tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47481462905541413392024-03-05T16:38:55.666-08:00clemantine's violintwo bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-24879175186492273712012-01-07T10:48:00.000-08:002012-01-07T11:05:24.463-08:00Nora's violin... 4 years laterNora wanted me to post something on her blog again, so here is an outtake from her <a href="http://youtu.be/Cpld7JGxLMs">Minuet 2 dress rehearsal</a> today.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-59861337944497468352008-01-24T17:18:00.000-08:002008-01-24T17:20:02.002-08:00Lesson Friday 1/18/2008 Lesson 29<b>Practice List Friday 1/18/2008 Lesson 29</b><br />Practice List: <br /><ol><br /> <li>MHD both type of sandwich, (play bread / play PB&J) with the space for getting ready fast whispered by parent “MHD” (later just “hot dog”)</li><br /> <li>Royal Violin Set for X count down between 10 – 20 +</li><br /> <li>Bow Rub MHD Sandwiches: Rubba dubba dub dub” in the playground.</li><br /> <li>Clean water sandwiches</li><br /> <li>Note Cards – sing, play, sing</li><br /> <li>Poem for Thursday</li><br /> <li>Amy Beach Mazurka – about Amy Beach for Friday</li><br /></ol><br /><ol><br /> <li>MHD sandwich “Bow Rub” practice. Both sandwiches: play bread, sing PB&J, play bread AND sing bread, play PB&J and, sing bread. Use parent whispered MHD space for getting ready. Each MHD unit should be bowed with bow hair giving the string a good rub (not a light tickle) and bow should stay in the yellow playground tape. “ Rubba dubba dub dub” in the playground. He gave gentle reminders along the way, such as, remember your Posture (as he corrected the violin position) and “Ouch” when she was pressing too hard with a finger on the finger board. Occasionally he will guide her right elbow for the Open Door.</li><br /> <li>Getting Ready Fast practice may move from a parent whispered MHD in between notes to just the “hot dog” when Nora is ready.</li><br /> <li>From last week, not the major emphasis this week, but still important. MHD sandwich practice 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 sandwiches leaving the getting ready space whispered in rhythm by parent. 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.</li><br /> <li>Note Cards – practice these in the see, sing, Nora play the note on her violin and then sing again correcting her pitch. Violin says up for all the note cards.</li><br /> <li>Princess or Royal 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. Parent should place violin in at an angle with scroll of violin higher than chinrest. Keep extending the count down so that Nora can hold this position. These sets were not specifically mentioned at the lesson, however Nora did very well with her violin sets.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>POEM for Thursday.</li><br /> <li>Amy Beach for Friday, including knowing something about Amy Beach, as well as the piece (Mazurka).</li><br /></ol>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-53437747652077361492008-01-15T17:17:00.000-08:002008-01-24T17:17:43.609-08:00Lesson Tuesday 1/15/2008 Lesson 28<b>Practice List Tuesday 1/15/2008 Lesson 28 </b><br /><br />Practice List: <br /><ol><br /> <li>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).</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>Goal to work toward from lesson 24 - practice for 5 minutes without stopping.</li><br /></ol><br /><br />Notes:<br /><ul><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>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).</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /></ul>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-86619886564426235232008-01-13T16:51:00.000-08:002008-01-13T16:56:32.713-08:00Friday 1/11/2008 Violin Lesson 27<b>Practice List Friday 1/11/2008 Lesson 27 </b><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FmZ20rex3aM"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FmZ20rex3aM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><b>Practice List</b> <br /><ol><br /> <li>MHD Twinkle part “Sandwich” Practice with Spaces for Getting Ready on Time with rhythmic focus (2 kinds of part sandwich: playing the bread or playing the PB&J sections of Twinkle Variation) Practice exercise to learn to “play fast slowly”</li><br /> <ul><br /> <li>Nora quickly prepares her finger and bow for the next note in the space as her parent partner) softly says (whispers)and/or claps a rhythmic “Mississippi Hot Dog” between each note of her part sandwich.</li><br /> <li>Get fingers and bow ready really fast and be rhythmic – begin playing as soon as the MHD rhythm is clapped or whispered</li><br /> <li>Be sure to take a bit more time for the swing – open back – drop D sequence</li><br /> <li>Nora can clap MHD while parent plays half sandwich and parent gets ready fast in the “space”. Clapping was more rhythmic than Nora’s speaking MHD. First just clap and work toward rhythmic speaking later.</li><br /> <li>We should expect that when first learning this challenging exercise that Nora may not be able to maintain some of her other violin skills such as open elbow and using the bow on the playground</li><br /> <li>Video clips show Mr S doing this exercise with Nora</li><br /> <li>Mr S says she can also do HB and SBB (at some point in the future).</li><br /> <li>When she has completed 15 complete sandwiches (she sings the opposite part) in this “play fast slowly” manner she should tell Mr S and Nora can then press his red “Easy” button to see what it will do!</li><br /> </ul><br /><li>Note Cards are shown to Nora when she has violin: Nora is to sing pitch, play MHD pitch and sing pitch again. Work especially on B versus D. Use a variety of note card games.</li><br /> <li>Song Identification A List and B List</li><br /> <ul><br /> <li>B list of songs that Nora takes more time or has a hard time identifying. Work on these more.</li><br /> <li>Minuet 1 and Gossec’s Govotte were added at the evening group class. Andantino begins with an accent!</li><br /> </ul><br /> <li>Goal to work toward from lesson 24 - practice for 5 minutes without stopping.</li><br /> <li>Review: choose exercises from previous lessons so that Nora can keep working on specific techniques in isolation</li><br /> <ul><br /> <li>Open door elbow on open strings this week</li><br /> <li>Stay in yellow tape bow playground, do not go below bottom of yellow tape</li><br /> </ul><br /> <li>Violin Set Review from Group Class or Mima</li><br /></ol><br /><br /><b>Private Lesson Notes:</b><br /><ol><br /> <li>Nora asked Mr S what pieces in the Suzuki books were written by girls (women). He had a brief and frank discussion with her about the fact that back in that early time women were often discouraged from becoming composers and that this was a bad thing. He said that we could find some special listening pieces composed by women and he suggested Amy Beach in particular. Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn were also mentioned.</li><br /> <li>Using the “What Book” Mr S remembered to ask for Nora’s special listening piece first in this lesson. With some pauses and hesitations and a couple of hints, Nora told him that (Wolfgang) “Amadeus Mozart composed Serenade in G, Eine kleine Nachtmusik performed by the Mainz Orchestra”. Mima needs to remember to give Mr S a copy of our listening piece notes so he can help Nora recall some of the details.</li><br /> <li>She asked him if she could do the bow poem in her lesson (she even told him that she practiced it at home) and he told her that he would do the bow poem exercise in the evening group class. After the question was asked and answered a second time, she accepted this without further difficulty.</li><br /> <li>He asked the Nora remain on her foot chart (not going off of the chart onto the rug) for her entire lesson, and she did this (although a few times she was crouched down curled up on the chart as she listened to a song for identification.</li><br /> <li>She showed improvement on her song identification although she still needs work on her “B” list songs and even Mima mistook Andantino for Allegretto today.</li><br /> <li>Nora improved in her ability to know and sing the music notes on her note cards. He worked on E and F#, repeating these note intervals many times to help her. She also needed particular help with B versus D.</li><br /> <li>Behavior: Cooperation versus Participation. At the point in the lesson where Mr S wanted Nora to play her Twinkle sandwich part with the new “get ready fast in the rhythmic space” technique, Nora balked. (We had a very hard time doing this exercise at home.) She made a nice bow hold, but did not do the first step of soft knees, and in fact, she squinted her eyes, looked out the window and actually locked her knees backward. Mr S spoke softly and worked gently but firmly with her, explaining that she needed to participate with him so that she could learn in this lesson. Nora stayed physically with him on her foot chart, even as she was defying his instructions, and Mima kept quiet, sitting just behind Nora and out of her line of vision. After a few (long) minutes, Mr S expertly brought Nora around, so that she followed his instructions and played for him. After seeing how difficult the original exercise was for her, he asked her to say or clap the “rhythmic MHD space” while he played the notes, preparing each one silently as she clapped the rhythm. She was able to clap a rhythmic MHD. She had difficulty saying/singing/whispering a clean rhythmic MHD. He then had her play the notes (get her notes ready on time) as he whispered and/or clapped the rhythmic MHD space. This took away the burden of her trying to speak the rhythm in the space while she was preparing to play her next note. Although this was not discussed at the lesson, Nora was never able to whisper the rhythm, or any other words in her home practice sessions. At this point, Nora executes a “whisper” only when in close proximity to someone else’s ear, and this activity for Nora appears to be less about speaking softly and more about blowing breath into the other person’s ear. All in all, the clapping worked much better than the whispering! Mr S was careful not to ask more of Nora than she could manage, but he did require her to participate to the extent that she could. After she played two sandwich parts using the “get ready in the rhythmic space” technique, he had her do her note card singing. He was careful to end on an upbeat note and she gave him a sincere and well executed “thank you bow” at the end of her portion of the lesson. Mr S later told Mima that he prefers to use the word “participation” rather than “cooperation” when referring to these situations. Mima understood him to explain that participation indicates the idea of a collaborative effort on the part of the teacher/parent and the student. Cooperation can denote more of a situation where the teacher/parent is an autocrat and the pupil might be relegated to following orders.</li><br /> <li>More Behavior: When Mr S was teaching and talking with Mima, Nora was jumping on the couch and moving the couch cushions out of place. Both Mima and Mr S told Nora that this was not acceptable behavior, and after a defiant half minute, she stopped. After the lesson, we got into the car and both decided to drive straight home today. It was raining outside and there was an early evening violin group class in the evening. We spent a pleasant afternoon playing a variety of 4 year old games and activities.</li><br /></ol><br /><br />Further Explanations:<br /><ul><br /> <li>Story Format: for SP, Special Listening Piece Recitation on Friday. “_______ composed ___ _________, and it was conducted or performed by __________ , on the ________ (violin) or with the __________ Orchestra”</li><br /> <li>Poem recitation Tuesday, look at Mr S.</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><b>Group Class:</b><br />Note = Hand Position = Movement<br />A = bottom of chin = sit down<br />E = top head, hairline = stand up<br />F# = above head = jump<br />D = forehead/eyebrow = touch shoulder<br />C# = nose = touch waist<br />B = lips = touch toes<br /><br /><ul><br /> <li>ID songs from beginning and also when played starting in middle, or just first notes</li><br /> <li>Dynamics: pianissimo - piano - metso piano - metso forte – forte - fortissimo</li><br /> <li>Tell at what dynamic a song has just been played by the teacher.</li><br /> <li>Bow Poem *looking at leader, eye contact, tip up and not rushed</li><br /> <li>Bow Poem with Dynamics</li><br /> <li>MHD HB SBB Twinkles wait for proper cue before playing example: “ E listen” “E play” “E monkey” (don’t play!)</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><b>Notes Jan 11th Group Class 5:30 PM:</b><br /><ol><br /> <li>Clapping rhythms – must wait for the instructions “ready clap” or “ready knees” in the Do what I say and not what I do Game.</li><br /> <ul><br /> <li>Several children had trouble with this, but after one instance where Nora was the only one clapping alone incorrectly, she was visibly upset and even tearing up, but she stood on her foot chart and calmed herself down so that she was able to enthusiastically participate in the rest of the class.</li><br /> <li>Mr S then changed the “game” and he would clap a rhythm and then say “wait …. wait …. wait …. ready clap” at which point the children were supposed to clap the rhythm that he had clapped.</li><br /> <li>After many repetitions, Mr S found that some children had more difficulty than others when asked to “wait” while remembering what rhythm he had clapped.</li><br /> <li>Nora was able to clap a rhythm after the “wait” period, and this exercise was particularly suited to her, since she had had difficulty with clapping before the “ready clap” cue. In this game “ready crocodile” does not work!</li><br /> <li>Some children had difficulty with recalling the rhythm after the “wait” , others had soft, inaudible or less rhythmic clapping. One student had a crisp clean clapping rhythm.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <li>Children were asked to name a song for Mr S to play while they walked and stopped walking when the music started and stopped. Nora answered first with “MHD” and Mr S played some very fancy versions of this familiar tune, as the kids really followed him well in this game.</li><br /> <li>He did the bow poem exercise and all children volunteered to lead. Nora has been so very eager to lead this poem, and she even has asked to practice it at home. Nora again did not get chosen to lead the poem (2 chances), but she was able to overcome her disappointment and participate in the exercise, even answering his question about what was an important aspect of the bow poem, “keeping the tip pointing UP. Many of the children had significant difficulty with this; and although Nora’s tip was up for almost all of the poem, even her tip was not straight up for the very last line.</li><br /> <li>Waiting in line and not being first. Nora tolerated not being first in line to get her violin tuned. Even with his admonition for the children to take their time getting their very best nice soft bow holds, Nora was first in line with her bow hold which was really quite well formed.</li><br /> <li>Having fun but not fooling around with the violin. Nora was able to resist some typical childish wildness with the violins in the early part of the class, and with just a bit of encouragement, she remained on her foot chart waiting for the class to begin. She continued to pay attention to the teacher and to look toward the leader much more consistently than ever before (for nearly the entire class session).</li><br /> <li>Violin Set Review</li><br /> <ul><br /> <li>Nora’s shoulders should remain square, facing front, not twist</li><br /> <li>Parent can hold ring finger and pinky of right hand above the violin rib so that these fingers can guide Nora’s left shoulder</li><br /> <li>Take care to place violin button more to side not front of Nora’s neck and don’t let her move it more to the front</li><br /> <li>Be much more firm and decisive when placing the violin on the side of Nora’s neck</li><br /> <li>General comment about clothing: Turtle Neck shirts are second worst to wear for violin sets, and the worst shirts are those with large collars and especially collars with buttons on the tabs. Nora was OK with her round neck dress opening.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <li>Song ID (stand up/sit down), Nora participated well, strong on many of the songs and less sure for songs such as “Aunt Rhody”. None of the children could name the 2 songs he eventually gave as “Mystery Songs”, Minuet 1 and Gossec’s Gavotte. Nora did come up with these names completely on her own, when our car was about 2 blocks away from the church where the class was held! In class, she looked like she thought she knew what they were, and she even said out loud that he had not taught one of the songs (Gossec’s Gavotte) to them. On further consideration, Nora may be having particular trouble with this “we did not learn it yet” aspect of the class. She has a solid understanding of the Montessori guideline that says that the children may only participate in activities which have been formally presented by the teacher. Thus Nora seems to be visibly confused by these Suzuki questions that probe the literature hitherto unassigned and unstudied, even though the songs are on her volume 1 recording. Clearly we have a bit of “homework” to do with Nora in terms of explaining differences in teaching philosophies.</li><br /> <li>From previous group class Nora will need to learn the same “listen and wait” rhythmic routine. E listen, E play (and do not play if the instruction is “E monkey”)</li><br /></ol>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-64517484558620106022008-01-08T17:15:00.000-08:002008-01-24T17:15:36.021-08:00Lesson Tuesday 1/8/2008 Lesson 26<strong>Practice List Tuesday 1/8/2008 Lesson 26 </strong> <br /><br />Practice List <br />1. MHD Twinkle “Sandwich” Practice (2 kinds of sandwich alternating singing and playing for bread and PB&J sections of Twinkle)<br />a. Practice exercise to learn to “play fast slowly”<br />i. Nora (helped by her parent partner) softly says (whispers) a rhythmic “Mississippi Hot Dog” between each note of her sandwich as she quickly prepares her finger and bow for the next note.<br />ii. Get fingers and bow ready really fast and be rhythmic<br />iii. When she has completed 15 sandwiches in this “play fast slowly” manner she should tell Mr S and Nora can then press his red “Easy” button to see what it will do!<br />iv. Be sure to take a bit more time for the swing – open back – drop D sequence<br />v. Mr S says she can also do HB and SBB<br /><br />2. Note Cards are shown to Nora when she has violin: Nora is to sing pitch, play MHD pitch and sing pitch again <br /><br />3. Song Identification <br />a. Make an A list of songs that Nora can identify every time (such as Allegro). <br />b. B list of songs that Nora takes more time or has a hard time identifying. Work on these more.<br />c. Song names in the cup can be one method for this. Do the harder ones more often.<br /><br />4. Eye contact for presentations of poem and listening piece<br />5. Goal to work toward from lesson 24 - practice for 5 minutes without stopping.<br />6. Review: choose exercises from previous lessons as warranted<br />Notes:<br />1) Nora stayed close to Mr S (he calls this staying in the teaching bubble) for the entire lesson. In fact she crept very close to him and seemed to nearly hang on him at times in her apparent eagerness to see him again. Hair and clothing were not problems and she followed directions quite well.<br />2) He described that Nora should be singing the song in her brain while she is playing rather than thinking of thoughts and words that she wants to say.<br />3) Nora chose to do a Stop Big Bow and a Huckleberry sandwich for Mr S, but when she did her singing parts she sang Mississippi Hot Dog! He then asked her to do MHD sandwiches for him. We told Mr S that Nora has practiced MHD sandwiches for the last several weeks and Mima said that this was still a challenge.<br />4) Mr S started the lesson with song ID. Nora easily named Lightly Row, Go Tell Aunt Rhody, Long Long Ago, Allegro and Allegretto. She at first thought Song of the Wind was Perpetual Motion, but corrected herself on the second guess. She took extra time to get Andantino and May Song, but did get them. She had significant difficulty with Perpetual Motion and when he said it had the doubles she guessed that it was Etude. He said that we should work harder (review more times) our “B” list songs, the songs she misses more often.<br />5) Nora gave her poem “One Two Buckle My Shoe” and looked right into Mr S’s eyes on the second recitation.<br />6) He told Nora and Mima about the Playing Fast Slowly concept and even asked Nora to tell him what she learned in the lesson. She was able to tell him that she needed to “move her finger fast” and “get ready fast” (the bow too!). He told Mima that as Nora got more advanced she would learn to do this “getting ready fast slowly” exercise on MHD twinkle saying just the “Hot Dog” and lastly by saying just the “Dog” as she prepares her next note.<br />Further Explanations:<br />7) 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” <br />8) Poem recitation Tuesday, look at Mr S.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-57972161607999424672007-12-22T09:42:00.001-08:002007-12-22T09:42:46.938-08:00Violin Lesson Friday December 21, 2007A. Mr S Congratulated Nora on:<br />1. Bow hand hold becoming very natural for her<br />2. Keeping violin up the whole time and playing without wiggles<br />3. Using open door arm <br />4. Playing in playground tape better than before<br /><br />B. Key element of lesson: <br />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!<br />Explanation:<br />1. Just lightly touch (never press) and pop off, no squeezing. Touch and get off the string. <br />2. Soft finger pops back (rather than straight up) and moves from the base of the finger, the lowest joint closest to the hand.<br />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.<br />4. Touch is a happy word, press is not, “don't hurt the string” be gentle. <br />5. He said that one may also add the thumb moving away from the neck as an additional exercise.<br /><br />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.<br /> 1. She self corrected several notes that did not get a good sound and let him help her on a few.<br /> 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!<br /><br />D. Other points of the lesson for her Sandwich practice.<br />1. He said that she should work more on her SWING (open back) drop D<br />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.<br /><br />3. Play with shoulders “square” not a twisted trunk. (Left knee soft)<br /> a. Pretend that there is a string from Nora's belly button to her practice parent in the chair in front of her.<br /> b. Keep her nose, scroll toe alignment<br /> i. While her belly faces forward<br /> 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)<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-72526651071324450592007-12-17T17:42:00.000-08:002007-12-17T17:43:08.392-08:00Violin Lesson 12/14/07<strong>Practice List Friday 12/14/2007 Lesson 23 Week 12 <br /><br />Practice List Daily</strong><br />1. 5 MHD A string & 5 MHD E string w/ “open door” what we will now call the bow arm opening at elbow<br />a. In order to count as one of the five they must be:<br />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.<br />ii. Open elbow joint to see smiley face that was penned on inside of her elbow<br />b. Smiley face drawn on inside of R elbow will be visible when bow is correct<br /><br />2. MHD Twinkle Dessert Practice –* NEW fix it or move on Game for “open door”<br />a. Nora plays her own bread when she sings the PB & J<br />b. NEW Nora plays her own PB & J when she sings the bread<br />c. Keep doing both play / sing variations of this practice<br />d. Do some (at least half?) of these as “my turn” “your turn” <br />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<br />f. raise just bow arm over head, smile, red feet and bow<br />g. *If her arm opens at elbow (open door) go in the next note, if not, play note again with “open door”<br />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.<br /><br />3. Note Cards shown to her when she has violin to play them using MHD rhythm (not done this lesson keep doing this)<br />a. Nora looks at the card<br />b. Sings the note she sees<br />c. Plays MHD rhythm for the note<br />d. Sing the note again<br />e. Next card do the same<br /><br />4. Song Identification Specific Project “Is it ____ or ____?” keep doing these<br />a. Aunt Rhody vs Long Long Ago *still difficult try to explain that notes go up (LLA) or down (GTAR)<br />b. Perpetual Motion vs (Etude, Song of Wind. May Song, Allegretto, Andantino)<br />c. Allegretto vs Andantino<br />d. NEW: play 3 notes using extremes first and ask if they are going higher or lower (up or down)<br /><br />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.<br /><br />6. Crossed Violin hand off and thank you bow * remember to say thank you for teaching me …<br /><br />7. Eye contact for presentations of poem and listening piece<br /><br /> <br />Further Explanations:<br />- 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” <br />- Poem recitation Tuesday, look at Mr S.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-65970433764854642862007-12-11T18:57:00.000-08:002007-12-17T18:57:57.505-08:00Violin Lesson Tuesday 12/11/2007<b>Practice List Tuesday 12/11/2007 Lesson 22 Week 12 <br /><br />Practice List Daily</b><br />1. NEW: 5 MHD A string & 5 MHD E string w/ bow arm opening at elbow<br />a. In order to count as one of the five they must be:<br />i. In playground especially do not go below the bottom of tape (error of playing above the tape is less problematic)<br />ii. Open elbow joint to see smiley face that was penned on inside of her elbow<br />b. Smiley face drawn on inside of R elbow will be visible when bow is correct<br /><br />2. MHD Twinkle Dessert Practice<br />a. Nora plays her own bread (not model and then your turn)<br />b. Keep doing both play / sing variations of this practice<br />i. Sing & sign the bread and Play the two peanut butter and jelly parts, then sing and sign the bread to end.<br />ii. Play bread (herself) and sign and sing the two peanut butter and jelly parts, then Play the bread (herself) to end.<br />1. * raise just bow arm (not fiddle)<br />2. smile and bow<br /><br />3. NEW: Note Cards shown to her when she has violin to play them with MHD<br />a. Nora looks at the card<br />b. Sings the note she sees<br />c. Plays MHD rhythm for the note<br />d. Sing the note again<br />e. Next card do the same<br /><br />4. Song Identification Specific Project “Is it ____ or ____?”<br />a. Aunt Rhody vs Long Long Ago<br />b. Perpetual Motion vs (Etude, Song of Wind. May Song, Allegretto, Andantino)<br />c. Allegretto vs Andantino<br /><br />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.<br /><br />6. Crossed Violin hand off and thank you bow<br /><br />7. Eye contact for presentations of poem and listening piece<br /><br /> <br />Notes:<br /><ol><br /> <li>We missed the last lesson because Nora had a cold.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>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!</li><br /> <li>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!</li><br /> <li>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?</li><br /> <li>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#.</li><br /> <li>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.</li><br /> <li>She followed most of his directions the first time, but needed one or two repetitions for such things as getting on her green feet.</li><br /> <li>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!</li><br /></ol>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-52057854994355877332007-12-02T18:05:00.000-08:002008-12-10T02:19:16.964-08:00Nora's first group recitalThe 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. <br /><br />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:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2CQaXxRFHG9SwOTt4bvIS0gST735FcqbOJdvkTY3AGeKJycvrRaVZMpywMW0O5_9AduTMQ8JQgobvsdEDjPsuS9EpaY_icIdaZy-eWo8caqpcbGFJrZNYaYQCqvYdqRK-j5Pzj_HsQ-yu/s1600-r/DSC06014-1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSFkCZ0OhNqql_NTUTPguQILMV_xXvCkpx4YtPQ5LVrEFXI8ToNB3Eur1nbR8jW1b2148JY5CS1CSXj9TLjujR0tLPEA5YF3lFCWekYfHG2PQAQ2I2XUZDHqCscnOBo4gvGk9JnbzyOXiA/s400/DSC06014-1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139566268197673842" /></a><br /><br />Then the children put their violins down for the clapping and singing, with bows after each:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQQMlY_7uXDRcxh7Kxu6MiJI5G6bbCcvmUtBR5HWzUz8zYAOOt7coeWsxqiiMMQES4Dlljc7cUvB58ieqCiS_k3sN3CPxiyh2nNVsNJ0mwk4R32iIYvgKwH_EmcVTFoqtXzrbE4wr4Bz7k/s1600-r/DSC06018-1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEz7rviGoLnUsKo9qxyR9cCRvuHj5I9wBitRm94nMz9LKU-SqPAyS8d158paXXvMEH66B8NccuUItHEcIwbn5bB-9PxNU_RyMLKPXrB2WVWC7rnhSObhid4w90ISxwt9XR1n9pt7NBU41e/s400/DSC06018-1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139565654017350498" /></a><br /><br /><br />They were all very proud to be part of such a wonderful concert:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif2Mt2WuKGplpunByZvHO695jrKEfI4ea8nQAdeAhNq6m4D_mppV5mXWwPWALbdaYwth42O_-v6uFqdw9sjM3HZhC9XoTa3LsCsheM2fn-E58jWyorxin8bEqm39AQqLkMCFJrIQ_bb7TO/s1600-r/DSC06015-1.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ilL-iGrAVxTd6kIsR1AJYUSGY_dkyIGVB0wB1idpnld3Fgr58VvCUG3Ysi-YFTYOjrQQd-bFyRGsXhbLp_qfbzYMHsXM2FRxqTj9RD_a3wKm92PZDDl-etiSnIEFD_ViLlU8JlmZCKCP/s400/DSC06015-1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139563845836118866" /></a>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-6264487555954809682007-11-28T18:33:00.000-08:002007-11-28T18:37:38.593-08:00Violin lesson Tuesday 11/27/2007Nora plays the whole first "bread" part of MHD:<br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rB8t2ckAkM8"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rB8t2ckAkM8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br /><strong>Practice List Tuesday 11/27/2007 Lesson 18 Week 10 </strong><br /><br />Practice List <br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />a. Assignment: Do the Whole Song 3 times every day!!!<br />b. NEW: The new dessert exercise is as follows<br />i. Nora plays one slice of “bread” A E F# E D C# B A <br />ii. Nora sings the peanut butter & the jelly EDC#B EDC#B <br />iii. Nora plays one slice of “bread” A E F# E D C# B A<br />iv. (hand violin to parent when doing the singing parts)<br /><br />c. NEW: use “walking fingers” with split second timing for the pop off and transfer.<br />d. KEY: bow arm opens at elbow need to grow.<br />e. Nora chooses MHD, HB, or SBB as rhythm to use for this new “Bread Dessert”. <br /><br />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)<br /><br />4. Pitch Training: A, E, F# C# NEW: D and B, singing, hand signs and movements <br />a. KEY: Hear pitch for one note on the violin, then sing the name of the note with the hand sign<br />b. Sing the pitch, hear the pitch, then pitch match if needed<br />c. NEW: add the note card for D ….. and perhaps B as well<br /><br />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<br />6. Keep green feet, head back on chin rest, bow on one lane of road, soft left knee, no twisting<br />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. <br />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. <br />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” <br />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)<br />11. Bow sets with “bumpy thumb” then maintain bow in tip up position<br />12. Violin sets for count of 10 seconds and work to more<br />13. Finger tapping thumb to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th finger<br />14. Get violin to rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me _______.<br />15. Vocabulary: Dynamics<br />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<br />17. Listening Piece Story for Friday<br />18. Poem for Tuesday *still needs eye contact as primary objective<br /><br />Notes:<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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”.<br />a) He gave her the following note sequence: A E F# E D C# B <br />b) He said we could give her “scale” sequences to help her find the notes<br />c) Nora was able to sing “A” without sticking out her tongue (a major accomplishment!)<br />d) Nora is still learning all of the pitches and benefits from repetitions.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /> <br />5) Steps in “dessert” entire “BREAD”, fade verbal cues as Nora does these steps independently<br />• “Green Feet”<br />• “Soft Knees”<br />• “Soft Bow Hand”<br />• “TURN HEAD”<br />• “DROP HEAD”<br />• (Mima can swing Nora’s left arm to make sure it is soft and relaxed)<br />• “Thumb Pillow”<br />• “Tickle Spot”<br />• “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.<br />• “Reach A”<br />• “my turn” (a variety of cues can be used here, such as A listen, A play)<br />• “your turn”) (she really improved on this and is rarely playing too soon now!)<br />• drop E<br />• “my turn” “your turn”)<br />• touch F#<br />• “”my turn” – “your turn”<br />• “pop off”<br />• “my turn”– “your turn”<br />• “swing”<br />• “open back<br />• “drop D”<br />• “float bow” (to A string)<br />• “D listen”<br />• “D play”<br />• “C# listen”<br />• “C# play”<br />• “B listen”<br />• “B play”<br />• <br />NEW: use “walking fingers”.<br />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. <br />ii) This is essentially independent fingering not “block fingering”. <br />iii) Nora now has a 2nd finger tape on her violin.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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. <br />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.<br /><br />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. …. <br />8) Remember to place fingers 1st, 2nd 3rd)on string at thumb side corner (not verbalized to Nora, just be aware)<br /><br />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:<br />a) LOOK at the bow road<br />b) FEEL the correct placement for her fingers<br /><br />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.<br />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).<br />a) Mima needs to remember to place fingers on thumb side corners.<br />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).<br />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.<br /><br />Further Explanations:<br /><br />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)<br />a) Choose two Possible Variables <br />• Head back (Nora fixed her own head spontaneously a few times in today’s lesson)<br />• No twisting shoulders and trunk<br />• Use playground<br />• Nice sound<br /><br />b) After each MHD (on the dessert, or another playing practice exercise) the parent tells Nora<br />• “Fix it” and she needs to check and change her own head and twisted shoulders<br />• “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<br /><br />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.” <br />14) Poem recitation Tuesday, look at Mr S. <br /><br />Group Class for performance (Mima thinks this is right?):<br /> 0. parent will place foot chart at front of room<br />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)<br />2. SMILE (when hear clapping)<br />3. Place violin on chart<br />4. Look at leader – follow command for “green feet”<br />5. variation rhythms follow his “______ please” and clap hands, slap knees, stomp feet, pat cheeks, ____<br />6. hear a single note and sing the name of the note while making hand sign<br />7. pick up violin and put in rest position<br />8. BOW in rest position with “red feet” with SMILE (left arm straight down at side)<br /><br />Group Class Information:<br /><br />Note Hand Position Movement<br />A bottom of chin sit down<br />E top head, hairline stand up<br />F# above head jump<br />D forehead/eyebrow touch shoulder<br />C# nose touch waist<br />B lips touch toes<br /><br /><br />More Notes:<br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-87894755499407516562007-11-14T18:58:00.001-08:002007-11-14T18:58:45.868-08:00Nora playing the begining of MHD<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-4KP-jIXVD0&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-4KP-jIXVD0&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-64835602451394740052007-11-10T13:45:00.000-08:002007-11-11T07:09:21.319-08:00Violin Lesson Friday 11/9/2007 Lesson 16 Week 8Practice List Friday 11/9/2007 Lesson 16 Week 8 <br />Practice List <br /><br /><ol><br /> <li>Identification: NEW: AlleGR’etto, AN’dantino, Perpetual Motion. (Twinkle Variations, esp. Washington & Twinkle Slow) Lightly Row, Song of the Wind, Aunt Rhody, O’ Come Little Children, May Song, Long Long Ago, Allegro)</li><br /> <li>Pitch Training: A, E, F# C# NEW: Add D and B, singing, hand signs and movements (and last add note cards if we feel she is ready)</li><br /> <li>Violin sets for count of 10 seconds and work to more</li><br /> <li>Shoulder bowing of Twinkle Variations while singing along “Listen Please” “Your Turn” (may hold left arm across chest/waist to prevent twist)</li><br /> <li>Playing dessert (A E F# E, left side of hand leads left arm “swing”, and simultaneous body balance shift knees forward) KEY: at this point her 3rd finger should be in position to drop down on A string NEW variables: use whole yellow tape playground up to the new stopper band and make a nice sound. KEY: F# pop off is just 1st finger moving off, not fingers and hand opening away from fingerboard.</li><br /> <li>Keep green feet, head back on chin rest, bow on one lane of road, soft left knee, no twisting</li><br /> <li>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. Use “knees forward” not “bend” as cue.</li><br /> <li>Playing MHD, HB, SBB, Wash, My name on E string KEY: work for increased number of consecutive repetitions, playground amount of bow & listen for tone</li><br /> <li>Playing MHD on E string and A string with string crossing: “set 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”</li><br /> <li>“Fix it” or “Move on” Game: Object is to get all “Move Ons” as she plays dessert A E F# E (again not mentioned; we can work up to this challenge over time)</li><br /> <li>Listening Piece Story for Friday</li><br /> <li>Poem for Tuesday *still needs eye contact as primary objective</li><br /> <li>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</li><br /> <li>Bow sets with “bumpy thumb” then tip up</li><br /> <li>Finger tapping thumb to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th finger</li><br /> <li>Turn head to follow hand (not body and eyes should not move)</li><br /> <li>Getting violin into rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me Mr S”</li><br /> <li>Vocabulary: Dynamics</li><br /></ol><br /><br /><br />Notes:<br /><br />1) Nora stayed sitting/standing on her foot chart (directed by Mr S) as she named the songs and twinkle variations that Mr S played on her violin. After what appeared to be a warm up period where she was slow to answer and unsure, she then seemed to begin listening in earnest and her answers became faster and more reliable. He explained to her that she would get his direction to stand after she correctly named a song, but it was several songs past this point when she began answering with more confidence. There was no direction from Mr S nor was there an obvious difference in the procedure, it just appeared that about half way through this activity, Nora started fully participating! She answered most queries by listening and she did not actually watch/look at Mr S play the variations (though one would think that this could have helped her (?). At one point, after listening to “O Come Little Children” all the way through to the end and not saying the name, she sort of said to herself (looking down and not actually at Mr S) well, that has to be “O Come Little Children” because it is the only one with the ‘up bow, you can hear the up bow”. Mr S has not told her about the “up bow” but she certainly could have heard about it in group class observation, or even from Mima who is trying to remember the names of these songs by any manner available to her! Nora identified “Lightly Row” by sort of singing/humming it to herself as he played it, and this is often her way of figuring out this particular song. She listened to “Song of the Wind twice before saying the name. The first time he played “Allegro” she guessed that it was “May Song” and then “Song of the Wind”, before getting it correct. When he played it for her toward the end of this session she got it immediately. She incorrectly labeled “Washington” as “Huckleberry” and we do need to continue to review this one especially. He played “Perpetual Motion” and she named it correctly immediately after he gave to give her a hint that it was her new one. Then at the very end of this activity, as he said out loud that he thought perhaps he had missed one, Nora immediately, without hesitation, said that it was “Stop Big Bow”; and she was right! He added NEW: AlleGR’etto, and AN’dantino and said that it would help us to tell these two somewhat similar pieces apart if we pronounce them with different syllables accented. He also noted for us that AlleGR’etto starts on the open D string note, and AN’dantino begins with F# (on the D string …..made by, Mima noticed, placing the 2nd finger down on the D string). <br /><br />2) At the end of the lesson we reminded him that Nora had a special listening piece and she did a great job (nice clear voice and not too fast) of telling him that Johannes Brahms composed Hungarian Dance Number 1 in G minor played by (she had a pause here) ……………. Itzhak (said with quite a bit of enthusiasm as she found this name particularly interesting) Perlman on the violin. I have no idea about her eye contact as he did not mention it, and my seat is directly behind her so that her focus is on Mr S and not me. But eye contact will be important for her poem on Tuesday.<br /><br />3) Mom talked to Nora over the last 3 days about following directions and cooperating with her teacher Mr S at her lesson and today Nora did a fine job of both. Mima had just the faintest concern when Nora stayed seated and hesitated before following his first direction to stand on her green feet so that they could do pitch singing. After that Nora was very compliant for the entire lesson. While we are on the subject of behavior and distractions, her hair, in 3 bands done by mom, worked great and it remained a non-issue at the lesson. The scoop neck T-shirt seemed fine as well, but, the too long sleeves found their way into her mouth on several occasions during the pitch singing exercise, and the shirt was changed before group class in the evening. She had taken all the bands out by that late hour so Mima redid 2 bands and the hair was OK in the group class as well.<br /><br />4) Mr S played pitches on her violin and Nora was asked to sing what she heard. He commented that the hand signing seemed to really help her with her pitch learning. Nora correctly did A E F# and then she sang an A when it should have been an E. She then did one C# OK and confused another with F#. She is getting more comfortable with these notes/pitches and he added D and B. We are to do these as singing and hand signs before we add the note cards. <br /><br />5) He then did the 3rd finger tapping with Nora and at one point she was using her 2nd finger to do the tapping and it took her quite a while to change to the 3rd finger. This was a genuinely difficult task and she seemed to be giving it all her effort. He also asked her to make sure that the finger tapped right on her red tape. This exercise begins with the swing (includes the knees forward) movement.<br /><br />6) Last they did the F# Dessert Exercise that will be the beginning of MHD twinkle, though Nora has not realized this yet, and that is fine. Nora seems to be concentrating so hard for this and you can hear her hum/grunt along with her playing. He reminded us that when her 1st finger F# comes off the string her hand should remain in place and not open away from the fingerboard.<br /><br />7) Still Important: 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. 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. The touch on the string is so light that it may not depress the string enough to actually make a note that would sound. …. Until Tue lesson when he said he would give us the rest of this sequence.<br /><br />8) He demonstrated for Nora what he will be teaching us in the Tuesday lesson. After the E, Left hand “Swing”, “open back” “drop D” and then she will “Reach Bow” moving the bow from the E string to the A string, before actually playing MHD for the new note D cue is “play”.<br /><br />9) There will be no Friday lessons for the next two weeks so he is giving us plenty to keep us busy. He said that he has found that sometimes children can process and learn 3 new things at once more easily than they can master just one new thing.<br /><br />10) Nora told Mima that she did not get a chance to “write in her notebook” at the end of the lesson, and so we went back into the studio as quiet observers of the beginning of the next lesson. Nora sat quietly on the “red observer chair” and wrote in her notebook, stopping to give her full attention to the lesson when the 9-year-old girl played “May Song” beautifully with perfect intonation and a lovely bow arm. The violinist’s objective on this piece seemed to be that she was supposed to go to the frog of the bow on 100% of the opportunities. She accomplished this on her 2nd try and Nora watched very attentively for the entire “performance”. The girl stated her listening piece (a fairly complex recitation that included an orchestra and a conductor in addition to the violin soloist, Nadja Solerno Sonnenberg). She also gave a recitation of the first half of a long poem. We are indeed fortunate that Nora is able to just concentrate on one or the other for her twice-weekly lessons. <br /><br />11) When Nora returned from group class this evening, it was quite late, and it was even later when we finished dinner. Imagine our surprise when she announced that she wanted to practice right then and there with her mommy. And so they did! And it seemed that something was different in this, a very rare self initiated practice. Instead of just cooperating with what the adult was telling her to do, it seemed like Nora was trying to understand and learn what she needed to do in order to play the violin. Her concentration seemed different, more acute, and she made that new soft humming sound as she struggled to get her mind and body to perform all the small and large sequences that go into playing this instrument.<br /><br />Further Explanations:<br /><br />12) Steps in “dessert” A E F# E. Mima should give clear and rhythmic requests/instructions to Nora (some instructions use a variety of words meaning the same thing (“my turn” “your turn” has several variations)<br /><ul><br /> <li>“Green Feet”</li><br /> <li>“Soft Knees”</li><br /> <li>“Soft Bow Hand”</li><br /> <li>“TURN HEAD”</li><br /> <li>“DROP HEAD”</li><br /> <li>(Mima can swing Nora’s left arm to make sure it is soft and relaxed)</li><br /> <li>“Thumb Pillow”</li><br /> <li>“Tickle Spot”</li><br /> <li>“Set E”</li><br /> <li>“Reach A”</li><br /> <li>“my turn”</li><br /> <li>“your turn”)</li><br /> <li>drop E</li><br /> <li>“my turn” “your turn”)</li><br /> <li>touch F#</li><br /> <li>“”my turn” – “your turn”</li><br /> <li>“pop off”</li><br /> <li>“my turn”– “your turn”</li><br /> <li>“swing”</li><br /></ul><br /><br />13) Do 5 times a day Swing (far enough so that the 3rd finger can just drop down to touch the A string with no additional movement), “Open Back” 1st finger movement opening hand backward and 3rd finger dropping on A string NEW : tap 3rd finger on red tape on A string but not hard, just lightly touch. Pressure may not be enough to depress string and that is OK. : <br />• Only left hand, no bow needed<br />• “Open Back” : the first finger reaches back and a little down, left hand fingers fan open led by 1st finger movement back and down<br />• drop 3rd finger “D” to lightly touch the red tape on the A string (no squeeze)<br /><br />14) “Fix it” or “Move on” Game. The object is to get all “Move Ons” (not done in lesson and still quite new for us)<br /><br />a) Two Variables for the game at this point<br />• Head back (Nora fixed her own head spontaneously a few times in today’s lesson)<br />• No twisting shoulders and trunk<br /><br />b) After each MHD (on the dessert, or another playing practice exercise) the parent tells Nora<br />• “Fix it” and she needs to check and change her own head and twisted shoulders<br />• “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<br /><br />15) New Story Format: for Listening Piece Recitation worked well: “Johannes Brahms composed Hungarian Dance Number 1 in G Minor, and it was performed by Itzhak Perlman on the violin.” <br /><br />16) Dessert: F# on the E string (“set E”, “reach to A” “Drop to E” “touch F#”, “pop off” “swing”)<br /><br />a) A E F# E <br />b) On last E <br />• left side of hand leads (arm and elbow) (“swing”) slightly and body changes balance point so that knees come slightly forward<br />• Decrease tension, balance point is important<br />c) KEY: Listen for tone<br /><br />17) 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.<br /><br />18) Weekly Music listening presentation (piece, composer, musician * and working up to accompanist or orchestra) Friday (see new format above)<br /><br />Group Class<br /><ol><br /> <li>Standing in line, waiting, hand violin crossed, thank you</li><br /> <li>Notes A E F# D C# B (see below)</li><br /> <li>DYNAMICS</li><br /> <li>Bow Poem with tip up, good following and rhythm</li><br /> <li>Follow directions quickly: touch ____</li><br /> <li>Notes: hand motions and body positions review</li><br /> <li>Crossed arm violin hand off and “thank you”</li><br /> <li>Getting violin into rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me Mr S”</li><br /> <li>Moving and stopping quickly as music plays</li><br /> <li>ID Violin parts</li><br /> <li>Pizzicato versus Arco</li><br /> <li>Harmonic, Double Stop, Triple Stop, Quadruple Stop</li><br /> <li>Say ____ exactly when he points to you</li><br /> <li>Song identification (stand up/sit down, raise hand)</li><br /> <li>Game to find hidden bow using dynamics as Mr S plays twinkle variation louder as the children get closer to the hidden bow and softer as they get farther away.</li><br /></ol><br /><br />Group Class Information:<br />Note, Hand Position, Movement<br />A , bottom of chin , sit down<br />E, top head, hairline, stand up<br />F#, above head, jump<br />D, forehead/eyebrow, touch shoulder<br />C#, nose, touch waist<br />B, lips, touch toes<br /><br />19) During group class this evening, Nora was the caboose on a 3-person “train” (children behind each other holding onto the shoulders of the child ahead). The class of 3 moved around the room to find the hidden violin bow led by Mr S playing twinkle variations with dynamics. Nora did not like being the caboose of this train, but the “engine” was 5 years old and understood much better how to follow the clues of the dynamics to find the hidden bow. When Mr S hid Nora’s bow and the engine was the one to find and touch her bow first, Nora was visibly upset and near tears. Amazingly, she took few deep breaths, pulled herself together and got back on her green feet for the next activity. We did hear on the car ride home how unfair she felt that this had been. Never the less, it was good for her to be able to join back in the group activity, even after suffering what she felt was a trauma to her sensibilities. <br /><br />20) In the 5:30 evening group class, L and Nora (the only members present who had violins with them played some of their twinkle rhythms on the E string and A string following Mr S playing the “Listen Please” model on his own full sized violin. This was the very first time in class (private or group) that Nora played a rhythm on her violin without first having Mr S or a parent model it by moving her bow on her violin just before she did the “your turn” phase of this exercise. Nora had a bit of difficulty waiting for Mr S to play or complete the “Listen Please” portion of this new drill, and sometimes she started playing her part when he was still modeling. Nora did several of the sequences nicely on her own, though Mima kept her hands pretty close to the action. Sometimes Nora’s bow direction was confused (up for down) and sometimes she started bowing a rhythm different from the one that was modeled. Generally she and L kept together well for a first try at this task. An observer noted that L did this activity more independently, without the very close parent supervision and support that was given to Nora. Mima will have to monitor the situation to make sure that she is giving Nora enough freedom to learn in these types of situations. It is not easy for a parent/grandparent to judge how much help to provide, especially in a new activity. At one point L did loose control of her violin, and it fell to the floor (it was fine and suffered no damage).two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-60812274257744268652007-11-06T20:56:00.000-08:002007-11-06T20:57:11.277-08:00Violin Lesson Tuesday 11/6/2007 Lesson 15 Week 8Practice List Tuesday 11/6/2007 Lesson 15 Week 8 <br /><br />Practice List <br /><br />1. Identification: NEW: Perpetual Motion. (Twinkle Variations, Lightly Row, Song of the Wind, Aunt Rhody, O’ Come Little Children, May Song, Long Long Ago, Allegro)<br /><br />2. Singing and Hand Signing A, E, F# and C# memory game without cards<br /><br />3. Violin sets for count of 10 seconds<br /><br />4. Shoulder bowing of Twinkle Variations while singing along “Listen Please” “Your Turn” (may hold left arm across chest/waist to prevent twist)<br /><br />5. Playing dessert (A E F# E, left side of hand leads left arm swing and then bend knees) NEW variables: use whole yellow tape playground and make a nice sound. “You can do this for pennies.” “make it sound pretty”<br /><br />6. Keep green feet, head back on chin rest, bow on one lane of road, soft left knee, no twisting<br /><br />7. Do 5 times a day: Left hand Swing, 1st finger “Open Back, 3rd finger drops on A string and NEW “ Tap D” : tap 3rd finger lightly a few times on A. Do as separate practice exercise. (see #13 explanation)<br /><br />8. Playing MHD, HB, SBB, Wash, My name on E string KEY: work for increased number of consecutive repetitions & listen for tone<br /><br />9. Playing MHD on E string and A string with string crossing: “set 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<br /><br />10. “Fix it” or “Move on” Game: Object is to get all “Move Ons” as she plays dessert A E F# E (not mentioned this week)<br /><br />11. Listening Piece Story for Friday<br />12. Poem for Tuesday *still needs eye contact as primary objective<br /><br />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<br /><br />14. Bow sets with “bumpy thumb” then tip up<br /><br />15. Finger tapping thumb to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th finger<br /><br />16. Getting violin into rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me Mr S”<br /><br /><br />Notes:<br /><br />1) NEW:Mr S began lesson by asking us not to put any type of turtleneck shirt on Nora for lesson days and group class sessions. <br /><br />2) Nora stayed standing on her foot chart and named the songs and twinkle variations (mostly all correct) that Mr S played on her violin. She took a long time on Long Long Ago, but got it, and she twice missed Lightly Row (she said O Come Little Children as a first response) and she got Allegro after first thinking it was Song of the Wind. He added: Perpetual Motion, a piece that is not like any of the others and thus he does not think she will have a hard time learning it.<br /><br />3) Nora gave her Poem (she forgot the title and author), but his main concern was that she still does not give him eye contact as she recites the poem.<br /><br />4) Mr S had a hard time getting Nora to cooperate for the violin sets at the very beginning of the lesson (they were going to do the F# dessert). After he gave her a warning that it would be a shame to have to end the lesson early, she immediately responded and began following directions with more care. After the lesson he told Mima that I should be ready for him to unceremoniously end one of her lessons (what he terms a “million dollar lesson”) if she does not follow directions and cooperate. He does not want this to be “acrimonious”, but rather a learning experience so that she learns to quickly do what is asked to the best of her ability. He said that he may never have to do this, but he wanted me to be prepared just in case it happens.<br /><br />5) NEW: Nora turns her head to follow his hand. He did an exercise with her for her to turn her head (not her eyes) without turning her shoulders or twisting her body. Just her head should turn as she follows his hand.<br /><br />6) He did the pitch memory game giving her lots of running and failry complex movement sequences and some cognitive (counting type) tasks as well. Put the duck on the piano bench and jump 3 times, run and touch the door, give Mima a hug and return and sing C#. She did this enthusiastically and her pitches are improving though C# remains difficult.<br /><br />7) He did an activity where she had to follow his directions quickly (red feet, green feet, touch V, touch X) and she did this one fast and just fine.<br /><br />8) When he did violin dessert F# exercise 5 times, Nora did stay on her green feet, but she went up on tip toes a couple of times and this can cause loss of balance. He paced her carefully letting her know her status “that was two, here comes three”, “just two more left”. <br /><br />9) Mr S had Mima do the swing, open back and drop 3rd finger and tap exercise so that I could get a feel for how it is done. The swing should bring the hand forward so that the 3rd finger just drops down to touch on the A string. 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. The touch on the string is so light that it does not depress the string enough to actually make a note that would sound. <br /><br />10) We noticed that Nora’s bow hand fingers were mirroring the drop of the 3rd finger during her left hand exercise. Nothing was said to Nora about it and this is fine, and one reason for separating the violin and the bow hand at this point. Mr S spoke about exercises that he has used with other students to help with independent finger action and showed a few to Mima.<br /><br />a) He said that right now we should be sure to do the finger to thumb tapping exercises with Nora. At first she can do the same fingers on both hands and later we can progress to using different fingers, for example a first finger tap with the right hand and a 3rd finger tap with her left hand. <br />b) He also showed a thumb game (not for now). The student holds hands out with thumbs bent to begin. The game consists of the each thumb being either bent or straight up and the thumb position must be changed (up/down) each time he points to a thumb, right thumb and left thumb. He began by pointing to both thumbs at the same time but the game got more difficult as he pointed to the right and left at different times, or at the same time, but after they were in opposite starting positions positions.<br /><br />11) Steps in “dessert” A E F# E. Mima should give clear and rhythmic requests/instructions to Nora (some instructions use a variety of words meaning the same thing (“my turn” “your turn” has several variations)<br />• “Green Feet”<br />• “Soft Knees”<br />• “Soft Bow Hand”<br />• “TURN HEAD”<br />• “DROP HEAD”<br />• (Mima can swing Nora’s left arm to make sure it is soft and relaxed)<br />• “Thumb Pillow”<br />• “Tickle Spot”<br />• “Set E”<br />• “Reach A”<br />• “my turn”<br />• “your turn”)<br />• drop E<br />• “my turn” “your turn”)<br />• touch F#<br />• “”my turn” – “your turn”<br />• “pop off”<br />• “my turn”– “your turn”<br />• “swing and bend”<br /><br />12) Road for the bow has just one lane<br />• Stay in one place, do not let bow slide the lanes for the other (imaginary) cars.<br />• Stay in “your yard” the bow playground<br />• Keep your eyeballs in the bow<br />• Play just one string<br /><br />13) 4 year old posture no twisting toward left (10 seconds no twist)<br />• Soft left knee<br />• Relaxed right shoulder<br />• Head properly back on chin rest<br /><br /><br />14) Do 5 times a day Swing (far enough so that the 3rd finger can just drop down to touch the A string with no additional movement), “Open Back” 1st finger movement opening hand backward and 3rd finger dropping on A string NEW : tap 3rd finger on red tape on A string but not hard, just lightly touch. Pressure may not be enough to depress string and that is OK. : <br />• Only left hand, no bow needed<br />• “Open Back” : the first finger reaches back and a little down, left hand fingers fan open led by 1st finger movement back and down<br />• drop 3rd finger “D” to lightly touch the red tape on the A string (no squeeze)<br /><br />15) “Fix it” or “Move on” Game. The object is to get all “Move Ons” (not done in lesson and still quite new for us)<br /><br />a) Two Variables for the game at this point<br />• Head back (Mr S said he noticed that this was better in today’s lesson)<br />• No twisting shoulders and trunk<br /><br />b) After each MHD (on the dessert, or another playing practice exercise) the parent tells Nora<br />• “Fix it” and she needs to check and change her own head and twisted shoulders<br />• “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<br /><br />16) New Format: for Listening Piece Recitation will be more like a story: “Johannes Brahms composed Hungarian Dance Number 1 in G Minor, and it was performed by Itzhak Perlman on the violin.” <br /><br />17) Dessert: F# on the E string (“touch E, reach to A” “Drop to E” “touch F#”, “pop off” “swing” left arm and “bend” knees)<br /><br />a) A E F# E <br />b) On last E <br />• left side of hand leads (arm and elbow) (“swing”) slightly and knees bend a bit deeper<br />• Decrease tension, balance point is important<br />c) KEY: Listen for tone<br /><br />18) 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.<br /><br />19) Weekly Music listening presentation (piece, composer, musician * and working up to accompanist or orchestra) Friday (see new format above)<br /><br />Group Class<br />1. Standing in line, waiting, hand violin crossed, thank you<br />2. Notes A E F# D C# B (see below)<br />3. Bow Poem with tip up, good following and rhythm<br />4. Follow directions quickly: touch ____<br />5. Notes: hand motions and body positions review<br />6. Crossed arm violin hand off and “thank you”<br />7. Getting violin into rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me Mr S”<br />8. Moving and stopping quickly as music plays<br />9. ID Violin parts<br />10. Pizzicato versus Arco<br />11. Harmonic, Double Stop, Triple Stop, Quadruple Stop<br />12. Say ____ exactly when he points to you<br />13. Song identification (stand up/sit down, raise hand)<br /><br />Group Class Information for this Friday:<br /><br />Note, Hand Position, Movement<br />A , bottom of chin , sit down<br />E, top head, hairline, stand up<br />F#, above head, jump<br />D, forehead/eyebrow, touch shoulder<br />C#, nose, touch waist<br />B, lips, touch toes<br /><br /><br />Note from Mima to Mom Lisa the Monday before our Tue Lesson<br /><br />We had another really good practice this afternoon!<br />I used goldfish (her new idea) accumulating in a dish during the practice (up on the high book shelf so that it was away from the practice zone) and we had a piece of birthday cake with a frosting LEAF after. I also used pennies under her green feet for some of the practice items.<br /><br />I tried to be very clear about what we were doing in each session and gave her some choices. It has not worked in the past, but today it did work ... maybe I am learning to be clearer.<br />Nora understands that we are doing 3 short practices today and that you will be doing the evening practice. (Later note: this was a very short and good practice with good attention and good following directions, despite the fact that just prior to holding the violin, Nora pulled out both of her hair bands (and mom and Mima ignored this). Nora did one “open back and drop 3rd finger D” and one “ MHD dessert A E F# E swing and bend”. We are trying to end while it is still going well!<br /><br />Nora really helped me (Mima) this afternoon. She told me that she gets confused when I say "touch E" meaning that she should place the bow on the E string before it reaches/rocks over to the A string to begin the F# dessert exercise. She said it is confusing because when she hears the word “touch” she puts her first finger down for the "touch F#" and it makes a mistake on the A string. Moreover, you may recall that getting that open A first note has been hard because the first finger was often on the strings! Now we know that it is because we used the word “touch” as an instruction for the left hand first finger F# and later as an instruction for the bow position. Because Nora was really concentrating in the practice today, and because she is so articulate, I believe that we can make the F# practice easier for her. (Note from Tue Lesson: Mr S says to use the words “set E” for the instruction to put the bow on the E string.)<br /><br />Now, when I say “great practice”, I mean that it went smoothly in terms of Nora’s behavior and cooperation. Her overall posture was better; however, there are still violin skill issues. But, I am not as concerned about that stuff (head on rest, no twisting body, bow in one lane of the road, as these things will become easier over time. Everything should be easier if she can feel accomplishment (and hopefully some joy) from some good practices.<br /><br />I don’t expect that it will be hard to move away from these “treat rewards” as Nora gets a better idea of what we are doing in the practice sessions. I am pretty sure that I am really supposed to be using mostly “pebbles” and sometimes “pennies”, but maybe this will be a “don’t ask and don’t tell” situation.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-34980743888666101452007-11-03T19:35:00.000-07:002007-11-05T18:11:38.435-08:00Violin Lesson Friday 11/2/2007 Lesson 14 Week 7<b>Practice List Friday 11/2/2007 Lesson 14 Week 7 </b><br /><br />Nora learning left hand's swing, open [fingers fan] back, drop 3rd finger on the A string to make the note D: <br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9zj1xVp909A"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9zj1xVp909A" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br /><b>Practice List (things to concentrate on, new things added or explained today)</b><br />Practice List <br /><br />1. Identification of Twinkle Variations, Lightly Row, Song of the Wind, Aunt Rhody, O’ Come Little Children, May Song, Long Long Ago, Allegro.<br /><br />2. Singing and Hand Signing A, E, F# and C# using note cards and memory game<br /><br />3. Violin sets for count of 10 seconds<br /><br />4. Shoulder bowing of Twinkle Variations while singing along “Listen Please” “Your Turn” (may hold left arm across chest/waist to prevent twist)<br /><br />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”<br /><br />6. Keep green feet, head back on chin rest, bow on one lane of road, soft left knee, no twisting<br /><br />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<br /><br />8. Playing MHD, HB, SBB, Wash, My name on E string KEY: work for increased number of consecutive repetitions & listen for tone<br /><br />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<br /><br />10. “Fix it” or “Move on” Game: Object is to get all “Move Ons” as she plays dessert A E F# E<br /><br />11. Listening Piece Story for Friday<br />12. Poem for Tuesday eye contact<br /><br />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<br /><br />14. Bow sets with “bumpy thumb” then tip up<br /><br />15. Finger tapping thumb to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th finger<br /><br />16. Getting violin into rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me Mr S”<br /><br />Group Class<br />1. Standing in line, waiting, hand violin crossed, thank you<br />2. Notes A E F# D C# B (see below)<br />3. Bow Poem with tip up, good following and rhythm<br />4. Follow directions quickly: touch ____<br />5. Notes: hand motions and body positions review<br />6. Crossed arm violin hand off and “thank you”<br />7. Getting violin into rest position and thank you bow with words “thank you for teaching me Mr S”<br />8. Moving and stopping quickly as music plays<br />9. ID Violin parts<br />10. Pizzicato versus Arco<br />11. Harmonic, Double Stop, Triple Stop, Quadruple Stop<br />12. Say ____ exactly when he points to you<br />13. Song identification (stand up/sit down, raise hand)<br /><br /><br />Group Class Information for this Friday:<br /><br />Note Hand Position Movement<br />A bottom of chin sit down<br />E top head, hairline stand up<br />F# above head jump<br />D forehead/eyebrow touch shoulder<br />C# nose touch waist<br />B lips touch toes<br /><br /><br />Practice Notes:<br /><br />1) Steps in “dessert” A E F# E. Mima should give clear and rhythmic requests/instructions to Nora<br />• “Green Feet”<br />• “Soft Knees”<br />• “Soft Bow Hand”<br />• “TURN HEAD”<br />• “DROP HEAD”<br />• (Mima can swing Nora’s left arm to make sure it is soft and relaxed)<br />• “Thumb Pillow”<br />• “Tickle Spot”<br />• “Place bow on E”<br />• “Reach A”<br />• “listen please”<br />• “ A Play” (changed from “your turn”)<br />• drop E<br />• “listen please” – “E Play” (changed from “your turn”)<br />• touch F#<br />• “listen please” – “F# play”<br />• “pop off”<br />• “listen please” (E) – “E Play”<br />• “swing and bend”<br /><br />2) Road for the bow has just one lane<br />• Stay in one place, do not let bow slide the lanes for the other (imaginary) cars.<br />• Stay in “your yard” the bow playground<br />• Keep your eyeballs in the bow<br />• Play just one string<br /><br />3) 4 year old posture no twisting toward left (10 seconds no twist)<br />• Soft left knee<br />• Relaxed right shoulder<br />• Head properly back on chin rest<br /><br /><br />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<br />a) Only left hand, no bow needed<br />b) (this segment will eventually come after the pop off F#)<br />c) It is the next part of the “swing” preparation when the left hand leads the arm swing and the knees bend)<br />d) “Swing”<br />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<br />f) drop 3rd finger “D” to touch the new tape on the A string (no squeeze)<br /><br />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).<br /><br /><br />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)<br />a) Two Variables for the game at this point<br />• Head back (Mr S said he noticed that this was better in today’s lesson)<br />• No twisting shoulders and trunk<br />b) After each MHD (on the dessert, or another playing practice exercise) the parent tells Nora<br />• “Fix it” and she needs to check and change her own head and twisted shoulders<br />• “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<br /><br />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.” <br /><br />7) ( strategies & key ideas) from Previous Lessons:<br /><br />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)<br />a) A E F# E <br />b) On last E <br />• left side of hand leads (arm and elbow) (“swing”) slightly and knees bend a bit deeper<br />• Decrease tension, balance point is important<br />c) KEY: Listen for tone<br /><br />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.<br /><br />10) Weekly Music listening presentation (piece, composer, musician * and working up to accompanist or orchestra) Friday (see new format above)<br /><br /><br />Explanations and Notes:<br /><br />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.)<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!)<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br /><br />Additional Notes for Mom:<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-39692209308305654322007-10-26T20:05:00.000-07:002007-11-03T19:44:01.749-07:00A few violin video clips<strong>Nora will be 4 years old on Monday October 29th!</strong><br /><br />For fun, here are some clips of Nora from her practice sessions at home and in her lesson.<br /><br />Here is Nora rosining her bow ("one-and-two-and..."):<br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UcUa7vosy1M"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UcUa7vosy1M" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br />Here she is reciting her poem of the week (Hey Diddle Diddle) at night for Mommy and Daddy, with mischievious glee:<br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5LS51NRCEAE"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5LS51NRCEAE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br />Here is her first weekly music listening presentation (practice at home) which is "Hungarian Dance #7 in A major composed by Johannes Brahms, played by Sarah Chang on the violin." In the lesson, Nora presented this information and Mr. S said that in the future she will also say the name of the accompanying musician: <br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5WHK-z2Z0gE"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5WHK-z2Z0gE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br />Here is Nora playing the beginning of Mississippi Hot Dog Variation ("my turn, your turn"):<br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fVnSGQCcwNk"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fVnSGQCcwNk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-17283384776802656882007-10-26T17:16:00.000-07:002007-10-27T11:41:29.922-07:00Violin Lesson October 27 2007Practice List To Do, Friday 10/26/2007 Lesson 12 Week 6 <br />Practice List:<br /><strong><br />I. Identification of All Twinkle Variations, Lightly Row, Song of the Wind, Aunt Rhody and O’ Come Little Children. NEW: add May Song, Long Long Ago, Allegro<br />II. Singing and Hand Signing A, E and F# C#<br />III. Sing and clap variation rhythm (first part of twinkle “the bread”) while keeping total eye contact Bread = AA EE F# F# E D D C# C# B B A<br />IV. Bow sets with “bumpy thumb” then tip up<br />V. Shoulder bowing of twinkle rhythms (while singing), i.e. “listen please”<br />VI. KEY: Violin Sets with soft left knee and head back for count to #<br /> KEY: head on it’s own bed (chin rest and tail piece not violin wood on right side of tail piece)<br />VII. Playing MHD, HB, SBB, W on E string KEY: work for increased number of consecutive repetitions<br />a. Keeping bow on “red road” looking with “eyeballs” on her bow at bridge area.<br />b. Remember head leaning slightly backward at the “back door.”<br />c. Safer place for head on chin rest and tail piece, not on wood of violin<br />d. E string repetitions X times of all rhythms (except twinkle slow)<br />e. KEY: Listen for tone<br /><br />VIII. Playing MHD on E string and A string with string crossing: E “reach to” A and A “drop to” E<br />a. KEY: 5 consecutive repetitions with eyes down on red road and head back (keeping violin up) “listen please” “your turn” (this is the “pebble game” for 5) allows Nora to do Dessert F# exercise IX<br />b. KEY: work for increased number of consecutive repetitions<br />c. KEY: Listen for tone<br /><br />IX. Dessert: F# on the E string ( “touch E, reach to A” “touch F#”, “pop off”)<br />a. A A E E F# F# E E <br />b. On last E <br />i. The left hand (arm and elbow) move (“swing”) slightly sideways toward the right side of the violin. The pinky side of the palm of the hand leads the movement.<br />ii. Simultaneously the knees make a slightly deeper bend<br />iii. This is in preparation for getting ready to place the 3rd finger D on the A string <br />iv. Decrease tension, balance point is important<br />c. KEY: Listen for tone<br /><br />X. Weekly Poem recitation Tuesday KEY: 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.<br />XI. Weekly Music listening presentation (piece, composer, musician * and working up to accompanist or orchestra) Friday</strong>Explanations<br /><br />1. Nora did an excellent job of identifying all of the twinkle variation rhythms and the early book one songs as he played them on her little violin. She even correctly did May Song. But she did not answer him for the others that we have not studied: Long Long Ago and Allegro (despite the fact that she correctly identified Allegro at last week’s group class). <br />2. KEY: When adding new songs we should make sure she can tell Aunt Rhody from Long Long Ago and she may also confuse Song of the Wind, May Song and Long Long Ago as they all start on the note A<br /><br />3. Note Cards and pitch singing were not covered in this lesson; we are to continue working.<br />a. He advised against using a metronome pitch meter with a moving arrow<br />b. He preferred a piano (in tune) or a small portable keyboard<br /><br />4. KEY: Using your ears to listen for a nice tone<br />a. He wants Nora to listen critically to what she is playing<br />b. He had her sit in his “teacher” chair while he played repetitions of MHD on the E string<br />i. Even though he had everything looking OK (position, bow set, bow on road, eyes down), he played with good and bad sound.<br />ii. Too crunchy, too whispy, too fast, too heavy, too light and “just right”<br />iii. As in the story of Goldilocks, finding the sound that is “just right”, nice tone<br /><br />5. Dessert: F# on the E string Exercise<br />a. Begin with bow on E string<br />b. “Reach” bow up to A string<br />c. Play MHD A (listen please and your turn)<br />d. “Drop” to E string<br />e. MHD on E string (listen please and your turn)<br />f. “Touch F#”<br />g. MHD on F# (listen please and your turn)<br />h. “Pop off”<br />i. MHD on E string (listen please and your turn)<br />j. “swing” violin hand and bend knees<br /><br />6. Dessert F# on E string<br />a. When he asked how the F# dessert went this week, Mima told him that Nora earned 3 desserts by playing 5 MHDs with bow on road and head back. Mima told him that we had only played two of the desserts and we had one still left to do. <br />b. Mr S showed Mima how it feels to “swing” the left arm gently forward on the last E of Nora’s dessert playing. <br /><br /><br />Notes<br /><br />7. Nora did an excellent job of reciting her Listening Piece to Mr S. “I listened to Hungarian Dance Number 7 in A Major” …….. long pause ……. he gave her a hint (“Jo …”) and she continued “Joahnnes Brahams, played by Sara Chang on the violin.” He told us that we will work up to including the pianist or orchestral accompaniment. <br /><br />8. L’s mother shared a few practice tips that Mr S gave them since it is really hard to get these girls to practice. He suggested that the child can choose which rhythm to play first and next or they can choose the number of repetitions or a die can be rolled to get a number from 1 – 5.<br /><br />9. Nora showed Mr S her notebook with the notes she took during the time he works with Mima and they both saw that she had written a new word “cat” in addition to her word “zoo”. It is the first time Mima has seen Nora write the word ‘”cat”! Nora also showed some letters and said that it was the word “dog”.<br /><br />10. Nora did not spontaneously come to Mr S to do her “thank you” bow and she was a bit slow with this part of the routine for the last few lessons.<br /><br />11. It is a very rainy day today. We had boots and raincoats and had to wrap the foot chart in a plastic bag (remember to use crayon next time!). Somehow in the rush to get out of the house as the plumber was working in Mima’s room, the extra hair barrettes did not get into our lesson bag. And since Nora tore out the hair band her mom put into her hair this morning her hair was messier than usual. She had her hair in her mouth when she was listening to Mr S play his MHDs, but otherwise it did not prevent her from having a good lesson.<br /><br />13. We could not go to the park in the pouring rain, so we drove back to Maryland and went to the library. On the way back to the car with our books, Nora took a detour through a big puddle and had a great time splashing back and forth through it.<br /><br />14. She picked a box tiny Halloween cookies from our favorite store at the end of the street and asked to eat 12 of them for dessert. We also bought “Frog and Toad Are Friends to give at the birthday party tonight. Who has a birthday party on Friday night for 4 year olds?<br /><br />15. Nora still has a cough but plays actively and energetically.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-89986950954315054402007-10-19T20:02:00.000-07:002007-10-22T20:18:55.968-07:00Violin Lesson October 19, 2007<b>Practice List, Tuesday 10/19/2007 Lesson 10 Week 5</b><br /><br /><ol><br /> <li>Identification All Twinkle Rhythms, Lightly Row, Song of the Wind, Aunt Rhody and O’ Come Little Children</li><br /> <li>Singing and Hand Signing A, E and F#</li><br /> <ul><li>Note Cards, around the house and singing and hand signing A E F#</li><br /> <li>Use a “pretty voice” when singing A, E and F#</li><br /> <li>Get metronome for pitch (he had round Seiko) and use this for pitch match. As Mima or mom tune her violin Nora *raises her hand when she hears that the string is at the correct pitch (matching the source note).</li></ul><br /> <li>KEY: Sing and clap rhythms (first part of twinkle “the bread”) while keeping total eye contact</li><br /> <li>Bow sets with “bumpy thumb” then tip up and look at tip for count</li><br /> <li>Shoulder bowing of twinkle rhythms (while singing), i.e. “listen please”</li><br /> <li>KEY: Violin Sets 6 times a day with soft left knee and head back for count to #, e.g. 10</li><br /> <li>Playing MHD, HB, SBB, W on E string</li><br /><ul><li>Keeping bow on “red road” looking with “eyeballs” on her bow at bridge area.</li><br /> <li>Remember head leaning slightly backward at the “back door.”</li></ul><br /> <li>Playing MHD on E string and A string with string crossing: E “reach to” A and A “drop to” E</li><br /> <li>Pebble Game – E string repetitions X times of all rhythms (except twinkle slow)</li><br /> <li>Dessert: F# on the E string</li><br /> <li>Poem recitation</li><br /> <li>Music listening presentation (piece, composer, musician)</li><br /></ol><br />Explanations<br /><br />1. Sing and clap rhythms (first part of twinkle “the bread”) *while keeping total eye contact with parent or Mr S<br />2. Get metronome for pitch (he had round Seiko) and use this for pitch match. As Mima or mom tune her violin Nora *raises her hand when she hears that the string is at the correct pitch (matching the source note).<br />3. Use a “pretty voice” when singing A, E and F#<br />4. Special listening: pick out a piece of violin music and listen to it all week. Come to lesson prepared to<br />a. Name the piece (e.g. “Romance in F composed by ____”<br />b. Composer<br />c. “Played by ______ on the violin”<br />5. Poem: Nora will memorize a poem of her choosing each week so that she can recite it with expression<br />a. Listening can be on, for example, Friday and the Poem can be on Tuesday<br /><br />6. When Nora is playing rhythms on E and A, on the red road and looking at her bow, parent should be helping Nora to lean her head slightly backward over her left shoulder as her head is falling into a too forward (toward the bow side) position.<br />a. Mr S was doing this with his hand and no verbal directions were given<br /><br />7. Dessert: F# on the E string<br />a. Mr S put a special piece of tape on Nora’s fingerboard to mark the place where the F# note will be made. The verbal cue will be:<br />i. TOUCH F#<br />ii. POP OFF<br />iii. Nora will practice F# as it comes in the first part of twinkle (He did not verbalize this idea that it is the “bread” of twinkle to her)<br />iv. MHD rhythm, A listen” (MHD), “your turn” (very rhythmic): (A) A (E) E (F#) F# (E) E<br /><br />b. The first finger (left index finger) placement is very very light, barely depressing the string<br />i. If she does not have enough pressure to make the F# sound, parent gently helps just a teeny bit – touching on top of her finger. This should be mostly just the weight of her finger.<br />ii. Mr. S made a small diagonal ink mark on Mima’s finger to show that the finger should be touched to the string on the inside or thumb side corner of the fingertip. (It slants from corner of finger nail out toward flashy part of finger tip<br />1. He said that he teaches a low relaxed somewhat flat finger position as contrasted with an upright “square” finger position that is sometimes taught by other teachers.<br />2. He said that this will be a more relaxed position from which to learn vibrato in the future<br /><br />8. Playing MHD on E string and A string keeping bow on “red road” looking with “eyeballs” down on her bow at bridge area<br /><br />a. Begins with bow set, and violin set done as much as possible without direction or words (some physical touch cues)<br />b. Nora should now be able to point to tickle spot on her L index finger and no longer needs ink mark<br />i. Mr. S used his right hand to gently hold Nora’s violin left thumb and hand at scroll end of violin after violin was up<br /><br />ii. Mr. S gently pushed the side of Nora’s head in a backwards direction when it fell (collapsed) too far forward<br />1. He said we might want to say some single word for this adjustment if we think it would help<br />2. He explained to Mima that sometimes he tells students that when they are looking at their bow road, they are peering around in a backwards manner “looking out the back door”. This is to give the idea or feeling of glancing or looking backward at the bridge area and may help Nora not to move or tip or turn her head in a forward direction.<br /><br />c. Help Nora to “open her elbow” and not move the arm behind her back<br />i. She was bowing with a bit of a stiff elbow in a backward movement rather then opening her elbow joint as she is doing nicely for her shoulder bowing<br />ii. Use gentle touch at elbow (he did not tell her to do anything, he just touched her<br /><br />d. He is now asking Nora to do more than just play several rhythms in a row without<br /><br />9. Singing A, E, and F# with hand signs (and note cards)<br /><br />Mr S said that Nora had made great improvement with this activity. He decided not to add new notes “D” and C# since she still needs to be more successful with the A E F#. She did one particularly wonderful singing of A after she did a good F# and he loved that one! She needed to use a “pretty voice” not screeching or yelling. She also needs to use hand signs spontaneously with her singing. Needs to be learned 100% before we go on<br /><br />Mr S used Nora’s note cards flipping from one to the next, asking her to sing and make the hand sign for the note.<br /><br />At the end of the observed lesson, L’s grandma told us that Nora would be learning D and C#, but Mr S does not do the same thing with his 2 beginners; he gives very individualized lessons. For example, the other student is not yet playing on the A sting, but she can sign and sign her notes reliably.<br /><br />10. Identification All Twinkle Rhythms, Lightly Row, Song of the Wind, Aunt Rhody and O’ Come Little Children<br /><br />Nora had some difficulty paying attention for this beginning part of the lesson – twisting and eating her hair and looking out of the window. As Mr S played variations on the violin, Nora identified MHD, but not SBB (she said HB and stayed with that answer despite his showing her all modes of SBB, including clapping and rubbing)<br /><br />He worked on green feet and “look at me” when you clap and sing the rhythm<br /><br />He did not stay with this activity as he said he had other things to teach Nora today<br /><br />When Nora told him that Lolo does HB, he was very excited and wondered if when the parrot learns all of the variations, perhaps Nora can bring him to group class to show everyone!<br />Nora took several tries to tell him this thought, each time saying just the first words of her sentence and then repeating that beginning phrase over and over until the whole idea came out. (very reminiscent of Pablo at this age!) Mr S did not hurry her and gave her his full attention and time.<br /><br />Notes<br /><br />Oct 19th Nora showed him her 51 pennies that she earned for 51 times keeping bow on the red road while keeping eyes always down.” She tried about 10 times with Mr S and got 4 “pennies.” She looked up for more than half of the tries and occasionally her bow slipped toward the bridge.<br /><br />Nora was coughing a bit since she has had a cold. Mr S said that L.(prior lesson) has just recovered from Strep Throat.<br /><br />Mima’s turn on her full sized violin:<br /><br />Mr S showed Mima the F# exercise and had Mima teach it to him on the full sized violin<br /><br />Nora took notes in her notebook and showed him her word “zoo” and a few other word attempts after we were finished and he really gave her his full attention as she showed him her work, even though it was past the actual end of our lesson time.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-53283733455681214852007-10-08T19:24:00.000-07:002007-10-11T18:13:44.497-07:00Nora's Eighth Violin Lesson<b>Practice List To Do, Friday 10/5/2007 Lesson 8 Week 4</b><br /><br /><b>I. </b>Identification of All Twinkle Rhythm Variations, Plus Early Book 1 songs<br /><b>II. </b>Bow Sets 3-5 times per day<br /><b>III. </b>Bow MHD, HB + other rhythms on left shoulder while singing the rhythm<br /><b>IV. </b>Violin Sets 6 times a day<br /><b>V. </b>Rosin Bow before practice and wipe off at the end of practice<br /><b>VI. </b>“Dessert” Play MHD HB SBB WASH on E string within yellow tape on bow<br /><b>VII. </b> NEW String Crossing E to A and back A to E<br /><b>VIII.</b> The Pebble Game – E string repetitions X times of all rhythms (except twinkle slow)<br /><b>IX. </b> NEW The Tickle Spot on left index finger for holding the violin<br /><b>X. </b> Note Cards and singing A E F#<br /><div></div><br /><br /><b>I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations, Plus:</b><br /><br />Begin identifying these songs by their names during listening or in listening part of practice time:<br />Lightly Row, Song of the Wind …… Go Tell Aunt Rhody, O Come Little Children<br /> * added ID May Song<br /><br />For Rhythm Identification, Practice Strategies: <br /><ol><br /> <li>Hear the first line on the violin, slice, rub and clap and the recording</li><br /> <li>Give Nora a contrast of 2 choices: Is it Lightly Row or May Song?</li><br /> <li>NEW: He plays song on violin and as soon as she knows what it is she should begin clapping and singing that song or rhythm.</li><br /></ol><br /><br /><i>Mr. S played rhythms or first lines on Nora’s violin and she identified MH & HB, she got SBB after he rubbed it on her arm and Wash after it was clapped by Mr S. For most rhythms she seemed to be looking out of his picture window or looking down at the floor.<br /><br />She named Lightly Row, Song of the Wind and Aunt Rhody (!!!), but confused O Come Little Children with Lightly Row. He said that this was understandable given that both start with E’s and C#’s. She hummed along with what he was presenting, even when she did not give an answer.<br /><br />When Nora began to sing the 1st line of the traditional American version of “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” Mr S told us that Mr Suzuki thought of this song in the Japanese w ay, as a lullaby. Mr S said that Suzuki was horrified when he found out what the American children were singing. I told him that Nora was singing “the old grey goose is fed” (not dead, as it is in the original). Mr. S smiled and nodded. </i><br /><br /><b>II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day</b><br /><ol><br /> <li>Green Feet, Soft knees , Parent holds bow (usually horizontal)</li><br /> <li>Nora places fingers hanging curved over stick, soft hand, fingers spaced with air between each one, middle finger across from bumpy thumb, pointer finger on silver</li><br /> <li>Bow tip points to ceiling, Parent points very close to tip and Nora looks at tip for count down from 10</li><br /></ol><br /><br /><b>III. Bow Practice MHD, HB, SBB, WASH on left shoulder while singing the rhythm </b><br />A. NEW: Guide soft shoulders rather than opening elbow<br />B. May do “My Turn” bowing with parent holding the stick above Nora’s bow grip rather than at screw of bow. This may give less of a slip off the shoulder feel?<br /> <br /><i>The shoulder bowing is one of the hardest things for Nora to do at this point, and it is an essential part of group class performance.<br /><br />He said that her right bow arm was opening nicely at the elbow and we can use our hands in other places now to get her to relax her right shoulder and her left shoulder, for example, or to keep her left knee “soft” …… or whatever, rather than always touching her elbow joint to guide that motion (which she seems to be doing well on her own at this point).<br /><br />Today’s video clip shows Mr S doing this shoulder bowing with Nora the “new” way, guiding the soft shoulders rather than the opening elbow joint.<br /><br />Nora is tending to twist a bit to the left, keeping her right knee nicely bent and soft and straightening her left knee (which should also be softly bent). Again he noted that we should watch that Nora’s right bow arm shoulder remain down and relaxed. Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and nicely back and straight and should not twist, or raise, or move forward. <br /><br />The example bowing should be fluid, legato type bow strokes and not too fast. </i><br /><br /><b>IV. Violin Practice Sets 6 times per day</b><br />1. Green Feet, Soft knees , Left arm on softly waist, Nora looks straight ahead, Parent places violin, Nora turns head, drops head, left arms move up for thumb pillow.<br />2. NEW: add tickle spot violin neck hold see IX below (we will probably start after the weekend)<br />3. Parent lets go of violin and holds something of interest at end of the scroll – hand should be fine now, she will not need her favorite rabbit, Willa, cavorting around anymore.<br />4. Nora should look at violin for a count down <br />a. from 10<br />b. from 20 (she just barely did this at the Tue lesson)<br />c. he said he would like to increase this to a high number … 30 and eventually more (but with the new tickle spot he just to from 10 again)<br /><br /><i>Behavior Issues:<br />Nora left her hair in the band at the back and only pulled it out for the last part of the lesson. She fidgeted a bit with her skort and underwear. When her gave her a chance to get the wiggles out, this time she was ready on the first 1-2-3 count. <br /><br />He gave her one 5 count to get back on the foot chart and she promptly complied.<br /><br />He kept her going at the end of her lesson with closely spaced repetitions of her new skill and he told her that there was just one more to go – or this was the last one, and then she would take her thank you bow. This worked well for Mr S who was coordinated enough to do the practice repetitions with much more fluidity than Mima can muster at this point.</i><br /><br /><b>V. Rosin Bow Procedure: Rosin each day before practice</b><br />1. hold rosin in left hand<br />2. bow in right hand - hold bow firmly at frog but not actual bow set grip<br />3. place bow on rosin track, use whole bow strokes frog to tip <br />4. do 7 strokes (count one and two and)<br />5. lightly wipe off violin bridge area with light handkerchief at the end of practice<br /><br /><i>Mr S said that Mima needs to do the wipe for her violin and it seems that it would be helpful if Grandpa Jim could give the old fiddle a good cleaning. In looking closely at this violin, I think it may have belonged to Nancy Wec, as it does not seem to be dark enough to be Grandpa Phil’s. But the Label does not say Philadelphia s I remember Wec’s did, it says Vienne …..</i><br /> <br /><b>VI. “Dessert” is MHD, HB, SBB, Washington, played on E string at yellow tape marked on Bow Stick</b><br />new* these were played all in a row at the lesson without break <br /><ol><br /> <li>Green Feet, Soft knees, Right Bow hand set with parent, Left arm softly across waist</li><br /> <li>Violin set with parent, Parent maintains grasp on scroll of violin</li><br /> <li>Parent guide bow by screw to place on E string at lowest part of yellow tape</li><br /> <li>My Turn – parent moves bow downward to begin rhythm, keeping bow stroke within yellow, Your Turn: parent lets go of screw but continues to guide right elbow</li><br /> <li>Nora is to try to stay within the yellow tape bow playground area and to stay on E string</li><br /> <li>*sing the rhythm on the note E while playing</li><br /> <li>NEW: Keep bow hold soft – he told her to turn OFF her muscles</li><br /> <li>NEW: Play “easy easy easy”</li><br /><li>NEW: right shoulder (bow shoulder) needs to stay<i>ck and soft, relaxed</li><br /><li>NEW: keep bow off bridge area and out of the “crocodile pit”</li><br /></ol><br /><br /><i>It was after she played all of these rhythms (My Turn, Your Turn) in a row that Nora needed the 5 count to return to the foot chart. She really played well and kept the bow going in generally the right direction in generally the right area. At one point her bow slipped over the bridge.<br />*In the observation part of the lesson she learned (and he repeated it in her lesson) that her bow should not slip over the fi</i>board, because that is called the “crocodile pit “for bows. Nora loved the crocodile reference!</i><br /><br /><i>NEW 7 & 8: He played a rhythm for her 2 ways and asked her which one she preferred. He played the first one with too much pressure, a stiff and tight bow grip, high right shoulder and locked elbow bowing, and he played the second one “easy”. After Nora got a better understanding of first versus second (and perhaps we can go over this a bit) she picked the “easy” open nice sounding rhythm, over the first forced squeezed sounding one.<br /><br />The video has a nice shot of Mr S using his right ring and pinky fingers on Nora’s left shoulder to relax it down during his violin set. So far, this is not a technique that Mima has mastered.</i><br /><br /><b>VII. Practice “Touch E, Reach A” String Crossing E to A and back A to E</b><br />A. “Touch” Bow to E string (play a rhythm on E My Turn, Your Turn) and rock bow to A string and play a rhythm on A My Turn, your Turn<br />a. Reach to A string, bow hand leads and arm follows<br />b. Drop to E string, arm leads and hand follows<br /><br /><b>VIII. Pebble Game The Burn, but did not do, did not mention at this lesson</b><br />New Practice Game for these rhythms to encourage Nora to play one after the other without a break – she should keep standing on her green feet with violin in playing position. In the lesson I think that she actually played all the rhythms at least once with him except perhaps “twinkle slow” as Mima plunked 8 pen caps into a china mug.<br />a. He said he liked this game best when pebbles (little rocks) were dropped into a container for each practice item that is done without break (green feet violin up and go through all repetitions or exercises). <br />b. If Nora does get off green feet, lower violin, or otherwise break the rhythm of this practice exercise then all the pebbles go out of the cup and we begin again to try to get ALL of the pebbles into the cup.<br />c. Nora now has 10 small smooth shell pieces in a container in her case<br /><br /><b>IX. NEW The Tickle Spot on left index finger for holding the violin</b><br />a. Touch (no) versus Tickle (yes) – the idea is that Nora is holding the violin so gently, so softly that it is just a tickle and not even an actual touch. He touched her arm and then he did a very light “tickle” and she felt the difference.<br />b. This is the new position for Nora’s violin sets and for her playing<br />c. On the thumb side of the middle joint of the left index finger he made a pen mark for Nora and for Mima and this is where the violin just tickles the finger<br />i. Keeping this spot will prevent the violin neck from falling into the web space between the thumb and the index finger, or from riding so high that the fingers will have a hard time reaching the finger board.<br />d. *we will start this new step next week and keep everything the same for the weekend<br /><br /><i>Reviewing the video clip of this new step should help us to help Nora with this task.<br /><br />On one video clip you can hear Nora telling Mr S that her mother will “probably” not like him drawing on her finger with marker. When he very calmly tells her that he is using ball point pen and so it is OK, Nora accepts this explanation readily.<br /><br />You can see on the second video clip that Nora’s hand position with the tickle spot is a more classic violin position and the wrist is not as collapsed toward the violin as her first try, but he said absolutely noting about her wrist or general hand position at this point.</i><br /><br /><b>X. Practice Music Reading and Pitch Training (not addressed on this lesson)</b><br />Note Card Game: <br />1. Mix note cards up and place on the floor face up with all cards showing<br />2. Parent names a note (may give hand sign to assist if needed)<br />3. Nora is to first sing the pitch of the note as she names it<br />4. Then she finds the note card with the note on the staff<br /><br /><b>Extra Notes:</b><br /><br /><i>End of Lesson:<br />Mr S worked with Mima on her full sized violin to show her the proper tickle spot and how the proper violin hold “feels”. Mima has some relaxing to do to let go of her tense muscles and be soft, easy and relaxed for the violin position. He was not sure if Mima had enough sponges to feel “secure” about her violin hold. He said that he assumed that Mima was able to tune the violins if given a reference pitch and Mima said that she could do this. He said that the students are introduced to tuning at about the book 4 level.<br /><br />Leaving:<br />Nora learned (I hope) that it is best to sit on the rug on the floor to put on her shoes at the end of the lesson. She had a nasty tumble backwards off of a lobby chair and into the glass door of Ms. C’s (thankfully empty) studio. Nora was OK (the door was OK), Nora was mostly frightened as she cried into Mima’s shoulder for a bit, but not a sob was heard in the other rooms and she disturbed no one. She knew, of course, that Mima had told her not to get onto that particular chair for that particular purpose, and especially not to be sitting sideways on the chair.<br /><br />With the mention every now and then, by Mr S of book # this or book # that, Nora told me on the car ride home that she supposes that she is in “book two, probably” - even though Mima told her that Mima supposed that she was on the twinke rhythms in book one.<br /><br />Additional:<br />Nora picked out a chocolate croissant at the store at the end of the street, and pretty much finished it on the 5 minute car ride to the park! We had a picnic on the small tables under the trees, a spot that was new for us. Nora tried some new, and very high climbers today at the playground. We did the planes and cars and trains and several swings as well. She is getting better at using her legs to “pump” herself on the swing, and it helped her to watch a girl in the next swing really pumping efficiently and getting her swing to go really high. The fact that Nora cannot yet go that high herself is probably a good thing for now! We listened to two Pooh stories on the way home, and at this point she must hear a story to it’s conclusion in one car ride. Luckily these are really short stories.<br /></i>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-12095541150324778682007-10-02T18:23:00.000-07:002007-10-26T09:56:36.463-07:00Nora's Seventh Violin Lesson<strong><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy5MCNCPHG_PdEFn8HMc2f7mkGhtI3n-9i9fvEeARuoFznHu4CTz1sosvrTsb9QsmiVyZUw51-ZsQ-wBqsYHw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></strong><br /><strong>Practice List To Do, Tue 10/2/2007 Lesson 7 Week 4<br /></strong>I. Identification of All Twinkle Rhythm Variations, Plus Early Book 1 songs<br />II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day<br />III. Bow MHD, HB + other rhythms on left shoulder while singing the rhythm<br />IV. Violin Sets 6 times a day<br />V. Rosin Bow before violin part of practice<br />VI. “Dessert” Play MHD (and add HB and SBB) on E string within yellow tape on bow<br />VII. NEW String Crossing E to A and back A to E<br />VIII. The Pebble Game – E string repetitions X times of all rhythms (except twinkle slow)<br />IX. Sing A E F# and identify notes<br />X. Wipe violin bridge area with hankie before putting away<br /><br /><strong>I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations, Plus:</strong><br /><br />Begin identifying these songs by their names during listening or in listening part of practice time:<br />Lightly Row, Song of the Wind …… Go Tell Aunt Rhody, O Come Little Children<br /><br />For Rhythm Identification, Practice Strategies:<br />1. Hear the first line on the violin, slice, rub and clap are what he uses in lesson most<br />2. Give Nora a contrast of 2 choices: example: Is it Lightly Row or Twinkle Slow?<br />3. He said that Nora will need to know all channels of the rhythms, visual too (slicing).<br /><br /><em>Mr. S played rhythms or first lines on Nora’s violin and she identified most rhythms as she seemed to be looking out of his picture window or looking down. He did not mention her lack of eye contact as she listened to all but one of his samples. She gave him her attention when asked for the last rhythm. He did note that she needed to learn the rhythms visually (slicing). Nora needed the “shh” sound to identify “My name (pause) is Nora” but he still gives her slicing or other opportunity without “shh” to see if she can do it. Twice, she correctly identified “Song of the Wind” when he gave her the “woosh” of the wind sound at the times in the song where the violinist retakes a down bow. This was very similar to how Mima was identifying” Song of the Wind” for Nora on the few times we did this practice. He showed her Aunt Rhody and came back to it to see if she had learned it and again could not identify it. She was also unable to identify “O Come little Children”, and we have not worked on identifying these songs. She hummed along to finish all the songs he demonstrated and so he feels that she does know them on some level.</em><br /><br /><strong>II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day</strong><br />1. Green Feet, Soft knees , Parent holds bow (horizontal)<br />2. Nora places fingers hanging curved over stick, soft hand, fingers spaced with air between each one, middle finger across from bumpy thumb, pointer on silver<br />3. Bow goes tip to ceiling and Parent points very close to tip and Nora looks at tip for count down from 10<br /><br /><em>Nora had a lovely soft bow grip, guided by Mr. S</em><br /><strong><br />III. Bow Practice MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm</strong> <br />Add HB and SBB rhythms<br /><br /><em>Although it never/rarely happened at home, Nora’s bow at the lesson was slipping off of her left shoulder. Mr. S recommended trying to use a toilet paper roll attached to her clothing on the front of her left shoulder. This would help to guide her bow on her left shoulder while her parent can make sure that her right shoulder is not raising and moving forward. *The toilet paper roll turned out to be too distracting and using the parent’s right hand to guide bow on Nora’s shoulder worked better.<br /><br />He was especially noting that we should watch that Nora’s right bow arm shoulder remain down and relaxed. Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and nicely back and straight and should not twist, or raise, or move forward.<br /><br />The example bowing should be fluid, legato type bow strokes and not too fast.<br /></em><br /><br /><strong>IV. Violin Practice Sets 6 times per day<br /></strong>1. Green Feet, Soft knees , Left arm softly on waist, Nora looks straight ahead, Parent holds violin by ribs and places violin, Nora turns head, drops head, left arms move up for thumb pillow.<br />2. Parent lets go of violin and holds something of interest at end of the scroll<br />3. Nora should look the object of interest for a count down – may use favorite toy<br />a. from 10<br />b. from 20 (she just barely did this at the lesson)<br />c. he would like to increase this to a high number … 30 and eventually more<br /><br /><em>Behavior Issues:<br />Nora never put her hands in her mouth, nose or hair – a first! Her hair was all in bands and barrettes, though I am sure that mommy Lisa would not have approved of the fashion statement. She did not get wiggly and watched and cooperated with Mr S quite well.<br /><br />At one point in the lesson, Nora got off of her foot chart and he told her that she could take a 5 second “break” and after the count of 5 she should return to her chart – and she did!<br /></em><br /><br /><strong>V. Rosin Bow Procedure: Rosin each day before practice</strong><br />1. hold rosin in left hand<br />2. bow in right hand - hold bow firmly at frog but not actual bow set grip<br />3. place bow on rosin track, use whole bow strokes frog to tip<br />4. do 7 strokes (count one and two and)<br />5. lightly wipe off violin bridge area with light handkerchief at the end of practice<br /><br /><em>Nora did this nicely one he got her to use the whole bow, she started with just tiny strokes on the rosin, something we have not seen at home. He liked the idea of the small rosin cake encased in wood to prevent cracking. He said she can graduate to a different and more fragile, cloth wrapped rosin later.</em><br /><br /><strong>VI. “Dessert” is MHD, HB, SBB, Washington, played on E string at yellow tape marked on Bow Stick<br /></strong>new* work to stay on just the E string he said<br />1. Green Feet, Soft knees, Right Bow hand set with parent, Left arm softly across waist<br />2. Violin set with parent, Parent maintains grasp on scroll of violin<br />3. Parent guide bow by screw to place on E string at lowest part of yellow tape<br />4. My Turn – parent moves bow downward to begin rhythm, keeping bow stroke within yellow, Your Turn: parent lets go of screw but continues to guide right elbow<br />5. Nora is to try to stay within the yellow tape bow playground area and to stay on E string<br /><br /><strong><br />VII. NEW Practice String Crossing E to A and back A to E<br /></strong><br />Touch Bow to E string (play a rhythm on E My Turn, Your turn) and rock bow to A string and play a rhythm on A My turn your turn<br />a. Reach to A string, bow hand leads and arm follows<br />b. Drop to E string, arm leads and hand follows<br /> <em><br />Nora did beautifully on this exercise and Mr S seemed especially pleased that she was able to isolate and play on just one string at a time. She played on the A string for the first time ever and she stayed on the A string for the MHD rhythm. He commented that this ability to play on just one string at a time was unusual in his experience. He said that there were lots of things to help teach this one string playing, but that it seems at this point that she will not need these strategies.</em><br /><br /><strong>VIII. The Pebble Game – “The Burn”</strong><br /><br />New Practice Game for these rhythms to encourage Nora to play one after the other without a break – she should keep standing on her green feet with violin in playing position. In the lesson I think that she actually played all the rhythms at least once with him except perhaps “twinkle slow” as Mima plunked 8 pen caps into a china mug.<br /><br />a. He said he liked this game best when pebbles (little rocks) were dropped into a container for each practice item that is done without break (green feet violin up and go through all repetitions or exercises). <br />b. If Nora does get off green feet, lower violin, or otherwise break the rhythm of this practice exercise then all the pebbles go out of the cup and we begin again to try to get ALL of the pebbles into the cup.<br /><br /><em>Going for “The Burn” :<br />He said he wished he had found more than the 8 pen caps he found. But Nora looked very challenged to be doing 8 rhythms in a row at this lesson. He explained that this was a technique to help provide Nora a just right challenge, something that seems a real stretch, but that is actually within her grasp if she really really tries. He said that doing things over and over again that are not very hard makes the lesson and practice a bit boring and doing things that are too hard do not help learning. The “burn” is a special challenge that the teacher tries to set specifically for each student to promote learning and interest.</em><br /><strong><br />IX. Practice Music Reading and Pitch Training (not addressed on this lesson)<br /></strong><br /><strong>Note Card Game:<br /></strong>1. Mix note cards up and place on the floor face up with all cards showing<br />2. Parent names a note (may give hand sign to assist if needed)<br />3. Nora is to first sing the pitch of the note as she names it<br />4. Then she finds the note card with the note on the staff<br /><br /><strong>End of Lesson:</strong><br />When he was finished with demonstrating to Mima how to change from back and forth between the E and the A strings, he asked Nora to do the goodbye bow.<br />Nora found her red feet and bowed beautifully and smoothly and said “Thank you for teaching me Mr. S”.<br /><br />Mima please remember to bring violin next time to work with Mr. S<br /><br />Mr S said that the pictures Mima is taking must be adorable and they will be great at Nora’s graduation and he looks forward to seeing them.<br /><br />Mr S told Nora that the really fat cat at the lesson house (the one that he said sort of looks like a balloon cat) is named Winkie.<br /><br /><strong>Additional:</strong><br />Nora picked out a big chocolate chip cookie from the store at the end of the street. We had a great time at Clemyjonti park ,and met Hanna who came up to Nora and introduced herself. Hanna will be 4 years old at the end of December. She lives in Rockville and goes to a morning preschool. Her mom has taught her lots about numbers and she is a beginning reader as well. Hanna and her mom were there with a few friends and their mothers. Her friends spoke mostly Spanish, so Mima got a chance to practice for her class tonight.<br />.two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-90179788818613173182007-09-30T18:40:00.000-07:002008-12-10T02:19:17.577-08:00Second Group Class<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIPAW_olyjwUwy-wHNLFQHVVYhIUlAjG9AphGbh7UBsJkcnD57-DaJ_xLeUAYXNvUkFc003Ty8txHY3HPH6Qv7MMT4XHgV4IvqnZIOscGdtCxEsU7I3wNn-1r2sqnp3tDy3Py-JGCrdfZp/s1600-h/DSC05689.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5117290606684667954" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIPAW_olyjwUwy-wHNLFQHVVYhIUlAjG9AphGbh7UBsJkcnD57-DaJ_xLeUAYXNvUkFc003Ty8txHY3HPH6Qv7MMT4XHgV4IvqnZIOscGdtCxEsU7I3wNn-1r2sqnp3tDy3Py-JGCrdfZp/s400/DSC05689.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-45043372917560060452007-09-28T19:23:00.003-07:002007-10-26T09:56:16.807-07:00Nora's Sixth Violin Lesson<p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyz0_JEE517cwJXY-gY3DWsKekoLpzP8rBXKSa1eUbCAvXjc9I7S4RWZ20gLqzogr6CWDpzLQH6IO8iSK5iHQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></p><p>Practice List To Do, Friday 9/28/2007 Lesson 6 Week 3<br />I. Identification of All Twinkle Rhythm Variations, Plus Songs as given<br />II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day<br />III. Bow MHD, HB on left shoulder while singing the rhythm<br />IV. Violin Sets 6 times a day<br />V. Rosin Bow before practice<br />VI. “Dessert” Play MHD (and possibly add HB) on E string within yellow tape on bow<br />VII. Wipe violin bridge area with hankie before putting away<br /><br />I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations, Plus:<br /><br />Begin identifying these songs by their names during listening or in listening part of practice time:<br />Lightly Row, Song of the Wind<br /><br />For Rhythm Identification, Practice Strategies:<br />1. Hear the first line on the violin<br />2. Hear the rhythm on the violin<br />3. Feel arm rub of rhythm (elbow to wrist)<br />4. See rhythm sliced in air (precise vertical hand movements)<br />5. Hear rhythm clapped by adult<br />6. Clap with parent’s hands (parent clap hers, she clap parent’s hands)<br />7. Handshake with parent * do this one a bit more this week<br />8. Handshake Twinkle Twinkle Little S-l-o-w<br />9. Stomp<br />10. Hand clap<br /><br />Always singing the rhythm words on pitch starting on A. Mr. S played rhythms on A string of Nora’s violin and did a handshake with her and Nora identified most rhythms. Two problems with Washington and she got one OK, and one difficulty with “My name (pause) is Nora” and he wants her to call the rhythm by this name exactly.<br /><br />II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day<br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Soft knees<br />3. Parent holds bow (horizontal or vertical)<br />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<br />5. Nora places bumpy thumb touching 1/2 silver and ½ hair<br />6. Parent lets go and Nora holds bow so that tip points straight up<br />7. Parent points very close to tip (*his finger seemed to actually touch the bow sometimes in curve of tip sometimes on white tip)<br />8. Nora looks at tip for count down from 10 for 10 full seconds<br /><br />Nora had a lovely soft bow grip, guided by Mr. S, and it seemed that she is starting to do more of the actual hand set by herself.<br /><br />III. Bow Practice MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm <br />New Add HB rhythm<br /><br />The example bowing should be fluid, legato type bow strokes not staccato or stopped.<br /><br />Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and nicely back and straight and should not twist, or raise, or move forward<br /><br />Parent can give reminders to be “soft.” Try to place bow so that arm is “square” and her bow stroke should be with the arm opening with movement at the elbow joint rather than moving the arm backward or out from the shoulder joint. Placing the bow at the bottom point of the yellow tape helps Nora’s arm to form a sort of square, which will encourage opening at the elbow joint.<br /><br />In the observation of the lesson before Nora’s he said that sometimes a toilet paper or paper towel cardboard roll can be used as a guide for the bow to keep the bow on the shoulder and going in a straight line.<br /><br />IV. Violin Practice Sets 6 times per day<br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Soft knees<br />3. Left arm on softly waist<br />4. Look straight ahead<br />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.<br />a. New: Today he showed that he/we could use our 4th and 5th fingers of our right hand to gently encourage her left shoulder to be relaxed and down as he used his thumb and first finger to hold the violin be the ribs for the button placement at the side of her neck<br />6. Turn head (to left)<br />7. Drop head onto violin (he does not say “chin”)<br />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)<br />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<br />10. Nora should look at finger (or scroll) for a count down from 10<br />11. Parent takes away the violin by scroll<br /><br />At the lesson Mr S had one violin set that just was not working so he told Nora that he would need to do it over and they did it again and it went well. At home we should not be afraid to call a “do over” when it is needed. He never said anything about nose lining up with the scroll or the nose scroll left foot alignment.<br /><br />Behavior Issues did not derail lesson:<br />At this point in the lesson Nora got wiggly and Mr. S asked her to get her wiggles out. Nora continued to wiggle, in fact she may have misunderstood him, and she was really working to get her wiggles out, but her method entailed a lot more wiggling. Finally he said that it would be a shame if she had to do her thank you bow before she had learned what she needed to in her lesson. After this remark, she immediately paid attention and followed his directions again. At one other point in the lesson he gave her a 5 count to get on her green feet, she complied and he complemented her. Earlier in this lesson Nora was getting so caught up in fingering her hair that Mima quickly put in an extra hair band to catch the hair at the back of her head. Since Nora does love to absently stroke or gently pull her hair, Mima already had put in two barrettes and a hair band. The hair problem was immediately solved with the extra hair band and she never fussed with her hair again.<br /><br />Mr S used his own vertical hand in front of his own nose to have the student in the lesson before Nora look straight ahead. He did not seem to need to use any extra motions at Nora’s lesson as she followed the steps without needing much outside assistance. This of course can change from session to session and at this point so it is good to see his support strategies for times when Nora may be having more trouble concentrating on her violin set.<br /><br />Mr. S explained in the observation lesson that he does not call this a violin “hold” but rather a violin “set”. He says this is to try to get the child to think “soft” rather than to think about holding something (tightly).<br /><br />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 by words ask her to change this body position. He guided her with his hands.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />V. Rosin Bow Procedure: Rosin each day before practice<br />1. hold rosin in left hand<br />2. bow in right hand (??? Bow grip or just hold frog?)<br />3. place bow on rosin track<br />4. use whole bow strokes frog to tip<br />5. do 7 strokes: say the name of the number (1-7) on down stroke example: “one”, and say the “and” on the up stroke… “one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and”<br />6. parent may guide both left and right hands as needed<br />7. lightly wipe off violin bridge area with light handkerchief at the end of practice<br /><br />VI. “Dessert” is MHD played on E string at yellow tape marked on Bow Stick<br /> New: Rosining the bow is step # 1 and cleaning the violin is last<br />1. New: Rosin Bow *see notes below<br />2. Green Fee<br />3. Soft knees<br />4. Right Bow hand set with parent<br />5. Left arm softly across waist<br />6. Violin set with parent<br />7. Parent maintains grasp on scroll of violin<br />8. Parent guide bow by screw to place on E string at lowest part of yellow tape<br />9. My Turn – parent moves bow downward to begin MHD, keeping bow stroke within yellow, using a smooth relaxed stroke (not staccato), and using left hand to guide Nora’s right elbow joint to promote opening at elbow rather than moving upper arm backward.<br /> Your Turn: parent lets go of screw but continues to guide right elbow<br />10. New: Nora is to try to stay within the yellow tape bow playground area<br />11. New: Use light handkerchief to lightly wipe off strings and fingerboard and violin so that rosin does not mar the finish of the violin<br /><br />VII. Practice Music Reading and Pitch Training<br />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 sang these notes, especially the f# better this week. He said he will wait before introducing an additional note card.<br /><br />New Note Card Game:<br />1. Mix note cards up and place on the floor face up with all cards showing<br />2. Parent names a note (may give hand sign to assist if needed)<br />3. Nora is to first sing the pitch of the note as she names it<br />4. Then she finds the note card with the note on the staff<br /><br />Extra Notes:<br />He was happy to hear that this week with the “dessert” incentive, we ended a few of our practices with “Nora really wanting more”. We saved the extra “desserts” for doing with Mommy and Daddy in the evening.<br /><br />Nora did a beautiful job of following the set up procedure for playing her violin MHD and Mr S seemed very happy with her playing as I hope you can see in the few video clips I took of this part of the lesson. At times during this playing part of the lesson Nora critiqued both her MHD and his MHD trials. Nora said “that doesn’t sound very good” and he told her very earnestly, maybe you can do better, and she really tried.<br /><br />He said that her bow and violin sets and playing were coming along very nicely. He even said we could try a “dessert” HB if the opportunity presented itself. He was happy to hear that we are practicing for several short times a day and he noted that Mr. Suzuki had recommended three to four short practices a day “with joy”.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />End of Lesson:<br />When he was finished with the lesson he asked Nora to do the goodbye bow.<br />Nora again did this beautifully “Thank you for teaching me Mr. S”.<br /><br />She had a slight hesitation on the work “teaching” and Mima told him that Nora may need a few seconds to get the right wording since she bows to Mima at the beginning of our practices and tells me she is ready to work. Mima has found that it is nearly useless for her to begin a practice session before her grandchild has committed to the practice. It has been better to wait until another time in the day to try again than to begin the practice with a child who is not ready to follow direction and work. Malena and Pablo use the word “learn”, but Nora, who is currently in Montessori preschool, preferred the word “work”. Mr S told us that some teachers actually use this method to begin the lesson and he thought it was a good idea for practice, especially when I had the luxury of finding another time in the day.<br /><br />Additional:<br />Nora had a special observer today, Mimi, her beloved nanny who took care of her from 10 months of age to three and a half. Mimi was so proud of her and Nora did beautifully with Mimi watching. Nora was a bit exuberant today as she bounded down the staircases around the outside of the lesson house to get to the door. With the slippery leaves from the rain last night, it was just luck and her incredible agility that kept her upright. Grandma Mima will have to be firmer about how to do slow walking while holding the violin and negotiating stairs. It was great to have Mimi, because Mima accidentally left Nora’s foot chart in the trunk of the car (where it is safe from water spills), and Mimi climbed back up all the stairs to retrieve the chart from the car. If we have Mimi again or bring another observer Mima should remember to tell them not to speak to Nora or attempt to help her, cue her or control her behavior, unless requested to do so by the teacher. Mimi was a wonderfully admitting and quiet observer, but just once she could not help herself from telling Nora that she should have been on the “red” not the “green” feet on her foot chart. Also, observers will need to be ready to shed their shoes at the door of the lobby.<br /><br />Before the picnic lunch we stopped a music store in a nearby shopping center and bought a small square rosin (in wood and not cloth) that may work for Nora. Neither she nor Mr S were happy with the two broken rosin cakes left in her case by her cousins. But he nay prefer the rosin in cloth, we will have to see. We had a great picnic lunch and lots of watermelon Nora had a great time showing Mimi all of her favorite things in the very large Clemyjontri Playground. She went in the maze and the simulated rock climbing wall and lots of slides and the tire swing and she showed us how she can now do the stepping stones by herself! We listed to the Pooh tape in the way home and she did not even mind that we were stuck in traffic on 495. Perhaps Mima will try route 270 next Friday if the split to 495 seems backed up.<br /><br />In the evening Nora practiced with her mommy Lisa. She did rhythms, pitch singing, the bow song, dynamics (soft pianissimo to loud fortissimo) and the violin parts. Lisa helped Nora with the hand off of the violin to an adult and with her “thank you” to get the violin back after it is tuned. She did one lovely “dessert” MHD. She was so proud to show Daddy and Grandpa Jim that she can play a rhythm on the open E string on her own violin. As usual, she insisted that she get her own violin out beginning with the two side zippers fully zipped and the Velcro closed.<br /><br />We are all ready to go to the early morning group class in Virginia. Bagels and croissants are standard fare because this Saturday morning breakfast is a grab and go situation.<br /><br />We still have the problem of the broken bow holder in the case, but this may not be the weekend for Grandpa Jim to tackle this problem as he and Mima are going to North Carolina for the weekend.</p>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-47567598685896677042007-09-25T19:14:00.000-07:002007-10-26T09:55:36.912-07:00Nora's Fifth Violin Lesson<strong>Practice List To Do, Tuesday 9/25/2007 Lesson 5 Week 3 </strong><br /><strong><br />I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations: new add My Name ‘shh’ is Nora ‘shh’ and Washington, Washington<br />II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day<br />III. Bow MHD, HB on left shoulder while singing the rhythm<br />IV. Violin “sets” 6 times a day<br />V. “Dessert” play MHD on E string within yellow tape on bow</strong><br /><br /><strong>I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations:</strong><br />MHD (Mississippi Hot Dog)<br />HB (Huckleberry, Huckleberry)<br />Twinkle Theme “Twinkle, Twinkle Little S-l-o-w”<br />SBB (Stop Big Bow, Stop Bog Bow)<br /><br />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”<br /><br />New: (triplets) Washington, Washington<br /><br />For Rhythm Identification, Practice Strategies:<br />1. Hear the first line on the violin<br />2. Hear the rhythm on the violin<br />3. Feel arm rub of rhythm (elbow to wrist)<br />4. See rhythm sliced in air (precise vertical hand movements)<br />5. Hear rhythm clapped by adult<br />6. Clap with parent’s hands (parent clap hers, she clap parent’s hands)<br />7. Handshake with parent<br />8. Handshake Twinkle, Twinkle Little S-l-o-w<br />9. Stomp<br />10. Hand clap<br />11. Finger tracing on rhythm lines while singing rhythm words<br /><br /><em>Always singing the rhythm’s words.<br /><br />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<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /></em><br /><strong>II. Bow Practice Sets 3-5 times per day</strong><br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Soft knees<br />3. Parent holds bow (horizontal or vertical)<br />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<br />5. Nora places bumpy thumb touching 1/2 silver and ½ hair<br />6. Parent lets go and Nora holds bow so that tip points straight up<br />7. Parent points very close to tip – Nora looks at tip<br />8. Nora looks at tip for count down from 10 for 10 full seconds<br /><br /><em>Nora had a lovely soft bow grip, guided by Mr S<br />· 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.<br />· Count down includes a silent (or articulated) beat between each number, e.g. “one-and two-and”, or “one (tongue cluck) two (tongue cluck).”<br /></em><br /><strong>III. Bow Practice MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm</strong><br />New Add HB rhythm<br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Soft knees<br />3. Nora sets a bow grip with bow horizontal, parent holding stick<br />4. Nora puts her Left arm across her tummy<br />5. Parent still holding screw of bow, Nora places bow on her left shoulder (hair down)<br />6. Parent’s left finger tips gently touch around Nora’s right elbow joint<br />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<br />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.<br />9. Parent’s left finger tips are still gently enclosing Nora’s right elbow to help guide her stroke.<br />10. Rhythmic exercise: “My Turn” MHD (or HB) “Your Turn” MHD (or HB) “My Turn” MHD (or HB) “Your Turn” MHD (or HB)<br /><br /><em>Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and nicely back and straight and should not twist, or raise, or move forward<br /><br />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.<br /></em><br /><strong>IV. Violin practice “sets” 6 times per day</strong><br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Soft knees<br />3. Left arm on softly waist<br />4. Look straight ahead<br />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.<br />6. Turn head (to left)<br />7. Drop head onto violin<br />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)<br />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<br />10. Nora should look at finger for a count down from 10<br />11. Parent takes away the violin by scroll<br /><br /><em>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Mr. S said that we could isolate any of these steps for individual practice.<br />For example the head in the middle and the head turn to the left can be isolated for individual practice.<br /><br />Count down is the same as above with a beat left between the numbers so it would be a full 10 seconds.<br /></em><br /><strong>V. “Dessert”: MHD played on E string at yellow tape marked on Bow Stick</strong><br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Soft knees<br />3. Right Bow hand set with parent<br />4. Left arm on softly waist<br />5. Violin set with parent<br />6. Parent maintains grasp on scroll of violin<br />7. Parent guide bow by screw to place on E string at lowest part of yellow tape<br />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<br /><br /><em>The yellow tape is the bow’s “playground.”<br />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.<br /><br /></em><strong>Practice Music Reading and Pitch Training</strong><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br /><strong>Additional</strong><br /><em>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.<br /><br />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”<br /><br />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.”<br /><br />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.</em>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-79962067757188206062007-09-21T19:47:00.000-07:002008-12-10T02:19:17.919-08:00Nora's Fourth Violin Lesson<div><strong>Practice List To Do, Tuesday 9/21/2007 Lesson 4 Week 2</strong><br />I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations: new add SBB<br />II. Bow Sets 3-5 times per day<br />III. Bow MHD & (new add HB) on left shoulder while singing the rhythm<br />IV. Violin Sets 6 times a day<br /><br /><strong>I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations:</strong><br />MHD (Mississippi Hot Dog)<br />HB (Huckleberry Huckleberry)<br />Twinkle Theme “Twinkle Twinkle Little S-l-o-w”<br />SBB (Stop Big Bow Stop Bog Bow)<br /><br />For Rhythm Identification, Practice Strategies:<br />1. Hear the first line on the violin<br />2. Hear the rhythm on the violin<br />3. Feel arm rub of rhythm (elbow to wrist)<br />4. See rhythm sliced in air (precise vertical hand movements)<br />5. Hear rhythm clapped by adult<br />6. Clap with parent’s hands (parent clap hers, she clap parent’s hands)<br />7. Handshake with parent<br />8. Handshake Twinkle Twinkle Little S-l-o-w<br />9. Stomp<br />10. Hand clap<br />11. Finger tracing on rhythm lines while singing rhythm words<br /><br /><em>Always singing the rhythm words.<br />Mr. S added the SBB rhythm by first clapping Nora’s hands for her and then rubbing the rhythm on her right arm.<br />She correctly identified 10 trials in this order: MHD, HB, MHD, Theme, HB, MHD, HB (with just a slight MHD hesitation first), MHD, HB, MHD. He used clapping, rubbing and slicing today, he did not use his violin, he did not repeat the same rhythm twice.<br />When he threw in the new SBB, she did not get it correct (on 2 trials), but she was able to go back and identify trials with MHD and HB. He smiled at Nora and said that said had done very nice work on her rhythms! And he turned to me and smiled and said the same thing to me! He rarely if ever has addressed me during Nora’s portion of the lesson.</em><br /><br /><strong>II. Bow Practice Sets 3-5 times per day<br /></strong>1. Green Feet<br />2. Soft knees (*added)<br />3. Parent holds bow horizontal<br />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<br />5. Nora places bumpy thumb touching 1/2 silver and ½ hair<br />6. Parent lets go and Nora turns bow so that tip points straight up<br />7. Parent points very close to tip<br />8. New count down from 10<br /><em>· note from observation of previous lesson: If the bow grip is too stiff or not right it is better to start over. Do the right hand placement over, rather than try to adjust a too squeezed or tight grip to become more relaxed. 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.<br />· Count down includes a silent (or articulated) beat between each number, ie one (and) two (and) … one (tongue kluck) two (tongue kluck)<br /></em><br /><strong>III. Bow Practice MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm<br /></strong>New Add HB rhythm<br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Soft knees<br />3. Nora sets a bow grip with bow horizontal, parent holding stick<br />4. Nora puts her Left arm across her tummy<br />5. Parent still holding screw of bow, Nora places bow on her left shoulder (hair down)<br />6. Parent’s left finger tips gently touch around Nora’s right elbow joint<br />7. Parent, guiding Nora’s bow by the screw, says “My Turn”, and then begins saying one rhythm beginning a down bow stroke<br />8. Parent rhythmically says “Your Turn” and may still need to lightly guide screw of the bow, and Nora says MHD or HB and opens her elbow joint to make the 1st down bow and continues for the one rhythm.<br />9. Parent’s left finger tips are still gently enclosing Nora’s right elbow to help guide her stroke.<br />10. Rhythmic exercise: “My Turn” MHD (or HB) “Your Turn” MHD (or HB) “My Turn” MHD (or HB) “Your Turn” MHD (or HB)<br /><br /><em>Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and nicely back and straight and should not twist, or raise, or move forward<br /><br />Parent can give reminders to be “soft.”<br />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.<br /></em><br /><strong>IV. Violin Practice Sets 6 times per day</strong><br />(Nora’s 7 steps in <span style="color:#993399;"><strong>purple</strong></span>)<br /><br />1. <strong><span style="color:#993399;">Green Feet<br /></span></strong>2. <span style="color:#993399;"><strong>Soft knees</strong></span><br />3. Parent swings or shakes Nora’s left arm softly (parent looking for relaxed left arm and shoulder) and places it gently across waist area<br />4. Parent holds violin in right hand by ribs (fingers on curved waist part, strings upward, chinrest toward Nora)<br />5. Mima/Mommy holds own left pointer finger straight up directly in front of Nora’s face, approximately a foot away and says <strong><span style="color:#993399;">“look straight ahead at my finger”</span></strong> and Nora keeps her head in midline and looks straight ahead<br />6. 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 an long dangling left earring.<br />a. Do not move violin around on Nora’s neck. If parent does not place violin properly the first time, start this step over again. Parent gets one committed try.<br />7. Say <span style="color:#993399;"><strong>“turn your head”</strong></span> and Nora turns her head to the left (she should not twist her trunk, shoulders remain straight forward, down and back)<br />8. Say <strong><span style="color:#993399;">“drop your head”</span></strong> (watch that her shoulders do not go up)<br />9. Say, bring your arm up and <span style="color:#993399;"><strong>“let the violin go to sleep on your thumb”</strong></span> (parent hand on violin ribs will be holding violin and blocking left arm from going too far)<br />10. Parent lets go of violin and holds own moving pointer finger up or wiggled fingers up just to the left of the scroll<br />11. Nora should <span style="color:#993399;"><strong>look at finger for a count down from 10</strong></span><br />12. Parent takes the violin by scroll<br /></div><br /><div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb8ktf-7foHTtR-0OnsN-dZyZZNTCjtfs7Xr3ztSg2GMe8xEIuBbTBK4MvvXf_07Snflj_CLMB5f77q6H0rn2Ze2C4INhkXbu_g6NRiZH5aF9PteTJY5ttbp6ujR3nchcqfgyZkTlIiYrG/s1600-h/IMG_2526-1.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113609936982091890" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb8ktf-7foHTtR-0OnsN-dZyZZNTCjtfs7Xr3ztSg2GMe8xEIuBbTBK4MvvXf_07Snflj_CLMB5f77q6H0rn2Ze2C4INhkXbu_g6NRiZH5aF9PteTJY5ttbp6ujR3nchcqfgyZkTlIiYrG/s400/IMG_2526-1.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><em>Mima and Nora and Mr. S held their right hands up in the air and took a pledge:<br />"Nora’s violin will only be set by Mima, Mommy, Daddy, Mr. S or Ms. C, and not by Nora by herself."<br /><br />M.r S said it would probably be months before Nora would be doing this without adult assistance. He said this is his standard schedule.<br /><br />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 by words ask her to change this body position. He guided her with his hands. On the last violin set he did he used his hand to keep her head in midline before she was supposed to turn her head to the left.<br /><br />Mr. S said that we could isolate any of these steps for individual practice.<br />For example the head in the middle and the head turn to the left can be isolated for individual practice.<br /><br />Mr. S used 2 red Sally’s cosmetic sponges and used a red and a green rubber band (Nora’s color choices) to affix the sponges to the back of her violin. He said that we should always bring extra sponges as this sponge arrangement changes as she grows, sometimes week by week.<br /><br />Count down is the same as above with a beat left between the numbers so it would be a full 10 seconds.<br /></em><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwvHWyek5caBa4tiWU-4NYR6mB8GKrDU5Cb_DgiRcszzU2UrrqTJmGhTUHJzJ69N-9f4blEOhiqZyqmwdNoEQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><strong>Practice Music Reading</strong><br />Mr. S said that we could remind him and he will add one more note to our note card set for our music reading practice.<br /><br /><strong>Additional</strong><br />Nora did a beautiful bow to Mr. S at the end of the lesson and we probably should practice her crossed position hand off of the violin and bow to Mr S as she is now doing this at the beginning of the lesson.<br /><br />· Mr. S asked Mima to please bring her violin to the next lesson as it is easier for him to show me on a larger violin. He has been using Nora’s violin with Mima for the demonstration part of the lesson. He said that he would rather not use his own for demonstration.<br /><br />4 cars were in the driveway and Mima got to park on the street!<br />Nora left her case in the waiting room and walked into the lesson room carrying her own violin. She sat on the red observation chair, and Mima helped her put her violin down next her and helped her to leave it quietly alone.<br />Back in the waiting room after the lesson, Nora took more than 15 minutes to put her own shoes on after the lesson….. She saw one of Ms. C’s cats and said “I’m stupefied about that cat. That cat can not come out.”<br />Back up at the car on the street, we met the neighbor and his little friendly dog named Gollie, and Nora made good friends with the dog and the neighbor!<br /><br />Nora again spontaneously identified “Allegro” when we were listening to the Suzuki Volume 1 CD in the car in the way to the lesson. She did this last week as well.<br /><br />Nora had a great time running, climbing and playing in the Clemyjontri Playground. It was summer weather and sunscreen was needed. She enjoyed listening to Malena and Pablo’s old Winnie the Pooh story tapes on the way home. Today it was the story of Piglet entirely surrounded by water.<br /><br />When Keary came home, Nora did one very nice violin set with Mima for him. After dinner she was too tired to practice and she was asleep at 8 PM. She will do a few more violin sets on Saturday morning with Lisa and Mima.</div>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-22246261397894870322007-09-19T14:48:00.000-07:002007-09-19T18:59:32.075-07:00Nora’s 3rd Violin Lesson<div align="left"><strong>Practice List To Do, Tuesday 9/18/2007</strong><br />I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations<br />II. Practice Twinkle S-l-o-w<br />III. Bow Practice Sets 3-5 times per day<br />IV. New for Practice: Bow MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm<br /><br /><strong>I. Identification of Twinkle Rhythm Variations:<br /></strong>MHD (Mississippi Hot Dog)<br />HB (Huckleberry Huckleberry<br />Twinkle Theme “Twinkle Twinkle Little S-l-o-w” (new)<br /><br /><strong>For Rhythm Identification Practice, Pick from These Options:</strong><br />1. Hear the first line on the violin<br />2. Hear the rhythm on the violin<br />3. Feel arm rub of rhythm (elbow to wrist)<br />4. See rhythm sliced in air (precise vertical hand movements)<br />5. Clap with parent’s hands<br />6. Handshake with parent<br />7. Stomp<br />8. Hear and see hand clap<br />9. Finger tracing on rhythm lines while singing rhythm words<br /><br /><em>Always singing the rhythm words. Mr S said to Nora to remember that: “MHD has stops” and “HB keeps moving.” Mr. S played MHD and HB on his violin for Nora to identify; he also rubbed the rhythms on her arm and “sliced” (conducted with precise vertical hand movements) them in the air to help her identify these 2 rhythms. Nora correctly got about 6 out of 10, and she seemed to do best with the “sliced” versions and had the most difficulty with the ones played on the violin. After thinking for almost a minute she said “Twinkle” when Mr. S added the Twinkle Theme to her original 2 rhythms. She said “I don’t know” just one time at this lesson.</em><br /><br /><strong>II. Practice Twinkle S-l-o-w</strong><br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Handshake position with partner, Nora to begin with her arm above her nose<br />3. Sing words with the arm movement (start on ‘A”)<br />4. Partner must make sure last note and arm mvt is s-l-o-w </div><div align="center"><br /><em>“Twinkle twinkle little s-l-o-w<br />How I wonder what you s-l-o-w<br />Up above the sky so s-l-o-w<br />Like a diamond in the s-l-o-w<br />Twinkle twinkle little s-l-o-w<br />How I wonder what you s-l-o-w”</em> </div><div align="left"><br /><em>Nora mostly looked at the clock in the studio when doing this exercise at the lesson.</em><br /><br /><strong>III. Bow Practice Sets 3-5 times per day</strong><br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Mima holds bow horizontal<br />3. Nora places fingers hanging curved over stick, soft hand, fingers spaced with air between each one, index on silver, middle finger across from thumb<br />4. Nora places bumpy thumb touching silver and hair<br />5. Mima lets go and Nora turns bow so that tip points straight up<br />6. Mima points very close to tip<br />7. New count down from 10<br /><br /><em>Mr. S’s finger was so close to Nora’s bow tip it seemed that it was almost touching the tip at times! Do these 3-5 times a day and count down from 10 (increased from 5).</em><br /><br /><strong>IV. New for Practice: Bow MHD on left shoulder while singing the rhythm</strong><br />1. Green Feet<br />2. Soft knees<br />3. Nora sets a bow grip with bow horizontal, Mima holding stick<br />4. Nora puts her Left arm across her tummy<br />5. Mima still holding screw of bow, Nora places bow on her left shoulder (hair down)<br />6. Mima’s left finger tips gently touch Nora’s right elbow<br />7. Nora’s shoulders should be directly over her green feet and should not twist<br />8. Mima, guiding Nora’s bow by the screw, says “My Turn”, and then begins saying one MHD beginning a down bow stroke<br />9. Mima rhythmically says “Your Turn” and lets go of the screw of the bow, and Nora says MHD and opens her elbow joint to make the 1st down bow and continues for the one MHD.<br />10. Mima’s left finger tips are still gently touching Nora’s right elbow to help guide her stroke.<br />11. Rhythmic exercise: “My Turn” MHD “Your Turn” MHD “My Turn” MHD “Your Turn MHD”<br /><br /><em>Mima’s left finger tips gently touch Nora’s right elbow to make sure elbow joint is opening and closing on Nora’s bow strokes and to help prevent upper arm outward/backward movement. Opening and closing Nora’s elbow joint by moving the bow as it rides on her shoulder. Mr. S used an “A” pitch for his MHD and his advice for this exercise was to give reminders to be “soft.” He did not correct for pitch on this exercise.</em><br /><br /><strong>Introduction to Music Reading</strong><br />Three Index cards: Mr. S drew and named the following: Staff (5 parallel lines); Treble Clef (Mima saw that it curls around the G note staff line); Open A whole note “A”; Open E whole note “E”; F# whole note (he told Nora the # comes before the note, but we say “F#”).<br /><br /><strong>Additional Homework</strong><br />· Mr. S said to make many index cards of each of these 3 notes so that it would be easy to flip through them in repetition.<br />· Mr. S said that we should bring (“tons”) of red cosmetic sponges to our next lesson. He said we could get these from “Sally’s Beauty Supply” or maybe a pharmacy. We will need these to “set” the violin.<br /><br /><em>At the previous lesson Mr. S briefly showed us a metronome that gave note pitches and asked if we had one. Mima said she would find out from Lisa, and showed him her pitch pipe (A-E-D-G), and he said that the pitch pipe would be fine for now. Nora carried her own violin and walked carefully up and down the outdoor stairs without running, and Mima backed out of the steeply sloped driveway that was filled with 4 cars, one parked right next to hers!<br /></div></em>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4748146290554141339.post-59670931644218611472007-09-18T13:56:00.000-07:002008-12-10T02:19:18.294-08:00Nora’s 2nd Violin LessonA lesson with Mr. S at C's studio Friday Sept 14th 11:45 AM<br /><br />Nora had another great lesson! Really, her soft bow grip is really wonderful. She was hungry when I picked her up from Montessori preschool so she pretty much had lunch while sitting in her car seat as we drove to Virginia (cheese sticks, 2 small croissants, fruit, and drinkable yogurt).<br /><br />She carried the little green violin case down the winding wooden staircase at a breakneck speed in her eagerness to get to the lesson. Somehow she was able to navigate the stairway with a bobble here and but were no incidents or mishaps, coming or going!<br /><br />I think I need to make RULE – NO RUNNING WITH THE VIOLIN!!<br /><br />We got to the lesson a bit early so after we took off our shoes we entered the teaching room where Mr. S said he would be teaching a beginner lesson. Nora sat in the red “observer” chair and I sat on the floor next to her. A young girl, (4 or 5 years?) was sitting on a small piece of poster board in front of Mr. S. He was singing the song about the violin parts to her and she was giving him her full attention, but not speaking the answers to him. As she and I had practiced, Nora, kept quiet in her observation role, even though she knew the answers the teacher wanted to hear. At one point Mima had to leave the room (to cough, poor Mima had a bad cold) and Nora stayed in the room to observe the lesson on her own!<br /><br />At the end of the observation, Ms. R came into the room to greet the new student, named L and she chatted outside the door with L's mom, who was a former student of ___’s for several years when she was a small child. L’s grandma was also at the lesson and Mr. S commented that he had two multi-generation Suzuki families studying with him that day! Ms. R reentered the room the greet Nora especially and Mr. S noted that Nora was the student who had observed the group class for two years before beginning lessons this week. Ms. R told both Mima and L’s mom that we absolutely must double park in the student car slots in the driveway to make a total of 4 cars on the steeply sloped driveway. She also told us that for the group class tomorrow, everyone must remove shoes and there would be no coffee, drinks or food allowed in the room (a church).<br /><br /><strong>THE 2nd LESSON</strong><br /><br />Mr. S started by drawing around Nora’s “red feet” (feet together rest position) and her “green feet” (violin play position). He did this with a great deal of care and Nora stoo<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5QfGd3a24SbBR_9YuDoGfXUy5A5X-vtAobt5IkaFNNZExWAAOUCH4b1cGcrzLrsJ0Jn1r6gTXhcDB_rHj7Su5VvbrL2ggWrzs-O-5jOPclaGDasFEulOKzP7i3mizAf0x3iMjhAIupS3X/s1600-h/IMG_2499_2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111653156006956386" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5QfGd3a24SbBR_9YuDoGfXUy5A5X-vtAobt5IkaFNNZExWAAOUCH4b1cGcrzLrsJ0Jn1r6gTXhcDB_rHj7Su5VvbrL2ggWrzs-O-5jOPclaGDasFEulOKzP7i3mizAf0x3iMjhAIupS3X/s400/IMG_2499_2.jpg" border="0" /></a>d very still for the whole process. Several times (Mima took a few photos, they seemed to have a similar expressions in 2 pictures, one showed concentration and the other glee!)<br /><br />He folded the poster board in half so that just the half with her foot chart was showing for the lesson. He said she would use the fully opened cart for group class, and he asked us to draw a place for her bow (closest to her) and her violin a bit farther away on the chart for the group class Saturday morning. He also said that Nora could color in the red and green feet when she had time at home.<br /><br />Practice quickly and accurately moving feet to the “red” / “rest” closed feet together position versus the “green” or “play” open toe outward position. Mr. S uses both terms and Nora tries NOT to get TRICKED by Mr. S. When Mr. S said to Nora, “I tricked you!” she just continued playing the game with him and tried again! Mr. S said that during lessons with him, Nora will learn to STAY ON the GREEN FEET!<br /><br /><strong>RHYTHMS</strong><br />Mr. S clapped and played rhythms on the violin, and asked Nora to identify them. She got the first one, “Mississippi Hot Dog” correct, but after that her answers were varied, and she even sometimes said “Mississippi Hot Dog” when it was one of the other 2 rhythms (“Huckleberry Huckleberry”, and “STOP Big Bow STOP Big Bow”). Although it seemed Nora did have an emerging understanding of “Mississippi Hot Dog” it was apparent that this was not consistently easy for her since she sometimes misidentified other rhythms as this first variation.<br />Nora seems (as discussed by Lisa and Mima) to be having difficulty with two separate aspects of the rhythm naming activity really knowing the actual rhythms 100 % cold being able to concentrate for more than two queries before making mistakes that she might not have made if the question posed was the first in the set.<br /><br />Mr. S explained that Nora seemed to have less difficulty with left brain activities (such as naming the parts of the violin and recalling what he said last week almost verbatim) and more difficulty with right brain (visual, kinesthetic, music) activities such as the twinkle rhythm variations. He explained that he wanted her to learn the rhythms with her right brain, even if it took her longer to do so. This means, he said that we should NOT point out that “Huckleberry” is in groups of 4, for example. We should avoid using the language and number side of the brain to memorize the rhythms. She must FEEL the rhythms with her “music” right brain.<br />Mr. S eventually suggested that we consider doing just 2 rhythms for the next lesson, “Mississippi HOT DOG” and one other. (Nora eventually chose “Huckleberry Huckleberry”)<br /><br /><strong>TWINKLE VARIATION RHYTHM PRACTICE LESSON 2</strong><br />Do first 2 Rhythms at home (Mississippi Hot Dog and Huckleberry)<br />Do LOTS of visual and kinesthetic ways, repetition needed<br /><br /><strong>STOMPING RHYTHMS & SING<br /></strong>1.STOMPING: BEGIN with Just “HOT” “DOG”<br />Stay ON Chart<br />Stomp rhythms WITH ME and SAY IT!<br />“HOT” “DOG” (AFTER when she gets that add…..)<br />“Mississippi” (AFTER she gets that try “Huckleberry”<br /><br /><strong>FINGER TRACE RHYTHMS and sing</strong><br />2. FINGER TRACING on zig zag lines drawn by Mr S on paper in his “WHAT” book to represent rhythms.<br />a. Nora was told to trace along the line as she sings the rhythm to herself exactly as the rhythm is given by Mr. S or Mima or Mom – he said that Nora should NOT GO TOO FAST!!!<br />b. Mr. S had her look at the (zig zag scribble line) drawings of the twinkle variations and he played a variation on the violin (Mississippi Hot Dog) and asked her to use the drawings to help her identify to variation. Nora correctly pointed to the first line drawing.<br />CLAP RHYTHMS and sing<br />TAP RHYTHMS and sing<br />ALTERNATE HANDS ON CHEEKS and sing<br />ON NOSE! And sing<br />SLAP RHYTHM ON KNEES and sing<br />*ALWAYS STAY ON GREEN FEET ON CHART WHEN DOING RHYTHMS WITH MR S IN LESSON<br /><br /><strong>2nd Lesson Singing notes</strong><br />Mr. S played open A on the violin and asked her “what’s this?” and Nora said “I really don’t know”. He asked her sing the “A” and she did it beautifully! He played open E string and asked her “what is this?” she correctly said “E” and then she named all the strings E A D G (he did not respond to this additional information)<br /><br /><strong>** A and E LISTENING Practice – don’t let Mr. S trick you!</strong><br />He told her to stay on the GREEN FEET of the Chart<br />He played open A and open E variously and asked her “what is this?”<br />Nora stayed generally on the chart area with her fingers in her mouth and hair some of the time as she sometimes tried to answer<br /><br /><strong>NAMING VIOLIN PARTS (not part of daily home practice)</strong><br />Toward the end of the lesson, Mr. S reviewed the parts of the violin with Nora and she answered correctly and quickly each time for each detail. She gave him back verbatim his comment from the first lesson that seemed to intrigue her about using the pegs only if the violin is very out of tune. He nodded quietly. When they did “chin rest” she noted that hers was black while his was brown and she made a similar contrast statement in terms of bigger (his) and smaller (hers), Mr. S did not comment or react to these additions. Nora added an additional part (the “perfling” (spelling?)) and Mr. S did smile and comment that he did not recall telling her about that (line around the outer edge on the face of the violin) although he said she was perfectly correct.<br /><br /><strong>BOW HOLD</strong><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiM98D7kVg8XEr2ZfAvQRYd52syX8W8jweVy6QFn1SWFxU1gza54MnuLq6Dtq0gwTbouxjGKtQub3Es_WcgtI7ANQdxfRy2bRkpm8-sYVxxL1dOT7FHYQYkCnbFrjRS9XIXCDf6wTu7c_I/s1600-h/IMG_2509_2_2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111653649928195442" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiM98D7kVg8XEr2ZfAvQRYd52syX8W8jweVy6QFn1SWFxU1gza54MnuLq6Dtq0gwTbouxjGKtQub3Es_WcgtI7ANQdxfRy2bRkpm8-sYVxxL1dOT7FHYQYkCnbFrjRS9XIXCDf6wTu7c_I/s400/IMG_2509_2_2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Mr. S helped her to find her bow hold by asking her to rest/ soft hang her right fingers on his left index finger, inserting the bow and helping her to find her bent thumb position touching the silver and the hair. He then helped her turn the bow tip up and pointed to the bow tip and counted 5-4-3-2-1. He asked her how old she was (“three and three quarters” she replied) and then he asked her how many times she thought she could make her bow hold 3 times or 4 times and she choose 4! He did 4 bow holds with her – and the one point that she needed reminding on was to LOOK at the TIP of her BOW at the end of the exercise. Her actual bow hold was super!<br /><br /><strong>END OF LESSON REST POSITION AND BOW</strong><br />1. RED Rest Feet<br />2. Mr. S placed the violin under her right arm with the arm behind the bridge.<br />3. He asked her to crook her right pointer finger and he hung the bow there by the frog and asked her to gently use her thumb to close the circle as the bow hung tip straight down.<br />4. end of lesson bow and she spontaneously said “Thank you for teaching me Mr. S”<br /><br /><strong>End of Lesson discussion Mr. S and Mima<br /></strong>Mr. S said he did not need to write in the WHAT book this time.<br />He said to continue rhythm variation practice as we discussed<br />When I told him that Nora was doing her 3rd practice of the day with her mother and me, he said that was fine, and he also added said very definitely that the person attending the lesson (me) must be present at ALL of Nora’s practices AND the group class. He said he would see me Saturday.<br /><br />Toward the beginning of the lesson, after Nora had some difficulty with the twinkle rhythms, and before he went into his right brain/left brain discussion, he asked if I had read Suzuki’s book, “Nurtured by Love”. I said yes, but that I had read the book 30 years ago! He talked about how when a child learns her first word the parents celebrate that moment, and do not ask when she will learn the next word. I think that he was at first concerned that we (parents and grandparent of Nora) would want to move on to new material in this second lesson on the 2 lesson a week schedule. I made no such request and had no such expectation, and I agreed with all that he was doing, including cutting Nora back to 2 of the 3 original rhythms to help her gain mastery of the rhythms.<br /><br />Later when Lisa and I discussed the 2 lesson a week plan, Lisa said that she chose two lessons a week specifically so that Mima did not feel tempted to move Nora ahead of Mr. S’s instructions. Mima, on the other hand, wanted 2 lessons a week so that Nora and Lisa and Mima would have more direct input from Mr S, so that any questions or confusions or difficulties could be handled as quickly as possible.<br /><br />At the very end of the lesson, Mr. S said that it was a pleasure to teach two students (Lindsay and Nora) where the families have experience with the Suzuki method. He mentioned that it took him 4 to 5 years to complete book 1 as a child. I said that I had one daughter who learned the twinkle variations in 2 weeks (Nora’s Aunt Valerie, on the violin) and one who took 2 years (Nora’s mother, Lisa on the cello). And I told him that by age 16 years, both girls were competent skilled musicians. He seemed especially pleased to hear this story! And, I think he understood that her parents and I were not at all inclined to rush Nora’s learning process faster than he was going to take her.<br /><br /><strong>Additional Comments on the Journey</strong><br />Nora left her second lesson in a great mood, and again said that she loved her violin lesson and she wished she could have one every day! She was also thrilled to climb back UP the outdoor staircases! She comported herself perfectly and did not press her face on the picture window as did another student.<br /><br />We went to our favorite eatery at the end of the street and she picked out a chocolate brownie and ate the entire desert before we got to Celemyjonti Park.<br />Once at the park, she was eager to get to the playground equipment and she played happily for over an hour, until a light rain began and we decided to drive home.<br /><br />During the car rides she seems happy to listen to the Suzuki tape and talk with me, (sometimes she holds her travel blanket). On both trips she asked to be home “right now!!” just after we were passed her Montessori school (when the car begins to hit stop lights rather than the open highway). I have been going to the violin lesson via the Clemyjonti Park as this route is on bigger roads, has fewer turns and fewer stop lights.<br /><br /><div align="left"><br />Nora found a purple sticky note pad and began “writing”. She produced about 20 pages each with an indecipherable scribble and ONE single purple square note had written on it quite legibly: </div><div align="center"><br />ViO<br />Lin<br /></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">She just left this note with all the others and Mima discovered it when she cleared the table for dinner!</div>two bad micehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12566417604078425424noreply@blogger.com2