Wendy Goodwin

Recently, a parent brought up a question about her seven year old daughter’s violin practice that I felt was worth responding to here.

Q.  “How much involvement should I as a parent be having in my daughter’s at home practice?”

The reasons for playing violin are numerous and the rewards of hard work are a beautiful tone, an ability to express colors and emotions beyond the range of some other instruments, options to play many different styles of music from Classical to Jazz to Bluegrass, chances to play in group settings like chamber music and orchestras and the process of improving self discipline.

Once a student has played the violin for a long time, it becomes a tool of expression.  When just starting out, it CAN feel like a tool of torture for both student and listener because it’s not easy to initially get a good sound.

Although I in no way want to devalue the challenge of playing the piano, when a child hits a piano key, a nice sound comes out.  When a child places bow to strings, the resulting sound is often not so pleasant at first.  There’s a lot of technique that goes into making beautiful tone. 

Posture, bow hold, angle of the arms—both right and left, violin hold, vibrato, shifting, angle of fingers, pressure of the bow hand… these are all things that even a young violinist has to take into account when playing in order to improve.  It’s a lot more like learning a language than riding a bike!  With enough practice, these things become second nature and then it becomes more about expressing the music and learning the new songs than about the physical process of playing.

A good teacher has to balance the need for keeping the material mentally interesting and fresh while staying devoted to the numerous muscular and physical areas which must be trained and perfected.

This is also why it can be a slower process for a violinist to learn to read music than a pianist—he or she is concentrating so much on the actual playing that it doesn’t leave much room for thinking about remembering notes.

All of this to say that younger kids are probably going to need a lot more parental support in their at home practice than their piano or voice lesson counterparts.

Many parents are not themselves violinists or even musically trained so it can feel daunting to wonder “how can I assist when I don’t know how to do this thing myself?”  A good teacher will highlight to the parents what to watch for at home and give some ideas for how to be of assistance to the child.

One of my favorite tools for home practice is to have parents ask the child to show them how to do a particular technique—maybe even put the instrument into the parent’s hands and have the young violinist correct “bad” posture etc.

Another tip on at home practice success is to carve out a consistent time for practice—maybe it can’t be the same time every day because of various other activities but the same time on a given day of the week—for example, Wednesdays after dinner, Thursdays before school, Saturday after cartoons.  The practice time doesn’t have to happen all at once either—3 ten minute sessions in a day is going to produce just as strong a result as one 30 minute session!  The key is regular, focused practice.

As the child becomes more advanced there will be less need for parents to be heavily involved in the practice time—the young student will have developed expectations and momentum with technique… so if you can hang in there and help lay a strong foundation, everyone will win!

To all the parents of violin students out there… thanks for allowing your kids to experience this amazing instrument.  I hope that it will bring them as much joy and fun as it has brought me over the years.  Good luck and practice hard!

I am so blessed as an artist and a human being to have these out of body moments when I look down on my life and think “Really?  I get to do this?  How cool!”  Sunday the 1st of November was one such day.  Friend and colleague Tasha hosted our joint studio recital in her beautiful home.  We had a wonderful turnout of well prepared students.  Some of them were even joined by musically inclined parents—how beautiful when music can become not only a form of expression, a study in language for a child… but also a parent child bonding experience!  I look forward immensely to our next recital in May.

  Tasha is a great piano teacher—the kids were not only playing but some sang along with their performance.  These photos were taken by Yvonne Kazmierowicz, an amazing mother of four who I admire greatly for a myriad of reasons, one of them being her photography skills.

Back for it’s sixth season, we are delighted to present three concerts this year!

DATES
Wednesday, December 2nd:  7:00 PM  Newberg Friends Church
307 South College Street  Newberg, OR 97132
503.538.8381

Thursday, December 17th:  7:00 PM  Sydney’s Cafe with guest artist Dave Iula
NW 15th & Thurman Portland, OR 97209 503.241.4313
www.sydneysportland.com

Tuesday, December 22nd:  Holladay Park Retirement Community
Portland, Oregon (semi-private event) 
If you are interested in attending, please call 503.860.7688

LISTEN
For your enjoyment, here is a live recording of Midnight on the Water from 2007.  Grab yourself a cup of cocoa (with marshmallows please) and enjoy!

Midnight on the Water Live

Last Wednesday & Thursday it was Wendy Nirvana as some of my favorite pass-times converged.

Like Starbust candy: sweet and tart at the same time.

Like Oreo cookies:  creaminess and crunchiness working together for the ultimate junk food experience.

In other words…

I got to be outdoor adventure girl with my violin!  Together with brave fellow musicians Ashley, Nelly & Kelli we were part of a video shoot that drew us from the very rugged edge of the Oregon Coast (and when I say edge, I mean edge!) to the watery wonderland of the Columbia River Gorge. 

There was a great team spirit facilitated in part by my dear parents who came along to bless us with amazing food and care for the wee ones of Effesenden.  We met new friends: thanks Tye & David for all of the trees leapt out of and rivers forded.  We bowed to the whims of artistic genius and adventurous madman Sam Martin (I mean that in the most complimentary of ways Sam!)  And now we wait with great anticipation to see what  emerges from this wild ride. 

I am so excited to share the finished piece with all of you!  From the little bit of footage we saw, I think it’s going to be very unique!  Until then I will continue to nurse my aching feet and mosquito bitten arms.

We had a great time at the Summer Splash concert today in Lake Oswego.    It was exciting to debut a new song called Tired of Waiting and to do some covers that are new to us.  In particular, our pianist, Aaron Pruitt, did a fantastic new arrangement of Billy Joel’s Lullaby which he dedicated to my daughter Vienna… it is so awesome and humbling to play with musicians who are such kind people on top of being amazing artists… Thanks Aaron! 

The ensemble was a fun combo of instruments—a quartet with me doing double duty violin and vocals, Ashley Peck on cello, Nate Macy doing guitar and bass and Aaron Pruitt on vocals and keys.  I hope we’ll find more opportunities to perform with this group as it is very versatile and has a fun chamber vibe to it.

Thank you so much for coming out and spending your lunch hour with us.

Back in 2000, my roommate Cary and I were living in a little vintage apartment on the Park Blocks near Portland State while I was working on my masters.  It was a depressing year… missing friends from college, the end of a relationship and the fact that our apartment’s windows faced a sliver thin inner courtyard meaning virtually no natural light was to be had.

One of the only things that kept us sane was a constant diet of good music and a favorite of ours at the time was the Windham Hill album “A Celtic Christmas.” Okay, Okay I’ll admit it:  I’ve been known to listen to Christmas Music year-round.  Who would have guessed that almost 10 years later, I would find myself going on tour with none other than the writers/performers of three of the songs on the album— Jeff Johnson and Brian Dunning.

I’ve already had the chance to play with Jeff this past Spring at the Grotto in Portland and up on Camano Island, Washington.  He and Brian’s music is wonderful—peaceful and joyful at the same time.  I can’t wait to be a part of these special concerts! 

You can check out the tour dates on the Upcoming Shows page of this site.

My musical collaborations with Nate Macy began at the Coffee Cottage in Newberg, Oregon in the Fall of 1996.  At that time, I was just beginning an undergraduate degree in classical music, driving to Portland twice weekly for rehearsal with the Portland Youth Philharmonic and to McMinnville for private violin lessons.  My plate was pretty much heaping full but I had always loved the relaxed creativity of the folk, gospel and blues that I had played with my family and at church as a child…. so when the opportunity arose to play some shows with Nate, I thought it would be great fun.  Together with my brother Bryan, pianist, guitarist and songwriter and our friend Bill Nippolt, drummer and percussionist, we formed a band: the QLO was born.

Flash forward to 2009.  Nate and I both have our separate musical endeavors but decided this Spring to be intentional about renewing some artistic collaboration… and here we have the result.  A live demo—recorded on two microphones on a single track in a small studio space with a sleeping greyhound on the floor for most of the sessions.  We have so much fun playing together and so the purpose of these recordings is to pursue live performance opportunities around the Northwest so that we have an excuse to write, arrange and collaborate some more!

Star of the County Down has always been a favorite melody of mine and many of my violin heroes have recorded it.  It originates from Ireland and as with many fiddle tunes, it is about a beautiful girl. The singer of the song vows to make this “Star of the County Down” his bride no matter how long it takes and what the cost.  In our instrumental version we wanted to capture the many faces of love:  from longing and near despair to flirtation and the thrill of the chase.  Does our poet win his prize in the end?  I’ll leave it up to you to decide. 

Star of the County Down Live

Hello and thanks for stopping by!  Some of you know me from my event music company, Effesenden Music.  Effesenden is still alive and well and if you are looking for customized live music for weddings or corporate events, there is a ton of information available on effesenden.com!

Over the past few years, my alter-ego as a creative performing artist has had the privilege of experiencing so many adventures that I felt it was time to have a separate home for sharing them. 

In this site I’ll keep you up to date on who I’m playing with, what I’m currently writing and arranging, and where I’m performing.  I may even don my music critic hat from time to time to write about the performances of other artists who inspire me! 

Violinist, vocalist, composer and educator, Wendy Goodwin has a musical range that completely overshadows the ordinary musician. Drawing from Celtic, Bluegrass, Classical and Jazz traditions with a hearty mix of storytelling thrown in for good measure Goodwin’s passionate violin playing and soothing vocals have dynamic appeal. 

Performing with her eight-piece band as comfortably as she shares the spotlight with a single guitar or piano, Wendy is a versatile artist. Goodwin regularly appears with other acts throughout the Pacific Northwest, and can also be found playing in other parts of the United States and the world. She has added her unique style to numerous recording projects in a variety of genres.

Wendy is also the founder of Effesenden Music (www.effesenden.com)
and a violinist and founding member of the Muse Chamber Ensemble.