Lesson Tuesday 1/15/2008 Lesson 28

Practice List Tuesday 1/15/2008 Lesson 28

Practice List:

1. Princess Violin Sets for warm up. Violin correctly (firmly and decisively placed by parent) on side of neck below the ear, jaw on chin “jaw” rest. Keep extending the count down so that Nora can hold this position. Avoid Nora’s currently preferred more forward violin position, the “bearded lady” violin set (violin resting in front looking like a long beard coming down from the chin).


2. MHD sandwich practice (play bread, sing PB&J, play bread & sing, play, sing) for variable of each MHD unit having a clear clean sound with “no mud”. Mud = playing on more than one string or lack of clear crisp enunciation and/or rhythm, especially the “HOT DOG”. Practice with and without modeling (A listen, A play). Practice with leaving the getting ready space whispered in rhythm by parent. Nora should hear and feel a clear rhythm in between each unit that she plays. Help Nora by giving her a cleanly played model for her first note A of the bread. *Give feedback for each unit “clean” or “mud” and have her redo the unit to make it clean or cleaner.


3. Review: choose exercises from previous lessons so that Nora can keep working on specific techniques in isolation. Open door elbow on open strings and Stay in yellow tape bow playground, do not go below bottom of yellow tape, soft finger pops.


4. Practice strategy: have Nora reach into bag and pull out what the next practice item will be so that she can feel more a part of the process.


5. Goal to work toward from lesson 24 - practice for 5 minutes without stopping.

Notes:

• Nora began with her poem “Ride a Cock-horse to Banbury Cross”, which she recited with a clear voice and plenty of enthusiasm. On the second recitation, after being reminded by teacher, she was able to look at Mr S for the length of the poem.


• Nora resisted a bit at first, Mr S’s attempts to set her violin correctly on the side of her neck. She brought up clothing issues etc. After a very short interval she did allow the lesson to proceed, and Mr. S told her “thank you for letting me help you”. This seemed to work in terms of securing her joint participation and he was able to teach her quite well for the remainder of the lesson.


• Nora was able to tolerate and hold a good side position Princess violin set for a 20 second count down with Mr S. Mima then did a violin set with the teacher watching and Nora held this one for a bit more than 15 seconds, but in reviewing this lesson, Mima recalls that she counted from number one up rather then the correct count DOWN. On Mima’s violin set, Nora’s head (jaw) needed to lie back a bit more on the chinrest and Mr S encouraged Mima to use her hand to gently guide Nora’s head backward to the correct position.


• Mr S explained to Nora that she must listen for a clean clear sound (on each MHD unit). He said that her playing should be “like clean clear water” with no dirt or mud in it. She thought about what he said, and told him that this sound would be like playing on a water xylophone, and she quickly described how each glass would have a different amount of water in it to give the different “pitches”. He went with her on this description of her understanding of what he was looking for in the way of a clean clear sound. He then asked her to be the teacher (she gets to sit on his chair). He asked her to critique his playing of each MHD unit as clear or muddy. She did several correctly, however on a few, she was not able to answer because, as she readily told him, she was not actually listening to him play. When she did listen she was able to label his samples correctly and she was often able to tell him why they were muddy, eg. mushed rhythm, bow on more than one string. At one point in the lesson he had her reach out to clap the rhythm on his open palm to get a feel for the correct crisp rhythm. He then had her play and he gave her immediate feedback of “clean” or ”mud” for her MHD units. She was able to redo several and got a few very lovely clear notes with this type of careful work with Mr S.


• When Mr S introduced the idea of the Princess Violin Set, Mima made a slight facial grimace, and he quickly told Mima that most girls of Nora’s age are very motivated by the Disney Princesses. Mima replied that the Princess Violin Set would indeed be very motivating to Nora who is very interested in princesses in general, although she is not familiar with the Disney marketed princesses. Later, Nora and Mima told Mr S that Nora is an admirer of Princess Atta, leader of the ants, and a friend of Nora’s mother is writing a story about “Princess Nora”, who loves the color green and not pink (as is the case with Nora).


• Mr S was careful to end Nora’s part of the lesson on an upbeat note (she played a lovely clear open A string MHD) and then she did her thank you bow. He has a very good gauge of how much she can learn pleasantly before balking.


• Mr S and Mima spoke briefly about when a student might be encouraged to “discover” things in the musical realm, and when he would prefer that a song or skill be formally introduced (such as is done in Nora’s Montessori curriculum). He said that he has students “discovering” the notes(by “ear”) to non Suzuki tunes as early as the middle of book one, but he would rather that all the Suzuki songs be introduced in the lesson before Nora attempts to play them by “ear”. Mima noted that Nora has not to date shown any inclination to just play her violin by herself out of the context of the practice partnership. Mr S said to Mima and Nora that Nora is welcome to name any of the pieces that she recognizes from the recording, even if they have not been specifically assigned.


• And on the home front, we are working to get Nora to participate in practice sessions with her violin, regularly and without resistance. This process, where Nora’s ability to play a note and make a good sound on her violin fluctuates significantly from week to week, is a challenge for the whole family. For example, we now need to redo and fix the original violin set, as well as work on more complex tasks such a bowing and fingering. However, Mr S assures Mima that progress on a multifaceted task such as violin playing, is not in a straight line up, or even in a series of upward spikes, but is often in a series of up and down U shapes (he drew a picture in the notebook) with a series of very low troughs between the up arcs. And we all want to keep in mind that practicing what Mr S tells us to do should eventually make these skills easier for Nora to execute. And when these small bits of technique are easier, Nora will be able to discover that she is actually playing a song, something that has not actually happened yet.