Hi, I’m Valene.

I was one of those kids that hid under the table as soon as the piano teacher arrived at our home for my lesson. 

I was 5 years old at the time and most teachers would have thought that I just wasn't ready for formal lessons.

I'm sure that if that teacher would have pulled out one cute little puppet, or captured my attention with one fun little song, she would have reeled me right in without me even noticing that my learning journey had begun.

Despite the lack of games and the dryness in my musical education, I somehow survived, and got my Doctorate in Violin Performance and my Pedagogy Training in Suzuki, Rolland, and Kodaly Methods.

Many years ago, I had a frustrating experience teaching a 4 year old boy. I was scared to teach such a small child, and I really didn't know what to do! He cried during his lessons, and so did I, but not in front of him, of course!

After that frustrating experience I decided that I just wasn't cut out to teach such young beginners. Years later I realized that it wasn't that I wasn't cut out to teach this age range, it was that I was lacking the tools to know how to 'talk' to such a small child!  

"I believe in the power of music to enrich lives and make meaningful connections within the brain."

Once I became a parent myself, I realized that I needed to learn the correct step-by-step strategies to be able to teach my child so that she wouldn't end up like me, hiding under the table for her lessons!

Since I didn't want to wait until my daughter was 5 years old to begin with her musical education, I researched about the windows of learning and decided to get to work before the developmental 'pruning' of those unused connections happened.

I had been synthesizing ideas from all the methods I knew. Some ideas came from the Suzuki pre-Twinkle world, some from Kodaly, and others from early childhood activities and songs. 

But I longed for a system that was sequenced and organized, a system that showed me step-by-step how to teach a young violin beginner.  

I began to create many ways to engage my daughter's imagination, and whatever worked with her, I then tried with my students.  

My daughter didn't waste time and got her own students to teach!

Once I realized that I had to become "childlike" to teach the 3-5 year old students, I lost my fear and finally felt confident to begin working with them!

Teachers began asking me how I was doing it. I began to share my ideas, materials, and repertoire, and now I have a community of teachers that are using these strategies to teach the young violin beginners. 

 

Are you tired of searching for ideas from many different sources to teach the young violin beginners -those little pre-Twinklers?

Whether you're a new teacher or an experienced teacher, click here to become a Momisi Insider so that I can learn more about you. I'm sure that you'll find that you've come to the right place!

When I'm online, you can join me soon on Facebook and on Instagram. The best way to stay in touch, though, is by becoming a part of the Momisi Community.  

 

Momisi Mondays are the days you'll mostly hear from me!

Before you go, don't forget to grab this free open-string beginner song, The Doorbell Song. This is a fun original composition from the Puppets for Strings Violin Series, that will get your young violin beginner singing, doing the actions of the words, and discovering the notes through colors and fun animal friends.

Thank you so much for joining me and I hope that we'll stay connected for the wonderful teaching journey ahead.

XO,

Valene.

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