You Know You're A Suzuki-ist When...

I was thinking about some things that suzuki method kids have in common and a lot of them are pretty strange so I thought I'd share what I came up with. 
You know you're a "suzuki-ist" when...

1. You are shocked after trying to explain a rhythm as "goody goody stop stop," that they don't know what that means
This is the first rhythm every suzuki player learns. I remember going as a beginner to observe the Christmas concert and watching all the pre-twinkles do the cute little bow exercise while saying goody goody stop stop. I leaned over and whispered in my mum's ear "I'm never doing that." I'm reminded frequently of this as it was introduced in my first week or so and I still use it today.

2. Humming suzuki pieces to yourself
This can be a good sign or a bad one depending on how you look at it. It's good because this implies that you've been listening to the cd a lot as this type of learning requires. Unfortunately, they get stuck in your head and who wants to be caught humming classical music to themselves? This might earn you the title of music nerd.

3. You catch yourself thinking the "words" while you play
Let's face it, how many pieces can you play in book one without thinking of them as songs with words? Maybe one? Every time I play Minuet One I'll be thinking "I'm special la la la la..." whether I want to or not.

4. You only know the made up name of the piece
I think I will forever be convinced that Allegretto is really called Mr. Frog and Lightly Row is Little Mouse. It's so much more catchy. As the books go on they don't have as many funny names nor words but there's still a couple.

5. You'd rather play by ear than bother reading the music
A lot of kids think memorizing is so much work but it actually makes life so much easier! Playing by ear is something you can develop at a younger age and a lot of the time I prefer it to reading music. I don't think you'd meet someone from a public school orchestra who could do that.

6. When you can't resist ending a concert with twinkle theme
Haha old Suzuki traditions...every concert ends with all ages from beginners to graduates playing what every child began with--twinkle twinkle little star.

7. You cram in all your memorizing the day before a concert
Somehow even though we know memorization will be required, we always end up practicing like crazy the day before in order to learn a piece. In fact I need to go practice right now for a recording being made tomorrow. Ahh!

8. You wake up in the middle of the night sweating about messing up a 500 box at a recital
This is when you know you've over-practiced a box. You could probably play it in your sleep but it still plagues you.

9. Comparing life to time signatures. In other words...
4/4 time a.k.a. common time- I'm fine, everything's normal
3/4 time- pretty slow, a bit dull
6/8 time- I'm going crazy!
2/2 time- ehh...

Okay well maybe number nine is going a bit far...I made it up to have another example but the rest are true. And now for a musical verse...
Psalm 101:1
I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music.

Well, I'm off to practice.