Author Archives: Sarah Wagstaff

About Sarah Wagstaff

I am a mom, writer, musician and educator. I write sci fi/fantasy. I play flute, piano, violin and other instruments as I feel like it. I have a degree in psychology, history and flute performance. I sub and volunteer at schools K-12 grades.

Lessons Go On

I’ve been taking lessons for fifteen months now. Slurring with a bow instead of tonging feels more natural now.

It’s easy for me to sight-read. My years of playing other instruments really helps in this area.

I’m starting to learn shifting. There’s nothing like shifting in flute playing. It’s like using a capo on guitar. I use shifting when I play piano, but on violin there are no black keys to use as guide posts while I’m sliding my left thumb around. I have to memorize the muscle movements.

In June I moved off my student 3/4 violin, to my newly repaired full-sized violin. The repaired instrument is a student violin owned by my great-grandfather. It was purchased before 1945 because it says “Made in Germany.” I don’t know what year it was manufactured. It has a richer sound then my 3/4, but all the spacing is different. I’m still having trouble placing my right hand’s fourth finger far enough down the neck. Sometimes my D’s on the G-string and my B’s on the E string are a little flat.

I enjoy playing violin, it feels so different from flute, clarinet or piano. I especially enjoy the challenge of sight-reading new music that’s at my level and seeing how quickly I can progress. I wish I had more time to practice.

Starting Suzuki Violin Lessons

I started my ten-year-old in Suzuki Violin October 2010, my five-year-old also wanted to start so she began November 2010. I was feeling left out so I started in June 2011.

I’m a Suzuki Flute teacher and active in my state Suzuki music teacher group, so I’ve observed violins in joint recitals since 1998.

It’s easier to teach an instrument then be a Suzuki parent. As a teacher I get paid to work with a student for a short time each week. As a parent I have to pay her (my now six-year-old) to focus and work with me on practicing. My eleven-year-old practices independently, but she finds it tough to stay motivated when she meets a new challenge on violin.

I love playing the violin. It’s much easier for me to memorize on violin then on flute. The finger patterns make more intuitive sense. More fingers down equals a higher note. I played on the spring recital, it was strange to feel nervous and not have to worry about having shaky air support!

Beginning Band 2

The flutists were doing great, so the band teacher had me move to clarinets, which I’ve played for a while. New clarinet students have it much easier than flutists. Getting the first sounds on a clarinet takes less trial and error than on flute.

The last four times I’ve gone I’ve worked with trumpets, which is a whole new experience. Since I’ve been going I’ve learned the fingerings for middle c, d, e, f, and g. I can’t play the notes, I don’t have a trumpet, but I play along with the clarinet. (The clarinet plays the same notes as trumpet and doesn’t have to transpose.)

It’s fascinating to watch the learning process on a completely different instrument. I’ve taught flute for years, but both trumpet and clarinet have different challenges for the beginner.

On flute the hardest part, for a beginner is figuring out how to place the flute on your lip and blow to get a good sound.

On clarinet out of a class of about ten only one had a hard time producing a sound and it was only because they were blowing too hard and tensing their lips so the reed couldn’t vibrate enough.

On trumpet the biggest challenge is finding the right note, because you can play many notes that have the same fingering, but you have to figure out how to shape your lips and air to get the fifths and octaves.

Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes it perfect. – Dr. Suzuki

Beginning Band

I’m working with a group of ten flute students. They’re fifth graders at a local elementary school. I’ve missed working with a group of music student over the summer. They are so excited about playing their new instruments, and they want to know everything. The trick is balancing how much to teach them and how fast. I want them to master the notes they already know before adding more.

The band book they are in starts with middle range D, C, and Bb. The D to C note changing is the hardest set of notes to switch between on the flute, every finger except the left hand pinky switches up for down, or down for up. Today I taught them B, A, G to go with the first three notes. Most of the group were able to play Hot Cross Buns with the new notes (BAG) with about ten minutes of practice. It took them all of last week to get Hot Cross Buns with the notes D, C, and Bb. They had to go home and practice.

I wish that beginning band books started with BAG for the flutes first notes, instead of starting with D. The fingering is less complicated.

Find joy in the little steps of progress you make each day, then returning to practice the next day becomes easier.

Elementary Math

I love math. Unlike spelling which makes no sense to me, there’s always been a pattern to math. I love tutoring math. I like to watch struggling students turn to smiles as they understand a new concept and master it.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned in math is: if you don’t understand something, ask a question. Ask someone sitting next to you, your teacher, a friend, your parents or a neighbor. I dropped my math minor in college because I was afraid to ask questions in class. I made it through two years of calculus only to be stumped in Number Theory.

UTOPSS

Utah Teacher of Psychology and Social Sciences is a professional organization of high school teachers in Utah. It’s grown a lot in the last decade since it was organized. They have a yearly meeting at the University of Utah. There’s also a listserv for Psych teachers to share information about new topics, hard to teach vocabulary, current psych news article links or whatever they want to talk about.