• Reading Readiness in Music
• Other Suzuki resources on Grandma's Kite

Reading Readiness in Music

Suzuki students learn to read after they have begun to play.

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by Karen Zethmayr

To make good sound, and to enjoy playing, you need to be one with the instrument. As a reading teacher, I've found useful comparisons between learning to read words and learning to read music. What we do before we read is important. Reading teachers talk about "what the reader brings to the page."

If you have never walked in the woods with its smells and sounds, your reading of an adventure in the woods is not as rich as it would be with the experience to inform the words. When we know the sound and feel of playing rhythms and melodies, then the notation that represents what we hear, feel, and touch reach more deeply into our consciousness.

At the same time we are establishing good playing motion habits, we use some of our "away from the instrument time" to introduce reading readiness activities, according to the age of the beginner. Two such reading games are "Who Ran Away?" and "Rhythm Flash."

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If you would like to receive notification as new Suzuki resources are added to this site, you can send an email to grandma@grandmaskite.com. Your email will not be sold, shared, traded, or used for any other purpose than that which you requested. As it turns out, I have been adding a topic in a parent letter about once a month for my own Suzuki families.

Other Suzuki resources on Grandma's Kite:

Pencil exercises, set one for bow hold
Pencil exercises, set two for bow hold
One Little Elephant (left finger strength and flexibility)
Four Little Elephants Jumping on a Web (left finger naming, strength and flexibility)
Left hand number card "pick up" game
"Home built" violins and ways to use them in group sessions
Reading readiness game "Who Ran Away?"
Reading readiness game "Rhythm Flash "
"Reading Readiness in Music"

Supplementary Music and Midis

Twinkle Rag – a twinkle variation with a new twist on half of the rhythm in Variations A and D. Same four sixteenth notes in a ragtime setting

Daisy Daisy uses a three four twist on "Mississippi without the hot dog." The whole accompaniment is open D and G. The song and bass line can be played as a violin / 'cello duet or on the piano.

For more information on the Monroe Street Fine Arts Center Suzuki program, see Monroe Street Fine Arts Center, http://www.msfac.org/ or email grandma@grandmaskite.com.

For more information on Middleton School of Performing Arts, see http://msopa.net or email grandma@grandmaskite.com.

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Suzuki is
Hands On
Education

•Parent Letter Topics
Bow hold:
•Pencil exercises I
•Pencil exercises II
Left hand strength and flexibility:
•1 Little Elephant
•4 Little Elephants Jumping on a Web
• Smallmotor "pick up" game
Position in Motion:
•"Home built" violins with activities
Reading readiness:
"Who Ran Away?"
"Twinkle Rhythm Flash Cards"
Supplementary Music and Midis
Twinkle Rag
Daisy Daisy
Daisy sheet music

Email Karen Zethmayr grandma@grandmaskite.com • Teaching Resume • Design Resume