The big push in the past few months has been to find a balance between more autonomy and responsibility for Erin in her practising, and the ongoing need for guidance and facilitation in problem-solving. She's now wrapping up the Vivaldi g minor concerto, 3rd movement and trying to keep the weighty Book 4 and 5 repertoire firmly within her grasp. Two complete Vivaldi Concerti and the Bach Double are a lot to retain when they've all been learned in the past 6 months. She's practising about a third of the time completely independently, and taking daily responsibility for her review work. After some growing pains, the independent practising is proving increasingly diligent and efficient. Eight seems pretty young for this, I agree, but she's always craved autonomy and independence, this kid, easily falling into patterns of conflict and resistence, and since we were wanting her to take more responsibility for musical details, this practising independence fits with the "total program".
We've opted not to do an institute this summer; Noah wasn't quite ready. Instead Erin will again do the local music summer school on piano, with an orchestra option on violin. She'll also have the chance to work on three or four violin-piano duet numbers with a pianist friend of hers who will be visiting for a week. The two girls live 9 hours apart but became fast friends last summer. They're quite well-matched on their respective instruments. It should be a productive and enjoyable partnership.
