3/26/13 Lesson

Warm-ups--Twinkles; Song of the Wind; Go Tell Aunt Rhody
Keep your eyes on your violin to focus.
Make sure the violin arm stays up.

A Major Scale--One Octave
Open A, A1, A2, A3, Open E, E1, E2, E3
Keep curly fingers--no squigglers

Oh Come Little Children
Do all practicing of this song with Mom so you can get all the bowing correct; using the words from the previous post.  When completely correct send video to Ms. Tiffany and move on to May Song.

May Song
A, A, E, E in the long, quick, long, long pattern.  Shoot the proverbial alien at the end of your bow into outer space.  Learn whole song.

In Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian they have several Stradivarius instruments.  Do you remember seeing this when we were there in college? :)--M

3/12/13 Lesson

Review all songs.

Song of the Wind
Keep fingers curly after circle--and the wrist straight.

Oh Come Little Children
Play whole song on E string while mom sings.
Double ups need to be distributed equally on bow.
Finger 3 on E string, clear as a bell on the last line of the song.

2/26/13 Lesson

Violin Lesson

Song of the Wind--circles. First 2 rhythms is slow; last one is fast during the 2 count breaks. All circles come off the E string.  Circles go slow like a snail.   Practice freedom (strumming) circles.  Remember the grasshopper jumping finger 3.  Play it slowly.

Oh Come Little Children--memorize all the words.  Practice sitting on the floor.  Only allow about 1/2 a foot above/below the bow so that the bow does not move all over.

Up down, up down, up is the way we begin.
Up down, up down, up helps our mo-ther to grin.
Up down, up down, up's how we start every line.
Up down, up down, up means you're doing just fine!

The key is to make sure she has a "double up" from the end of one line, to the beginning of the next. To do so, she stops her bow after one up motion, then simply does another up motion.

I am a Child of God--sing the counts. Play slowly. You get to play it in Sacrament Meeting.

2/12/13

No playing when teacher is talking!

Always keep twinkles in the yard otherwise they will sound like sloppy spaghetti.
Bow circles 9 a day on E string.

"Song of the Wind" find the 3 circles at the pauses.

"I am a Child of God"
Hold "God" and "Here" for 3 counts.  "Dear" and "Way" for 4 counts.  Practice the song in halves.  Five or less mistakes.

"Oh Come Little Children"--no violin this week.

Learn the words, but work totally on the bowing.   Practice bowing in the air and then on the tp whisper tube.  It starts with an up bow.

Thanks Tiff!

Lesson from Today

Hi T:

I realized that I wrote down meticulously all the directions from last week and then I lost the paper. This week I wrote it in my notebook and I'm posting it now so we don't lose them.

Grasshopper fingers 9 times daily.  Finger three jumping from A string to E string.
Bow Circles 9 times daily.

"I am a Child of God." phrase ending on an upbow, roll to "And he."

Thanks!  I'm setting an alarm on my phone for next week!

1/8/2013 Lesson

Thank you for the lesson today! S was so excited to play "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" and "Song of the Wind" for you today. She was really sad when her E string suddenly decided it had had enough.  I'm on the look out for a place to purchase strings (the places are  surprisingly few and far between--an hour drive/subway ride and no parking).   It is one of my main goals for the week.  

New Rule for the New Year

If someone is talking the other person does not play.  Student talking = teaching not playing. Teacher talking = student not playing.

Goals of the week:

1. Straight wrist!

2. Hover fingers. Helicopter right above string so you can play faster in the future. 10 "old grey mare is dead" phrases, specifically practicing hover fingers. Flying fingers take more time to move and look sloppy.

3.  10 no-muddy-tips per day, bow circles on A string.  Start at the bottom of the sticker on the bow and make sure the tip of the bow does not end up "in the mud."

Thanks!

Warm Ups

Down bow, stop drop, and up bow practice. Ten of those
Bread song to see if all the bowing is correct.

Twinkles, each one once.
Lightly Row, twice.

Jingle Bells--do each part 10 times.

1. E-E-3-1-A (Jingle all the way) the last bit of the song.  Sing it first with violin rest position.

2. Try singing the song with the regular words and finish with E-E-3-1-A.

3. Break it up into small bits.  2-E Down-up; 2-E-A.  Down-up-down.

Try tightening the sting if you've added a lot of rosin to the bow--it will clarify the tone.

Put a new sticker for finger 1.  Make sure not to take the bow off the string during the song.