Adult Class first week of December

We are making steady progress! We discovered counting or tapping your foot while you play as a learning tool is essential when we are doing harmonies. Try not to have your foot tap adjust to a variable tempo. Hold the dotted quarter notes 1 1/2 beats that are followed by a much shorter eighth note. Hold the half notes exactly 2 beats, and the dotted half note 3 beats. Keep the beat of the music regular, for example 3 beats per measure in the First Nowell, with a very slight emphasis on the first beat and sometimes the 3 beat. We are really playing Bile Em Cabbage in a two beats, dividing the measures in half, because it is just fast enough that your foot doesn't want to tap that fast. It is definitely fun to tap your foot in fiddle or blue grass music, and it adds to the spirit!

We realized Simple Gifts was just difficult enough that we would only learn that a line at a time. The first line is homework this week. Practice it Pizzacato until you play the rhythm well, with numbers if you want. It is on A and E strings for violins, so practice the open E, 1 finger on E (F#), and low 2 on E (G), and 3 finger on (A). We did this in class several times for violins. We will go over this with 2 octave G scale next week. If you get good at that try bowing it without slurrs, then with slurrs. Don't worry, we will go slowly on this song, it is not a fast song.

We reviewed the Joy to the World music I had passed out earlier, and we will work on that because it is easier than simple gifts, but still has great rhythms to learn and you know the melody. Learn that at home Pizzacato first and with finger markings if you need them. You can use your scale sheet using D major scale for finger marking of notes if you need to refer to something, or D scale marking on page 11 in book, or chart on page 47 in book. After you know it well slow in Pizzacato, you can try bowing it slowly. Slow is better than fast at first, so that you do the rhythms correctly and don't slow down or speed up. We will hope to play the whole melody next week.

We practiced doing C scale one octave with slurrs, rule is low 2 finger on D and A strings. We did G scale (low 2 finger on A string only) with half notes and quarter note sequence. We did D scale with quarter and eighth note alternation up and down scale and in two part round. Great job!
Continue practicing scales and you may use this rhythm pattern or one of your own like dotted quarter and eighth, or simple half notes. Gradually memorize the rules of the scales so that you can play any music in that scale. Work on your tone (using good bow hold with right amount of tension and speed on string using whole bow), when you are doing simple half note scales.