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.