Celestial Resonance Violin Studio--Celeste Ellis Whiting

For Parents

Parents have a vital role in their children's violin study. Regardless of your child's age, you are a powerful force in their development.

You can serve their education by being an advocate in their learning. Share your own strategies for tackling long-term projects, dealing with frustration, time management, and setting priorities.

Mastery of violin is an incremental process. Every practice session is a step toward mastery. Support daily steps. Learning to play the violin requires learning how to practice. That is, learning how to learn.

Much of early learning is sowing seeds for life-long habits. Help your child water the seeds of perseverance, patience, and problem solving in their daily practice. As often as your child complains about practicing, you need to be there with gentle, firm encouragement.

Some students need a parent to be with them during practice time. A good strategy is to help the student follow the assignment. You can help them better understand their homework by having them explain it to you. Check off completed items on the practice log together and celebrate a successful completion.

It is not unusual for students entering high school to choose to discontinue violin study. This is frequently a time of self assertion for young people, but also a time of increasing demands on their time and talents. Have patience. Require the student to discuss the decision with his or her teacher. It may be that the student just needs to adjust their goals for violin study. They may benefit from an open discussion of their frustrations and increasing time constraints with the teacher. With this information, the teacher can tailor a program of study consistent with the student's changing needs and growing responsibilities.

Celeste Ellis Whiting, B.M., M.S., is a graduate of the University of Illinois School of Music in Urbana-Champaign. She has also studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and the Meadowmount School of Music in New York. Her primary teachers include John Fredrickson, Catherine Tait, and Alberto Jaffe.

Her violin and music history studies are supplemented by graduate work in music librarianship and bibliography at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (University of Illinois).

For the last ten years, she has devoted her work to teaching individual students of all ages and ability levels. The threads that run through all these teaching relationships are a deep awareness of the student as a whole person in a complex world and a simple willingness to honor and cultivate a student's genuine desire to learn to play violin. Central to the teaching practice are compassion, challenge and respect.

An experienced reference librarian, she draws upon a world of resources--print, digital, and audio--to create a rich learning experience for students of varying ages, skill levels, and interests.

Conveniently located on the westside of Ann Arbor.

Call today to schedule a lesson or ask about instruction.

(734)998-1097

Contact Celeste by email with any questions or comments.