Student Recourses
Lesson Notes and Practice Log
This is template for students who receive weekly lessons. I find it to be a great tool for total beginners through pre-college. There are sections to take notes during lessons, a chart for logging assignments and their respective practice in addition to a staff for writing out any miscellaneous exercises or practice techniques.
3 Octave Major Scales for Viola
This scale system includes fingerings on half steps and builds the scale one octave at a time. My favorite part? Each major scale fits on one page, with easy to read spacing. This is ideal for students who are ready to dive into learning all of they’re major scales, but don’t require all of the exercises (and sometimes overwhelm) that come in a standard scale book.
List of Characters
Karen Tuttle kept a list of emotions in her studio to help students identify and portray emotions in the music they were working on. Throughout my studies I have been offered a copy or iteration of the list in order to help my own interpretations and found it particularly helpful. This is the list I have compiled for my own practice and the students I work with.
Listening Recommendations
In the world of YouTube, instant uploads and millions of free recordings available on the internet there is very little a search engine can do to distinguish an artistically compelling performance from one lacking proficiency and musicianship. Artistic mastery and musical skill are not necessarily correlated with the most views or likes. Here is a compiled list of performers, that is by no means comprehensive, to point one in the right direction of listening to beautiful music made at the highest level.