Extracting Focus

As I've mentioned recently, focus hasn't been coming naturally to William lately. On the contrary, it's been a struggle. I've only been getting the slightest glimpses of the powers of concentration he had from birth til just this summer. This has applied mightily to violin practice. For some reason, perhaps the novelty of having his own piano, I have not noticed quite the same absence of mind where piano is concerned. Or maybe it's just that there is much less concentration required to play the piano. I dunno...but I do know I had to pull my creative hat out of the closet and get busy.

My first foray into extracting focus from William came in the form of the contraption in the first picture... It's a Schwinn bike horn, with a soft, goofy duck-quacking sort of honk. It was destined for the garbage the other day (since it won't actually FIT on William's bike), when I realized I might be able to put it to work. Now, it sits with our practice materials, and when William pays very close attention to the details we have been working on, he earns honks on the "Victory Horn". The honks are accompanied by crazy facial expressions from me, which are apparently exceedingly funny. All told, the horn is doing its job and helping William keep his attention where it is needed.

My second attempt at helping William's focus, especially on the most intricate and difficult passages of his pieces, was to purchase an "Easy Button" from Staples. I got this tip from an message board dedicated to Suzuki learning --apparently these Easy Buttons were used at an Institute this summer, with roaring success.

The idea is to use the magical red button very sparingly, and only when something that was difficult turns, you guessed it, easy! William has been working on the messy bit of Minuet in G, with the funky B and A# fingering. He worked and worked, and can now do it effortlessly. So when we practice, I ask him to play the section that contains the tricky stuff, and if he executes it successfully, he gets to press the Easy Button. When you push the button, a friendly male cheerfully voice proclaims, "That was easy!". William loves it, and erupts into laughter every time.