Violin lesson Tuesday 11/27/2007

Nora plays the whole first "bread" part of MHD:


Practice List Tuesday 11/27/2007 Lesson 18 Week 10

Practice List
1. Tuning procedure: have Nora use her hand to indicate as we tune when she thinks that the pitch is correct. She can move her hand up higher to indicate too high and low to indicate low and the hand rests at the hand sign for “A” or “E” when it is at the correct pitch.

2. Playing “MHD Bread” A E F# E, D NEW: add C# and B and Nora gets her first slice of MHD BREAD A E F# E D C# B A then add EDC#B EDC#B , and the 2nd slice of bread.
a. Assignment: Do the Whole Song 3 times every day!!!
b. NEW: The new dessert exercise is as follows
i. Nora plays one slice of “bread” A E F# E D C# B A
ii. Nora sings the peanut butter & the jelly EDC#B EDC#B
iii. Nora plays one slice of “bread” A E F# E D C# B A
iv. (hand violin to parent when doing the singing parts)

c. NEW: use “walking fingers” with split second timing for the pop off and transfer.
d. KEY: bow arm opens at elbow need to grow.
e. Nora chooses MHD, HB, or SBB as rhythm to use for this new “Bread Dessert”.

3. Identification: Etude + AlleGR’etto, AN’dantino, Perpetual Motion. (Twinkle Variations) Lightly Row versus Aunt Rhody, Song of the Wind, O’ Come Little Children, May Song, Long Long Ago, Allegro)

4. Pitch Training: A, E, F# C# NEW: D and B, singing, hand signs and movements
a. KEY: Hear pitch for one note on the violin, then sing the name of the note with the hand sign
b. Sing the pitch, hear the pitch, then pitch match if needed
c. NEW: add the note card for D ….. and perhaps B as well

5. Shoulder bowing of Twinkle Variations while singing along “Listen Please” “Your Turn” (may hold left arm across chest/waist to prevent twist) *KEY watch for elbow joint opening
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” includes the body balance shift with simultaneous knees forward, 1st finger “Open Back”, “Drop D” 3rd finger drops on A string and “ Tap D”: tap 3rd finger lightly a few times on A. Do as separate practice exercise.
8. Playing MHD, HB, SBB, Wash, My name on E string and A string. KEY: work for increased number of consecutive repetitions, playground amount of bow on the “road” & listen for tone. KEY: bow arm opens at elbow joint.
9. Playing MHD on E string and A string with string crossing: “touch E” “reach A” and A “drop E” KEY: 5 consecutive repetitions with eyes down on road and head back (keeping violin up) “listen please” “your turn”
10. “Fix it” or “Move on” Game: Object is to get all “Move Ons” as she plays dessert A E F# E (not mentioned; we can work up to this challenge over time)
11. Bow sets with “bumpy thumb” then maintain bow in tip up position
12. Violin sets for count of 10 seconds and work to more
13. Finger tapping thumb to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th finger
14. Get violin to rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me _______.
15. Vocabulary: Dynamics
16. 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
17. Listening Piece Story for Friday
18. Poem for Tuesday *still needs eye contact as primary objective

Notes:

1) Nora identified , Lightly Row, Song of the Wind, O Come Little Children, May Song (after a quick guess of Perpetual Motion), Long Long Ago (she got this correct, but at home she still confuses this one with Aunt Rhody), Allegro, Perpetual Motion (after his verbal cue of “it keeps moving”), Allegretto (verbal cue of “AL___” ), Andantino (verbal cue of “An___”), Etude (she got this one right away.) No new additions as these are no yet “easy” for Nora.

2) Mr S played pitches on her violin and Nora was asked to name and sing what she heard. We are to continue to do these as singing and hand signs and now add the note card for “D” and then later, “B”.
a) He gave her the following note sequence: A E F# E D C# B
b) He said we could give her “scale” sequences to help her find the notes
c) Nora was able to sing “A” without sticking out her tongue (a major accomplishment!)
d) Nora is still learning all of the pitches and benefits from repetitions.

3) Twinkle song, beginning with MHD was described to Nora as a sandwich so that the musical form of the piece can be recognized and discussed in concrete terms. The piece has two pieces of bread (that Nora, as of today, “knows” how to play) A E F# E D C# B A. The piece then has two identical peanut butter and jelly parts that Nora has not yet been taught, E D C# B, E D C# B. And then the piece ends with a “slice of bread”, the sequence of notes that Nora is now practicing A E F# E D C# B A.

4) Thus Nora is being asked to play her “Bread” and then hand her violin to her practice parent while she sings the two peanut butter and jelly parts, and then after her violin is set for her she again is supposed to play her “bread” to end the sandwich and the piece.

5) Steps in “dessert” entire “BREAD”, fade verbal cues as Nora does these steps independently
• “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”
• “Touch E” (need to teach Nora “touch E” because she got confused in group class when “Touch E” command caused her to “touch her F# finger to the string at the wrong time.
• “Reach A”
• “my turn” (a variety of cues can be used here, such as A listen, A play)
• “your turn”) (she really improved on this and is rarely playing too soon now!)
• drop E
• “my turn” “your turn”)
• touch F#
• “”my turn” – “your turn”
• “pop off”
• “my turn”– “your turn”
• “swing”
• “open back
• “drop D”
• “float bow” (to A string)
• “D listen”
• “D play”
• “C# listen”
• “C# play”
• “B listen”
• “B play”
•
NEW: use “walking fingers”.
i) As fingers change on A string from D (3rd finger) to C# (2nd finger), C# to B (1st finger), 2 fingers are momentarily down at the same time.
ii) This is essentially independent fingering not “block fingering”.
iii) Nora now has a 2nd finger tape on her violin.

b) KEY: bow arm opens at elbow joint (if possible one hand or person gently guide elbow joint using finger/s inside elbow the other finger/s at outside of joint. Use whole yellow tape playground / stay in playground and make a nice sound. As Nora grows size of her yellow tape, or even her bow size may need to grow.

6) The swing should bring the hand forward so that the 3rd finger just drops down to touch on the A string (her knuckle should not collapse downward.
a) For the Tapping, he showed how he touches the back of Nora’s hand lightly under the base of the third finger knuckle joint to help cue that the movement comes from the tendons in the hand and not just the distal joints of the 3rd finger.
b) MOVIE Clip 1 min 26 seconds taken at today’s lesson shows Nora’s first bread as it was done with teacher. This clip has some moments where it shows how he gently controls Nora’s left and right hands in subtle ways that we at home can not yet even approach. Also, it shows the “joy” always the “joy” connected with this Suzuki violin learning process, especially in the lesson.

7) Lightly “contribute weight to” Nora’s 3rd finger D on the A string as needed The touch on the string is so lightly that it may not depress the string enough to actually make a note that would sound. ….
8) Remember to place fingers 1st, 2nd 3rd)on string at thumb side corner (not verbalized to Nora, just be aware)

9) Nora told her teacher that she had difficulty seeing whether or not her left hand finger was on the correct string and the correct red tape because she was looking at her bow road. He explained to us that she will eventually be able to:
a) LOOK at the bow road
b) FEEL the correct placement for her fingers

10) Behavior: Nora followed directions well, however she had to be reminded by teacher to return to her foot chart – he called it “the bubble” that she needs to stay in during the lesson. She very quickly ran to Mima a few times for a very brief hug when she was a bit overexcited, but this did not seem to bother Mr S.
11) Mr S had Mima use his violin for her portion of the lesson. He helped Mima to play through the entire Bread (my turn, your turn) – sing peanut butter and jelly parts – and play the last bread (my turn, your turn).
a) Mima needs to remember to place fingers on thumb side corners.
b) Also remember to be relaxed in the left hand hold on the violin (next time Mima will bring “her” full sized violin and then perhaps she will be more relaxed).
c) Nora moves so quickly and sometimes unexpectedly that Mima at one point rescued Mr S’s bow from where it had been placed, too close to where Nora was standing between the teacher’s chair and table.

Further Explanations:

12) “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) Choose two Possible Variables
• Head back (Nora fixed her own head spontaneously a few times in today’s lesson)
• No twisting shoulders and trunk
• Use playground
• Nice sound

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

13) Story Format: for Listening Piece Recitation on Friday: “Antonio Vvaldi composed Four Seasons Concertos, and they were performed by Itzhak Perlman on the violin.”
14) Poem recitation Tuesday, look at Mr S.

Group Class for performance (Mima thinks this is right?):
0. parent will place foot chart at front of room
1. Walk out with purpose w/ violin in “rest position” (look ahead at leader or child in front of you and not around room or at ceiling)
2. SMILE (when hear clapping)
3. Place violin on chart
4. Look at leader – follow command for “green feet”
5. variation rhythms follow his “______ please” and clap hands, slap knees, stomp feet, pat cheeks, ____
6. hear a single note and sing the name of the note while making hand sign
7. pick up violin and put in rest position
8. BOW in rest position with “red feet” with SMILE (left arm straight down at side)

Group Class Information:

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


More Notes:
1. Nora dictated a few “I am thankful for” sentences at school for their Thanksgiving project, and the first thing on Nora’s list was “violin lessons” – not practicing, but the actual lessons themselves! We will have to remember to tell her teacher about this.

2. Giving Nora even the most basic choice (such as which of 3 rhythms she wants to play, or whether she wants to do 2, 3 or 4 repetitions) has helped the practice sessions at home immensely.

3. After Nora played her very first complete “bread” of MHD twinkle and Mr S took her violin, she ran away, flung herself onto the couch, and bounced around in excitement. In answer to her teacher’s question “did you get her reaction on film” Mima had to answer that she did not, as Nora ran right out if the picture frame!

4. We did remember to turn the heater on and in the few minutes before the teacher arrived the studio had heated up to a comfortable temperature.

5. She showed her “notes” to Mr S at the end of the lesson. She told us that she had written the letters of the notes that he taught her. She gave the page to him so that he could remember what the notes were and he put the paper on his music stand, an important place.

6. Nora went back to look into the lesson studio (she stood very quietly outside of the door) when she heard the girl in the next lesson playing an excerpt from the Nutcracker Suite. We anticipate that this will be her listening piece for most of December in preparation for going to the Ballet with her cousins.
7. We are on a health kick and have substituted a purchase of fruit instead of the cookie for Nora’s after lesson treat. The large cup of grapes proved very enticing so all went well with this change in routine, at least for today.
5. It was a chilly day at the park, but there were a few other brave souls on the equipment. Nora got to do lots of running climbing and swinging.
6. Hair: Nora pulled the clips and bands out of her hair as she got into the car to drive to her lesson. She allowed Mima to redo her hair before the lesson and managed not to chew on her hair during her lesson. When there was more “down time” as in group class, Nora’s hair sucking behavior was at it’s most troublesome.
a. Nora got a haircut after the lesson today and her back hair is now too short to get into her mouth. Mom is counting in the fact that the front hair will remain in the hair band, at least for school, lessons and performances.
b. She was cooperative and held her travel blankie throughout the procedure. We went out and bought a wooden dreidle after the haircut and plaed several rounds when we got home.