Ludic learning

Building a controlled and disciplined system of practice in a ludic way

Giorgiana Cristina Flueras

Postgraduate Suzuki Teaching Method – ESA 1-3

Research Project

Supervisor: Nico Couck

Co-supervisor: Koen Rens

Academic Year 2021-2022

“Every action driven by an emotion is empowered.”

Charles F. Haanel,1916

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 Foreword

As a kid, I used to love playing violin. The practice time was fun and joyful, while I was
searching with eagerness to make a beautiful melody with my little violin. Years passed, and
the pressure to become someone and to prove myself as a musician took over my passion. That
pressure was much sowed during the violin and then the viola lessons. 'I wish' became 'I must'
while practice became a very annoying routine. It still stayed constant but not so exciting and
fun anymore.

The first 14 years of my study time were in Romania, where the approach is often quite harsh.
If the lesson was not going well, the fault always belonged to the pupil who did not practice
enough. A slap behind the head or on the hands was often the teacher’s solution in such
situations. Discipline was thought of in a hard way, hand in hand with fear.

If I am still a musician, grateful to have continued this journey, now with a clear purpose in
life, it is thanks to a few mentors who believed in me and invested all their energy without
questioning if I will be the next George Enescu or not.

I would like to take this opportunity and thank some of those amazing people who inspired me
and guided me to become a better version of myself. Joking or not, I would like to become one
of them when I will grow up.

To my viola teacher from Transilvania Music University, Miss Leona Varvarichi who could
reach your heart playing two quarter notes. Thanks to her, I understood far before knowing
about the Suzuki method, the concept of “beautiful heart, beautiful tone”.

To my luthier in Bucharest, Sergiu Munteanu who once gave me weekly viola lessons for free
and made instruments for me very long before I could afford to pay them.

To my lecture teacher, Wibert Aerts, who once told me I play like a homeless person. I don’t
thank him for that but for not giving up on me. For encouraging me, for doing his best to help
me improve, and for celebrating every progress I’ve made.

Finally, with all my heart, to my Suzuki trainees, Veerle Van Gorp, Wim Meuris, and Koen
Rens for all their passion and enthusiasm with which they introduce me to Suzuki’s method.

Nowadays, my main goal as a young teacher is to keep alive in my pupils’ hearts the passion
and the curiosity for music. My challenge is to guide my students to work steadily and make
the best out of themselves, without losing their enthusiasm and their joy for playing.
 Abstract

Through this research project, I wish to find a better balance between establishing clear rules
during violin lessons and keeping the learning process fun and joyful.

The starting questions are:

• How to teach a solid base and educate a steady practice routine with young pupils?
• How to keep the motivation always alive?
• How to determine a learning style that best fits the child?
• How can help them overcome technical obstacles with easiness?

Methodology:

The Suzuki training and the insights received from our teachers, Veerle van Gorp, Wim Meurs,
and Koen Rens, are already a big help in this quest.

Furthermore, observing lessons during this year, and reading some books about teaching and
the human brain, helped me better understand this approach.

This research project would come as a continuation of my Pedagogical Master Thesis which
was constructed on the topic of autonomy in the practice. It still is a very active point of interest
for me. I wish through this work to bring more understanding regarding the ways of teaching
and educating our pupils.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction…………..……………………………..…………...………………………….2

2. What does ludic mean and how does it impact the process of learning?................................3

3. Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation…………………………....…………………………...4

4. Games and stories to learn the violin……………………………………………….……….5

5. "Where love is deep, much can be accomplished"……………………………………….......9

6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 12

7. Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 13
 1. Introduction

Are children willing to engage in a long and challenging journey that pushes them out of their
comfort zone? Are they able to tolerate discomfort and postpone their rewards?

Children’s nature is built upon curiosity and growth. In this period of life, the brain is stretching
and developing like any other organ of the body. Learning is then a natural growing process
that should be enjoyed without strain and pressure.

As teachers, we often see children being either spiritless with their education or too stressed
out by their experiences. In such situations, the learning process loses its efficiency. If learning
is indeed a natural process, where is the gap between the teaching and the learning experience?
What could be the bridge and how can a teacher better assist his pupils and create an optimal
environment for them to learn?

Kids will generally engage in something if they find it fun or if they are constrained by fear. In
the first case, their experience can be very productive. In the second, it blocks the natural
process of learning. Their capacity to learn comes as a natural function of the brain which can
be either inhibited or facilitated.

When teaching music to children, there are already several methods that are built upon the
child's world of play and his inner curiosity. Among them, we could mention The Orff
Schulwerk based on speech, Kodaly based on singing, Dalcroze-Eurythmics based on body
movement, and Suzuki based on listening. Each of these approaches proved its efficiency in
time. Their common point is that they all provide a seif environment to encourage children to
be the main actors of their development.

Yet, there are so many pupils experiencing frustration, fear, and inferiority feelings when they
practice. If those feelings were not there from the beginning, how could they develop? Was not
the inner motivation strong enough to help overcome all those outcomes? Were those methods
used wrongly or not used at all? Which kind of teaching environment should we provide for
children to make them grow in alignment with their driving core?

Answering these questions could be a step forward and bring many insights to a young teacher
who searches for a method that better matches his or her pupils.

This research project aims to highlight the correlation between teaching with a fun and joyful
attitude and building a solid technical base when learning the violin. It also proposes some
positive alternatives to teaching music in general, which could help the teachers better
understand their role. Following some pupils in their learning adventure, I would like to
observe the link between the cognitive and the emotional process of learning and outline some
‘child-compatible’ practical solutions for teaching violin. Because older learners assimilate
knowledge in a more analytical way, whereas younger learners are more sensitive to emotional
communication, we will refer to this context mostly at young children, age range between 5 to
9 years old. Nevertheless, much of the information gathered here is suitable for all-age learners.

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 2. What does ludic mean and how does it impact the process of
learning?

To define this concept and be able to answer these questions, we must seek the etymological
origin of the word ‘ludic’.

According to Marriam Webster’s dictionary, it comes from the Latin noun ‘ludus’ which refers
to “a whole range of fun things - stage shows, games, sports, even jokes. The more familiar
word ‘ludicrous’ also traces back to the same source. In short, it means ‘fun’, although it was
created in all seriousness around 1940 by psychologists. They wanted a term to describe what
children do, and they came up with ‘ludic activity’. This notion caught on, and it's not all child's
play anymore. It can refer to architecture that is playful, a narrative that is humorous and even
satirical, and literature that is light.”1

Various neuroscientific studies explained what happens when a person enters a ludic state. Not
only when one is playing but also when he is doing something he is passionate about. Many
brain areas are engaged simultaneously in those moments, creating an optimal experience to
assimilate information. When a person is relaxed, the creative process is activated, preventing
the learning process from becoming a burden. According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the
author of ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’ “enjoyment appears at the boundary
between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with the person’s capacity
to act.”2 Thus, applying the new knowledge to something challenging and fun enables someone
to use his senses better and engage himself in the learning process.

The only struggle when making an activity enjoyable is that each one’s idea of fun is
intrinsically subjective. One person’s concept of entertainment may be different from
another’s. Teachers must then create the conditions in which pupils are likely to have fun. They
must adapt the learning content to each person or situation while keeping consistent the
teaching points of the lesson.

When working with children, a great way to engage them to have fun while learning is through
games and stories. Their application develops the imagination and the capacity to absorb
information. For example, teaching a child to play straight with the bow, opening his right arm
when playing the violin, is often difficult. However, drawing a butterfly on his arm, which is
supposed to fly when the arm is correctly opening, will work way faster than trying to teach
him the concept of the bow going parallel to the bridge. It makes then a lot of sense to express
a teaching content in a familiar context to the learner to facilitate the assimilation. Why not
engage a child in the educational activity relying on his capacity to enjoy and have fun all
along? The key is knowing how to keep things in control, not allowing the games to take over
the teaching points.

1 Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ludic (accessed on Mai 20, 2021).

2 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (2008, page 52).
 3. Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation

Enjoying what we are doing is also a powerful inner motivation. According to psychotherapist
and author Amy Morin, “motivation can be understood as the invisible force that drives
people and causes them to act. It is something that incites a person into action and makes
him continue the course of action with enthusiasm, to accomplish the desired goals.” 3
Internal and external factors can trigger such a force. Intrinsic motivation arises out of
fun, and it is naturally satisfying as it is driven by internal rewards. It is the pleasant
feeling we experience when we play music, read a book, go for a walk, or play a game.
By comparison, it contrasts with extrinsic motivation, driven by external rewards or the
willingness to avoid punishment. The self-satisfaction feeling is generally diminished
when actions are triggered only by extrinsic motivation.

That’s why a teacher needs to recognize and understand how these two types of motivation
influence the behaviour of the students. While they are complementary, their impact is very
different. For example, most schools use external motivation factors such as grades,
evaluations, official remarques (positive or negatives), etc. Because of the number of students
in a class and the volume of knowledge to be achieved by the end of primary school, intrinsic
motivation is in part, neglected. However, the students whose actions are driven also by internal
rewards, including the sense of belonging in the class, feeling appreciated by the teacher,
background experience related to the taught subject, most often prove to have better results and
higher grades.

All these are evidence showing that if a powerful extrinsic system of motivation is imposed,
intrinsic motivation is sabotaged. Curiosity is replaced by rewards and punishments provided
by the teacher. The optimal learning process cannot take place anymore.

In their book, Making Connections: Teaching and the Human, Brain Geoffrey Caine, and
Renata Caine affirm: “Even more neglected and underused is the innate predisposition of the
brain to search for how things make sense, to search for some meaning in experience. This
translates into the search for common patterns and relationships. It is a matter of finding out
how what is being learned relates to what the learner already knows and values and how
information and experiences connect.”4 In other words, meaningful learning should be a top
priority for teachers if they want to become the bridge between the knowledge and the learners.
They must motivate their students to reflect and search for deeper understandings of the content
they encounter by going beyond the surface knowledge achieved through rote memorization.
The background, experience, and information pupils bring to class should be used as
connecting content.

In short, learning is nurtured by challenge and imagination. These factors together constitute
intrinsic motivation. What matters, then, is that we, as teachers, master the ability to elicit

3 Key differences, https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-intrinsic-and-extrinsic-motivation.html (accessed on June

15, 2021).
4 Brain Geoffrey Caine and Renata Caine - Making Connections: Teaching and the Human (1991, page 13).

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intrinsic motivation in students. On one hand, by assisting them to relate what is being studied
to what is meaningful to them. On another, supporting their creativity.

Certainly, it is easier for teachers to identify and trigger inner motivation when working with
one pupil or with a considerably reduced group of children. They can grasp, therefore, each
pupil’s inner drivers and adjust the learning model to better fit the situation.

One of the methods we’ve been referring to in the introduction of this research is particularly
helpful when developing inner motivation in children. Suzuki’s Mother-Tongue approach not
only starts from the premise that every child can if he or she is nurtured with love and care but
also challenge children to a more focussed learning experience through games and stories. The
role of these games is to create relaxed alertness where the child is challenged having fun at
the same time. The playful environment also brings a sense of well-being in the class where
children can explore ideas and make new connections.

In conclusion, if teachers install a playful environment during the violin lessons, children
will be encouraged to engage in activities driven most often by inner motivation. These
activities can become, then, the bridge between Knowledge and Learning.

4. Games and stories to learn the violin

It is well known that from birth to preschool ages, children assimilate reality mostly through
ludic activities. To engage them in an educational activity through a playful context means also
to challenge them to search for some common patterns and meanings in the activity.

“Experts agree that play is one of the most important ways that children learn and prepare for
life, as well as being a crucial activity for igniting and stimulating a love of learning.” 5 This
means that through games, we can create the connection between effort and success. If we
make a game to teach a new skill to a child, we create a situation where the effort pays off.
Used in the right context, the games train pupils to be more demanding with themselves.

When it comes to Suzuki Method, the possibilities of games and tricks are endless. Below, we
will present several concrete examples of playful activities and gadgets which have been used
successfully in violin lessons. What is important to point out is not necessary the game or trick
used but why it is used. These activities are supposed to generate creative playfulness and take
the seriousness out of the moment. Because the knowledge achieved through emotions remains
for the whole life, teachers must connect the content to the feelings of the learners. If the child

5Nido early school, https://nido.edu.au/news/the-importance-of-learning-through-play-for-children/ (accessed on December

12, 2021).
does a game with an “I can do it” attitude, he will be engaged with positive emotions in the
activity. Which will make him be really focused.

Further, it is the teacher’s responsibility to build the bridge between the teaching content and
the playing activity by installing clear rules for each game: it must be clear for the child what
is expected from him. As well, a clear indication for when the game is over should be
established from the beginning.

Once one understood the principles of creating games and stories to fix teaching points, it is
easy to design different versions and variations of the games, upon the context, to achieve the
goal. That’s why we will propose here just several examples. Following their purpose, the
games and the stories can be organized into different categories. Pat van Kerkhove, a Belgian
Suzuki piano teacher, efficiently classified them as follows:

➢ Posture
➢ Repetition games
➢ Structure of the piece
➢ Musicality.

➢ Posture:

Placing the violin in a correct and effortless way is often a difficult task. Both arms are lifted,
while the violin is placed on the collarbone. This is not a natural position and requires a
considerate muscle effort. One of the images that work when building a good violin posture
with children is the ‘Statue of Liberty posture’. Engaging them in the story where they must
lift the violin while imitating the statue, help develop the left arm muscle with less effort.

Once the violin is correctly placed, the left arm should go and cheer up ‘the sad friend’ tapping
on the right shoulder. From this position, a small, squared candy is placed on the head of the
child who will walk in the room, taking care the candy will not fall. Of course, this task is not
possible if the head is not straight. The same exercise can be done by placing the candy on the
left-front side of the violin. A small baby figurine can be used as well. Children are highly
emphatic so they will be even more careful to not let the little baby toy fall from their head or
the instrument.

For the bow hold, ‘the rabbit head’ shape is the fastest way to place well
the right hand on the bow. The handshape can be easily created using the
image of a head of a rabbit. When the pupil is tired, the teacher should
take off the bow and the violin and start making a little story, keeping the
hand shape in rabbit form, this time without the bow. After a few minutes,
the time needed for the child to rest his arm and the mind, the rabbit in the
story starts to be hungry so he gets back the carrot - the bow in this exercise.

Later, the right hand can become Spiderman which climbs the bow until the top and back. A
small puppet can be added to the top of the bow. The child should not shake to much the ‘tower’

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so the puppet doesn’t fall. When focusing to keep the top of the bow straight, the exercise is
done with more preciseness, developing the dexterity of each finger.

Stories can be made for each situation or body contact with the instrument. They aim to build
a fun environment and creative participation which would keep the children engaged and help
them develop their muscles without being aware of the effort required.

➢ Repetition games:

Doctor Shinichi Suzuki was often speaking about the distinction between ability and
knowledge. While knowledge is the theoretical understanding of a subject, the ability can only
be achieved through repetition. Although repeated practice on isolated skills is a proven way
to acquire ability, the mind gets bored quickly if the repetition is not challenging enough.
Giving meaning and a challenging context to the task will speed up the acquisition of skill and
give satisfaction to the learner. Skills and content should be brought in a context that is familiar
to the learner. To make a child repeat without getting bored, the use of toys or visual elements
is a powerful tool. It is very important when using toys and games to mark clearly the progress
made with each repetition. Several toys are very efficient and easy to bring in the class:

The duck babies – Mama duck is looking for her babies, and only the repetition of the song
will make them show up. Each repetition makes another baby duck appear. Teachers can bring
in the story as many baby ducks as repetitions they want. Finding the right words to make the
child empathize with the mama duck who searches for her babies can make a child repeat
tirelessly.

The dice – The children throw the dice to know the number of repetitions they must do. Letting
them throw the dice by themselves gives them a certain feeling of control.

The car race - Each good repetition makes the child’s car get closer to the finish line. While
the bad repetition makes the other car get closer to the finish line. It is very important to clearly
draw the finish line so the child can observe how the distance between the cars and the finish
line is getting smaller. This game is very appreciated by children because of the competition
between the two cars. Children love this kind of challenge.

Pompons on a thread - With each repetition, one more pompon goes down. If the playing was
not correct, teachers can move the next pompon just half down. This enables the child to focus
and play correctly so the pompon can slide down on the thread.

Guess the drawing – The teacher draws a small detail like a line, or a circle and the student
must guess what it is. If he doesn’t guess, he must play again while the teacher adds another
detail to the drawing. The game keeps going until the teacher decides to make his drawing easy
to be guessed. While de student is kept curious about the drawing, this game gives much control
to the teacher who decides when the game will stop.6

6 See Koen Ren’s violin lessons.

➢ Structure of the piece

According to Suzuki violin teacher Mimi Zweig, “awareness of form is the first step to
understanding music in the beginning stages of violin playing. Other musical concepts such as
dynamics, tempo markings, ritards, etc. are incorporated into learning the form. Thus, each
musical idea becomes a part of the total musical expression. The awareness of form from the
beginning significantly helps to organize the musical memory of students.”7

To help children effectively understand the form of the piece both visual triggers and stories
can be used with great success. Regarding stories, Brain Geoffrey Caine and Renata Caine,
authors of Making Connections: Teaching and the Human, affirm: “Stories are powerful
because they help tie content together and aid natural memory […] there is strong reason to
believe that the organization of information in story form is a natural brain process.”8
Recognizing and remembering the patterns of the music becomes much easier when a story is
used to show the form of the music.

For example, in Twinkle, twinkle little star, the ABBA form can be explained as a sandwich
with two layers of chocolate. It can also be shown using figurines: two big ducks and two small
ones. The story is that mama duck is followed by her two babies and the papa duck comes
behind the babies. Using two different coloured pawns to mark each pattern, is another visual
element to help them easily remember the form.

For Lightly Row, where the form is A A1 B A1, a successful story to mark the form is the one
when baby Bambi is making his first steps in pattern A. Pattern A1, almost identical but slightly
more active, finds Bambi more confident in his legs, making more steps and even jumping in
Bar 7. Pattern B finds Bambi smelling two different flowers in the sunny meadow.

While the possibilities are limitless, each teacher is responsible to find the solution that would
fit the context for each class. It takes, attention, heart, and psychology to read and understand
the child in front of you.

➢ Musicality

One of the biggest challenges in teaching violin to young beginners is musicality. At this age,
music is a concept very difficult to explain. However, it must be the main goal of a teacher.
After all, we learn an instrument to play music. Suzuki based his approach on the belief that
“Musical ability is not an inborn talent but an ability which can be developed. Any child who
is properly trained can develop musical ability, just as all children develop the ability to speak
their mother tongue. The potential of every child is unlimited.”9 Also, Victor Wooten wrote in
his book ‘Music lesson’: “To play Music, good technique is a must. You can know all the notes
in the world. You can have the best ideas in the world, but you need a good technique to get
them out. Your technique can even be unorthodox, but if it is inadequate, you will not be able

7 Mimi Zweig String Pedagogy, https://stringpedagogy.com/members/volumes/vol_1b/01b_1.htm (accessed December 23,

2021).
8 Brain Geoffrey Caine and Renata Caine - Making Connections: Teaching and the Human (1991, page 120).
9 Suzuki Association of the Americas, https://suzukiassociation.org (accessed on January 4, 2022).

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to express yourself freely.”10 In other words, musicality can be achieved by developing a good
technique. And the technique is the capacity to connect and control the movement used with
the sound produced. To work on musicality with young children, teachers must start then from
the tone production. Listening to the tone and trying to reproduce a beautiful sound should be
the starting point and the heart of musical development. The living example is perhaps,
amongst the most powerful solutions to build musical sense. Teachers should play for the pupils
to make them listen and hear the kind of sound expected from them. Nevertheless, a living
example – listening, is much more efficient if it is accompanied by a visual example. Children
understand often with their eyes how the sound is produced. For that, we will present here
below several gadgets that proved to be very efficient:

Balls of different sizes - To express the difference

between forte and piano repetition, balls of different
sizes can be used. We use here three different sizes: a big
one, a middle one and a small one. The big one is for forte
and the small one is for piano. If the pupil does not make
big enough the difference in dynamics, the teacher can
bring the middle one in the game to help him compare the piano and the forte.

The wooden meter - To show the shape of the music, a wooden meter is a very practical tool.
A teacher can show how the crescendos and the decrescendos sections are visually looking,
using each segment of the wooden meter directed towards up for crescendos and towards down
for decrescendos.

The elephant puzzle toys – To show the

connection between the notes, the row of
elephants who are connected through their
tromp, help children understand how to
play more legato. If the teacher wants
more air between the notes, he can place
the elephants more separated.11

5. “Where love is deep, much can be accomplished.”

As we mentioned in the introduction, young children are more sensitive to emotional

communication than to the intellectual content of it. They learn much through emotions,
imagination, and pre-disposition. A child’s sense of wellbeing and safety is created not only
through games but also through emphatic communication. Doctor Shinichi Suzuki understood

10 Victor Wooten – The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music (2015, page 96).
11 See piano lessons of Pat Van Kerckhove.
well this aspect when he created the philosophy behind his successful method. He believed in
the potential of every child and relayed this responsibility to the parents and educators - his
logic being that they are the ones who interact the most with each child.

Doctor Suzuki was not the only one to have understood the power of emotions for meaningful
learning. Charles Francis Haanel, philosopher, businessman, and author of the book ‘Master
Key System’ developed all his philosophy on the idea that emotions empower actions. 12 As
well, Paul MacLean - director of the National Institute of Mental Health said: "something
doesn't exist unless it's tied up with an emotion"13.

Therefore, emotions give a sense of meaning to what we experience. They also help us
remember and learn more deeply. Without much hesitation, we can affirm that emotions are
the bridges between the process of Teaching and Learning. If teachers and parents can create a
teaching environment based on love and empathy, they have filled the gap between the teaching
and the learning experience.

For a violin teacher, this understanding opens a whole world of possibilities. We have all the
conditions to create an optimal environment for learning experience: one-to-one lessons, active
teaching, the chance to use and adjust games to each pupil, a musical context – more likely to
be emotionally empowered, meaningful experiences through concerts and class auditions. We
can encourage pupils to go far beyond their limits and overpass their capacities and
expectations. Along with the knowledge, the superpower of a teacher is the capacity to access
emotions. Properly directed, they are the most powerful tool for the learning experience.

As evidence of how emotions empower our actions, we will present a few anecdotes from
teachers who wanted to share their experiences. These are great examples of how emotions
build bridges for learners.

Louis, 5 years old. “One of the parents comes to the lessons with their siblings. A daughter
who goes to a normal school, and a son, who is mentally disabled, going to a special school.
The father, not believing his son could ever be able to play the piano but persuaded by his wife,
comes to the lesson with them every week. After about 6 months, he told me that his son’s
therapist was surprised to see a big improvement in motor skills but kept being quite skeptical
about the value of the piano lessons for his son. When the first concert was approaching, he
tried to convince me it was not a good idea for his son to participate in the concert. He was a
bit ashamed people would notice his son is disabled. Luckily, I could persuade him to let his
son play. He played the first part of twinkle A, with a stop and preparation between each note.
After the concert, the father was so proud of his son. He told everyone in the studio that this
was his son, his son, who could play the twinkle A variation on his own, without a person
putting his fingers on the correct key.

12Charles F. Haanel – The Master Key System (2011).

13Paul MacLean and the Triune Brain - SCIENCE • 8 Jun 1979, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.377485
(accessed on December 23, 2021).

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Not very long ago, the sister played her graduation concert of book one, the brother managed
to play Mary had a little lamb with both hands. The nicest part of this is that the mother was
astonished her son could play this piece with 2 hands. Father and son practiced ‘secretly’ hands
together on this piece, when the mother was not at home, to make this a surprise for her at the
concert. The father who, at the beginning of their lessons, was ashamed about his son’s
condition, became a perfect Suzuki parent. The biggest work we, as Suzuki teachers must do,
is not working with the children, teach them how to play or listen, but open the eyes of the
parents to see the magic which happens with patience and love.” Pat Pat Van Kerckhove, piano
teacher.

Eliot, nine years old. “He was preparing ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star’. As soon as he could play
correctly the first variation, he phoned his grandmother – a pianist in Germany – to play for
her. She was very impressed and congratulated him several times. She expressed her will to
come soon and listen to him live. This promise made Eliot practice with a lot of eagerness so
he could play all the variations for his beloved grandma. It took him almost no time to be able
to play well all the Twinkle song”. Silvia Bazantova, violin teacher.

Miyabi, eight years old. “Stuck for a while on ‘O come little children’ she could just not play
it correctly. The bow distribution was catastrophic, the eight notes were almost as long as her
quarter notes and the sound was not pleasant. Knowing how much she loves her puppy, I
brought him into the story and ask her to imagine that she pets him when she plays - The target
was for the eight notes had to be as cute and small as her puppy was. She had to focus on
making sounds as beautiful and soft as the fur of her dog. By the end of the lesson, the song
had already improved, and the following week she was playing it beautifully.” Maria Coltatu,
violin and viola teacher.

Orchestra lesson. “We were working on the piece ‘In the hall of the mountain king’. To create
the musical texture and the articulation, we decided each instrument should get a role.

• The cellos and violas were the salad – the bed on each everything else was laid
• The second violins were the sauce – to link all the elements
• The first violins, who had the theme, were the cheese croquettes.

Each time someone had the melody, they got to be the croquettes. The lesson was fun, and the
result was pupils playing the piece beautifully.” Carina Miruna Adam, violin and Music
Education teacher.

Personal experience. “I was playing the Hoffmeister cadence and could not give a musical
shape or meaning to that music. I also encountered some technical difficulties although the
level of the piece, as well as the notes, were not new nor too advanced for my playing at that
age. It seemed I could not find the heart of the piece. One day, while practicing, I remembered
I saw a Pixar movie about a worm struggling to go out of an apple. For some reason, I found
the story fits perfectly with the music of the cadence I was playing. Each note could fit an
image or expression of the worm’s struggle. Playing with that story in mind, everything felt in
place. Ever since I play this cadence, the story of the worm comes vividly in my spirit and the
music becomes so expressive.” Cristina Flueras, 17 years old (at that time).
 6. Conclusion

Learning is a natural function of the brain, just like breathing for the lungs. However, as human
beings, we have the capacity (and the responsibility) to raise this function at its highest levels.

We have seen through this research that the cognitive function of the brain is directly influenced
by the emotional state one experiences. We have seen also that, although everyone experiences
ludic states, children can grasp knowledge and stretch their comfort zone better from a ludic
state.

If we want to engage them in the long and challenging journey of learning, if we want to teach
them how to tolerate discomfort and postpone their rewards, we need to understand how to get
to their level, how to understand their emotions, and how to talk their language. Only this
understanding will raise teaching into a noble and worthy activity. Because great teachers do
more than pass information. They understand that children’s feelings and experiences are
involved both within and beyond the lesson.

Therefore, they must search for meaningful teaching and organize the teaching points having
that in mind and heart. “Emotion, properly directed, can cause anything to happen!”14

14 Victor Wooten – The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music (2015 page 119).

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 7. Bibliography

Books:
- CAINE, Renate, CAINE, Geoffrey, Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain,

Wheaton: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1991.

- CIKSENTMIHALY, Mihaly, Flow, New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2011.

- HOPPENOT, Dominique, Le violon intérieur, Paris: Van de Velde, 1982.

- KREITMAN, Edward, Teaching with an Open Heart, Chicago: Western Springs School of

Talent Education, 2010.

- KREITMAN, Edward, Teaching from the balance point, Chicago: Western Springs School

of Talent Education, 1998.

- SHINICHI, Suzuki, Nurtured by love, New York: Alfred Music; 2nd ed. edition, 1993.

- SHINICHI, Suzuki, Ability Development from Age Zero, New York: Alfred Music, 1993.

- STARR, William, The Suzuki violinist, New York: Alfred Music, 1996.

- WERNER, Kenny, Effortless Mastery, New York: Alfred Music, 1998.

- WOOTEN, Victor, The music lesson, Berkeley: Berkley, 2008.

Online sources:

- Merriam Webster Dictionary, accessed on Mai 20, 2021, https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/ludic.

- Key Differences, accessed on June 15, 2021, https://keydifferences.com/difference-

between-intrinsic-and-extrinsic-motivation.html.

- Nido early school, accessed on December 12, 2021, https://nido.edu.au/news/the-

importance-of-learning-through-play-for-children/.

- Mimi Zweig String Pedagogy, accessed December 23, 2021,

https://stringpedagogy.com/members/volumes/vol_1b/01b_1.htm.
- Suzuki Association of the Americas, accessed on January 4, 2022,

https://suzukiassociation.org.

- Paul MacLean and the Triune Brain - SCIENCE • 8 Jun 1979, accessed on December 23,

2021, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.377485.

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