Holiday Music

Something to “feast your ears on” over the holiday break, try this album by Miro Quartet. It is full of interesting string quartet arrangements where they gave various composers free reign to do what they wanted. It includes some lesser known Christmas tunes and even a long mash up of famous melodies entitled “Songs of Christmas Past" which starts with Handel’s Hallelujah theme, and moves through different carols and the Nutracker, and more Classical themes.

And, additionally, I once put out an short album of strangely altered Christmas material where the recognizable melodies are often barely there, or hidden, or perhaps changed from major to minor and made into a Tango like this first track. If I were to do a Christmas album now it might be a little more straight ahead, but this was fun and I thought the students might enjoy hearing it.

Tunes List

Here are the melodies we have worked on so far. Students should be working on these, maybe going through each tune a few times per practice session:

Ant Song— playing each string 4 times except the last. This tue is helping us memorize the order of open strings (E A D G). Then when the basic way is easy, they can play a note for each syllable so it is a mix of longer (quarter notes) and shorter (eighth notes). Also note that to switch strings quickly the pizzicato finger can be kept closer to the string after playing each note, which helps a lot!

Here are the lyrics. I got this from another teacher and I’m not sure the original source of this rhyme.

Each each each and every

Ant ant ant digs the

Dirt dirt dirt under the

Ground ground ground

Shake Little Tree— this introduces the first finger playing the A string to make a B. Students had played this tune on their flutes last year so they knew it. Fingers should be gently round shape when playing the string, avoiding being too curled (which forms an almost square shape and stresses the joints a bit too much) or too flat. We practiced making a teardrop shape between fingers and thumb to get the idea…too much tension and it becomes a circle, but a relaxed curve of the fingers when they touch the thumb gives a nice teardrop.

Below are the lyrics. It begins on first finger and I have bolded/italicized the A (which is open string) notes. The second half seems a bit more tricky for the students to know when to change notes. Many students are accidentally putting their fingers back on for the word “may.” That spot is the only time there are two consecutive open strings, so maybe that is why!

Shake shake little tree

Silver and gold may cover me

Lion Sleeps Tonight— we have played a simple ostinato and sung along with it (Wimoweh) and we have also sung the melody while playing the ostinato. The order of strings for this is as follows: D G D A (playing each stirng 4 times). We talked about the history of the song, that it was written in the 1920’s in Africa and later recorded in by a pop group and used in the Lion King but the original author did not receive any money! There may also be some interesting symbolism (according to Pete Seeger’s notes about it) because the last king of the Zulu’s was nicknamed The Lion.

Hot Cross Buns— the students knew the words already so this is a good way to introduce the 2nd finger. For now when 2nd finger is down we will practice having the 1st finger on the string with it (since it is behind it it doesn’t effect the sound but it is good practice for hand position and is convenient when moving to 1st finger notes from 2nd because the new note is already ready). We made variations on the lyrics and talked about the concept of variation, ie that it means changing the original version in some way. We sang about hot cocao, croissants, tofu and even kitties instead of hot cross buns. The fingering is as follows:

(On the D string but can be played on any string)

2 1 D

2 1 D

DDDD 1111

2 1 D

Major Scale— we played the first half of this (and connected it to the syllables Do Re Me Fa). Playing this introduces 3rd finger for the first time! I explained how you can do the same 4 note pattern on the next string to complete the scale. The fingering is:

D 1 2 3

And if continuing:

A 1 2 3

We also talked about the major scale is a pattern of notes and it is possible (when you are more advanced) to start that pattern on any note and have it sound the same. I pointed out that is why the solfege system of singing Do Re Mi was invented…to help keep track of what note of the scale you are on, regardless of which note is Do. This is a big concept but may be interesting for them to think about.

We have also sung two others so far:

The alphabet song backwards— It makes a fun little puzzle to try to learn to sing the letters beginning with Z. I know that somewhere around LKJ IHG it is especially hard…for me! As an added challenge I said you could even learn to sing “Me with time next sing you won’t” at the last phrase.

Step By Step— an old union song with a lot of the melody in scale order (useful for when we play it later).

Step by step the longest march

Can be won, can be won

Many stones can form an arch

Singly done singly done

And by union what we will

Can be accomplished still

Drops of water turn a mill

Singly done singly done

Here it is performed on hammered dulcimer:

Extra melodies to try.

Because it’s Christmas season students seem quite excited about playing tunes like Jingle Bells. Here are the fingerings:

(on the D string)

222 222 2 A D 1 2

333 3322 2221121 A

222 222 2 A D 1 2

333 3322 222 A A (back to D) 3 1 D

Joy to the World

(on A)

3 2 1 A (on D:) 3 2 1 D

A 1 1 2 2 3

3 3 2 1 A A (on D:) 3 2

3 3 2 1 A A (on D:) 3 2

2 2 2 2 23 A

(on D:) 3 2 1 1 1 12 3

2 1 D (on A:) 3 1 A (on D:) 3 2 3 2 1 D

Holding the instrument!

Off we go! So much more information I want to post soon but for now, as your students are practicing, you can gently remind them of some habits we want to form. The violin is hard from an ergonomic standpoint so this is what we want to encourage and support:

• That the violin is enough to the left so it’s at least to the corner of the room if you’re facing a wall straight on. This helps it stay near flat as well.

• That the violin is high on the shoulder, coming near or onto where the seam on the shoulder of a shirt if it has one

• At the same time those two things are true we also try to get the chin to find a comfortable spot on the chin rest (it doesn’t have to touch it in any particular way or be fully on it, that is the end of the chin can hang off it…I was once in a workshop where the instructor said we should call it a jaw hook rather than a chin rest)

• And we try to stay relatively relaxed and balanced in our bodies, as we talked about a lot in class ie balanced on both feet, standing straight and tall but not full of tension either. (This is an ideal to work toward, and so are the rest of the form and technique guidelines.)

• For the left hand we want to make a large spiral shape and turn the hand inward toward the strings, not collapsing the wrist up to the fingerboard. We check that the thumb is not too low or high in relation to the strings and that the index finger touches the violin and the X spot just above the 3rd wrinkle.

Students can practice two pieces thus far:

The Ant Song:

Each each each and every

Ant ant ant digs the

Dirt dirt dirt under the

Ground ground ground

(Playing each string 4 times from E to G, with the lyrics helping us learn what letter each string is.)

Shake Little Tree

Shake shake little tree

Silver and gold may cover me

This uses the A string and first finger for the starting note B. We did this very quickly but the students can probably sound this out with practice if at first they don’t quite have it. They have to know how to play B with first finger and A by lifting it up (which we call open string).

Goals for this year

I am thinking about 3 basic goals for this year and they are all about equal.

• That students enjoy playing music, and it doesn’t feel like drudgery. This is a challenge sometimes when they haven’t chosen the instrument for themselves.

• That they work hard on developing good habits (so we don’t have to undo the less ideal patterns in the future)

• That they begin to see what the process is for learning the above two things (try things, notice, refine and so forth)

Welcome Meadowlark Families!

It will be a lot of fun doing violin classes with the 3rd grade this year. I’ll update this blog with information, sheet music and listening links from time to time.

RENTING OPTIONS

Of course, you’ll need a violin and bow. There are many options but two good ones in St. Paul are:

Cadenza Music - $300 per year for the school year and includes the following summer if you renew. I do teach lessons at Cadenza a few days a week but I have not stake in their renting program.

Fein Violins - $36.21 per month, cancel by the 14th of any month to stop and apply $25 per month toward a future purchase for the first 18 months. Note: because Grand Avenue is under construction they recommend approaching the area from streets to the West of their shop (probably have to park and walk a block or two).

OTHER EQUIPMENT

Shoulder accommodation— I would like to start with sponges as a cushion because they are allow more flexibility in how you hold the instrument. If rentring from Fein violins they include a shoulder rest, but they will swap it for a sponge on request. At Cadenza, you’ll have to buy your own sponge but they stock them there and they are only about $5. I’d like to start with sponges and it may be that some students will want to use a shoulder rest later. Or if you are taking lessons with another teacher and they request you use a shoulder rest then that’s fine.

Chin accommodation— there was a year long study of conservatory students that found most violinists benefit from a higher chin rest toward the center. For that reason, I recommend the centered Wittner models, preferably the adjustable centered one (their “Augsburg” model) as a starting place. Good news— Fein Violins has outfitted many of their rental instruments with Wittner chin rests. If you get a rental without a higher center mount chin rest I think it will definitely be a worthy investment to spend about $25 to purchase one of your own and replace what’s there.

A music stand. We won’t use music in class righta way, but at some point we might and you’ll want a stand for home practice. A cheap folding one is fine for home and then is easy to transport.

INSPIRATION

A little inspiration goes a long way. Seeking out live music can really show the kids what this is all about. I really recommend the MN Orchestra Family Friendly Concerts which are in the afternoon and informal and lots of fun (kids are free and adults from $15). St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has free tickets for kids to all their concerts and often they have Sunday afternoon performances if you don’t want to do an evening. Those are a good place to start, but of course there’s the whole world of folk, jazz and world music too! Pretty much any live music your family enjoys seeing would really be good music exposure. (I know I want to do more of this with my own kids!)

LISTENING PLAYLIST

I wanted to share links to a few pieces of music that I know we will study, so the students can listen to them and get the melodies in their heads ahead of time. Please begin listening regularly to these pieces. One great way to do this is to make a playlist and get in the habit of listening to it in the car sometimes. I remember riding to school listening to Suzuki tapes over and over (and that was one of Suzuki’s innovations…to mimic the way kids pick up language by immersing them in the melodies they will be playing so they know how it goes before they even try to play it).