Another Use for Tic Tac Candy

I've never played a string instrument, other than a piano. I was a brass player all the way, a French horn player from sixth grade through my second year of college (where I was a proud member of the concert band, pep band and the Drake University Marching Band). So I've learned all kinds of things as my 11-year-old son, Sebastian, pursues his adventures of playing the viola.

Like: violas play in a different clef - not treble or bass, which I'm familiar with, but alto. That was one of the first things I learned, when he started playing the instrument in fourth grade. It's like one of those eye tricks, to look at the alto clef and try to read the notes. I can't do it.

Another thing that surprised me was finding out that string players don't start out using their bow. They first learn to pluck the strings. Makes sense, but I'd never thought about it before.

And now, as a sixth grader, Seb's starting to learn vibrato. Yesterday, his private lesson teacher, a viola player with the St. Olaf College Orchestra, gave him a plastic box of orange Tic Tacs and an assignment: eat half of the Tic Tacs and then practice shaking the box, as though his fingers are rolling over the strings to create the vibrato effect.

I'm not a big fan of Tic Tacs, but if learning to play a string instrument had involved shaking peanut butter M&Ms in my hand, my school music experience might have taken a different turn.