Quick Practicing Tip: Long Bow Day!

I hereby declare today to be "Long Bow Day!" If you are not a string player, do not despair! You can still participate in  Long Bow Day! You may want to change the name to suit your instrument, but the concepts will basically be the same whether you play the violin, the piano, or the trumpet.

A Long Bow Day is a day when we play songs that require long bows more than any other bows. You know which songs I refer to: Twinkle Theme, Lightly Row, Aunt Rhody, O Come Little Children, Long Long Ago, etc. These are songs that require legato bowing. If you are a pianist, these are songs that ask for legato phrasing, and there are many songs like this in Suzuki Piano Volume One. In fact, a good deal of the Suzuki Piano Volume One is teaching the student how to play legato with one hand while the other hand learns to play staccato or use the wrist drop/lift motion. For us string players, that means that the pianists are learning how to use both right and left hands independently, as we do.

Have you figured out what ten places you need to practice your legato or long bows? There are three possible ways to approach a Long Bow Day:

• Tone and Sound Quality
• Good Form
• Musicality

For string players, a good tone and sound quality stem from a good contact point between the bow and the violin string and from the absence of tension in the body. Is the bow articulating the individual notes well? Is the tone scratchy or just right? Is the bow on the highway or drifting near the sidewalk (fingerboard) or bridge? Are there any points of tension in the skeletal joints? Is the student releasing tension from "inside" muscles and directing attention to "outside" muscles?* Most of all, is the bow straight (parallel to the bridge)? Get a mirror and check this, or have your practice partner help you to know when your bow is on the straight highway.

• My students and I use the numbers game to learn when the bow is straight. If the bow is straight and parallel to the bridge, that is the number 5. If the bow goes crooked inward toward the player, that is a series of numbers going down, such as 4 or 3. If the bow goes crooked outward away from the player, then the numbers go up to 6 or 7.
• As the student plays, the practice partner calls out the number, usually 4-6. This helps to guide the student to know when the bow is straight or crooked and in which direction to move the bow to straighten it out.
• A student can also learn how to look in a mirror and gauge whether the bow is moving in the straight groove across the string. Parents, please note that when the bow is "straight" and parallel to the bridge, that it actually looks crooked from the player's perspective. The player must learn how to see the bow when it is straight, and this is not easy.

Tone production for a string player may include how much bow the student uses. As the student advances in technical skills and ability, the repertoire requires that the student use more and more bow without sacrificing the tone quality. As pianists learn faster note passages and use the right and left hands more independently, the tone quality should remain consistent. In some cases, the student will learn how to balance the tone between the hands so that both right and left hand parts sound equal. In other songs, the student will learn how to voice the left hand or the right hand part in a way that will bring more prominence to that part.

For pianists, a good tone and sound quality is how the student executes the note with the finger on the keyboard. Beginning students do not yet have much muscle development in their fingers, hands, or arms, and in many cases, the families do not own pianos but are using electronic keyboards in the home, so that the students do not develop the appropriate musculature to execute a good tone on a real piano keyboard. In the beginning, I use a lot of imitation with students to help them learn how much weight to drop into the piano keys and the notes of the music.

Good form is always crucial to good tone, no matter what instrument a student plays. Always check posture and the form of execution. Good form also includes whether the student is playing the instrument correctly. If a violin student is not bowing parallel to the bridge or does not place the bow to make good contact with the violin string, then we need to focus on good form, because good form goes hand in hand with producing a good tone and sound quality. When I evaluate a student's form and posture, I start from the bottom and work my way to the top. For violinists, we start with balanced feet. I should not be able to push the student over sideways or backwards. (To learn more about how I set up my violin students' posture, click here).



Balance is always crucial when playing an instrument. Violinists shift weight from side to side and have to hold an instrument before them (off to the side), and this instrument carries weight too. Pianists need to be able to shift from side to side to reach keys at the ends of the keyboard; if a student is not balanced, then the student will topple over or play with little strength and tone in the sound.

Musicality refers to the more advanced musical concepts of phrasing, dynamic expression, and how the human body's mechanics create these things. If a student has the physical capability of executing a musical phrase, I introduce how a good musician would end a phrase. Just as humans let their voices trail off at the end of a sentence (or a voice runs out of steam at the end of a long note), we imitate that sound with the instrument. String players learn to let the phrase tail off in a whisper and which bow stroke accomplishes that best. Pianists learn how to lighten up the finger touch on the keyboard in order to create the phrase.

Now, being good teachers and practice partners that we are, we will follow the one-point lesson. We have our list of ten songs or ten places that require legato playing. Now we will decide which one of the three approaches we will use, and it may be that we use different approaches for different things on our list of ten. For example, a newer song or passage might benefit from attention paid to good form. A more familiar piece might require more attention to phrasing and musicality. And a song that falls somewhere in between might fare best with attention paid to tone production and sound quality. As long as we focus on one thing at a time, we can reap the most benefit from our practice efforts. Remember that younger students will need to focus on smaller segments and may need simpler tasks or smaller steps (baby steps) to work on. You should know your child, so be gracious about forming a practice plan that will encourage and nurture your student's learning.

Happy Practicing!

*"Inside" muscles are those muscles that create tension. Think of a body builder's pose down in a weight lifting competition. The body builder leans forward and makes his or her arms tighten the muscles on the inside of the arms. This squeezing causes all the arm muscles, shoulder muscles, chest muscles, and abdomen muscles to appear. "Outside" muscles are the other sides of the muscles. These muscles cause the tension to dissipate. If a body builder were to turn on the "outside" muscles, the arms would lift out to the sides, and the other muscles would not be showing. If I find tension, I help guide the student to turn on outside muscles instead of inside muscles. This one teaching area is probably the issue where I address most of my teaching time and focus because it affects tone and sound quality, good form, and musicality.

Suzuki Violin Book 2 Musings

Recently a teacher friend of mine mentioned that she was venturing farther into book 2 with her students than she had previously gone, and she asked me for teaching advice. This conversation sparked me to think about the gifts we discover in book 2.

In general book 2 is designed to “unfurl” the student’s left hand. Whereas book 1 remained within the confines of the perfect fourth interval and ventured to widen the reach between the fingers within that perfect fourth interval, book two challenges the student to stretch the reach between all of the fingers and widen the overall interval to an augmented fourth (or diminished fifth) and a perfect fifth. The book introduces four or five new finger pattern combinations and some stretches between the fingers that span across the strings rather than on the same string (e.g., Chorus and Minuet in G). The last third of the book introduces the trill (preparation in Gavotte from Mignon), and the student learns to widen the space between the trill (half step trill in Lully’s Gavotte and whole step trill in Boccherini’s Minuet).

The right hand skills include longer bows and whole bow distribution concepts in legato (Long, Long Ago) and staccato (Hunter’s Chorus). The up-up hooked staccato bowing from the book 1 “Happy Farmer” is quickened in the Long, Long Ago book 2 variation and then lengthened to four up bow staccato notes in the trio to Minuet in G. There is increased complexity of bowing and rhythm combinations: hooked and dotted rhythms (Witches Dance), slurred dotted rhythms (Minuet in G), bow speed variances, louré or portato bowing (Handel Bourreé and Minuet in G), and the beginnings of the “circle back” collé bowing (The Two Grenadiers).

I separate book 2 into two separate books in my head, because the first and second halves seem to belong to different skill perspectives. The first half of book 2 casts an eye back at book 1 in terms of finger patterns and bowing skill sets. The latter half of book 2 looks ahead to the skills needed to advance into books three and four.

Perhaps the trickiest part about teaching book 2 is to figure out how to introduce a new book 2 skill or teaching point. To prepare for early book 2, what I call book 2A, I focus on cementing the skills that book 1 introduced. I find this easy because simultaneously we are going over what we have learned in book 1 in great detail as we polish the book 1 repertoire to prepare a book 1 graduation recital.

To prepare to teach book 2B, the last half of book 2, I introduce new concepts and skill exercises. The first really new skill will be the wider stretch required between the index and second or third fingers in The Two Grenadiers and in Lully Gavotte. Most teachers introduce this stretch by altering Go Tell Aunt Rhody to resemble a more Middle Eastern sound. We play Bb instead of B natural and F natural rather than F# throughout the song:

Aunt Rhody Goes to Saudi Arabia

The parents are usually interested to hear how this change in fingering alters the sound of the song so completely, and the students want to learn this skill because their parents are so interested. This is also a great group class activity, as Aunt Rhody makes a stop in Saudi Arabia when she takes a trip around the world. See my previous post about this: Around the World with Aunt Rhody.

Another new skill in book 2 is the Bb finger pattern, so I introduce the one-octave Bb scale on the A and E strings. We often work with a tuner.

Bb scale, one octave

I find that the best teacher of the Bb finger pattern shows up when the student learns to play the Bb scale in broken thirds:

Bb scale, broken thirds

We definitely use a tuner for the broken thirds exercise to make sure that the third fingers are in tune. This exercise also affords me the opportunity to talk about ringing third fingers in octaves with a lower string:

tuning the 3rd finger

One other useful tool to prepare for the second half of book two is to teach the student how to play Perpetual Motion from book 1 in the key of Bb. Twinkle Theme in Bb is also useful. Once the student has mastered the Bb fingering for Perpetual Motion in Bb, the student will be able to later use this fingering to learn how it feels in various positions:

• Teaching Positions with Bb Perpetual Motion

• Teaching Positions (Filling up the Back Car Seat)

Each song in book 2 requires a different set of previews of skills for both the left and right hands. My purpose here was to give a brief summary overview of some of the major skills that book 2 will introduce and to lay out a few of the basic preparation tools I use to pave the way for teaching the last half of Suzuki violin book two.

Aunt Rhody: Dessert Tastes Sweet!

After reading and working through my previous posts that discuss the teaching and learning of Lightly Row and Song of the Wind, I am willing to bet that you are ready for a break! I am certain that your students and their practice partners are ready to catch their breath.

Dr. Suzuki understood the need for a “breather” now and then when he put together his repertoire of Suzuki volumes. When I explain this concept to my student's practice partner, I use the analogy of hiking up a steep mountain. Along the way, we run out of breath from exerting ourselves. Periodically we stop and take a rest. We get out our cameras and take pictures of flora and fauna or the vista before or behind us. Maybe we have a snack or a meal. Then, after a brief refreshment, we push forward to the next resting place along the trail.

As it is with mountain trail hiking, so it is with learning the Suzuki repertoire. Dr. Suzuki arranged the material to challenge us with new left and right hand skills and ever increasing complex musical forms. After a few songs, we find a song that breathes a little easier for us. We quickly figure out the finger patterns, and there seem to be few new technical skills included in the song. We find that we can just relax and enjoy the view, catch our breath, and let our muscles and our motivation and enthusiasm for learning get a little bit stronger as we give them a chance to build and harden.

Dr. Suzuki arranged the repertoire to introduce new technical skills, but rather than constantly push us to the edge of the cliff, Dr. Suzuki allowed us to step back a wee bit now and then to enjoy the beauty of playing music and to celebrate how much we have learned about the instrument, music, and ourselves up to this point. I call this type of piece one of Dr. Suzuki’s "dessert" songs. “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” is a dessert song.

I spend very little time teaching my students how to play Aunt Rhody. I use the song to work on ear training skills and to show my students how to translate the musical sounds they hear into the notes and fingers they need to play to recreate the same sound. Occasionally a student has difficulty in this area because of perfectionist tendencies. This song is great for working through these issues.

Here is a basic summary of the skills found in the song:

Left Hand Skills

• The song is in A major and uses the same finger pattern as the previous book one songs (close 2-3 finger pattern).The song basically moves stepwise, either ascending or descending.

• There is a finger "tangle" spot in measure 4.

• The song is in A-B-A form (3 parts and the first and third part are the same).

Right Hand Skills

• There is a quick string crossing from the E string to the 3^rd finger “D” on the A string.

• There is a later opportunity to teach bow distribution concepts: long bow, 2 shorter bows, long bow, 2 shorter bows.

• There is a forte and echo place in measures 5-8 where the student can learn about using bigger bows for bigger sounds and smaller bows for smaller sounds.

Previews (How to Teach the Song)

• I preview the finger "tangle" spot in measure 4.

• I help the student to practice the string crossing place in measure 6 from the E string to the note “D” on the A string.

• If the student has not picked out the notes to the song on their own, I use the song as an opportunity to work on ear training skills.

• I ask them to turn around from me because we are going to play a game. I play the first note and ask the student to try and find it on his or her violin.

• I may have to guide the student a little bit by asking questions that direct the student, such as whether the student thinks the note is on the A or the E string.

• Students do not yet understand the progression of pitches up the scale to the next string. This will come later on.

• Parents do not understand this concept either. Women have a harder time grasping the concept of the pitch getting higher when the string length is shortened. Guys tend to get this right away.

• I play the first 2 notes of the song and ask the student whether the notes are different or the same. I am establishing the thought process for picking out a new song.

• I play the first 3 notes of the song and ask the student whether the new note is different or the same. If it is different, did the pitch go “higher” or “lower”? Students can have a hard time with the concepts of “higher” and “lower.” This will also come together with time.

• I continue working through the first measure, and maybe the 2^nd measure as well depending on the student. Once the student is able to play this small segment of the song, I will help the practice partner and student by writing down what we accomplished, e.g., 2A-2-1-A-A-1-1-2-1-A.

• I know about the discussion of whether to use numbers or note names. I have struggled to remember to use note names from the onset, but I keep forgetting.

• I find it helpful to enlist the practice partner’s help with this, and I ask them to remind me to stay with the note names.

• If I use finger numbers, I only list the string name when the string changes. My students understand that they are to play on the same string until I have designated a string change.

• This is the perfect time to work on those perfectionist tendencies or fear issues, if they exist. If a student suffers from these problems, the student will present in this way:

• The student will hesitate before playing anything.

• The student will hesitate for longer and longer periods of time until he or she becomes almost catatonic.

• I encourage the student to stop "thinking" and just play, because “sometimes the fingers and bow know just what to do and thinking about it will get in the way of the fingers and bow.”

• I help the practice partner observe the student’s behavior so that they see exactly what I see. A child who is having trouble in this way probably has trouble in other areas at home as well.

• Remember, a parent could be the reason behind this problem. E.g., sometimes a strong, confident parent could be squelching the student’s comfort about experimenting.

• Also, a perfectionist parent or overly critical parent may promote this problem in the student. If a student cannot play something “perfectly,” or the student is not sure that they can play perfectly or correctly, they will stand before me completely stymied.

• If I identify a perfectionist issue, I instruct the parent to “burn toast.” This is my expression for activities that I want the parent to engage in at home and present in a new way.

• If the parent makes toast, I tell the parent to burn the toast and then throw a “hissy fit” and threaten to never make toast again because it was not perfect.

• If the parent makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I tell the parent to smear the peanut butter or the jelly all wrong on the bread, throw a silly tantrum about it, and go through the routine of never making another PB & J sandwich again because it was not perfect.

• The student will quickly get the message. The student will recognize how silly the parent is acting, and this opens the door for great discussions about the whole thing.

• This also alerts the parent to recognize when the parent is behaving in a way that contributes to the student’s problem.

• Once I work through the ear training exercise with a student, I find that the process of picking out the notes of a new song by ear go much easier with the next song. I continue working in this way through the literature in book 1 until the student at some point “gets it” and can do it for him- or herself.

Later Problems (or Just Later)

• I do not have very many problems come up later with this song. 

• I do use this song later for introducing more advanced skills.

• I use Aunt Rhody as a review song for teaching whole bow distribution:

• Whole down bow

• 2 smaller bows at the tip

• Whole up bow

• 2 smaller bows at the frog

• I use Aunt Rhody to teach the low 1^st finger pattern by substituting a Bb for B natural on the A string and F natural for F# on the E string. We refer to this as Aunt Rhody goes to Saudi Arabia, because the song sounds like music from that part of the world.

• I use Aunt Rhody to teach the close 1-2 finger pattern on the A string. We substitute C natural for C#.

Group Class and Other Options

• We play the game where Aunt Rhody travels around the world.

• We go to Saudi Arabia: low 1^st finger on the A and E strings.

• We play sad Aunt Rhody. I tell the students that Aunt Rhody is homesick.

• We play Aunt Rhody with pizzicato and pretend we went to England.

• We play Aunt Rhody with our bows over the fingerboard (in the ditch) because we went to the rain forests in Brazil and our car got mired in the mud and ran off the road.

• We play Texas Aunt Rhody, which is a double string version, where we drone A or E string while we play the song.

• Aunt Rhody is a great long bow or legato review song.

• We use the song in group classes to practice making crescendos and echoes.

As you can see, the Suzuki repertoire and how we approach the teaching presentation of the repertoire are full of possibilities. We are limited only by our imaginations. Aunt Rhody is a dessert song in my book, but it is a great song for teaching many possible concepts. Most of my students love Aunt Rhody, so it is always popular.

I had a young student who started lessons at age 5. She was one of the brightest students I ever had. She is currently studying in the science field at the University of Texas. When she was 7, she told me that “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” was her favorite song. Whenever she was fearful about something at school, she would sing the song to give herself courage.

I have never forgotten that. That was the first time I recognized how powerful the Suzuki repertoire could be to a young child who is discovering the power and beauty of music for the first time.