Possibilities!

There are many different ways to learn, and many different styles of practicing. Today I am sharing two that I like to use in lessons.

Lately my favorite way to practice passages that are fast is the seven famous rhythms that I learned from Ivan Galamian's book Principles of Violin Playing. This works best on a section of notes that are all the same length, like sixteenth notes.
Basically you play the notes in the passage with different lengths so that you are giving your fingers and your brain time to think between some notes, and practice moving quickly between others, then mixing up the pattern until your brain and fingers are ready to play all the notes quickly. Here is a drawing of the rhythms using  __ for  a long (eighth) note, and - for a short (sixeenth) note:

1  __ - __  - __ - __ -

2  - __ - __ - __ - __

3  __  __ - - __ __ - -

4  - - __ __  - - __ __

5   __ - - - __ - - -

6  - - - __  - - - __

7   - - - - - - - -  (this is the  original written fast grouping)


Today, I found this great video for how to 'draw' bow distribution. I think this will be a fun thing to use both in private lessons and at group class. We could draw the bowing for different Suzuki Songs and guess the tune! We could try different bow distribution drawings to experiment with a song or passage we are playing that day at group. All kinds of interesting things can come from learning this technique.

Of course, there are also fun ways to memorize pieces. One I like is the game where we write our notes on a dry erase or chalkboard, then play the passage.Each time we play it, we erase one of the notes, until there are no written notes left and the passage is memorized!

Another way to repeat difficult passages is with the Penny Game. Choose a number like 5, 10 or more, depending on the age of the child, and the difficulty of the passage. Then you need two cups, one for the student, and one for the parent or teacher. Each time the passage is played without mistakes, or with whatever technique you are trying to improve, the student gets a penny (or a Cheerio or M&M, or bead - whatever you use to count) in their cup. If there is a mistake or failed attempt, the teacher or parent gets the penny in her cup. The game continues until someone has all 10 pennies. SO... let's say the 10 pennies are all in the cups, and the student has 7 and the parent has 3, then the student keeps playing the passage until he wins the parent's 3 pennies back from the parent, which might take more than 3 tries! This is a fun way to get lots of practice repetitions in!

An Abacus is a good counting tool for practice repetions or counting practices. We are making them at group class this fall with pipe cleaners and beads. I will let the students pick a color of pipe cleaner, then pick a large button to tie on each end. Then they will pick 10 colored beads for middle of the pipe cleaner for counting. The kids really enjoy this! I will post our pictures when we make them!