Violin Lesson Friday 11/2/2007 Lesson 14 Week 7

Practice List Friday 11/2/2007 Lesson 14 Week 7

Nora learning left hand's swing, open [fingers fan] back, drop 3rd finger on the A string to make the note D:


Practice List (things to concentrate on, new things added or explained today)
Practice List

1. Identification of Twinkle Variations, Lightly Row, Song of the Wind, Aunt Rhody, O’ Come Little Children, May Song, Long Long Ago, Allegro.

2. Singing and Hand Signing A, E, F# and C# using note cards and memory game

3. Violin sets for count of 10 seconds

4. Shoulder bowing of Twinkle Variations while singing along “Listen Please” “Your Turn” (may hold left arm across chest/waist to prevent twist)

5. Playing dessert (A E F# E, left side of hand leads left arm swing and then bend knees) and listen for tone - “A Listen” “A Play” “E Listen” “E Play”

6. Keep green feet, head back on chin rest, bow on one lane of road, soft left knee, no twisting

7. Do 5 times a day Left hand Swing, “Open Back” 1st finger movement opening hand backward and 3rd finger dropping on A string as separate practice exercise

8. Playing MHD, HB, SBB, Wash, My name on E string KEY: work for increased number of consecutive repetitions & listen for tone

9. Playing MHD on E string and A string with string crossing: E “reach to” A and A “drop to” E KEY: 5 consecutive repetitions with eyes down on road and head back (keeping violin up) “listen please” “your turn” (this is the “pebble game” for 5

10. “Fix it” or “Move on” Game: Object is to get all “Move Ons” as she plays dessert A E F# E

11. Listening Piece Story for Friday
12. Poem for Tuesday eye contact

13. Sing and clap variation rhythm (first part of twinkle “the bread”) while keeping total eye contact Bread = A E F# E D C# B A

14. Bow sets with “bumpy thumb” then tip up

15. Finger tapping thumb to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th finger

16. Getting violin into rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me Mr S”

Group Class
1. Standing in line, waiting, hand violin crossed, thank you
2. Notes A E F# D C# B (see below)
3. Bow Poem with tip up, good following and rhythm
4. Follow directions quickly: touch ____
5. Notes: hand motions and body positions review
6. Crossed arm violin hand off and “thank you”
7. Getting violin into rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me Mr S”
8. Moving and stopping quickly as music plays
9. ID Violin parts
10. Pizzicato versus Arco
11. Harmonic, Double Stop, Triple Stop, Quadruple Stop
12. Say ____ exactly when he points to you
13. Song identification (stand up/sit down, raise hand)


Group Class Information for this Friday:

Note Hand Position Movement
A bottom of chin sit down
E top head, hairline stand up
F# above head jump
D forehead/eyebrow touch shoulder
C# nose touch waist
B lips touch toes


Practice Notes:

1) Steps in “dessert” A E F# E. Mima should give clear and rhythmic requests/instructions to Nora
• “Green Feet”
• “Soft Knees”
• “Soft Bow Hand”
• “TURN HEAD”
• “DROP HEAD”
• (Mima can swing Nora’s left arm to make sure it is soft and relaxed)
• “Thumb Pillow”
• “Tickle Spot”
• “Place bow on E”
• “Reach A”
• “listen please”
• “ A Play” (changed from “your turn”)
• drop E
• “listen please” – “E Play” (changed from “your turn”)
• touch F#
• “listen please” – “F# play”
• “pop off”
• “listen please” (E) – “E Play”
• “swing and bend”

2) Road for the bow has just one lane
• Stay in one place, do not let bow slide the lanes for the other (imaginary) cars.
• Stay in “your yard” the bow playground
• Keep your eyeballs in the bow
• Play just one string

3) 4 year old posture no twisting toward left (10 seconds no twist)
• Soft left knee
• Relaxed right shoulder
• Head properly back on chin rest


4) NEW: Do 5 times a day Swing, “Open Back” 1st finger movement opening hand backward and 3rd finger dropping on A string as separate practice exercise
a) Only left hand, no bow needed
b) (this segment will eventually come after the pop off F#)
c) It is the next part of the “swing” preparation when the left hand leads the arm swing and the knees bend)
d) “Swing”
e) “Open Back” : the first finger reaches back and a little down, left hand fingers fan open led by 1st finger movement back and down
f) drop 3rd finger “D” to touch the new tape on the A string (no squeeze)

This prepares hand for proper vibrato position later. Mr. S did this with her in the lesson and she did beautifully under his guidance (see movie clip).


5) “Fix it” or “Move on” Game. The object is to get all “Move Ons” (not done in lesson and still quite new for us)
a) Two Variables for the game at this point
• Head back (Mr S said he noticed that this was better in today’s lesson)
• No twisting shoulders and trunk
b) After each MHD (on the dessert, or another playing practice exercise) the parent tells Nora
• “Fix it” and she needs to check and change her own head and twisted shoulders
• “Move On” means her head was back in proper place and she was not twisted left, so parent “goes on” to the give “listen please” for the next note of the dessert or exercise

6) New Format: for Listening Piece Recitation will be more like a story: “Johannes Brahms composed Hungarian Dance in D Minor , and it was performed by Sarah Chang on the violin.”

7) ( strategies & key ideas) from Previous Lessons:

8) Dessert: F# on the E string (“touch E, reach to A” “Drop to E” “touch F#”, “pop off” “swing” left arm and “bend” knees)
a) A E F# E
b) On last E
• left side of hand leads (arm and elbow) (“swing”) slightly and knees bend a bit deeper
• Decrease tension, balance point is important
c) KEY: Listen for tone

9) For weekly Poem recitation Tuesday, look at (look into eyes) of Mr S or person to whom you are speaking / presenting. This makes it a special gift from you to your listener. You should feel like you are saying it just for Mr S. Learn new poem for Tuesday.

10) Weekly Music listening presentation (piece, composer, musician * and working up to accompanist or orchestra) Friday (see new format above)


Explanations and Notes:

1. Nora really worked beautifully with Mr S today, following his directions and really trying to do what he asked. Sometimes when he works with Nora it seems so “easy” and Nora seems to be able to follow his words and especially his touch guidance. (At home it can be a very different story as Mima and Mom try out these very new tasks in a much less skilled manner.)

2. Nora identified all Twinkle variations except “Washington Washington.” Mima must admit that she does tend to forget this variation and it does not help that it is not on the Suzuki recording. Mommy always includes it in her practices, and we will need to make sure we are doing this one enough. Nora identified “Song of the Wind” and “O’ Come Little Children”. Aunt Rhody, Lightly Row, Long Log Ago, and Allegro were not correct. She did eventually get “May Song” and it was our “Mystery” Song for this week. I guess all the “May Song” singing while Trick or Treating with mom and dad paid off. But we all need to give Nora more chances to name or have the songs named for her, in addition to just listening to the songs.

3. Next Nora did her note cards with Mr S, getting many of the A’s E’s and F#’s on pitch (sometimes accompanied by hand signs) . She had an easier time matching a source pitch (sometimes using what I think he said was her “Ethel Merman” voice). Some of the time she was still confusing F# and C# both in the notation on the card and in pitch.

4. Nora seemed a bit confused when she got in front of Mr S and was ready to give a poem (what poem?), but then she switched gears and began to tell him about her Special Listening Piece. This week she had no trouble saying the composer, Johannes Brahms . Last week she was getting confused and saying “Minuet Brahms” sometimes. She had some trouble starting the presentation and could not recall the word “Hungarian” until he prompted her. After the prompt she gave the information quite well, but without eye contact. He did not mention the eye contact, because, unlike when she did her poem, she was still having some difficulty with smooth information recall.

5. Nora did the new skill, the “Open and Back” movement of the left first finger and hand in preparation for dropping the 3rd finger on the A string to make the note D, very smoothly as Mr S guided her carefully. The movie clip shows this new movement, and in this case, a picture is definitely worth 1000 words. Mr S also placed a red tape in her violin to show where her 3rd finger should be placed to make sure her “D” is in tune.

6. Notes on Practicing: Nora had no school today so we had a very nice practice at about 10:15 AM. “Very nice” in this instance means that Nora agreed to do the practice, stayed in the room for the practice, stayed mostly on her green feet, and did not flop to the floor as Mima tried to get her ready for a violin set. She was more willing to participate in the games, for example, she gave some of her earned pennies to her Piggy Bank and some to her Unicef collection box. Mima recalls that the last time there was no school on Friday, and we had an unhurried mid morning practice, it also went exceptionally well. Understandably, practicing after a full morning of school and practicing in the evening is more difficult. Mom notes that 11 AM practice on Saturday has also been a good time. Nora is not an early morning child, and she barely gets her regular morning routine finished in order to get to school on time. Of course, we do listen to the Suzuki Book One recording in the morning and at other times and we try to identify the songs that we have been assigned. In a quick exchange with the grandma in the lesson before Nora’s, she asked how things were going with Nora and I told her that practicing has become very challenging, very difficult. She said that they are having similar issues at their house and that Mr S’s suggestion to let the child have more choices has helped. Later, Mr S told me that Nora is “just where she should be.” He pointed out that Nora’s head really was in the desired backward position for more of the lesson this week, and she is doing the A, E and F# pitches more consistently. He says that Nora is just where he would expect her to be on her individual path to violin playing. He explained that as new things are added we should expect that sometimes, some of the older (but newly learned) skills would become unstable for a time, until the entire set of skills solidifies. We have had difficulty motivating Nora to practice, especially to practice the violin playing assignments, and even desirable rewards (Halloween candy for example) do not work. Mr S’s ever-changing strategies help as Nora seems to enjoy a game for the first time (and maybe once or twice more) before loosing interest. Nora will suggest that we do bow sets or even shoulder bowing rather than tackle the harder newer assignments. The silver lining, is that something that was once hard for her, shoulder bowing, is now perceived by her as something she can do at least reasonably well. And it is understandable that Nora does not want to be asked to do the things that she finds particularly difficult.

7. Mima asked Mr S to please watch her work with Nora in this lesson so that he could give Mima pointers (corrections) to make the practice easier and more comfortable, and hopefully eventually, more enjoyable for Nora. And Mima learned that she should give Nora clear concise verbal requests, starting with remembering to say “green feet” and making sure that Nora is really ON her green feet properly, and also giving her clear instructions for head placement, “turn head”, “drop head.” At one point, Nora started some of her usual antics, and Mr S told Nora that she was not making this easy for Mima. After that, Nora did cooperate for the last trial with Mima so that Mr S could help Mima to cut down on the excess verbalizations and just concentrate on the main instructions. (As with everything else I am writing, this is my, Mima’s, interpretation of what I think Mr S said.) I worked with Nora while sitting directly in front of her in his teaching chair. When asked how I usually do this, I told him that I sit in a low child’s chair so that I can be close to Nora at her height, and comfortable without hurting my knees or back. He commented that this sounded like a good idea. This low chair seating approach was taken from Mima’s years of work as an occupational therapist working with children in tiny chairs, small wheel chairs and on mats.

8. In our eagerness to help Mima give better instruction to Nora, we all forgot the “thank you bow” this week (and Nora had practiced it too!)

9. The Penny Game for Green Feet did help with staying on task this week and the Pitch Memory game (giving Nora directions to run and jump etc. between trials) was a great success. It is getting the practice started that seems to be one of our biggest hurdles.

10. On the weekend mom usually goes over some of the group class skills. Nora, for example will benefit from doing the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger to thumb finger taps this week. The fact that Nora observed Mr S teaching group classes for a year and a half has been beneficial to Nora in terms of her understanding of what is being presented.


Additional Notes for Mom:

11. Nora’s new hairdo with 3 bands really did keep most of her hair back and out of the way and there was just one small time when she managed to sneak a lock of hair into her mouth. She left her hair in the “do” for the whole time she played at the playground and only tool it out after we got home.

12. Nora picked a chocolate rice crispy square from the store ignoring the lovely half price Halloween Cookies, because, of course, she had already chosen and eaten those after previous lessons. She seems quite intent on finding a new item each week. We went right to the Park to enjoy the cool and sunny day and Nora really did a lot of full out running , climbing, jumping, swinging and playing. We had a quick picnic at a table in the park before heading home in Mima’s newly vacuumed car. Pooh stories again for the car ride home and she is now getting quite specific in her requests for particular chapters.

13. Mr S had a cold, so we wished him well and took his advice to wash our hands before we left the studio house.

14. Nora was so eager to get to the lesson that she was running on the stairs down to and up from the lesson house. Mima will need to be firmer about safety in this regard as this has not been an issue since the first two lessons.