By Stephanie Taylor
When I was 5 years old, my mom took me to a Suzuki Institute. I remember vividly when the teacher said, “Who’s a Happy Farmer? Come on up here!” I enthusiastically thought to myself, I’m happy and I live on a farm, I ran up to the stage, violin in hand and started playing the song. I’d never learned it, but my Suzuki instincts told me to watch my teacher and play along. My mom watched horrified from the audience as I confidently played along, you see, I had not learned “Happy Farmer”, but that didn’t stop me from trying.
I shared this story with Coralee as we drove to Atlanta for the Suzuki institute. She thought it was SO funny that I did something so ridiculous.
I knew that attending that Suzuki Institute when I was a kid inspired me, and I hoped to give that same inspiration to Coralee. I watched as she made new friends, learned new techniques and saw more advanced players. Coralee became more and more aware each day that the foundation we were learning at home meant that she could learn more advanced songs and accomplish bigger more exciting things on her instrument. By the end of the week she was learning to play in groups with techniques that were preparing her for orchestral playing. I watched with pride as she absorbed Perpetual Motion and played all the right notes with the group even though she hadn’t learned that piece in her lessons. And I smiled as I watched her voluntarily get her violin out of the case, sit down on the playground and play music while her friends climbed on the equipment all around her. I’m confident I heard Twinkle over 100 times that week, and it was beautiful every time! By the end of the week Coralee had learned a lot and become an even better Suzuki student, and I had also become a better Suzuki mom.
Beyond the music part of the week, we had a special week of mother/daughter time playing in the hotel pool, going bowling with the other Suzuki kids, and eating at restaurants where we always ordered desert!
My fondest memory was the moment when Coralee’s group teacher asked who could play “Happy Farmer” – Coralee looked at me with a knowing glance and we both giggled about our little inside joke.
