In January we added to our “family” by welcoming Dorie into our home.  

Lydia, our 3-year-old toy Aussie, is pretty dominant, and so while we had wanted a second dog for a while, the timing needed to be right and the personality of the new dog carefully chosen so it would be a good fit.  I also was not keen on spending another year training a puppy.  So we hesitated a long time, almost long enough that the door of opportunity had closed.

Still, Lydia needed a playmate.  She loved her days at doggie daycare back in Washington, and the more dogs the better.  I’m pretty energetic and spend a lot of time with her, but still I am not enough.  She gets bored and lonely.

In October we moved into my parents’ upstairs in Chandler while waiting for our new house in Prescott to be finished.  And they have two big dogs.  Lydia was in heaven, not sure though about poor Tessie who was badgered relentlessly by Lydia to play.  But for the most part, it was a great experience.  And Lydia got used to living with other dogs.  Tommy the big male was a gentle but firm leader who sometimes had to remind Lydia of her manners.  She’s smart, she respects Tommy, and learned well.

So in early January we realized it was now or never.  A new dog could become part of the pack when Lydia was not the leader.  And then we could move to a house that is new for both.  So casually, we looked a little, not expecting anything, and fine if it didn’t.  Larry really wanted another toy aussie, a girl.  We had looked in the past out of curiosity and realized that a young dog (not a puppy) is very rare and often very expensive.  And we had just bought a house and were facing big expenses like curtains and landscaping.

And there she was!  A breeder in northern AZ was looking for a home for her 10-month-old little girl.  She had held onto her for longer because she was small and timid, and was now ready to let her go, to the right home, for a modest price.  We drove a few hours north and met halfway in Seligman, and returned home with Dorie.

There have been some challenges, of course.  Dorie is afraid to eat around other dogs and needs to be separated, for now.  We’ve had to retrain Lydia not to bark when people come to the door.  And for several weeks Dorie wouldn’t play with Lydia, which was really frustrating for her and we did worry that they might never be good friends.  But now, they only stop playing to eat or sleep!  Best buddies.

And in case you were wondering, yes, they are named after musical terms.  The Lydian mode is a major scale with a raised fourth scale degree.  And the Dorian mode is a natural minor scale with a raised sixth scale degree.  You can ask me at your lesson to demonstrate.  ☺️

I saw it three times at the park.

Every day, I take Lydia to the park for an hour in the morning and another 20 minutes in the afternoon.  It’s how I keep her calm for lessons.  ;-)   This is a 25-acre, minimally maintained park surrounded by probably another 25 acres of wooded private property.  Several of the regulars have seen coyotes and even had their dogs chase them into the woods.

Early last Sunday, my friend Marilee and I were throwing balls into the pond for our dogs when another woman warned us that she had just seen a fox.  I told her there are coyotes in the park, and was that what she had seen?  And she replied, no, it was definitely a fox.

To be honest, I was skeptical.  But I had enough humility to keep an open mind.  The very next morning I saw it again, and sure enough, it was definitely a fox.

Because I am surrounded by people talking only about coyotes, I saw a wild dog and automatically thought “there’s a coyote”.

We all do this and don’t even realize it.  If, for example, you are surrounded by people who are saying “covid is deadly” then you will probably believe covid is deadly, regardless of the actual data.  Here is that data, straight from the CDC (cdc.gov pandemic planning scenarios, scenario 5 - current best estimate as of March 19, 2021):

Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) by age:
0-17 = 0.002%
18-49 = 0.05%
50-64 = 0.6%
65+ = 9%  (The CDC should break this down further; I’ve read elsewhere that the majority of deaths in this age bracket are in people over 85.  In other words, past the age of life expectancy.  So if you are 70, your IFR might actually be 1%, not 9%.)

This means that if you are an adult under 50, and get infected by the virus, your odds of dying are 1 in 2,000.  Put another way, if 2,000 adults under 50 got infected, only one would die.  For kids, it's 1 in 50,000.  Fifty-thousand get sick, one dies, 49,999 recover.  I'd be willing to bet that every single one of the children who have died had a serious underlying health condition.
 
But what about the asymptomatic cases?  Well then, the numbers are even better.  In fact, the number of infections might be grossly underestimated because some people get infected but never get tested and never go to the hospital, and so the CDC doesn’t count them in those numbers.  So your odds of dying might actually be 1 in 4,000 or 1 in 10,000.  It’s impossible to know for sure. 

Here are some of the things you are more likely to die from than covid (again, from CDC data):
Dementia/Alzheimer’s
Cancer
Accidents
Chronic lung diseases
Heart disease
Diabetes
Stroke
Kidney disease
Flu/pneumonia
Suicide
 
And so, if you do get infected with the virus, it is highly unlikely you will die of it.  The vast majority of people recover.  That's what the data shows…

…If you are young (under 65) and healthy.  There is always some truth in what you hear, even if a lot of it is inaccurate.  There are some coyotes at the park, I just haven’t seen one myself.  And yes, a lot of people have died of covid.  Most of us have heard that there are factors that put some people at higher risk, some at much higher risk of dying of covid.  Age is probably the biggest factor followed by obesity and poor health.  The good news is that we all have some control over those factors, and I’m not talking about masks and staying away from others.  Good food, good sleep, good activity levels, and good attitude…if you have all four, your odds of dying are probably 1 in a million.
 
But what about "long covid"?  Same answer.  Take care of your body and it will recover.  There is plenty of information out there to help people who have “long covid” recover completely.

It is natural for us all to hold onto our perspectives, to be skeptical when someone says something new.  But if you have just enough humility to keep an open mind, you just might see that it is a fox after all.

And, it's mostly good news, folks, though you wouldn't know it watching the news or listening to the public health officials.
 
[Disclaimer:  I am not a doctor, but I can read.  I have a degree in sociology and another one in psychology, both of which taught me to do research, interpret data, and avoid logical fallacies; for example, correlation ≠ causation.  These are my thoughts, and I recommend you also do your own investigating.  I've included links at the end as a place to start.]
 
First, children are not at risk from covid.  I realize this is a controversial thing to say, but by the CDC's own data, it is completely true.  A few hundred children (we're talking about people under 19 years old) have died in the pandemic, and that is tragic. Any death is tragic, especially when the person is young.
 
But look closer at the data:

• About 35% of those came to the hospital because of something else, were tested to see if they had the virus (to separate them from other non-infected patients), tested positive, and then died of that something else, and were counted as a "covid death".  The other 65% had significant health problems such as leukemia and were already very sick.  The flu or a bad cold could have killed them if covid didn't.
• There are TEN causes of death children are more likely to die of....car accidents, drowning, suicide, child abuse, even the flu kills more people under the age of 19.  More kids actually did die of the flu than covid in 2020.
• The infection mortality rate (those who are infected who then die) for 19 and under is something like 3 in 100,000.  That doesn't take into account all the people who had the virus but didn't get tested, and so they aren't counted in the number of infections.

In other words, I don't think we have to protect the kids from this disease any more than we need to protect them from pink eye.  We should be letting them live their lives as normally as possible.  Let them enjoy orchestra and marching band and summer camp and hanging out with friends.
 
Second, there are things we all can do to stay healthy, and I'm not talking about staying home and getting vaccinated.  Yes, getting vaccinated might be a good decision for some people, but it's not the only or maybe even the best way to avoid serious health complications or death.  Here are just a few things we all can and should be doing:

• Eat real food, not junk.  Real food is more satisfying, because your body isn't urging you to eat more when what it needs is more nutrients, not more calories.
• Maintain a healthy weight.  One of the most significant co-morbidities (can you believe we all know what that term means now?) is being overweight or obese.
• Take your vitamins.  I have heard more than one doctor say that we don't really have a "cold and flu season", we have a low vitamin D season.  And by some estimates, 40% of the adult population in the US is deficient in zinc, which appears to be an important nutrient for fighting corona viruses.
• Get outside.  Not just exercise and fresh air, but community exposure to germs will help to keep your immune system strong and healthy, especially after a year of masking, staying home, avoiding other people, and sanitizing everything!
• Do things that bring you pleasure and lower your stress.  Dare I say it?  Social contact, hugs, hobbies, corporate worship, going to a concert or a game together.  As others have said, these are not optional extras, these are the things that make life worth living.

Third, there are effective treatments:

• I already mentioned zinc, which apparently works best when taken with something to help your cells absorb the zinc.  Some doctors use hydroxychloroquine which requires a prescription in the US, but I have read that quercetin + bromelain, available at a vitamin store, also work.  See the links below to start your own research.
• Ivermectin is another drug which some doctors have used for early treatment with covid patients.  Yes, I know, the FDA doesn’t want you to use it.  But the studies from the NIH show it is effective, so follow the money…
• I've also heard and read about other repurposed drugs that might be effective, medications normally used for cancer or asthma.

If these remedies work, and the data looks like they do, it’s pretty exciting news.

It's too bad that our national conversation has been exclusively about case numbers and vaccination and avoiding infection, instead of what else might work and what we can do individually to improve our health.  After all, living – really living – is more than just the avoidance of death.

So let's embrace the good news - it's out there!

_______________________________________________________________________
 
Here are some links that have helped me in my research:
 
www.CDC.gov, covid-19 pandemic planning scenarios, table 1, scenario 5:  current best estimate.  This chart shows the latest infection mortality rates.
 
New England Journal of Medicine, “The Major Causes of Death in Children and Adolescents in the United States”, Dec. 20, 2018.
 
Quercetin and Zinc: Zelenko Treatment Protocol (August 2021) (onedaymd.com)
 
Dr. Zelenko explains how zinc + hydroxychloroquine works against the virus - Dr. Vladimir Zelenko Treats Covid-19 With Hydroxychloroquine & Zinc - Dose Of Dr. Drew - Bing video
 
The importance of Vitamin D for staying healthy - https://www.bitchute.com/video/InH89amCpy7S/?fbclid=IwAR1TXpbgOxo1cwI3hTX8oHP8KXDZ9cHxwgDMc00gqi2vbRL3vHkGrzQg9Ew
 
From the NIH:  Ivermectin is a safe, low-cost, and effective treatment for the virus - Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Trial Sequential Analysis to Inform Clinical Guidelines (nih.gov)
 
Using ivermectin preventively - Human taking horse paste Ivermectin? - Bing video
 
High Intensity Health – articles and videos about health -  Articles - High Intensity Health | Mike Mutzel
 
Viral immunologist demonstrates the effectiveness of masks - Do Masks Work? Viral immunologist Dr. Byram Bridle performs a simple experiment to see. - YouTube
This evidence is backed up by graphs comparing case rates in regions with high mask compliance vs neighboring low mask compliance areas.

My favorite signatory of the Great Barrington Declaration, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a public health policy scientist, talking with journalist Freddie Sayers in the UK - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucfm9LCzLFM. What a kind and thoughtful man.

We have a new addition to the music studio:  Lydia!

For years we have had cats, including my beloved Sophie, her brother Watson, and their mother Stella.  And so when the last two died last spring, it felt pretty empty over here.  If you’ve ever had to put a pet down, you know how it leaves a hole in your life, your heart, and your home.

With my husband’s illness and our planned travels in May and August, it seemed like good timing and so we endured the loss.  I got in touch with a breeder of mini aussies who plans on having a litter ready to adopt in December 2019.  We put ourselves on the list for a female, black and white mini.

And then, I got this picture in a text from our son Jamie, with the words “Look what Grandma and Papa have!”

Oh my, something was up.  They already have two big dogs.  And we were due to arrive at their house for a visit in a week.

My dad teaches piano at ASU, and one of his doctoral students bought a puppy for her children to play with while she practices long hours.  Unfortunately, potty training was a challenge in these circumstances, and so at four months the pup was still making messes all over the house.  Stressful!  And so, knowing that my parents are great with dogs, she asked them to take her.

She just happens to be a female, black and white mini aussie.  Perfect!

And so Lydia came home with us.  It’s a little earlier than we were planning on, and 90% of her care (and exercise!) falls to me.  However, she has quickly and thoroughly filled the hole in our lives, our hearts, and our home.  Yes, we have had to work hard to get her potty manners under control, but because her first family’s children played violin and cello, she settles nicely during lessons (as long as we ignore her).  Priorities, people!

We were out for a walk the other day, and I saw a front doormat that said “I hope you like cats”.  I need one that says “I hope you like dogs” because when you come for your lesson, you can count on a warm welcome from our sweet, extraverted little Lydia.  She loves you all!  And hopefully one of these days I’ll get her to keep all four paws on the ground when you arrive.  😊

I haven’t written much over the past two years because my husband has been fighting a long illness, and then last May we ended up with a puppy.  So free time has been in short supply!

However, I remembered a finger independence exercise from my childhood last week when I was in a lesson with my student Evie.  I don’t know what it’s called, so we named it “Second Finger Sit-Ups”. 

Evie is at the point in her beginner book when she is playing tunes with both high and low 2nd fingers, sometimes back-to-back or with just a note in between.  She has a great ear, but her fingers don’t always do what they are supposed to. 

And so, Second Finger Sit-Ups:

With just the left hand (no bow), place your 1st finger on the D string (on an E) and your 3rd finger on the A string (on a D).  Then move your 2nd finger back and forth from F# (high 2 on the D string) to C natural (low 2 on the A string) while keeping the 1st and 3rd fingers down.

Go slow at first, and make sure your hand stays relaxed.  Tapping your thumb while keeping the fingers down helps release the tension, and imagine your left hand hanging on the fingerboard by the tips of your fingers.

Use your 1st and 3rd fingers as guides for where to put your second finger:  high 2s just behind the 3rd finger and low 2s just in front of the 1st finger.  And you don’t have to raise the 2nd finger very high – just enough to move it cleanly to the next string.

Be sure to tap the 2nd finger on the tip, inside corner, and keep all your fingers round and relaxed.

Evie had trouble at first lifting and lowering the 2nd finger.  It’s like you’re looking at the finger, but it won’t move and you don’t know why.  Try touching the top of the second finger to help your brain make the connection. 
​
At first it feels a little like the first time you tried to tap your head and rub your stomach, but if you go slowly and do it a little every day, you’ll get it.

When someone decides to start taking violin or viola lessons, here is the typical list of equipment:

• Instrument
• Bow
• Case
• Rosin
• Shoulder rest
• Beginner book
• Music stand

It’s a good list, but it is missing a really important item:  the chin rest.  Of course, this is because violins and violas come with a chin rest already attached.  But that is like saying watches come with watch bands:  sometimes it doesn’t fit and you have to take links out or get a different kind of band that is more comfortable to wear.

For some reason, music stores and music teachers talk a lot about the different kinds of shoulder rests available and how to adjust them to fit the shape of your shoulder.  But we almost never talk about the importance of getting the right chin rest, even though they are easy to replace, inexpensive, and play a critical role in how comfortably you can hold up your instrument.

Most chin rests mount to the left of the tailpiece, even though only about 30% of the population fits this style.  The rest of us need some version of the center-mount chin rest, because that is where our jaws naturally fall when the instrument is properly balanced on the left collarbone.  (Btw, it really should be called a “jaw rest”.  You don’t put your chin on it, you rest the side of your jaw on it.)

Even if you need your chin rest on the left, there are several different shapes available and the one you have on your instrument might not be the most comfortable for you.

I’m currently teaching a beginner viola class at an elementary school (a terrible way to learn a stringed instrument, btw, but we do our best for the kids who will never take private lessons) and for most of these kids, holding their instruments correctly is really uncomfortable.  They try to adjust by holding the viola in front, “viola beard” style, because it doesn’t hurt that way.  How do you tell a kid that even though it hurts, they are doing it right?  “Play” is supposed to feel good, not hurt.  That goes for playing an instrument too.

And so, I wish that every music store that rents violins and violas would stock a good variety of chin rest styles, and that they would spend time helping the student get the right chin rest for them, just as they make sure the student gets the right size instrument and the right shoulder rest.  It should be a standard part of fitting a student to the right instrument.

Here’s how it works:

Have the student stand facing you.  Tell her not to move anything, but to let you place her hands/arms/head around the viola.  Balance the instrument on her left collarbone, all the way against her neck, parallel with the floor, at a 45° angle.  If you are standing in the middle of the room facing a wall, the scroll should point into the front left corner.

Place the student’s left hand in playing position with the palm of her hand up against the shoulder of the viola and her fingers hovering like an umbrella over the strings.
Have her move her head up and down and side to side (like saying “yes” and “no”) to make sure her head is comfortably upright and centered.  Then help turn her head slightly to her left and gently rest the left side of her jaw down on the instrument.  Her head should drop just an inch, and the natural weight of her head should make it easy for her to hold the viola up with her arms down at her sides.

Is the current chin rest cupping her face comfortably?  Or is it off to the left, and her jaw comes down on the edge of the chin rest, or sits on the tailpiece?  Does she instinctively want to stick her chin out, or cock her head, or move the viola higher on her shoulder or down in front of her?

Try different chin rests until you find the one that sits directly underneath her left jaw and feels comfortable.  It should feel to her like the viola is nestled comfortably, not pulling away from her.  There should be no sharp edges poking under her jaw or hard lumps pushing her head out of the way.  She should be able to turn her head to look forward and back down the fingerboard.

Here are several styles to try:  https://www.sharmusic.com/Accessories/Chinrests/
​
If you are renting your instrument, keep the chin rest that came with it somewhere safe so that when you return it, you can put it back on.

​Contact me if you have any questions.

​I don’t know about previous summers, but this year was quite international.  There were several from Canada who are involved with El Sistema, a music education program that started in Venezuela to teach children from the slums.  There were teachers from Korea, Japan, Australia, Spain and Portugal, Brazil, and India, as well as several states in the US.

This summer also drew a lot of young teachers in their late 20s to early 30s.  There were a few around 40, and then the three of us "older" ladies:  me, Sarah from Muncie, IN, and Jane from Prestwick, Scotland.  All three of u are on our second (or third) careers and set up our teaching studios two years ago.  It was lovely to get to know these women!  We were often joined by our friend Paul from SoCal.  Here is a picture of the four of us at the Irish Lion in Bloomington.  
​
And here are Jane and Sarah:

On the last day of the workshop we all gathered at Mimi’s house for our last session (Kreutzer etudes!) and brunch.  We got a chance to chat with the professors more, and I was surprised to learn that they thought this workshop would run for a few years and then stop – because there would be no more teachers interested.  But every summer they get a new crop of about 30-35 teachers, even now after a couple of decades.  I hope they continue.  It is excellent.

If you are interested in attending the workshop and have any questions about my experience there, feel free to contact me. ​

Somehow, the word “discipline” has become synonymous with “punishment”.  Corporate HR departments and public school administrations have “disciplinary procedures”:  the process to follow when someone breaks the rules.  A parent might be referred to as a “disciplinarian”, meaning they are the parent who punishes you when you disobey.

This isn’t particularly new.  In fact, Merriam Webster says that in the 13th century, the term referred to religiously inspired punishment, such as self-flagellation.  These are probably the same people who misunderstood the proverb “Spare the rod and spoil the child.”  More on that in a minute.

In my opinion, all of this is a misunderstanding of the word.  Just as “discipline” sometimes refers to a body of knowledge or field of study, the word originally referred to the activities of a student who is learning something or following a particular teacher.  That student is a “disciple”.

Learning something well requires regular, consistent, persistent, and sometimes repetitive action.  This is discipline, and it takes time.  No punishment is needed, just motivation to do it, do it correctly, or at least do it better than the last time, and keep on doing it.

Few things in life require as much discipline as learning to play an instrument.  This is one of the reasons why music students score higher on their SATs, do better in math and science classes, and are pursued by law schools and med schools.  In order to succeed in learning an instrument and getting good at it (where the fun really begins) you have to have developed a capacity for discipline.  Therefore, you are already used to the dedication needed to study law (so much reading!) or medicine (long, long hours) or any body of knowledge that takes concentration over a long period of time.

One of the hardest things I do as a violin teacher is teach my students how to practice.  It isn’t consistent with our culture to stop playing with your friends, or turn off the video game, and go practice.  Alone.  Doing something that, at first, feels awkward and sounds terrible!  And later, it sometimes feels like a journey that never ends.  It's hard to notice improvement, which would be so encouraging if it were obvious!

I don’t believe in punishment for failure to practice, by the way.  That “rod” that we’re not supposed to spare was originally referring to a shepherd’s crook.  And a shepherd would never use his rod to hit his sheep!  If he did, he would either damage them or chase them away.  He might use the rod to hit or threaten a predator, but for the sheep, the rod was for guiding and keeping them on the path and moving in the right direction.  This is what a good parent does.

Parents play an important role in helping their child to practice – not being there with them, though occasionally that is a good idea, but creating the conditions that make good, consistent practicing possible.  Parents can help by setting aside a space that is relatively free from distractions (the TV isn’t on 20 feet away), setting a regular time every day that doesn’t conflict with other desirable activities (“We’re going to the park to play; you stay here and practice.”), reminding the student that it’s time to play violin, and not tolerating excuses.

Here are some ideas I have come across that might work for you:

• A friend of mine in youth symphony got to skip doing the dishes after dinner if he would practice his cello while his mom washed up.
• One of my adult students plays for an hour every day after breakfast.  (Now that is discipline!)
• The mom of one of my youngest students made a sticker chart with different stickers for either a day practiced or a day skipped.  Every night, her daughter puts either the one or the other sticker on the chart so she’s aware of practicing throughout the week.
• “Mindfulness” is the new buzzword these days.  The Bulletproof Musician blog describes mindful practicing as writing down a list of specific goals (play measures 24-36 up to tempo; play that shift in tune 5 times in a row; memorize the B section of that fiddle tune; etc.) and then working on those specific things until you can check them off the list.
• Of course, nothing beats having an upcoming performance or audition for motivation to practice.  If others are going to hear you, you want to be prepared!
• Also highly motivating is making sure you have some things you are excited about learning.  One of my students logged his all-time high in practice time over two weeks when I finally let him learn vibrato.  Everything got better, even his etudes!

I once heard discipline described visually in this way:

Water is the talent.  The riverbanks are the discipline.  If you have no riverbanks, you have a swamp full of stagnant, smelly, muddy water.  But if you have good boundaries, the water flows – sometimes very rapidly – in one direction, eventually reaching its goal.

Jeff was the featured guest, escaping from the ​snowy weather in Cleveland for a few days in the Nevada sunshine.  He gave a master class, played in the viola choir, and hung out with Kate and me.  Just as I remember him, Jeff is kind, generous, and engaging.  He obviously cares ​about the people he is working with.  He always starts with positive feedback before identifying the weaknesses.  He asks questions, uses insightful analogies, demonstrates and coaches through new techniques and approaches to problem solving.  Jeff was the first teacher who walked all around me while I played, observing my form from all angles and correcting a bow hold here or a neck tilt there.  It was unnerving at first, but he caught things my previous string teachers hadn’t noticed for years.  I soon came to appreciate his unconventional style, and rapidly improved.​

Cuban American violist Yunior Lopez gave the master class for high school students from the community.  In addition to performing and teaching viola students, he is the founder and conductor of the Young Artists Orchestra in Las Vegas.  I didn't get a photo of his master class, but you can check out these excellent performances by Yunior and a few of his high school musicians:  Bach Chaconne for Four Violas and  Brandenburg #6.

​If you’re not sure you like the sound of the viola, listen to a viola choir – you will develop a new appreciation for this beautiful, rich sounding instrument.  Twenty-five of us gathered on the stage to play a few pieces, where finally, with no violins in sight, we got to play the melody.  And that melody wasn’t just for the Viola 1 part:  violists are nice people, and we like sharing.  Each of the four parts took turns playing melody, harmony, and accompaniment.