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.