The week at PMI started out slowly, but we ended up working so hard that time felt like it just flew by. I was very impressed with all the students there who exhibited focus, persistence, and determination, and maintained the high level in all the performances. I had the pleasure and honor of coaching the first movement of the Mendelssohn Octet (one of my favorite pieces of all time), and it was a learning experience for me and the students. It was a technically challenging piece for them, and I’m glad they pulled it off in 5 short days of coachings and rehearsals. I’m already think of the piece for next year… maybe Barber’s Adagio for Strings? This PMI was also special in that most of the clinicians performed alongside the students in the concerts. Thanks to them, I was able to recount all of my youth orchestra moments :) BRAVO to all the PMI students and it was great working with HYS and the coaches once again!

Bring your family and friends and join us for a day of wonderful music by our talented students at the Bradford School of Music. Admission is free; non-perishable food donations are welcome at the door.  There were will food and drinks after each recital.

Best of luck to all my students!!

Yesterday’s lesson was exciting for the most part: the kids get to play notes with their fingers!  In preparation for this important milestone, and based on how little Miranda starting learning her left hand, we used a poem about blackbirds to help organize our fingers.  It’s essential in the beginning to draw numbers on the digits (1, 2, and 3) on the knuckle nearest the fingernail to make the connection visually and physically.  Now we introduce the poem and model the movements:

Three little blackbirds flying to a tree   [wiggle fingers in air]
swing that branch and pop down “3″   [pull left elbow in, third finger touches thumb]
touch “2″, pop off “3″   [second finger touches thumb and release third finger]
touch “1″, pop off “2″
pop off “1″
fly away and come back soon.  [wiggle fingers in air]

After many repetitions (and the words get stuck into their brains), transfer the learned tactile movements to a bouncy ball, the shoulder of the violin, and finally to the neck where the tapes are.  It’s important to emphasize the left hand posture for each of the three locations–relaxed, pliable and strong curved fingers.

The left hand position at the neck can also be taught using the same “tree” analogy.  Since the left arm/elbow is the swinging branch, the left hand serves as a “hanging nest” that is open, not cupping the neck of the violin which many young students have fault with.  Where do we put our left hands on the neck?  Use the STRAIGHT left thumb as a guide and place it next to finger tape #1 which corresponds to blackbird #1, tape #2 = 2nd finger, etc.  Make sure the thumb is not sticking up above the fingerboard because a “tunnel” is needed for the nest (spacing underneath the neck).  I’m sure this is much too detailed and analytical for some, but I think the analogy is good for those who have trouble visualizing how to hold the violin at the neck.

When placing fingers on the strings, it reminds me of “tight-rope walking” or seeing actual birds resting on electric wires over the roadways.  But unlike those birds sitting in random spots on the wires (or seemingly so), the fingers on the strings have certain resting spots… the tapes!  In my private lessons, I generally only use tapes for the first and third fingers because in many early levelpieces, the second finger is that one that moves around the most: sometimes “best buddies” with third finger and sometimes with first finger.  Geez, #2 really gets along with everybody!  Anyways, back to group classes, the kids need all three tapes and should know that #2 and 3 are best buddies… for now.

I don’t know if it’s because of the holiday spirit or the emotions that come with the “end of the year,” but I am truly grateful for each person at Atrium: Beatrice, Randy, Michael, Linda, Susan, and Larry.  When we arrived at Atrium in the morning, I was relieved to find all the student violins lined up in order.  This made my job easier to tune and put the shoulder sponges on each of them, which did take about 20 minutes.  Randy (the tech guy) worked on the PA system and setting up the two video cameras, one floor and one roaming.  Michael made sure the each child has a foot chart and place on the risers.

After everything was all set up, Randy asked Larry and I to say a few words in anticipation of the event.  We had a good time, doing different takes and speaking from different angles.  We even got to interview a violin parent who was nervous but super excited about the performance.

The program opens up with the Explorers, and I could tell that they were really excited as we stood in line to enter the Hall.  But when they got to their violins, they immediately sat down (they still need to work on their listening skills as we told them to stay standing).  After a few minutes, they held their violins in rest position and started filing on the platforms.  I was a little nervous for them because they had no idea was going to happen in the next few minutes.  Larry, Randy, and I had made some changes to our performance because we wanted to show the PROCESS of what we are going to do.  So Larry opened with vocal solfege warmup with scales and short call and response segments.  The kids responded and sang very well (they have such sweet soft voices!) and to my surprise and delight, Larry took the assessment one step further: instead of having them imitate what he sang, he pointed to syllables on the matrix and they sang the melody back.  Amazing.  Next, I did my segment with the rhythm cups and explained to the parents the purpose of this.  The culmination activity was to sing Re and La in different rhythms shown by the cups along with a recording of Pachelbel’s canon.  It was a great 3 minute show and we ended with the parents singing along to a Re scale and ending with a ringing “Cha….”  I loved their finishing choreography!

I think some cool ideas to expand on this would be to split the group into teams and have each one sing a different rhythm that ties in with the symmetry unit.  Larry also suggested having them pluck Re-La but sing the scale to Pachelbel.  I want them to march so their inner rhythm is strong.  So many things to work on and so very exciting!  Next year we will definitely tackle the bows.

This will be a compilation video made by Randy this week which will summarize and zoom in on the key points of the violin pilot program.   I think it was a big hit with the school, teachers, and parents.  We look forward to more violin-ing next year!

Following the symmetrical theme, we introduced the idea of a symmetrical melody — a melody that sounds the same when sung both forwards and backwards.  For homework we asked each student to create their own symmetrical and asymmetrical composition, which will be sung in class next Friday!  Maybe all of them will end up on the hallway walls in school!  It’s so exciting….

I really enjoyed the “crazy practice” because I could do something the wrong way and then fix it.
I liked doing the animal rhythms and marching the beat. It was fun.

We then asked them if they had any specific questions, and it was obvious that they had answers to everything! These kids are so smart! Next we had them talking about their drawings they made the week before about how playing the violin makes them feel. One boy said: “Playing the violin is like being sucked into a black hole. The black hole is actually music and whenever I play music, I feel like it’s powerful.” Wow, that’s all I have to say to that.

I know little kids love to do things with their bodies so we came up with the idea of marching the beat or pulse.  We made sure to start at a slow tempo (speed) so that when the rhythms got more complicated, it was slow enough to understand and perform them.  We mostly used animal rhythms: zoo, monkey, and alligator, and interchanged them with the African/Indian system: cha, taki, takadimi.  The hardest part was marching the beat and clapping or singing the animal rhythm on top of the marching.  It was tested their coordination skills but incorporating their bodies at the same time.  Will they go home and practice this exercise?  I sure hope so.

Talk 23: Good and Great from David Finckel and Wu Han on Vimeo.