Hello, it’s been over 3 years since my last post…yikes!

Not to make any excuses, but in the last 3 years we have moved houses twice.

My oldest child Gabe had his orchestral debut playing Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D with the Symphonieorchester Bergisch Gladbach orchestra in Germany in 2018 at age 9! That was exciting and a big trip!

Gabe at a sound check in this beautiful German church, 2018

And…

I HAD ANOTHER BABY!

The new daughter is now 2 years old. Going from four to five children has taken more of my time and energy than I thought, hence my absence posting on this website.

However, my children haven’t stopped practicing, I haven’t stopped teaching violin and piano, and I also started a recorder program at my children’s Montessori school!

This blog followed Rafi, my second son, and he is quite advanced on the violin now. Additionally, my 3rd child, my daughter Aya has also started violin. And Nate, my 4th child, is playing piano. The plan was for him to start cello this year at age 5 but the coronavirus pandemic has pushed that back a bit, so lots of piano instead for Nate.

As I write this in August 2020, my family has settled into a stay-at-home routine. The children have been practicing during the morning and late afternoon for several months now since school shut down. For a while it was difficult to hear someone practicing some instrument all day (since now there are 6 musicians + a 2-year-old in the house pretty much all the time) but now we have a more regular household sonic schedule and my ears have adjusted. We also have an outdoor studio where my husband and I take turns using, so that is immensely helpful.

Some adjustments I have made to stay more happy and musically productive during this quarantine period:

Putting more focus into musical analysis with my children- looking at the music’s scale structures, spending more time seeing where phrases repeat, where the end is, and helping them figure out why the music requires more dramatic contrasts at a one measure more than another measure. This way I hear more interesting and vibrant music making in the house, as opposed to practicing that is mindless and just sounds the same all the time.
Nudging my private students whom I see on FaceTime to be more aware and responsible in their practicing. Because without recitals to prepare for, orchestra rehearsals, in-person lessons, and outside motivators, it is really hard for kids to keep practicing. For anyone. The main thing that can inspire you in this pandemic time is your own progress, however small. The only way to improve daily is to become your own teacher. So I have shifted my focus more for my students to pay more attention during their daily practice.

It also became imperative after initial lockdown to get rid of excess objects in our house. I’m rather a minimalist in my possessions, but I was able to raise the bar for deciding what was clutter. Toys that were played with not that much have left the house, and I either finished or completely cut unfinished projects. The mental energy that unfinished projects took up in my psyche could no longer compete with having all my children home everyday. Also, I delegated more housework to the children since it really does add up when we are all together. It’s good for them to understand just how much work it is to maintain a house and be considerate of everyone’s space. For instance, now that they have to fix our futon couch that slides down when jumped on, they jump on it way less and don’t mess it up anymore.