Saturday, December 22, 2007

Violin Lesson Friday December 21, 2007

A. Mr S Congratulated Nora on:
1. Bow hand hold becoming very natural for her
2. Keeping violin up the whole time and playing without wiggles
3. Using open door arm
4. Playing in playground tape better than before

B. Key element of lesson:
Assignment 10 finger soft pops using each finger each day (he did them on A string) 10 x 3rd, 2nd, 1st finger. Left hand only without the bow!
Explanation:
1. Just lightly touch (never press) and pop off, no squeezing. Touch and get off the string.
2. Soft finger pops back (rather than straight up) and moves from the base of the finger, the lowest joint closest to the hand.
3. She should try not to press her finger too hard on the string, just the natural weight of the finger, better to have a wispy sound at this point.
4. Touch is a happy word, press is not, “don't hurt the string” be gentle.
5. He said that one may also add the thumb moving away from the neck as an additional exercise.

C. He asked her to play the entire Twinkle MHD sandwich on her own for him (first time) and said that this should be a very rare treat at home.
1. She self corrected several notes that did not get a good sound and let him help her on a few.
2. When he tried to help her at one point she reminded him that he said she would be playing this independently, and she struggled through the entire song, faltering on the last few notes of the jelly. She forged ahead all on her own and regained confidence with the last bread. He helped her with an occasional verbal cue such as "E", and this was her very first time to play the entire song!

D. Other points of the lesson for her Sandwich practice.
1. He said that she should work more on her SWING (open back) drop D
2. When she finishes a “sandwich” she should raise bow hand up above her head while she keeps the violin up under her chin. He did not do the second step of the red feet rest position bow this week.

3. Play with shoulders “square” not a twisted trunk. (Left knee soft)
a. Pretend that there is a string from Nora's belly button to her practice parent in the chair in front of her.
b. Keep her nose, scroll toe alignment
i. While her belly faces forward
ii. It may help to practice in the same location in our house so that Nora is facing and looking toward the same part of the room in each practice. (after the holiday travels)

E. She told him her listening piece: Peter Tchaikovsky composed the Nutcracker Suite conducted by Michael “Thomas Tilson” played by the “harmonic” orchestra. She did this even as she saw Daddy walking by the window of her lesson room.

F. Behavior: He asked her to go back to the couch and walk to her green feet on the foot chart (instead of crawling, a first)! and she did this. We used hand sanitizer (a first!) quickly after she put her hand to her nose, and Mima will have to remember to use the regular and not the moisturizer variety, as it dries much more quickly. She prepared her violin nicely for the lesson in the waiting room and watched quietly from the observer chair for the last few minutes of L's lesson as Mr S was writing things down in the notebook for her father. Eventually Nora did get off the chair in her eagerness to give him his box of holiday violin cookies, but it was not a problem. She worked quietly in her notebook at the end of the lesson as Mr S showed Daddy and Mima how to do left hand light individual finger taps on a chair seat. He also had Mima and Keary hold the little violin to get a "feel" of what Nora was needing to learn. On the first finger touch Mima also had a too strong finger tap, and Mr S showed how Mima and Nora should be softly moving the individual fingers.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Violin Lesson 12/14/07

Practice List Friday 12/14/2007 Lesson 23 Week 12

Practice List Daily

1. 5 MHD A string & 5 MHD E string w/ “open door” what we will now call the bow arm opening at elbow
a. In order to count as one of the five they must be:
i. In playground especially do not go below the bottom of tape (error of playing above the tape is less problematic) NEW use whole tape area.
ii. Open elbow joint to see smiley face that was penned on inside of her elbow
b. Smiley face drawn on inside of R elbow will be visible when bow is correct

2. MHD Twinkle Dessert Practice –* NEW fix it or move on Game for “open door”
a. Nora plays her own bread when she sings the PB & J
b. NEW Nora plays her own PB & J when she sings the bread
c. Keep doing both play / sing variations of this practice
d. Do some (at least half?) of these as “my turn” “your turn”
e. Keeping even tempo (the word tempo was not used) was discussed with Nora in detail, not too fast, not too slow, just right temp
f. raise just bow arm over head, smile, red feet and bow
g. *If her arm opens at elbow (open door) go in the next note, if not, play note again with “open door”
h. NEW: Mr S showed Mima that Nora’s bow is now sometimes going crooked, at an angle on her “highway” with tip too far angled behind her. We should help Nora to learn what a straight bow on her highway between bridge and fingerboard feels like.

3. Note Cards shown to her when she has violin to play them using MHD rhythm (not done this lesson keep doing this)
a. Nora looks at the card
b. Sings the note she sees
c. Plays MHD rhythm for the note
d. Sing the note again
e. Next card do the same

4. Song Identification Specific Project “Is it ____ or ____?” keep doing these
a. Aunt Rhody vs Long Long Ago *still difficult try to explain that notes go up (LLA) or down (GTAR)
b. Perpetual Motion vs (Etude, Song of Wind. May Song, Allegretto, Andantino)
c. Allegretto vs Andantino
d. NEW: play 3 notes using extremes first and ask if they are going higher or lower (up or down)

5. Pitch: Mr S had Nora sing A and although nothing was said this week, we probably still need to work on Nora learning to adjust pitch without making her voice get louder. In general higher and softer singing for the A.

6. Crossed Violin hand off and thank you bow * remember to say thank you for teaching me …

7. Eye contact for presentations of poem and listening piece


Further Explanations:
- Story Format: for Listening Piece Recitation on Friday: “Peter Tchaikovsky composed The Nutcracker Suite, and it was conducted Michael Tilson Thomas with the Philharmonia Orchestra”
- Poem recitation Tuesday, look at Mr S.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Violin Lesson Tuesday 12/11/2007

Practice List Tuesday 12/11/2007 Lesson 22 Week 12

Practice List Daily

1. NEW: 5 MHD A string & 5 MHD E string w/ bow arm opening at elbow
a. In order to count as one of the five they must be:
i. In playground especially do not go below the bottom of tape (error of playing above the tape is less problematic)
ii. Open elbow joint to see smiley face that was penned on inside of her elbow
b. Smiley face drawn on inside of R elbow will be visible when bow is correct

2. MHD Twinkle Dessert Practice
a. Nora plays her own bread (not model and then your turn)
b. Keep doing both play / sing variations of this practice
i. Sing & sign the bread and Play the two peanut butter and jelly parts, then sing and sign the bread to end.
ii. Play bread (herself) and sign and sing the two peanut butter and jelly parts, then Play the bread (herself) to end.
1. * raise just bow arm (not fiddle)
2. smile and bow

3. NEW: Note Cards shown to her when she has violin to play them with MHD
a. Nora looks at the card
b. Sings the note she sees
c. Plays MHD rhythm for the note
d. Sing the note again
e. Next card do the same

4. Song Identification Specific Project “Is it ____ or ____?”
a. Aunt Rhody vs Long Long Ago
b. Perpetual Motion vs (Etude, Song of Wind. May Song, Allegretto, Andantino)
c. Allegretto vs Andantino

5. Pitch: Mr S said that Nora’s self generated A is often a bit low to start and she can learn to make it higher without making her voice get louder. Higher and softer singing for the A.

6. Crossed Violin hand off and thank you bow

7. Eye contact for presentations of poem and listening piece


Notes:

  1. We missed the last lesson because Nora had a cold.

  2. Nora sang an A for Mr S and he said that she tended to sing the A a bit low and then get louder as she raised her pitch to match his source. He told her to sing higher and more quietly and she did it one time.

  3. Nora recited her poem well, though most of the time, she did not look at Mr S (eye contact). The poem was one he had not heard (very unusual, he said he has heard most poems the children bring in)and it made him laugh. It was taken from the back of a ravioli package, “Old Mother Hubbard” with a twist! When Old Mother Hubbard came home, the dog was eating itsy bitsy raviolis!

  4. Nora continued to have difficulty identifying some of her assigned songs in book one. We will have to remember to tell him on Friday that our “mystery song” was Perpetual Motion!

  5. He played Allegro first and Nora identified it immediately. After that he alternated playing just the ones that she has particularly had difficulty with. Aunt Rhody versus Long Long Ago (he played 8 and she missed Then he ran Allegretto, Andantino and Etude and she got them all except that her responses were quite slow. Perpetual Motion was still the hardest for her, even when given the choice “ is it Etude or Perpetual Motion?” We are to practice these in a similar manner this week. Is it X or Y?

  6. He asked her to play her MHD twinkle playing the bread without a teacher. Mommy, Mima model first. Nora did this quite well with just a bit of coaching from Mr S for the note E after the F# and for a C#.

  7. She told him her school poem about county corn and geese flying east and west. He had her do to a 2nsd time and she was able to give him more eye contact. He told Mima to introduce the hand signal for “looking” at her partner/audience. Mima notes that when she talked to him at other times in the lesson this eye contact with her communication partner (Mr S0 was also missing.

  8. She followed most of his directions the first time, but needed one or two repetitions for such things as getting on her green feet.

  9. 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. We really need to do this!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Nora's first group recital

The studio had a magnificent concert. Some of the most mature students started the concert with Vivaldi, The Four Seasons. Many kids took the stage for pieces from books 1-3, and one student finished off the evening with a sparkling Allegro and Presto from Barber's Concerto Op 14.

In the middle of the concert, the "pre-twinklers" were invited up to give a "demonstration" of singing and clapping rhythms. Here is Nora, with violin in rest position, placing her feet on red feet, getting ready for the first bow:



Then the children put their violins down for the clapping and singing, with bows after each:




They were all very proud to be part of such a wonderful concert: