Jane, the Violist

Jane is super lucky to get to take viola lessons at school. Our school, and a few others in our district, have a strings program using the Suzuki method to teach young children how to play the violin, viola, chello or bass. After listening to all of the instruments Jane chose to learn how to play the viola. She gets individual lessons once a week during school and has a group class after school once a week too and practices daily. At first the students learn how to play on a homemade box instrument. They use it to learn proper form and playing the rhythms they need for the first few songs they learn. Jane had her first "concert" last week and here are some pics. The first one is her and her friend Julie (our babysitter's daughter who is also in Suzuki at another school.) Julie and both of her sisters play the violin. All of the Eisermann girls came to watch Jane's first "concert". I keep putting it in quotations because as of the first concert Jane hadn't gotten her actual viola so her along with the rest of the "pre-twinklers" (kids who haven't learned Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- the first song) played along on stage with their boxes.

Here is Jane with her box, showing perfect form I might add!

 Here is Jane's "scared" face. I told her to show me how she was feeling and this is the look I got!

This week Jane met all of her goals and has graduated to the real viola. Here is a picture that her teacher took from the first lesson off of the box! Jane is super excited and has worked really hard to earn her viola. She is a diligent practicer and I have come to learn is very goal- oriented! I couldn't be more proud of her dedication and enthusiasm!