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!