I was giving my daughter a violin lesson. She must have been all of eight years old at the time. We were working on her bow grip, and I was demonstrating how she should keep her finger knuckles flexible on the bow to produce a big sound. As we explored the idea together, she instinctively used her imagination and said the motion looked like ‘a spider that was being squished’. In that small creative moment, the phrase ‘squish the spider’ was born.
With this phrase, my daughter knew exactly what to do. Indeed, many of my students are visual learners. When an image makes sense to students, they inherently remember the concept and retain the information. If students retain information, they are more likely to practise effectively at home and reach their artistic goals sooner. The challenge for teachers is how to create these images in an interesting and exploratory manner to maximise student learning. The answer comes from intuitive imagination.