Violin in Spanish

Recently, my mom and I went to a four day violin workshop in Buenas Aires. The workshop was for teachers to learn how to teach book seven of Suzuki.  Since I'm not a violin teacher, I was one of the students in the master class and group classes.  

There were people in the class from Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, and of course from New York.  I thought that the class would seem totally different from ones in New York, but it really wasn't.  Of course we talked in Spanish, but everyone knew all of the pieces in the Suzuki books.

The first day was a bit overwhelming.  I had a lesson in Spanish in front of eleven teachers, all taking notes.  Oh, and one more detail, people in Argentina speak VERY fast.  It was helpful, though, to have a lesson.

The second day, I got to the studio earlier, to practice with the other students.  We played fiddle pieces and more.  We also all had the same pieces memorized, which we played together.

The same day, we all had lunch together, which was fun even though it was hard to know what everyone was saying.  We also had a group class that day, where we played Suzuki songs and our duet pieces again. When that day was over, I was already looking forward to the next group class day.

The third day was basically same as the first.  I had a lesson again which was slightly easier than the first.  I was able to understand what was said, by a mixture of Spanish and what was being played on the violin.

The last day, I only got to the studio half an hour early, to rehearse the same duet pieces.  After that half hour, we played in the same group class, and duets. My favorite duet was the one called "Cripple Creek" which was a really fun fiddle piece.

If someone asked me what the highlights were of the workshop, I would say meeting new people and having a violin lesson again.