Review: David and the Old Man by William Zemba

David Zemba was a young man with a problem that no one seemed able to help him with. He was misunderstood and ostracized by most of his family, with the exception of his faithful brother, Willliam (Bill). Back in the 1960s, anorexia was a relatively unknown disease. If a person had it, no one knew; they just assumed there was something, other than fear of eating or gaining weight, that was the cause.

The book opens with a description of the Zemba family Czech roots and life as a pioneering and farming family. We are introduced to various members of the grandfather's family and finally David's own family, and their transition from a farming family to a suburban family. The author describes the difficulties and stress David's condition caused in family life and how he took it upon himself to be there for his brother and look out for him.

The book describes how each family member came to a christian faith and how this impacted their lives for the better. There are bible verses at the end of each chapter. Those in the earlier chapters do not seem to have much bearing on the content but later on they are quite effective.

Although the book started well, I felt it lost its way towards the end. The latter part of the book seems disjointed and does not flow well. I almost didn't finish reading it as it became quite hard going. I think the author would have done better to stop writing at the end of chapter 10. The author readily accepts he is not adept at writing, and this is his first attempt. I feel he would have benefited from seeking some assistance, particularly with the latter chapters.

This ebook was obtained free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program.

Back to Work ... and blogging

Today, after nine weeks of varied activity and travel, I finally return to teaching my wonderful students. It seems like an age since I have seen them. I'm sure all the young ones will all have grown like mushrooms and some of the older ones will look more mature. It's amazing what a difference a holiday makes.

Will they have practised? Some will, most will not. Is this a good thing? I think it is in some ways. There seems to be some process that goes on in the brain when you take a break from playing. As a child, I rarely practised in the holidays. Sometimes I did, but I think that was probably when I ran out of other things to do! And it did me good. I remember coming back to pieces that I had struggled with in the previous year, and, miracle of miracles:  I could play them! It intrigued me, and still does, as to how a break affects one's playing.

When my children were born I had an even longer break from playing. I had four children in the space of 6 1/2 years - there was really no time for much playing for me, especially as we were home-educating as well!

So, 10 years later, I started teaching and also playing again. Yes, 10 years! It was hard at first. My brain knew what I wanted my fingers to do, but my fingers refused to co-operate. It was hard work. My muscles got a bit sore - not just fingers either. Arms, shoulders and sometimes my back, all complained at the "ill-treatment". But I kept at it, and I started remembering things, things I'd learned way back when I was at the Conservatorium as a student. I'd remember things my teachers had told me, ways of practising difficult passages and scales, double stops, different types of bowing etc.

And then I noticed something even more interesting: I was playing far more in tune than I remember myself playing before. My fingers just seemed to instinctively know where to go; my double stops were working well and the sound seemed a lot less scratchy than I remember. Perhaps my memory of my previous playing was bad? I'm not sure. I have one recording of my final performance at university. I don't like listening to it. My memorisation was patchy and it shows in the playing.

Yes, I passed the course but it's only now that I feel I'm really playing well. Is it a confidence thing? Maybe. Becoming a mother certainly has something to do with it! But all in all, the break did me good. And I'm hoping this long holiday will have done all my wonderful students just as much good.

Failure is not the end

A little while ago one of my students sat his driving test. He logged the required number of kilometres, practised his three-point turns and parking and rolled up ready to pass. He failed.

Being able to drive the car and park it are not the only considerations when it comes to a test. Points are taking off for things like failing to check the mirrors often enough, forgetting to put on your indicator when turning left at the traffic lights, failing to use the handbrake on a hill start, speeding or mounting the kerb (eg on a roundabout).

The learner's handbook (which all learners need!) states that:

The Driving Assessor will explain to you which areas of your driving did not meet the standard.  The assessment form will clearly show you and your supervisory driver where your performance needs to improve.

The Driving Assessor will give you some specific information on how you can improve your driving before you take the assessment again.

The Driving Assessors don't want people to fail the test but neither do they want incompetent drivers on the road. They are experienced in the requirements for passing the assessment and want to ensure that all who pass are both confident and proficient.  Failure is not the end, but a springboard to better performance.

My student went for his test again yesterday. He passed with flying colours, scoring 100%.  :)

Anh Do: The Happiest Refugee

Some people really have a hard start to life. Anh Do was one such person. At the age of two, along with forty members of his family, he left Vietnam in a small , nine by two and a half metre fishing boat. After surviving two pirate attacks, enduring the hot sun and storms, and nearly dying of thirst, he and his family were rescued by a German ship and taken to Malaysia. They waited at a refugee camp for three months and were then offered sanctuary in Australia.

Though they had very little, Anh's family were used to hard work and did all they could to provide the best for their three children. Anh's father was game to try anything to provide an income and sometimes this ended up in rather hilarious ways, such as the time he brought home a pheasant after bidding unsuccessfully for a pair of alpacas. The happiest time in the family's life was when they had they were living on the farm. Sadly this ended in a rather devastating way with all the ducks being poisoned through bad feed. This was the beginning of Anh's father's descent into drink; a descent which eventually lead to him leaving the family when Anh was 13.

Ahn shares both funny and tear-jerking episodes from his life as a teenager, his early experiences with standup comedy, his reconciliation with his father, his courtship and marriage, and his more recent forays into television with programs such as Deal or No Deal and Dancing with the Stars.

Ahn's mother was his constant inspiration in the way she worked and sacrificed much so that her children could succeed. It was a joy for him to see her blossom later into a confident speaker in her own right.

This is an extraordinary, uplifting and inspiring story of a wonderful Aussie personality.

Our experience with outdoor performance

A couple of weeks ago our trio, Trio Al Dente, performed at a local outdoor event, Classical Meets Jazz.  The event has enjoyed much success for about 10 years. Imagine a lovely warm summer day, sitting outdoors, listening to a variety of music whilst eating your picnic lunch.  Sounds very relaxing and enjoyable doesn't it?

It had rained all day on the day before our performance.  We were unsure whether the event would even proceed or not  early that morning.  The forcast suggested the rain would mostly clear. The organiser made the decision: it would go ahead.

From a player's point of view it was not at all pleasant.  The wind tore through the stage area, threatening not just to blow the music off the stands (it was pegged on) but to blow the stands themselves over! They were pretty sturdy ones too. Our pianist needed not just a page turner, but someone to hold the music down during the whole time she was playing. At one point our cellist's music blew off the stand completely. He just kept going as if nothing had happened and picked it up when the piece finished! Meanwhile, I just pinned the music to the stand with the scroll of my violin. :) The stage was covered from above, but completely open at the front and a couple of times rain fell on the performers.  How the grand piano survived I'm not sure. It was well under the shelter though so I think that was what helped protect it. My violin was not as fortunate though.  :(

From the audience point of view, it was a different story. They were well rugged up.  Many had not only brought blankets to sit on but also to wrap themselves in. They could buy coffee and barbequed sausages - they definitely were not suffering too much!  From comments we heard later, we discovered that the sound had been very good, the atmosphere of the event was wonderful and people enjoyed it.

So was an outdoor performance a good idea?  If we had trusted our own instincts we would have said "Not in that kind of weather"! However, the audience reponse and comments seem to prove that sometimes you just have to keep going even if it's tough.

Will we do it again? Ah, you'll just have to wait and see...........

It’s all about sound…

When I began my tertiary music training I had very little idea that I would become a music teacher. All I ever wanted to do was play violin. I was not altogether enthusiastic about teaching. Obviously I was too young and naive to think about how I’d earn my bread and butter when I finally finished!

Since then of course I’ve had a complete mind change. Teaching is something I could do for hours and not get tired. It’s one of those things that seems to be the perfect job for me. I love it.

Just a few weeks ago I began doing some re-thinking about my teaching style. A good thing to do if you’ve been doing things the same way for while. I’ve incorporated a few things I’ve learnt from other teachers, and a little bit of Kodaly. But, on the whole, I tend to teach from the printed music. This is not necessarily something I planned to do; it’s just the way things turned out. It has been reasonably successful up until the last few years when I seemed to gain some children who struggle excessively with aural skills.

They are fine with rhythm, music reading, notation and producing a good tone. Some of them also play from memory. But the elusive part is intonation. With the violin, a small shift in position affects all the notes on that string. If the first finger is flat then usually the other three fingers are flat as well.

So what is it that has caused this decline in aural awareness?  My theory is that it has a lot to do with the home environment, the types and styles of music a child is exposed to and how old they are when they are exposed to them.

When you think of someone like Mozart you can easily imagine, with his father being a musician, that he was exposed to music from a very early age, probably from birth. Dr Shinichi Suzuki founded the world wide music education movement known as the Suzuki Method on this very concept. Suzuki observed how easily children learned to speak their native language and concluded that children could learn music this way if taught with love and dedication. This means starting very young. It’s not uncommon for children taught this method to begin at 3 years of age.

The distinction between the Suzuki style of teaching and traditional teaching is that the Suzuki Method relies very much on aural training coming first, way ahead of reading. And when you really think about it, isn’t that what music is all about? The dots and markings on the page are not music in the sense of something we hear. They are more like a historical record or permanent indication of the composer’s intentions.

Suzuki is big on involving the parents too. Parental involvement is very much central to the early learning period. This correlates very well to something I’ve noticed in my years of teaching. Again and again, with my own students, those who excel are those whose parents are genuinely interested in their progress and are intentional in their involvement. They encourage the child to go beyond what they think they are capable of, to try new things and not to be afraid of failure.

So, it looks like Suzuki is something to look into a little more depth. Developing a good tone and accurate intonation is crucial to good violin/string playing. After all, music is all about sound.

(Read more about the Suzuki Method here.)