Pinkie Practice

Yesterday, I had a fun lesson with one of my young students. We came up with a little pinkie practice exercise to get her using the pinkie more in preparation for Perpetual Motion coming soon. Her father brought her to the lesson, so I made a quick video to send home for mom, so that mom would understand my lesson notes about home practices. My student was cute in the video, so I thought I would share our fun. Here is the video:

Preparing for Etude

I wrote an earlier article about teaching Etude, but in my current timeline of discussing Suzuki Violin Volume One, this is the place where I would introduce an article about Etude. In the previous article I did not discuss those things that I would introduce to a student in order to prepare for Etude, so I will discuss these items now.

First of all, I discuss the meaning of Etude with my students. "Etude" is a French word meaning "exercise" or "study." I discuss with my student that there are many "etudes" in the violin repertoire, and that these pieces are generally shorter in length and designed to teach particular skills. These skills may include a rhythmic unit, a new finger pattern, or a particular bowing variation. Generally etudes focus on one bowing variation or rhythmic pattern, which makes etudes useful for learning a particular skill because they direct the student's focus to a smaller area of technique or skill set. In this case, Dr. Suzuki's Etude will teach a new finger pattern, focus on strengthening the student's ability to make string crossings, and teach the student how to articulate notes well on an up bow (beginnings of notes). Most of the string crossings occur on an up bow to a lower string.

In addition to the student's regular listening program, I urge parents to play the Etude recording an extra number of times. Etude can confuse both parent and student aurally, so more listening helps. I also have a copy of the song laid out phrase by phrase. I made the copy by cutting and pasting the song into its four phrase components and lining up the phrases underneath each other. In this manner the parent can view the song phrases in comparison and easily see the different endings or contrasting parts of the song.

Here are a few things I might introduce to a student as preparation for learning Etude:

• G major scale, 1 octave: this scale is played with the G string as the starting note and uses the Twinkle Variations finger pattern on both the D and G strings. Sometimes we play the scale using one of the various Twinkle variations.

• G & D String Songs: We transpose as many of the songs that the student has learned onto the lower strings, if possible. Most of the book 1 songs can be transposed down a string. There are some that do not work. For example, Allegretto is impossible to transpose to the G string since it already contains a note on the G string, although Allegretto is a good song to work on because it requires the student to play on both the G and D strings. The other earlier songs in book 1 usually work well for transposition to a lower string. If we join forces with viola or cello students, our ability to play on a lower string will mean that we can play together with these other instruments.

• G Major Scale, 2 Octaves: This two-octave scale introduces a new finger pattern. The student builds on the one octave G major scale and adds another octave set of notes up to the E string with a different finger pattern.

• The teaching point here is that the student will learn a different finger pattern on the A and E strings.

• The two octave G major scale requires one set of finger patterns on the G and D strings and another set of finger patterns on the A and E string.

Additional Teaching Points: Once we learn the scale, we can add additional teaching points.

• 30 Second Scale: This is a game I play to encourage students to practice the two-octave G scale. I set the timer for 30 seconds, and then we count the number of times the student can play the scale  during the 30 seconds. The record is five for students of the Etude book 1 level (I do not show off my or any of my more advanced students' abilities to break that record). We only count the scale if a student plays it correctly -- the appropriate finger patterns and all of the scale notes.

• Fourth Finger Descending: Once a student has strengthened the ability to play the two-octave G scale, I introduce the pinkie fingering on the scale's descent. I stress the importance of leaving the index finger down in place while the student swings the left elbow under the finger board and sets the pinkie in place.

• Bowing Variations: Here are a few possible variations for the G scale. There are many other possibilities, and all of these ideas are excellent points in a group class lesson plan:
• slur two notes
• slur four notes
• 2 hooked staccato bows (up-up, down-down)
• 4 hooked staccato bows (up-up-up-up, down-down-down-down)
• combination of slurred and hooked bows (slur, up-up, slur, up-up)
• combination of slurred and separate bows (slur, up-down, slur, down-up) 
• Scale Patterns: We practice a little extra on the different combinations of scale patterns found within the G scale. This can be a fun thing to add to a group lesson plan. Here are a few examples:

• Broken Thirds Scale: I teach the G scale as a series of "broken thirds." I find that when a student learns how to play a scale in broken thirds that much of the battle of learning how to "feel a key" is won. I happened on this discovery one day while helping a student to learn the Bb finger pattern in the middle section of Gavotte from "Mignon," which is the 9th song in violin volume 2. Just on a lark, I taught the student how to play the Bb scale in broken thirds, and I found out that when the student finally learned this skill, that she also really, really learned how to feel the Bb key. Since that day, I have tried to remember to teach my students how to play all their scales in broken thirds. Here is the G scale in broken thirds:

• New Etude of Finger Patterns: We create our own "etude" by practicing a series of finger patterns that we developed based on note and finger patterns found within Etude. I use ideas that I learned from my personal study of Ševčik exercises to develop these exercises (here is the link to see my previous blog post about the Ševčik connection). We repeat these little fingering fragments several times:

And finally, the Suzuki violin revised volume one provides a full page of finger exercises just prior to the Etude song. These exercises are designed to strengthen the student's use of the pinkie.

Much of the Etude preparation work not only helps to pave the road for good teaching of Etude, but it also prepares the road for the songs that succeed Etude. As with all of the songs in the Suzuki repertoire, each song is connected and related to all the other songs in some way, whether great or small. The fun of teaching lies in the discovery of these connections and relations. With every student, I uncover new teaching points and therefore continue to grow as a teacher.

For my previous post about Etude, click here. Let me know of your ideas concerning how to teach Etude and how to prepare a student for Etude's teaching points.

Happy Etude-ing!

Quick Practice Tip: Magic Patterns

This practice tip is about building up speed in difficult passages but in a manner more advanced and complex than the earlier practice tip I posted about building up speed through the use of thoughtful chunks. I call this technique "magic patterns" and use it mostly with my advanced students. Currently here in Texas there are several auditions for students coming up that require the performance of several fast etudes, and my advanced students are struggling to build up speed.

Here are the 11 magic patterns in a nutshell:

Magic Patterns (11)

Each pattern in a measure is a separate pattern to be applied to the passage being worked on. The above patterns apply to passages that involve a multiple of four notes (16th notes, 8th notes). There are three requirements:

• Keep the same fingering.

• Keep the same bowing.

• Play correctly, no mistakes. If there are mistakes, then the speed must be adjusted or the length of the "thinking pause" in the pattern execution must be lengthened.

I think of the above Magic Patterns as a floor, and each particular pattern will reveal a weakness in the floor that may need an extra nail hammered into it. A weak finger or a slippery shift may be causing a problem the student was not aware of. Maybe a bowing does not quite catch the string at a good contact point. The magic patterns will uncover all the problems one at a time. Some patterns may seem trickier than others, and this sensation may vary from passage to passage.

When a student has struggled through the entire exercise of applying the magic patterns, I ask them to play the passage as originally written. The students always acknowledge how much easier the passage feels after being massaged by the magic patterns: "It's magical," they say. And it is.

I then take two brand new rubber bands and show them to the student. We compare the color and the length of both bands; they are the same. I set one band aside and take the other. I stretch out the second rubber band eleven times, which is the number of magic patterns the student completed. After completing my stretching exercise, we compare the two rubber bands again. The stretched rubber band has a different color and is much longer than the first rubber band.

"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." -- Oliver Wendall Holmes

I explain to the student that when we made the passage harder by applying varied rhythms and increasing the complexity, we stretched the student's mind. When the student returned to the passage as originally written, the student found it to be much simpler and easier to play.

I seldom have to repeat my magic pattern exercise. Once through a difficult passage and the passage then becomes "mine." Occasionally in extremely difficult repertoire, I may have to apply other patterns. If the passage is separate bows, I add slurs and mix up separate and slurred bowing. If the passage is slurred, I play without slurs or spiccato. The goal is to find ways to play the passage differently and to make it even more difficult.

To increase speed, I practice with the patterns, include larger thinking pauses, and speed up the moving notes as quickly as I can.

I use similar patterns for passages in 6/8 or other multiples of threes.

Happy practicing!

Quick Practice Tip: Inside Out Muscles

Life is stressful, but violin playing and making music should not be. We should enjoy the beauty of creating music and expressing emotion without having to suffer the ill effects of a glitch in our posture or muscle use. To help us be more aware of the dangers of stress due to improper muscle usage, let me suggest that we pay attention to inside and outside muscles.

Have you ever seen a muscle "pose down" in a weight-lifting competition? This is the portion of the body building competition when the competitors strike various poses and tense their muscles in order to produce the optimum tensed muscle for the presentation. Notice that I said the competitors "tense" their muscles. If you watch such an exhibition, you will note that the contestants tend to pull their poses "inward" in order to add the tension necessary to stimulate the muscle formation for the pose.

Try this experiment. Form fists in both your hands. Now, facing both fists toward each other in front of your body, pull your elbows outward to the side. Hunch forward a little in your shoulders and squeeze your arms and the backs of your shoulders, while you try to tighten and lift your pectoral (chest) muscles. Notice how your muscles form. Notice also how much stress and tension you created by turning on the "inside" muscles of your arms.

Now turn on the "outside" muscles of your arms. Notice how the tension completely lifts and dissipates, leaving your arms light and feeling like they can float away. This is the release of tension.

Now pick up your instrument and bow. Set the bow on the A string (if you play violin). Feel the tension of the inside muscles in your right bow arm. Now alter your bow hold or position so that you can turn on the outside muscles instead. For most violinists, turning on the outside muscles involves weight distribution in the right hand toward the pinkie side of the bow hold, which will release the tension in the right arm and ultimately the right shoulder.

Aaaaah! Doesn't that feel great? Let's just sit with that feeling for a bit. Keep your bow on the A string, and move your right arm up and down a few times to make sure that your right shoulder is loose. Tip your bow hold silently from the G string level over to the E string level and feel the looseness in your right fingers.

Remember: inside muscles were designed to create tension, and outside muscles release it. Learn to recognize when you are using inside or outside muscles, and look for opportunities to release unnecessary tension.

Quick Practice Tip: Warming Up is Hard to Do

I have never enjoyed warming up. I understand the reasons why warming up is a good thing, but in general, I have never been very good at it. Even when I exercise, whether weight training or running, I tend to move right to the good stuff rather than start slow with stretching or slow movement.

Warming Up for a Recital

When I am preparing for a recital, I find it useful to "warm up" on the very first piece that I intend to play on the recital, at least the first half page. That is because in my experience I feel "cold" when I begin a recital, no matter how much I have warmed up before the recital. Despite this cold feeling I am confident anyway, because I have practiced performing this part of the recital from a "cold" start. Nothing unsettles me psychologically about the "cold" start anymore because I have prepared myself to perform well under these conditions.

Also, when I am playing regularly, I seldom actually go "cold" in the first place. My memory and physical state stay ready. The most that I have to do is use some hand lotion to lubricate my dry skin. Otherwise, I am pretty much ready to go.

Warming Up for Practice in General

Still, I understand that there is a value to routine, and so I continue to construct a warm up routine that will suit my lifestyle of the moment. At this moment, I have little free time because I am teaching at a strings camp in a neighboring town over an hour away. So what warm up or practice time I have is limited in time and scope. I need to pack a wallop in a short time. I have turned to Kreutzer to help me do this.

I have identified four of the earlier Kreutzer etudes, and I play them every day. You might select four different etudes to fulfill your needs, but the four I selected suit me perfectly for right now. I play through #5, 8, 10, and 12. Here are my reasons why.

#5 causes me to hold my left hand a little higher to accommodate the Eb finger patterns. My left hand is quite small (I should be playing a 7/8 size violin), and Eb is tiring unless I hold my hand a little steeper. I play this etude and focus on keeping my left hand high enough to keep a nice curved shape to my left pinkie. I might add one or two of the bowing variations suggested.

#8 causes my left hand to stretch to play the E and B major finger patterns contained in this etude. These finger patterns are huge reaches for me, so practicing this etude daily helps to keep my left hand limber and unfurled. I also add one or two of the bowing variations, but just playing through the etude is quite a chore by itself.

#10 is one of my favorites. I have always enjoyed this one since the day I first learned it. My teacher Helen Kwalwasser had me perform the etude at opposite ends of the bow. I would play a whole bow on the first eighth note and the next groups of 16th notes at the tip, and then play a whole bow on the next eighth note and play the 16th note grouping at the frog. This style encouraged me to play equally at opposite ends of the bow. I would be careful to make good contact points at the tip and to use the appropriate amount of finger motion at the frog. I would work to make my notes at the tip sound stronger and my notes at the frog match the volume of those at the tip (and vice versa). There are good opportunities to make thoughtful shifts as well.

#12 is a good exercise in shifting, intonation, arpeggios, and extended fingers in the higher positions. I have always found this etude to be a little tough, because it requires the extended reaches at the top end of the arpeggios. I can easily play this etude if I were to rewrite the fingerings to a more accommodating position for my small hand, but I find it useful to insist that I continue stretching my left hand at every appropriate opportunity, always being careful not to over do things and injure myself.

Every day I play through these four etudes. Even after a few days, I noticed a huge improvement in the ease of playing them. Maybe sometime down the road I will switch to four different etudes. There are occasional days when I do different Kreutzer etudes just to add variety, but generally, I like these four etudes. I hope to have them completely memorized so that I can draw on them at any moment.

What are your favorite warm up routines?

Quick Practice Tip: Use the Sevcik Connection

In the past year I have been reacquainting myself with the materials put together by Otakar Sevcik, a Czech violinist in the latter half of the 19th century, early 20th century. Sevcik was appointed professor of violin at the age of 23 with the Russian Music Society in Kiev. He also later taught violin at the Prague Conservatory and Vienna Music Academy.

Sevcik's materials were staples in the technical repertoire during my formative years, and his comprehensive books are still around today. The books include studies in bowing, finger patterns, double stops, and shifting. They are valuable teaching and practicing tools. Although these materials may not be the current pedagogical fashion today, I believe that teachers (and students) might benefit from reviewing and considering the value of these materials.

There has been a renewed interest in some other technical materials written by Sevcik. These materials include analytical studies of various concertos or repertoire pieces. Currently these materials are being revisited and revised in translation. For more information, there is an interview published on violinist.com concerning the new editions of these analytical materials (http://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20111/12018/).

Some of these materials may be studied now on the International Music Score Library Project website: http://imslp.org (Pretrucci Music Library), along with the other Sevcik materials. Although I have been purchasing my own personal copies of the analytical studies as the revised versions become available, I have spent a great deal of time immersed in Sevcik's gems of technical exploration of some of my favorite concertos and pieces (Brahms, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, and Wieniawki's "Scherzo-Tarantelle").

As I studied these materials, I analyzed Sevcik's work to form today's practice tip. I believe that Sevcik's philosophy is all about making connections -- connections between intervals, fingers, notes, bowing, and rhythms. After identifying these connections, Sevcik devised exercises that physically focused on repeating the connections.

I have experimented with these ideas with my university students, and we have had great success. We identify a tricky little passage, and then we analyze how to turn it into a finger exercise. Then we repeat this finger exercise over and over. My goal is to perform the exercise at least four times (3 times is never enough, and 5 seems excruciatingly long to a young student; 4 is like Goldilocks and the Three Bears and "just right.").

Here is a simple example of how this "Sevcik" practice tip works. Consider "Allegretto" (song #10 in Suzuki Violin book 1). Students often have a spot of trouble learning the fourth finger pattern in the 4th, 5th, and 6th notes of the song -- F#-A (4 on D string)-G. If we were to use my Sevcik practice tip, the student and I would play those three notes several times. We would also play several permutations and combinations of these three fingers. For example, I would play F# and 4th finger A over and over about four times. Then I would play the A and G over and over four times. Then I would play the three notes up and down a few times. Then I would change the pattern and play each pattern a few times: F#-G-A-G, or F#-A-G-F#, or F#-A-G-A, or A-G-A-F#, or A-F#-A-G. The student and I have fun coming up with new possibilities and connections. After we have done all of these, I ask the student to play the passage as it is written. I am constantly delighted to see my student's face light up because the passage has now become incredibly easier.

I am willing to bet that there are very few folks out there who enjoy practicing. I have spent many years coming up with ways to entertain myself in practice sessions. Using the Sevcik ideas, I have discovered the kind of amusement that keeps my active mind engaged and diverted in a good way. If I have a tiresome passage of 16th notes, I might play the passage with an extension that repeats each of the four-note groups of 16th notes four times. In this way, I might extend a 16th note passage of 24 notes to a 16th note passage of 96 notes. Then because I play so many notes continuously, I do not have the feeling that I am "practicing," at least in terms of practicing as hard work. Instead, I feel as if I am "playing," even though I really am practicing very efficiently and effectively. And I am enjoying myself in the process.

I am teaching a summer strings camp right now, and I frequently employ these Sevcik practice tips during orchestra sectionals with great success. I hope you enjoy this practice tip as well. There are many places in the Suzuki repertoire that lend themselves rather well to the Sevcik practice tip. And wait until we get to double stops! Sevcik practice tips become really fun then! Oh, the combinations of Sevcik possibilities!

Intonation, part II: Ringing Notes and Super Ears

In my last discussion, I talked about improving intonation by improving tone. Today I want to talk about awakening the student's ear and kinesthetic sensations related to pitch. I do that by using the 9 natural ringing notes of first position and helping the student to hear tone and sympathetic vibrations. Along with seeing and hearing, I try to incorporate references to touch and sensation as well.

There are nine notes on the violin that naturally ring with a little extra sparkle in first position. They are those notes that bear the same names as the open strings: G, D, A, and E. These notes are:

©Paula E. Bird 2010

Use the fourth finger to play the D, A, and E. When I ask my student to play each of these notes, we note that the open string that bears the same name will sympathetically vibrate at the same time. If the student plays with a full, warm tone, the open string will vibrate with a greater width to match the depth of tone quality. This all presumes that the student is using the left hand properly and holding it in a way that allows the open strings to ring freely. A student who holds the left hand too low for the string to sound, will not hear the extra sparkle in the note's timbre.

Students of all ages seem to enjoy this exercise, even my really young elementary students. All students have been capable of seeing and hearing the sympathetic ringing of the open string.

This exercise can also be accomplished using octaves, e.g., the third finger G on the D string sounded alongside the open G string, the third finger D on the A string sounded alongside the open D string, and the third finger A on the E string sounded alongside the open A string.

I put together a simple exercise that displays various combinations of these notes and fingerings to give the student an opportunity to learn about these ringing notes through a systematic exercise or etude:

©Paula E. Bird 2010

I also use various finger patterns as drones, but I'd like to save the drone exercises for future discussions about using finger patterns, because drones are just one example of the types of benefits that one derives from the use of finger patterns.

Although the purpose of the exercises described above is for the development of the student's ear, the exercises also serve another purpose in that they awaken the student to the kinesthetic qualities of the sound as well. When a string sympathetically vibrates alongside a note of the same name, the extra "sparkle" that the student hears is also felt as an extra "umph" of physical vibration to the student's body. When we hold the violin, we are subject to several points of contact between the instrument and the body, and these are points that will connect the vibrations of the pitch to the student's body. I try to alert the student to these other sensations as well as to the pitch so that the student becomes more aware of the kinesthetic feeling of the correct pitch. There are many times in big symphony works when I cannot hear my high note pitches well above the fortissimo brass blow across the orchestra from me. I can still feel the kinesthetic sensation of the pitch vibration in my body through my contact with my violin, and I can still tell that I am in tune with the brass (although perhaps not heard as well).*

One last note relates to something I call "headphone syndrome." I was first alerted to this problem through a publication called Brain Gym: Simple Activities for Whole Brain Learning by Paul E. Dennison, Ph.D. and Gail E. Dennison, published by Edu Kinesthetics (June 1992). You can still find this book on Amazon.com and other places. In a footnote under one exercise, the authors mentioned that some students might have a particularly difficult time hearing well if they have been relying on headphones to a heavy extent. I'm not going into the reasons for this phenomenon, but I will state that I have observed similar difficulties in my teaching experience. Students frequently spend large amounts of their day with headphones or ear buds over or in their ears, so this "syndrome" is more than likely.

I find that one of the exercises mentioned in the book helps to awaken the ears. I call it wakening up the "super ears." Hold your hands out in front of you, palms facing forward. Then while holding that palms-forward position, bring your hands back behind your ears until the hands are behind the ears and the thumbs are in front of the ears. Then gently rub the ears' edges and lobes between the thumb and the other fingers. Start at one end of the ear and work around to the other edge, trying to roll out the curled edge of the ear. The ears will tingle. They will also "come to life." Students seem to hear better, perhaps because they are more aware of their ears. It's a simple exercise, but the ears really get a workout.

If you study the book, you will learn that this exercise has many other added benefits to it in terms of integration between the brain and various other body systems or parts. I highly recommend this book. There are many interesting exercises that would work well in group class settings.

We are coming to the end of the year 2010 although we are only at a midpoint in the school year. Still, I enjoy this time of year when I get a few extra moments to relax and ponder my upcoming year of teaching and playing. I'm sifting through various ideas about goals and enjoying the planning process for addressing my goals.



If I don't have a chance to continue our discussion in the next three days, let me wish "Merry Christmas" to everyone. I'm off to play another "Nutcracker" ballet with the Austin Ballet.
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* I'm referring to a few moments that occur in Respighi's "Pines of Rome."


©Paula E. Bird 2010