Sunday, September 30, 2007

Friday, September 28, 2007

Nora's Sixth Violin Lesson

Practice List To Do, Friday 9/28/2007 Lesson 6 Week 3
I. Identification of All Twinkle Rhythm Variations, Plus Songs as given
II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day
III. Bow MHD, HB on left shoulder while singing the rhythm
IV. Violin Sets 6 times a day
V. Rosin Bow before practice
VI. “Dessert” Play MHD (and possibly add HB) on E string within yellow tape on bow
VII. Wipe violin bridge area with hankie before putting away

I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations, Plus:

Begin identifying these songs by their names during listening or in listening part of practice time:
Lightly Row, Song of the Wind

For Rhythm Identification, Practice Strategies:
1. Hear the first line on the violin
2. Hear the rhythm on the violin
3. Feel arm rub of rhythm (elbow to wrist)
4. See rhythm sliced in air (precise vertical hand movements)
5. Hear rhythm clapped by adult
6. Clap with parent’s hands (parent clap hers, she clap parent’s hands)
7. Handshake with parent * do this one a bit more this week
8. Handshake Twinkle Twinkle Little S-l-o-w
9. Stomp
10. Hand clap

Always singing the rhythm words on pitch starting on A. Mr. S played rhythms on A string of Nora’s violin and did a handshake with her and Nora identified most rhythms. Two problems with Washington and she got one OK, and one difficulty with “My name (pause) is Nora” and he wants her to call the rhythm by this name exactly.

II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day
1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees
3. Parent holds bow (horizontal or vertical)
4. Nora places fingers hanging curved over stick, soft hand, fingers spaced with air between each one, index on silver, middle finger across from bumpy thumb
5. Nora places bumpy thumb touching 1/2 silver and ½ hair
6. Parent lets go and Nora holds bow so that tip points straight up
7. Parent points very close to tip (*his finger seemed to actually touch the bow sometimes in curve of tip sometimes on white tip)
8. Nora looks at tip for count down from 10 for 10 full seconds

Nora had a lovely soft bow grip, guided by Mr. S, and it seemed that she is starting to do more of the actual hand set by herself.

III. Bow Practice MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm
New Add HB rhythm

The example bowing should be fluid, legato type bow strokes not staccato or stopped.

Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and nicely back and straight and should not twist, or raise, or move forward

Parent can give reminders to be “soft.” Try to place bow so that arm is “square” and her bow stroke should be with the arm opening with movement at the elbow joint rather than moving the arm backward or out from the shoulder joint. Placing the bow at the bottom point of the yellow tape helps Nora’s arm to form a sort of square, which will encourage opening at the elbow joint.

In the observation of the lesson before Nora’s he said that sometimes a toilet paper or paper towel cardboard roll can be used as a guide for the bow to keep the bow on the shoulder and going in a straight line.

IV. Violin Practice Sets 6 times per day
1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees
3. Left arm on softly waist
4. Look straight ahead
5. Parent moves violin button with a “committed movement” directly to the spot on the left side of Nora’s neck where you can imagine that a line could be extended down from a left earring.
a. New: Today he showed that he/we could use our 4th and 5th fingers of our right hand to gently encourage her left shoulder to be relaxed and down as he used his thumb and first finger to hold the violin be the ribs for the button placement at the side of her neck
6. Turn head (to left)
7. Drop head onto violin (he does not say “chin”)
8. Violin goes to sleep on your thumb pillow (parent hand on violin ribs will be holding violin and blocking left arm from going too far)
9. Parent lets go of violin and holds own moving pointer finger up or wiggled fingers up at or just to the left of the scroll
10. Nora should look at finger (or scroll) for a count down from 10
11. Parent takes away the violin by scroll

At the lesson Mr S had one violin set that just was not working so he told Nora that he would need to do it over and they did it again and it went well. At home we should not be afraid to call a “do over” when it is needed. He never said anything about nose lining up with the scroll or the nose scroll left foot alignment.

Behavior Issues did not derail lesson:
At this point in the lesson Nora got wiggly and Mr. S asked her to get her wiggles out. Nora continued to wiggle, in fact she may have misunderstood him, and she was really working to get her wiggles out, but her method entailed a lot more wiggling. Finally he said that it would be a shame if she had to do her thank you bow before she had learned what she needed to in her lesson. After this remark, she immediately paid attention and followed his directions again. At one other point in the lesson he gave her a 5 count to get on her green feet, she complied and he complemented her. Earlier in this lesson Nora was getting so caught up in fingering her hair that Mima quickly put in an extra hair band to catch the hair at the back of her head. Since Nora does love to absently stroke or gently pull her hair, Mima already had put in two barrettes and a hair band. The hair problem was immediately solved with the extra hair band and she never fussed with her hair again.

Mr S used his own vertical hand in front of his own nose to have the student in the lesson before Nora look straight ahead. He did not seem to need to use any extra motions at Nora’s lesson as she followed the steps without needing much outside assistance. This of course can change from session to session and at this point so it is good to see his support strategies for times when Nora may be having more trouble concentrating on her violin set.

Mr. S explained in the observation lesson that he does not call this a violin “hold” but rather a violin “set”. He says this is to try to get the child to think “soft” rather than to think about holding something (tightly).

Mr. S said that we should help Nora to have shoulders open and back (open sternum up) and have shoulders relaxed and down. He never used the word “relaxed” with Nora. The only descriptive word he used for her was “soft” and he did not by words ask her to change this body position. He guided her with his hands.

Mr. S said that we could isolate any of these steps for individual practice. For example the head in the middle and the head turn to the left can be isolated for individual practice.

V. Rosin Bow Procedure: Rosin each day before practice
1. hold rosin in left hand
2. bow in right hand (??? Bow grip or just hold frog?)
3. place bow on rosin track
4. use whole bow strokes frog to tip
5. do 7 strokes: say the name of the number (1-7) on down stroke example: “one”, and say the “and” on the up stroke… “one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and”
6. parent may guide both left and right hands as needed
7. lightly wipe off violin bridge area with light handkerchief at the end of practice

VI. “Dessert” is MHD played on E string at yellow tape marked on Bow Stick
New: Rosining the bow is step # 1 and cleaning the violin is last
1. New: Rosin Bow *see notes below
2. Green Fee
3. Soft knees
4. Right Bow hand set with parent
5. Left arm softly across waist
6. Violin set with parent
7. Parent maintains grasp on scroll of violin
8. Parent guide bow by screw to place on E string at lowest part of yellow tape
9. My Turn – parent moves bow downward to begin MHD, keeping bow stroke within yellow, using a smooth relaxed stroke (not staccato), and using left hand to guide Nora’s right elbow joint to promote opening at elbow rather than moving upper arm backward.
Your Turn: parent lets go of screw but continues to guide right elbow
10. New: Nora is to try to stay within the yellow tape bow playground area
11. New: Use light handkerchief to lightly wipe off strings and fingerboard and violin so that rosin does not mar the finish of the violin

VII. Practice Music Reading and Pitch Training
Mr. S did Nora’s violin music reading cards and asked her to sing the name of each pitch (A,E, F#) as she saw the card presented. She sang these notes, especially the f# better this week. He said he will wait before introducing an additional note card.

New Note Card Game:
1. Mix note cards up and place on the floor face up with all cards showing
2. Parent names a note (may give hand sign to assist if needed)
3. Nora is to first sing the pitch of the note as she names it
4. Then she finds the note card with the note on the staff

Extra Notes:
He was happy to hear that this week with the “dessert” incentive, we ended a few of our practices with “Nora really wanting more”. We saved the extra “desserts” for doing with Mommy and Daddy in the evening.

Nora did a beautiful job of following the set up procedure for playing her violin MHD and Mr S seemed very happy with her playing as I hope you can see in the few video clips I took of this part of the lesson. At times during this playing part of the lesson Nora critiqued both her MHD and his MHD trials. Nora said “that doesn’t sound very good” and he told her very earnestly, maybe you can do better, and she really tried.

He said that her bow and violin sets and playing were coming along very nicely. He even said we could try a “dessert” HB if the opportunity presented itself. He was happy to hear that we are practicing for several short times a day and he noted that Mr. Suzuki had recommended three to four short practices a day “with joy”.

He also did the hand signals for her to sing A (hand at chin) E (hand at top of head) and F# (hand over head).

End of Lesson:
When he was finished with the lesson he asked Nora to do the goodbye bow.
Nora again did this beautifully “Thank you for teaching me Mr. S”.

She had a slight hesitation on the work “teaching” and Mima told him that Nora may need a few seconds to get the right wording since she bows to Mima at the beginning of our practices and tells me she is ready to work. Mima has found that it is nearly useless for her to begin a practice session before her grandchild has committed to the practice. It has been better to wait until another time in the day to try again than to begin the practice with a child who is not ready to follow direction and work. Malena and Pablo use the word “learn”, but Nora, who is currently in Montessori preschool, preferred the word “work”. Mr S told us that some teachers actually use this method to begin the lesson and he thought it was a good idea for practice, especially when I had the luxury of finding another time in the day.

Additional:
Nora had a special observer today, Mimi, her beloved nanny who took care of her from 10 months of age to three and a half. Mimi was so proud of her and Nora did beautifully with Mimi watching. Nora was a bit exuberant today as she bounded down the staircases around the outside of the lesson house to get to the door. With the slippery leaves from the rain last night, it was just luck and her incredible agility that kept her upright. Grandma Mima will have to be firmer about how to do slow walking while holding the violin and negotiating stairs. It was great to have Mimi, because Mima accidentally left Nora’s foot chart in the trunk of the car (where it is safe from water spills), and Mimi climbed back up all the stairs to retrieve the chart from the car. If we have Mimi again or bring another observer Mima should remember to tell them not to speak to Nora or attempt to help her, cue her or control her behavior, unless requested to do so by the teacher. Mimi was a wonderfully admitting and quiet observer, but just once she could not help herself from telling Nora that she should have been on the “red” not the “green” feet on her foot chart. Also, observers will need to be ready to shed their shoes at the door of the lobby.

Before the picnic lunch we stopped a music store in a nearby shopping center and bought a small square rosin (in wood and not cloth) that may work for Nora. Neither she nor Mr S were happy with the two broken rosin cakes left in her case by her cousins. But he nay prefer the rosin in cloth, we will have to see. We had a great picnic lunch and lots of watermelon Nora had a great time showing Mimi all of her favorite things in the very large Clemyjontri Playground. She went in the maze and the simulated rock climbing wall and lots of slides and the tire swing and she showed us how she can now do the stepping stones by herself! We listed to the Pooh tape in the way home and she did not even mind that we were stuck in traffic on 495. Perhaps Mima will try route 270 next Friday if the split to 495 seems backed up.

In the evening Nora practiced with her mommy Lisa. She did rhythms, pitch singing, the bow song, dynamics (soft pianissimo to loud fortissimo) and the violin parts. Lisa helped Nora with the hand off of the violin to an adult and with her “thank you” to get the violin back after it is tuned. She did one lovely “dessert” MHD. She was so proud to show Daddy and Grandpa Jim that she can play a rhythm on the open E string on her own violin. As usual, she insisted that she get her own violin out beginning with the two side zippers fully zipped and the Velcro closed.

We are all ready to go to the early morning group class in Virginia. Bagels and croissants are standard fare because this Saturday morning breakfast is a grab and go situation.

We still have the problem of the broken bow holder in the case, but this may not be the weekend for Grandpa Jim to tackle this problem as he and Mima are going to North Carolina for the weekend.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Nora's Fifth Violin Lesson

Practice List To Do, Tuesday 9/25/2007 Lesson 5 Week 3

I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations: new add My Name ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ and Washington, Washington
II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day
III. Bow MHD, HB on left shoulder while singing the rhythm
IV. Violin “sets” 6 times a day
V. “Dessert” play MHD on E string within yellow tape on bow


I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations:
MHD (Mississippi Hot Dog)
HB (Huckleberry, Huckleberry)
Twinkle Theme “Twinkle, Twinkle Little S-l-o-w”
SBB (Stop Big Bow, Stop Bog Bow)

New: “My name ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ is”

New: (triplets) Washington, Washington

For Rhythm Identification, Practice Strategies:
1. Hear the first line on the violin
2. Hear the rhythm on the violin
3. Feel arm rub of rhythm (elbow to wrist)
4. See rhythm sliced in air (precise vertical hand movements)
5. Hear rhythm clapped by adult
6. Clap with parent’s hands (parent clap hers, she clap parent’s hands)
7. Handshake with parent
8. Handshake Twinkle, Twinkle Little S-l-o-w
9. Stomp
10. Hand clap
11. Finger tracing on rhythm lines while singing rhythm words

Always singing the rhythm’s words.

Mr. S did clapping, arm rub slicing and violin playing. Nora did quite well, but had the most trouble with the first lines of the variations violin played. Of 16 presented variations, she missed 2 clapped (SBB MHD), one arm rub (HB) and 2 played on the violin

Mr. S added the new rhythms by first clapping Nora’s hands for her and then having her clap Mima’s hands. He also rubbed the rhythms on her right arm.
The hand clap for “My name is ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ … required her to do an action on the ‘shh’: ‘shh’=place her hands either on her own temples on the sides of her head or when clapping Mima’s hands clap Mima’s hands as Nora is holding them up to the sides of Mima’s head. Nora was very enthusiastic about clapping Mima’s hands to hit the sides of her head every time the ‘shh’ came up in this variation.

Mr. S cautioned that Nora may confuse the Washington rhythm with the Huckleberry rhythm. He thinks she will learn the “My name ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’” variation more easily.

II. Bow Practice Sets 3-5 times per day
1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees
3. Parent holds bow (horizontal or vertical)
4. Nora places fingers hanging curved over stick, soft hand, fingers spaced with air between each one, index on silver, middle finger across from bumpy thumb
5. Nora places bumpy thumb touching 1/2 silver and ½ hair
6. Parent lets go and Nora holds bow so that tip points straight up
7. Parent points very close to tip – Nora looks at tip
8. Nora looks at tip for count down from 10 for 10 full seconds

Nora had a lovely soft bow grip, guided by Mr S
· Note from observation of previous lesson: If the bow grip is too stiff or not right it is better to start over. This way the student learns to make a soft bow hold the first time they touch the bow, rather than learning to adjust a tight bow grip to be softer.
· Count down includes a silent (or articulated) beat between each number, e.g. “one-and two-and”, or “one (tongue cluck) two (tongue cluck).”

III. Bow Practice MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm
New Add HB rhythm
1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees
3. Nora sets a bow grip with bow horizontal, parent holding stick
4. Nora puts her Left arm across her tummy
5. Parent still holding screw of bow, Nora places bow on her left shoulder (hair down)
6. Parent’s left finger tips gently touch around Nora’s right elbow joint
7. Parent, guiding Nora’s bow by the screw, says “My Turn”, and then begins singing on A one rhythm beginning a down bow stroke
8. Parent rhythmically says “Your Turn” and may still need to lightly guide screw of the bow, and Nora sings MHD or HB rhythm and opens her elbow joint to make the 1st down bow and continues for the one rhythm.
9. Parent’s left finger tips are still gently enclosing Nora’s right elbow to help guide her stroke.
10. Rhythmic exercise: “My Turn” MHD (or HB) “Your Turn” MHD (or HB) “My Turn” MHD (or HB) “Your Turn” MHD (or HB)

Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and nicely back and straight and should not twist, or raise, or move forward

Parent can give reminders to be “soft.” Mr. S used his fingers to gently touch around/ enclose Nora’s entire elbow joint rather than to just touch it gently from the front to guide the bow stroke so that the arm opens with movement at the elbow joint rather than moving the arm from the shoulder joint.

IV. Violin practice “sets” 6 times per day
1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees
3. Left arm on softly waist
4. Look straight ahead
5. Parent moves violin button with a “committed movement” directly to the spot on the left side of Nora’s neck where you can imagine that a line could be extended down from a left earring.
6. Turn head (to left)
7. Drop head onto violin
8. Violin goes to sleep on your thumb pillow (parent hand on violin ribs will be holding violin and blocking left arm from going too far)
9. Parent lets go of violin and holds own moving pointer finger up or wiggled fingers up at or just to the left of the scroll
10. Nora should look at finger for a count down from 10
11. Parent takes away the violin by scroll

Mr. S said it would probably be months before Nora would be doing this without adult assistance. He said this is his standard schedule. He said that when a student corrects where the violin is placed and puts it in a better position it is time to consider having that student place their own violin.

Mr. S said that we should help Nora to have shoulders open and back (open sternum up) and have shoulders relaxed and down. He never used the word “relaxed” with Nora. The only descriptive word he used for her was “soft” and he did not give verbal directions to ask her to change this body position. He guided her with his hands.

Mr. S said that we could isolate any of these steps for individual practice.
For example the head in the middle and the head turn to the left can be isolated for individual practice.

Count down is the same as above with a beat left between the numbers so it would be a full 10 seconds.

V. “Dessert”: MHD played on E string at yellow tape marked on Bow Stick
1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees
3. Right Bow hand set with parent
4. Left arm on softly waist
5. Violin set with parent
6. Parent maintains grasp on scroll of violin
7. Parent guide bow by screw to place on E string at lowest part of yellow tape
8. “My Turn”: parent moves bow downward to begin MHD, keeping bow stroke within yellow and using left hand to guide Nora’s right elbow joint to promote opening at elbow rather than moving upper arm backward. “Your Turn”: parent lets go of screw but continues to guide right elbow

The yellow tape is the bow’s “playground.”
Mr. S said this was “dessert” after a good violin practice! He was as excited as Nora when she played her first violin notes. He said that her bow and violin sets were coming along very nicely.

Practice Music Reading and Pitch Training
Mr. S did Nora’s violin music reading cards and asked her to sing the name of each pitch (A,E, F#) as she saw the card presented. She will need help with a pitch to match at this point. She needed most help with F# as often she sang this as a lower note than E and sometimes even A.

He also did the hand signals for her to sing A (hand at chin) E (hand at top of head) and F# (hand over head).

Additional
I am sorry to say that we missed a 5 PM group class last Friday (along with one of Ms C’s new students). We need to go to Friday classes marked with an “S” on the schedule.

At one point in the lesson Mr. S mused aloud that maybe he would need to give Nora a 5 count to get back on her green feet. She was dropping down to a sit or half lie position. After this she got up fairly fast when he asked her to. He ignored when she was pulling her hair into her mouth with her hand as she was answering rhythm questions. Toward the end of the lesson, Mr S told her that there was just one more thing she needed to do before he spoke with me. He said that letting Nora know how many of what things she needs to do so that she will know that the practice will not go on “forever” at least in her mind. When he was finished demonstrating the bowing on the E string with me, he asked Nora to come over and do the goodbye bow. Nora did this beautifully, saying, “Thank you for teaching me Mr. S”

Nora spontaneously misidentified “Long Long Ago” as “Allegro” when we were listening to the Suzuki Volume 1 CD in the car in the way to the lesson. On two previous occasions she correctly identified “Allegro.”

We had a nice picnic lunch and even saw a few bees for the first time, but they were no problem. Nora had a great time running, climbing and playing in the Clemyjontri Playground. She was very observant and careful with the younger toddlers when sharing equipment. It was summer weather, and again sunscreen was needed. She enjoyed listening to the story of Pooh’s Birthday on the car ride home.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Nora's Fourth Violin Lesson

Practice List To Do, Tuesday 9/21/2007 Lesson 4 Week 2
I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations: new add SBB
II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day
III. Bow MHD & (new add HB) on left shoulder while singing the rhythm
IV. Violin Sets 6 times a day

I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations:
MHD (Mississippi Hot Dog)
HB (Huckleberry Huckleberry)
Twinkle Theme “Twinkle Twinkle Little S-l-o-w”
SBB (Stop Big Bow Stop Bog Bow)

For Rhythm Identification, Practice Strategies:
1. Hear the first line on the violin
2. Hear the rhythm on the violin
3. Feel arm rub of rhythm (elbow to wrist)
4. See rhythm sliced in air (precise vertical hand movements)
5. Hear rhythm clapped by adult
6. Clap with parent’s hands (parent clap hers, she clap parent’s hands)
7. Handshake with parent
8. Handshake Twinkle Twinkle Little S-l-o-w
9. Stomp
10. Hand clap
11. Finger tracing on rhythm lines while singing rhythm words

Always singing the rhythm words.
Mr. S added the SBB rhythm by first clapping Nora’s hands for her and then rubbing the rhythm on her right arm.
She correctly identified 10 trials in this order: MHD, HB, MHD, Theme, HB, MHD, HB (with just a slight MHD hesitation first), MHD, HB, MHD. He used clapping, rubbing and slicing today, he did not use his violin, he did not repeat the same rhythm twice.
When he threw in the new SBB, she did not get it correct (on 2 trials), but she was able to go back and identify trials with MHD and HB. He smiled at Nora and said that said had done very nice work on her rhythms! And he turned to me and smiled and said the same thing to me! He rarely if ever has addressed me during Nora’s portion of the lesson.


II. Bow Practice Sets 3-5 times per day
1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees (*added)
3. Parent holds bow horizontal
4. Nora places fingers hanging curved over stick, soft hand, fingers spaced with air between each one, index on silver, middle finger across from bumpy thumb
5. Nora places bumpy thumb touching 1/2 silver and ½ hair
6. Parent lets go and Nora turns bow so that tip points straight up
7. Parent points very close to tip
8. New count down from 10
· note from observation of previous lesson: If the bow grip is too stiff or not right it is better to start over. Do the right hand placement over, rather than try to adjust a too squeezed or tight grip to become more relaxed. This way the student learns to make a soft bow hold the first time they touch the bow, rather than learning to adjust a tight bow grip to be softer.
· Count down includes a silent (or articulated) beat between each number, ie one (and) two (and) … one (tongue kluck) two (tongue kluck)

III. Bow Practice MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm
New Add HB rhythm
1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees
3. Nora sets a bow grip with bow horizontal, parent holding stick
4. Nora puts her Left arm across her tummy
5. Parent still holding screw of bow, Nora places bow on her left shoulder (hair down)
6. Parent’s left finger tips gently touch around Nora’s right elbow joint
7. Parent, guiding Nora’s bow by the screw, says “My Turn”, and then begins saying one rhythm beginning a down bow stroke
8. Parent rhythmically says “Your Turn” and may still need to lightly guide screw of the bow, and Nora says MHD or HB and opens her elbow joint to make the 1st down bow and continues for the one rhythm.
9. Parent’s left finger tips are still gently enclosing Nora’s right elbow to help guide her stroke.
10. Rhythmic exercise: “My Turn” MHD (or HB) “Your Turn” MHD (or HB) “My Turn” MHD (or HB) “Your Turn” MHD (or HB)

Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and nicely back and straight and should not twist, or raise, or move forward

Parent can give reminders to be “soft.”
Mr. S used his fingers to gently touch around/ enclose Nora’s entire elbow joint rather than to just touch it gently from the front to guide the bow stroke so that the arm opens with movement at the elbow joint rather than moving the arm from the shoulder joint.

IV. Violin Practice Sets 6 times per day
(Nora’s 7 steps in purple)

1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees
3. Parent swings or shakes Nora’s left arm softly (parent looking for relaxed left arm and shoulder) and places it gently across waist area
4. Parent holds violin in right hand by ribs (fingers on curved waist part, strings upward, chinrest toward Nora)
5. Mima/Mommy holds own left pointer finger straight up directly in front of Nora’s face, approximately a foot away and says “look straight ahead at my finger” and Nora keeps her head in midline and looks straight ahead
6. Parent moves violin button with a “committed movement” directly to the spot on the left side of Nora’s neck where you can imagine that a line could be extended down from an long dangling left earring.
a. Do not move violin around on Nora’s neck. If parent does not place violin properly the first time, start this step over again. Parent gets one committed try.
7. Say “turn your head” and Nora turns her head to the left (she should not twist her trunk, shoulders remain straight forward, down and back)
8. Say “drop your head” (watch that her shoulders do not go up)
9. Say, bring your arm up and “let the violin go to sleep on your thumb” (parent hand on violin ribs will be holding violin and blocking left arm from going too far)
10. Parent lets go of violin and holds own moving pointer finger up or wiggled fingers up just to the left of the scroll
11. Nora should look at finger for a count down from 10
12. Parent takes the violin by scroll



Mima and Nora and Mr. S held their right hands up in the air and took a pledge:
"Nora’s violin will only be set by Mima, Mommy, Daddy, Mr. S or Ms. C, and not by Nora by herself."

M.r S said it would probably be months before Nora would be doing this without adult assistance. He said this is his standard schedule.

Mr. S said that we should help Nora to have shoulders open and back (open sternum up) and have shoulders relaxed and down. He never used the word “relaxed” with Nora. The only descriptive word he used for her was “soft” and he did not by words ask her to change this body position. He guided her with his hands. On the last violin set he did he used his hand to keep her head in midline before she was supposed to turn her head to the left.

Mr. S said that we could isolate any of these steps for individual practice.
For example the head in the middle and the head turn to the left can be isolated for individual practice.

Mr. S used 2 red Sally’s cosmetic sponges and used a red and a green rubber band (Nora’s color choices) to affix the sponges to the back of her violin. He said that we should always bring extra sponges as this sponge arrangement changes as she grows, sometimes week by week.

Count down is the same as above with a beat left between the numbers so it would be a full 10 seconds.

Practice Music Reading
Mr. S said that we could remind him and he will add one more note to our note card set for our music reading practice.

Additional
Nora did a beautiful bow to Mr. S at the end of the lesson and we probably should practice her crossed position hand off of the violin and bow to Mr S as she is now doing this at the beginning of the lesson.

· Mr. S asked Mima to please bring her violin to the next lesson as it is easier for him to show me on a larger violin. He has been using Nora’s violin with Mima for the demonstration part of the lesson. He said that he would rather not use his own for demonstration.

4 cars were in the driveway and Mima got to park on the street!
Nora left her case in the waiting room and walked into the lesson room carrying her own violin. She sat on the red observation chair, and Mima helped her put her violin down next her and helped her to leave it quietly alone.
Back in the waiting room after the lesson, Nora took more than 15 minutes to put her own shoes on after the lesson….. She saw one of Ms. C’s cats and said “I’m stupefied about that cat. That cat can not come out.”
Back up at the car on the street, we met the neighbor and his little friendly dog named Gollie, and Nora made good friends with the dog and the neighbor!

Nora again spontaneously identified “Allegro” when we were listening to the Suzuki Volume 1 CD in the car in the way to the lesson. She did this last week as well.

Nora had a great time running, climbing and playing in the Clemyjontri Playground. It was summer weather and sunscreen was needed. She enjoyed listening to Malena and Pablo’s old Winnie the Pooh story tapes on the way home. Today it was the story of Piglet entirely surrounded by water.

When Keary came home, Nora did one very nice violin set with Mima for him. After dinner she was too tired to practice and she was asleep at 8 PM. She will do a few more violin sets on Saturday morning with Lisa and Mima.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Nora’s 3rd Violin Lesson

Practice List To Do, Tuesday 9/18/2007
I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations
II. Practice Twinkle S-l-o-w
III. Bow Practice Sets 3-5 times per day
IV. New for Practice: Bow MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm

I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations:
MHD (Mississippi Hot Dog)
HB (Huckleberry Huckleberry
Twinkle Theme “Twinkle Twinkle Little S-l-o-w” (new)

For Rhythm Identification Practice, Pick from These Options:
1. Hear the first line on the violin
2. Hear the rhythm on the violin
3. Feel arm rub of rhythm (elbow to wrist)
4. See rhythm sliced in air (precise vertical hand movements)
5. Clap with parent’s hands
6. Handshake with parent
7. Stomp
8. Hear and see hand clap
9. Finger tracing on rhythm lines while singing rhythm words

Always singing the rhythm words. Mr S said to Nora to remember that: “MHD has stops” and “HB keeps moving.” Mr. S played MHD and HB on his violin for Nora to identify; he also rubbed the rhythms on her arm and “sliced” (conducted with precise vertical hand movements) them in the air to help her identify these 2 rhythms. Nora correctly got about 6 out of 10, and she seemed to do best with the “sliced” versions and had the most difficulty with the ones played on the violin. After thinking for almost a minute she said “Twinkle” when Mr. S added the Twinkle Theme to her original 2 rhythms. She said “I don’t know” just one time at this lesson.

II. Practice Twinkle S-l-o-w
1. Green Feet
2. Handshake position with partner, Nora to begin with her arm above her nose
3. Sing words with the arm movement (start on ‘A”)
4. Partner must make sure last note and arm mvt is s-l-o-w

“Twinkle twinkle little s-l-o-w
How I wonder what you s-l-o-w
Up above the sky so s-l-o-w
Like a diamond in the s-l-o-w
Twinkle twinkle little s-l-o-w
How I wonder what you s-l-o-w”

Nora mostly looked at the clock in the studio when doing this exercise at the lesson.

III. Bow Practice Sets 3-5 times per day
1. Green Feet
2. Mima holds bow horizontal
3. Nora places fingers hanging curved over stick, soft hand, fingers spaced with air between each one, index on silver, middle finger across from thumb
4. Nora places bumpy thumb touching silver and hair
5. Mima lets go and Nora turns bow so that tip points straight up
6. Mima points very close to tip
7. New count down from 10

Mr. S’s finger was so close to Nora’s bow tip it seemed that it was almost touching the tip at times! Do these 3-5 times a day and count down from 10 (increased from 5).

IV. New for Practice: Bow MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm
1. Green Feet
2. Soft knees
3. Nora sets a bow grip with bow horizontal, Mima holding stick
4. Nora puts her Left arm across her tummy
5. Mima still holding screw of bow, Nora places bow on her left shoulder (hair down)
6. Mima’s left finger tips gently touch Nora’s right elbow
7. Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and should not twist
8. Mima, guiding Nora’s bow by the screw, says “My Turn”, and then begins saying one MHD beginning a down bow stroke
9. Mima rhythmically says “Your Turn” and lets go of the screw of the bow, and Nora says MHD and opens her elbow joint to make the 1st down bow and continues for the one MHD.
10. Mima’s left finger tips are still gently touching Nora’s right elbow to help guide her stroke.
11. Rhythmic exercise: “My Turn” MHD “Your Turn” MHD “My Turn” MHD “Your Turn MHD”

Mima’s left finger tips gently touch Nora’s right elbow to make sure elbow joint is opening and closing on Nora’s bow strokes and to help prevent upper arm outward/backward movement. Opening and closing Nora’s elbow joint by moving the bow as it rides on her shoulder. Mr. S used an “A” pitch for his MHD and his advice for this exercise was to give reminders to be “soft.” He did not correct for pitch on this exercise.

Introduction to Music Reading
Three Index cards: Mr. S drew and named the following: Staff (5 parallel lines); Treble Clef (Mima saw that it curls around the G note staff line); Open A whole note “A”; Open E whole note “E”; F# whole note (he told Nora the # comes before the note, but we say “F#”).

Additional Homework
· Mr. S said to make many index cards of each of these 3 notes so that it would be easy to flip through them in repetition.
· Mr. S said that we should bring (“tons”) of red cosmetic sponges to our next lesson. He said we could get these from “Sally’s Beauty Supply” or maybe a pharmacy. We will need these to “set” the violin.

At the previous lesson Mr. S briefly showed us a metronome that gave note pitches and asked if we had one. Mima said she would find out from Lisa, and showed him her pitch pipe (A-E-D-G), and he said that the pitch pipe would be fine for now. Nora carried her own violin and walked carefully up and down the outdoor stairs without running, and Mima backed out of the steeply sloped driveway that was filled with 4 cars, one parked right next to hers!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Nora’s 2nd Violin Lesson

A lesson with Mr. S at C's studio Friday Sept 14th 11:45 AM

Nora had another great lesson! Really, her soft bow grip is really wonderful. She was hungry when I picked her up from Montessori preschool so she pretty much had lunch while sitting in her car seat as we drove to Virginia (cheese sticks, 2 small croissants, fruit, and drinkable yogurt).

She carried the little green violin case down the winding wooden staircase at a breakneck speed in her eagerness to get to the lesson. Somehow she was able to navigate the stairway with a bobble here and but were no incidents or mishaps, coming or going!

I think I need to make RULE – NO RUNNING WITH THE VIOLIN!!

We got to the lesson a bit early so after we took off our shoes we entered the teaching room where Mr. S said he would be teaching a beginner lesson. Nora sat in the red “observer” chair and I sat on the floor next to her. A young girl, (4 or 5 years?) was sitting on a small piece of poster board in front of Mr. S. He was singing the song about the violin parts to her and she was giving him her full attention, but not speaking the answers to him. As she and I had practiced, Nora, kept quiet in her observation role, even though she knew the answers the teacher wanted to hear. At one point Mima had to leave the room (to cough, poor Mima had a bad cold) and Nora stayed in the room to observe the lesson on her own!

At the end of the observation, Ms. R came into the room to greet the new student, named L and she chatted outside the door with L's mom, who was a former student of ___’s for several years when she was a small child. L’s grandma was also at the lesson and Mr. S commented that he had two multi-generation Suzuki families studying with him that day! Ms. R reentered the room the greet Nora especially and Mr. S noted that Nora was the student who had observed the group class for two years before beginning lessons this week. Ms. R told both Mima and L’s mom that we absolutely must double park in the student car slots in the driveway to make a total of 4 cars on the steeply sloped driveway. She also told us that for the group class tomorrow, everyone must remove shoes and there would be no coffee, drinks or food allowed in the room (a church).

THE 2nd LESSON

Mr. S started by drawing around Nora’s “red feet” (feet together rest position) and her “green feet” (violin play position). He did this with a great deal of care and Nora stood very still for the whole process. Several times (Mima took a few photos, they seemed to have a similar expressions in 2 pictures, one showed concentration and the other glee!)

He folded the poster board in half so that just the half with her foot chart was showing for the lesson. He said she would use the fully opened cart for group class, and he asked us to draw a place for her bow (closest to her) and her violin a bit farther away on the chart for the group class Saturday morning. He also said that Nora could color in the red and green feet when she had time at home.

Practice quickly and accurately moving feet to the “red” / “rest” closed feet together position versus the “green” or “play” open toe outward position. Mr. S uses both terms and Nora tries NOT to get TRICKED by Mr. S. When Mr. S said to Nora, “I tricked you!” she just continued playing the game with him and tried again! Mr. S said that during lessons with him, Nora will learn to STAY ON the GREEN FEET!

RHYTHMS
Mr. S clapped and played rhythms on the violin, and asked Nora to identify them. She got the first one, “Mississippi Hot Dog” correct, but after that her answers were varied, and she even sometimes said “Mississippi Hot Dog” when it was one of the other 2 rhythms (“Huckleberry Huckleberry”, and “STOP Big Bow STOP Big Bow”). Although it seemed Nora did have an emerging understanding of “Mississippi Hot Dog” it was apparent that this was not consistently easy for her since she sometimes misidentified other rhythms as this first variation.
Nora seems (as discussed by Lisa and Mima) to be having difficulty with two separate aspects of the rhythm naming activity really knowing the actual rhythms 100 % cold being able to concentrate for more than two queries before making mistakes that she might not have made if the question posed was the first in the set.

Mr. S explained that Nora seemed to have less difficulty with left brain activities (such as naming the parts of the violin and recalling what he said last week almost verbatim) and more difficulty with right brain (visual, kinesthetic, music) activities such as the twinkle rhythm variations. He explained that he wanted her to learn the rhythms with her right brain, even if it took her longer to do so. This means, he said that we should NOT point out that “Huckleberry” is in groups of 4, for example. We should avoid using the language and number side of the brain to memorize the rhythms. She must FEEL the rhythms with her “music” right brain.
Mr. S eventually suggested that we consider doing just 2 rhythms for the next lesson, “Mississippi HOT DOG” and one other. (Nora eventually chose “Huckleberry Huckleberry”)

TWINKLE VARIATION RHYTHM PRACTICE LESSON 2
Do first 2 Rhythms at home (Mississippi Hot Dog and Huckleberry)
Do LOTS of visual and kinesthetic ways, repetition needed

STOMPING RHYTHMS & SING
1.STOMPING: BEGIN with Just “HOT” “DOG”
Stay ON Chart
Stomp rhythms WITH ME and SAY IT!
“HOT” “DOG” (AFTER when she gets that add…..)
“Mississippi” (AFTER she gets that try “Huckleberry”

FINGER TRACE RHYTHMS and sing
2. FINGER TRACING on zig zag lines drawn by Mr S on paper in his “WHAT” book to represent rhythms.
a. Nora was told to trace along the line as she sings the rhythm to herself exactly as the rhythm is given by Mr. S or Mima or Mom – he said that Nora should NOT GO TOO FAST!!!
b. Mr. S had her look at the (zig zag scribble line) drawings of the twinkle variations and he played a variation on the violin (Mississippi Hot Dog) and asked her to use the drawings to help her identify to variation. Nora correctly pointed to the first line drawing.
CLAP RHYTHMS and sing
TAP RHYTHMS and sing
ALTERNATE HANDS ON CHEEKS and sing
ON NOSE! And sing
SLAP RHYTHM ON KNEES and sing
*ALWAYS STAY ON GREEN FEET ON CHART WHEN DOING RHYTHMS WITH MR S IN LESSON

2nd Lesson Singing notes
Mr. S played open A on the violin and asked her “what’s this?” and Nora said “I really don’t know”. He asked her sing the “A” and she did it beautifully! He played open E string and asked her “what is this?” she correctly said “E” and then she named all the strings E A D G (he did not respond to this additional information)

** A and E LISTENING Practice – don’t let Mr. S trick you!
He told her to stay on the GREEN FEET of the Chart
He played open A and open E variously and asked her “what is this?”
Nora stayed generally on the chart area with her fingers in her mouth and hair some of the time as she sometimes tried to answer

NAMING VIOLIN PARTS (not part of daily home practice)
Toward the end of the lesson, Mr. S reviewed the parts of the violin with Nora and she answered correctly and quickly each time for each detail. She gave him back verbatim his comment from the first lesson that seemed to intrigue her about using the pegs only if the violin is very out of tune. He nodded quietly. When they did “chin rest” she noted that hers was black while his was brown and she made a similar contrast statement in terms of bigger (his) and smaller (hers), Mr. S did not comment or react to these additions. Nora added an additional part (the “perfling” (spelling?)) and Mr. S did smile and comment that he did not recall telling her about that (line around the outer edge on the face of the violin) although he said she was perfectly correct.

BOW HOLD


Mr. S helped her to find her bow hold by asking her to rest/ soft hang her right fingers on his left index finger, inserting the bow and helping her to find her bent thumb position touching the silver and the hair. He then helped her turn the bow tip up and pointed to the bow tip and counted 5-4-3-2-1. He asked her how old she was (“three and three quarters” she replied) and then he asked her how many times she thought she could make her bow hold 3 times or 4 times and she choose 4! He did 4 bow holds with her – and the one point that she needed reminding on was to LOOK at the TIP of her BOW at the end of the exercise. Her actual bow hold was super!

END OF LESSON REST POSITION AND BOW
1. RED Rest Feet
2. Mr. S placed the violin under her right arm with the arm behind the bridge.
3. He asked her to crook her right pointer finger and he hung the bow there by the frog and asked her to gently use her thumb to close the circle as the bow hung tip straight down.
4. end of lesson bow and she spontaneously said “Thank you for teaching me Mr. S”

End of Lesson discussion Mr. S and Mima
Mr. S said he did not need to write in the WHAT book this time.
He said to continue rhythm variation practice as we discussed
When I told him that Nora was doing her 3rd practice of the day with her mother and me, he said that was fine, and he also added said very definitely that the person attending the lesson (me) must be present at ALL of Nora’s practices AND the group class. He said he would see me Saturday.

Toward the beginning of the lesson, after Nora had some difficulty with the twinkle rhythms, and before he went into his right brain/left brain discussion, he asked if I had read Suzuki’s book, “Nurtured by Love”. I said yes, but that I had read the book 30 years ago! He talked about how when a child learns her first word the parents celebrate that moment, and do not ask when she will learn the next word. I think that he was at first concerned that we (parents and grandparent of Nora) would want to move on to new material in this second lesson on the 2 lesson a week schedule. I made no such request and had no such expectation, and I agreed with all that he was doing, including cutting Nora back to 2 of the 3 original rhythms to help her gain mastery of the rhythms.

Later when Lisa and I discussed the 2 lesson a week plan, Lisa said that she chose two lessons a week specifically so that Mima did not feel tempted to move Nora ahead of Mr. S’s instructions. Mima, on the other hand, wanted 2 lessons a week so that Nora and Lisa and Mima would have more direct input from Mr S, so that any questions or confusions or difficulties could be handled as quickly as possible.

At the very end of the lesson, Mr. S said that it was a pleasure to teach two students (Lindsay and Nora) where the families have experience with the Suzuki method. He mentioned that it took him 4 to 5 years to complete book 1 as a child. I said that I had one daughter who learned the twinkle variations in 2 weeks (Nora’s Aunt Valerie, on the violin) and one who took 2 years (Nora’s mother, Lisa on the cello). And I told him that by age 16 years, both girls were competent skilled musicians. He seemed especially pleased to hear this story! And, I think he understood that her parents and I were not at all inclined to rush Nora’s learning process faster than he was going to take her.

Additional Comments on the Journey
Nora left her second lesson in a great mood, and again said that she loved her violin lesson and she wished she could have one every day! She was also thrilled to climb back UP the outdoor staircases! She comported herself perfectly and did not press her face on the picture window as did another student.

We went to our favorite eatery at the end of the street and she picked out a chocolate brownie and ate the entire desert before we got to Celemyjonti Park.
Once at the park, she was eager to get to the playground equipment and she played happily for over an hour, until a light rain began and we decided to drive home.

During the car rides she seems happy to listen to the Suzuki tape and talk with me, (sometimes she holds her travel blanket). On both trips she asked to be home “right now!!” just after we were passed her Montessori school (when the car begins to hit stop lights rather than the open highway). I have been going to the violin lesson via the Clemyjonti Park as this route is on bigger roads, has fewer turns and fewer stop lights.


Nora found a purple sticky note pad and began “writing”. She produced about 20 pages each with an indecipherable scribble and ONE single purple square note had written on it quite legibly:

ViO
Lin
She just left this note with all the others and Mima discovered it when she cleared the table for dinner!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Nora's First Violin Lesson


Nora had her first violin lesson today and she really did a fantastic job! She worked with Mr. S and followed directions for nearly the full 30 minutes. There was even an observer who came into the room for most of the session and another one entered about half way through the lesson. The first observer was a young girl (12 years?) who was in book 7 and started with Mr. S at Nora's age. Her lesson was at 11:30 after Nora's, and she said she was early for the lesson - so she watched Nora's lesson in a relaxed manner without making any disturbance, as if it was the most interesting thing she could be doing at that time. She did not look at her music nor did she finger her violin in any way. Nora had eyes only for Mr. S during her lesson and worked well with Mima under the watchful eye of Mr. S too!


Nora loved holding her little green violin case while walking down the outdoor wooden staircases to the back of Mrs. Cole's violin lesson house, and back up the stairs at the end of the lesson. Mima did not love parking on the very steeply sloped driveway and slipping a bit on the leaves in the driveway, as she reversed the car back up the steep incline.

When we got to the back door we entered a foyer with carpets and chairs, took off our shoes, put the umbrella down, and sat in two of the waiting room chairs. Mr. S came to get us at 11:00, and said that next time we can walk right into his room, regardless of how many people might be playing in there. His studio room has an upright piano, a couch and a chair, in addition to his chair, which faces into the room and backs up to a very large corner picture window with views of nearby trees. He asked Nora to come to work directly in front of him, so that she faced Mr. S and the view of the outdoors (and the walkway with students coming and going.) He had to ask her to come closer a few times, especially after he has sent her over to the couch to do a rhythm with Mima. Once she even got too close to him, but he told her to move a bit back at that point. Nora did not seem to be disturbed at all by the pedestrian traffic in front of the window, as students passed by on their way to a group class being held in another room.

The first thing Mr. S did was ask us for our poster board to make Nora's foot chart (we will bring it on Friday). Undaunted he said that he thought that Nora could just work within an area on the rug today. He showed her the feet together “Resting Feet” or “red feet” position and then told her to point her toes outward with heels together and take a small step outward with both feet. This, he told her, would be “Playing Position” or “green feet.” She followed his directions very well for this task.


In this very first violin lesson Nora was not able to always correctly tell Mr. S what all the twinkle rhythms were - so he assigned just 3 of them (“Mississippi Hot Dog,” “Stop Big Bow Stop Big Bow,” “Huckleberry Huckleberry”) for "homework" and gave 3 different ways (channels) to teach them to her. Nora holds my hands to clap the rhythms, Nora moves my right hand in a “handshake” down and up from a starting position just above her own nose to the rhythm, and I brush the rhythm on her arm and ask her “what is this?”. While she is doing these rhythms she is supposed to be singing the twinkle melody in the rhythm pattern starting on an open “A” pitch. This singing was particularly hard for her although she was able to join Mima (who was singing very softly) to sing these most of the time. At home she complained that she thought that Mima and Mommy sang so much better than her, she did not want to try to sing. Mr. S reminded her to sing when she guided Mima's hands for the clapping and the handshake rhythms.

Mr. S. told Nora that she was supposed to WATCH the whole time for the whole rhythm pattern, and he asked her NOT to look away before the rhythm was finished.

Mr. S also (correctly) assumed that I would be able to play the rhythms for her on a violin so that Nora can HEAR them as well. He mentioned that we also should be listening to the recording of Suzuki Volume 1. He said Nora should be hearing the recording “more of the time then not.” He also said that this would be understood to be an ongoing assignment for us and that he will not be telling us this every week. He said that we must to continue the daily listening without a reminder.

Mr. S said that we would need to get a second violin lesson book, a “WHAT” book for him to write down what we should practice. We had the “HOW” book for Mima to write down notes to help us in remembering how Mr. S wanted us to practice something. For this first lesson, I used the same notebook to record the “What” assignment as I did when I took notes on “how” to do the rhythms or the bow hold.

Mr. S sometimes clapped, made a deliberate slicing motion with his hand/forearm held in a neutral position in front of him (between pronation and supination of the forearm/palm), rubbed the rhythm on her arm starting with a downward stroke from the elbow to wrist, or played the rhythm on the open A string. He always asked her what the rhythm was using the same phrase “What is this?” He told her to SING the rhythm to herself when she had trouble identifying a rhythm and she was successful in using this strategy during the lesson on several occasions. At the end of this first day we have not been able to duplicate this success with the singing strategy “your song will tell you what the rhythm is.”

Nora answered his questions nicely and a couple of times gave some extraneous information. Mr. S was not bothered by this, and Nora did not become overly chatty. Mima asked only one question in the lesson, and it concerned the direction of the rubbing stroke on Nora's arm. It seemed that in several of the first trials, Mr. S started upward, but then for the next group of rhythms he definitely started downward. Mr. S said to always start by going downward from the elbow to the wrist.

He measured Nora on the little violin from her cousins Malena and Pablo, checking to see how far her left hand middle finger went around the scroll when he placed the violin under her chin and held her outstretched arm under the violin. He needed to tell her to relax her arm several times while doing this measurement, and then he said that it was a perfect fit, and that it probably was a 16th size instrument. Lisa correctly, I think, said that Nora was probably so very excited to be actually touching the violin after nearly 2 years of waiting, that Nora had a hard time relaxing for this task.

Mr. S tuned the little violin on his lap with the chin rest facing Nora. He used the fine tuners and then the pegs and told her that he only used the pegs when a violin was very out of tune. He played an “A” on the piano and asked her to sing the “A.” She was close to begin with and adjusted her pitch toward the “A” remarkably well. He then told me that we should practice this singing of the “A” daily while doing things around the house. He said this helps to teach a child perfect pitch. I said that I would certainly need a pitch pipe before trying to sing or have Nora match an “A” and he said yes, that would be important. He showed her how he played 2 strings together to tune the violin, so that it did not sound like the string tones were “fighting” with each other, but instead sounded like they were (happy? Sorry, his exact wording on this point escapes me…)

Mr. S let her hold the violin bow, and we also have to practice 3 soft "bow holds" a day (after first hanging her fingers over my outstretched index finger. (This was very difficult for me to show Lisa since her hand and fingers were so much bigger than mine. Mr. S did it with me, and I with him, and both of us have rather small hands.) After Nora gets the bow hold with me helping her (all 4 right hand fingers HANGING over the frog/stick and her bumpy thumb touching one half on the silver and one half on the hair) we turn the bow tip up and Nora must LOOK at her bow tip - then I let go of her hand at the frog and do a quick count 5-4-3-2-1! and take the bow from her hand. The count is very quick now because that is all the time that Nora can manage to hold that tip up bow hold position and LOOK at the tip. Nora mentioned at home in her 3rd practice that in this bow hold she was being allowed to TOUCH the HAIR! of the bow … and this was pretty exciting given that she sang the song (a scale, starting on ???? C?) listing all the parts of the violin and bow and ending with Mr. S's “where is the hair?” and Nora's answer, “Don't touch the hair!” (learned from observing group class for almost 2 years) It was during this exercise, when Mr. S mentioned the PEGS, that Nora repeated back to him the fact that he had told her earlier about using the pegs to tune only if a violin got very out of tune. He briefly commented on her good memory and noted how she had remembered this information from a task many minutes ago.

Nora used her violin to point out the violin parts while she was sitting down in front of Mr. S and his violin (once she accidentally touched the chin rest of his violin instead of hers and he gently redirected her). At the end of the lesson, he let Nora hold the actual violin in perfect proper rest position, feet together, right arm just behind the bridge and the bow held loosely in the right hand at the frog by making a circle with her pointer finger and her thumb and hanging the bow downward. She did this in the lesson, guided by Mr. S, but we do not touch the violin yet in our three 5 minute practices a day.

Nora held the violin properly and bowed at the waist to him nicely at the end of the lesson and said what he told her to say "Thank you for teaching me Mr. S." It is understood that this will become a routine part of the lessons.

One thing that seemed important is that Nora needs to work on LOOKING at Mr. S (or the person who is working with her) and she needs to learn to LOOK at the violin or bow at appropriate times.

The last few minutes of the lesson as Mr. S worked and talked with me Nora was less well behaved. She tried to climb on my back as I knelt on the floor so that Mr. S could show me how to make a proper bow hold. However, when I directed her to sit quietly (two times) while I worked with Mr. S, she eventually complied. He told us to expect observers in the lesson and said that we should come into the end of his Friday lesson, which will be another beginning student…. (Lisa thinks a younger sibling of a more advanced student, but we are not sure.) He said that he might ask an observer to leave if the student having the lesson is unable to handle the distraction. So on Friday, Nora will have to be a VERY QUIET observer of the end of the lesson before hers. I guess we should talk about what that means in terms of quiet sitting and looking behavior.

We had difficulty getting in 3 good 5-minute practice sessions with Nora today (especially the one at night after dinner with Lisa, when Nora was tired). I had trouble keeping her in one spot as she retreated to jump on the couches between rhythm exercises in my second session, and she was distracted by the living room toys in two of our at home sessions. She was really remarkably good at paying attention to Mr. S, so I am thankful that we are seeing him 2 times a week. In the home practice sessions Nora just wanted to hold/use the violin, and she did NOT want to do the rhythm exercises, and she did not want to do the practices. Mr. S, of course, did the rhythm exercises first in the lesson, before he let her touch the violin. After Nora was doing everything BUT cooperate with Lisa and Mima in the after dinner practice session, Lisa said “no violin until we do the rhythms, and Lisa put the violin UP away on the high shelf.” Nora first broke down sobbing, but pulled herself together to do 3 quick rhythm exercises with Lisa, and then Nora did a beautiful job with the “soft hanging right hand” bow holding exercise with me. But we are ALL learning, and Mr. S said to Nora and me that we were practicing to make it EASIER for her! He indicated that we would not move on until these 3 rhythms were EASY for her.

Our assignment to get ready for the Friday lesson is to practice the 3 rhythms in the 3 ways, in 3 five minute practice sessions every day.

Mr. S said to end our practices soon enough so that Nora stays excited to play the violin.

Immediately after the lesson was over, Nora said she would like to have a violin lesson every day, and she said she loved the violin when we got back home. By evening Nora still said that she would like to have a lesson every day with Mr. S, whom she said, reminded her a bit of her own daddy, Keary!

Nora had a good time playing at Clemeyjonti Park after the lesson despite the rainy weather, and we picnicked under the pavilion. She ate well and loved the cut up melons. She ate some of her butterfly cookie chosen from a nearby sandwich/bakery type eatery. All in all, it was a GOOD way to begin violin and we look forward to the Friday lesson!

Nora really did a great job, and enjoyed the violin, but not all the practice details! That's it from Mima!