2. Phone 346-4100 for ticket information.

Friday, December 7 – Senior Voice Recital featuring Johanna Chelcun and Mollie Sprouse, 7:30 p.m., Michelsen Hall, COFA.

Saturday, December 8 – Marathon Saturday, 9 a.m. – 12 Noon, COFA.

Sunday, December 9 – Suzuki Ensemble and Solo Recitals, 2:00 and 3:30 p.m., Alumni Room, University Center.

Sunday, December 9 – Messiah Sing, Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church, 3:00 p.m.

Tuesday, December 11 – Parent Information Session: “Practicing: The Great Quest,” 7:30 p.m., Suzuki House, Room 107.

Friday, January 18 and Saturday, January 19 – Chamber Music Weekend, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. on 1/18 and 10:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. on 1/19.

Saturday, January 26 – Marathon Saturday, 9 a.m. – 12 Noon, COFA.

Sunday, January 27 – Suzuki Ensemble and Solo Recitals, 2:00 and 3:30 p.m., Michelsen Concert Hall, COFA.

NOTES FROM THE ENDPIN

By Lawrence Leviton

Happy Holidays Cellists

It's that time of year again. The holidays are upon us and they present us with wonderful opportunities to share our music with others in the community. We will be performing again at one of the retirement homes in the area. This will take place in the weeks before Christmas (I will have further details for you at your lessons).

In the meantime, you can get reacquainted with the holiday music. Last's month's Ambassador has a list of holiday songs and their starting notes. Take them out and see how many of them you know. Many of them will make their way into our holiday program. I'll also be putting a group of cello choir pieces together. We will work on them at your lessons in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more details.

Cello Day is fast approaching. It is a day that will be full of fun and exciting events related to the cello and cello playing. For more details you can go to the web at:

http://www.uwsp.edu/music/lleviton/celloday.htm

This year's date is February 10^th. Please mark it on your calendars.

I hope all you have a healthy and happy holiday season.

Lawrence Leviton

SENIOR VOICE RECITAL

A Suzuki Senior Voice Recital featuring Johanna Chelcun and Mollie Sprouse, accompanied by Evelyn Anderson and David Becker will be held on Friday, December 7 beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Michelsen Concert Hall located in the College of Fine Arts Building on the University Campus.

A Reception will follow the recital.

GRADUATES

Congratulations to the following graduates:

Twinkle

Nathan Cal, Violin

Book 1

Lauren Sheibley, Violin

Book 2

Forrest Fleishauer, Violin

Anthony Jagielo, Voice

Michael Josephson, Violin

Kelly, Werth, Piano

Book 3

Gabriel Krueger, Violin

Petrea Schedgick, Violin

Callie Stanislawski, Piano

Book 4

Patricia Wuu, Violin

Book 5

Jessica Ryan, Violin

Book 7

Billy Jenkins, Violin

Ami Yamamoto, Violin

Book 9

Katherine Munck, Violin

STUDENT NEWS

Anna Nummelin, Jenna Kase, Johanna Chelcun, Megan Otte and Christina Smith were cast members and Evey Andersen, Ross Moore, Matt Ziehr, David Cecil and Eric Christensen performed with the orchestra in Evita, a musical, held this fall at SPASH.

Emily Gruselle performed with the Appleton Youth Symphony.

Ethan McKnight performed in one-act plays with his performance group in Rosholt.

Will Mitchell had an important role in his community production of the Wizard of Oz.

Tyler Millican was a member of the All-State Honors Middle School Orchestra, which performed at the Wisconsin Music Teachers Convention in Madison on October 26.

Robb Robbins won the Green Bay Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto competition on December 1. He will perform his solo at the Weidner Center in April.

Eric Christensen took an Honorable Mention at the UW-Milwaukee Concerto Competition on December 1.

MARKET PLACE

Wanted to buy: 1/8 size violin outfit. Contact Pat D’Ercole, 346-4938.

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK

I PLAYED IT BETTER AT HOME

Or