Why Twinkle?

Recently a reader (thanks, Ann!) commented with this question:

"Why does the Suzuki method teach Twinkle with the various rhythms? Instead of just the Twinkle theme?

This is a great question, and I am sure we have all thought about this a time or two. Why did Dr. Suzuki write all those Twinkle Variations, and why did he put the variations before the theme? Here are some possible answers:

• To awaken the student's rhythmic awareness
• To awaken the student's visual, aural, and kinesthetic senses
• To allow the student to play quickly and use faster movement of the muscles (student's love to play fast; this is so far distant from my first violin days of long, slow, tedious bows on the A string)
• To stimulate the student's large muscle groups before later refining the use of small muscle groups (move from large to small muscle groups, beginning with the larger muscles required for the Twinkle variations)
• To teach the student some of the most popular rhythmic and bowing combinations in the repertoire

All of the above reasons are important. It is my understanding that the first variation rhythm, "Mississippi Hot dog" (also  known as "Pepperoni Pizza" or "taka taka stop stop"),  stems from the opening of Bach's famous two violin concerto in d minor:

Bach's "double" violin concerto

The Vivaldi A minor violin concerto movements are examples of how many of these rhythmic units are found in the classical repertoire. Pretty much all of the rhythmic variations are found in this concerto.

Students enjoy coming up with new variations. We might make up a new pattern based on the rhythm of our names. For example, "Paula Bird" and "strawberry ice cream" would translate to:

"Paula Bird" and "Strawberry Ice Cream" rhythms

I make up my own Twinkle variations as I need them to practice difficult bowing passages in the orchestral repertoire. For example, the last movement of Beethoven's 8th symphony has a fast paced set of rhythms that can be awkward to bow quickly. So I turn the bowing pattern into a Twinkle variation. My colleagues are amused to hear me practice this way, but I do not have any difficulty playing the last movement of the symphony.

Just the other day I practiced several of the Twinkle variations with spiccato bowing (bouncing off the string and airborne). I am currently in Central Oregon playing in the Sunriver Music Festival, and the air is quite dry here. My bow bounces much differently here than it does in my humid home state of Texas. So I needed some extra practice to learn how my bow felt in this new climate. Again, I caught some amused looks from festival colleagues as they realized what melody I used to make bowing variations.

What are some reasons you believe that Dr. Suzuki taught the Twinkle variations? What are some different ways that you use them with your students or in your own practice?

Allegretto: The Dragon

One of my favorite songs in Suzuki Violin Volume One is Allegretto, written by Dr. Suzuki. Allegretto was not always my favorite; oh no, we had a difficult relationship together for quite awhile. Over time and as I became more and more familiar with the song and the various difficult skill bits for students, I came to understand and appreciate the song's complexity and how to teach the song to students.

Whenever students tell me that they do not like a song they are about to learn or have just started learning, I usually tell the students that their reactions to the song tell me that they will probably come to love the song, and that the song will become one of their favorites after a time. Students usually come back to me with similar reports after spending some time learning the song. Students may announce their dislike of Allegretto to me but later find that they enjoy playing the song quite a bit. Allegretto was one such song for me as well. The song may be a dragon to learn, but we can come to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of the dragon as well, and when we spend time in close proximity to it, we will become accustomed to the heat as well.

Why is the song so difficult for students? There are several culprits:

• two new "fat" strings to play on
• a new note on the "fattest" string
• a pinkie on a lower string
• a new pinkie fingering combination
• fingers that skip in thirds rather than walk in steps
• an awkward bow accent.

How is that for starters? Here are a few of my goals at this point in order to ease the student's learning pathway.

Play on Lower Strings

I start the Allegretto learning process while we are still a few songs away from beginning Allegretto. By this point I have encouraged the student to play previous repertoire on lower strings. For example, instead of playing Twinkle theme on the E and A strings, now the student will play Twinkle theme on the A and D strings, or the D and G strings. We continue in this manner, adding songs on different strings until the student can play any song on a different string.

We learned the A major one octave scale earlier in volume one, so now we add the D scale. The finger patterns are the same. For fun, we often add the lower octave of the G scale as well. This prepares the student for the longer two octave G scale that will introduce the finger patterns of Etude.

Both of these activities are great items for group classes as well as individual lessons and home practice.

Awaken the Pinkie

I have introduced the left pinkie several times by now. When I teach a pre-twinkle student, I introduce a left hand plucking exercise that involves the pinkie (to read more about the left hand plucking exercise, click here). So my youngest beginner has experienced the use of the pinkie since the early days. We may need to revisit this exercise at this point. I also have the student play six pinkie places in Perpetual Motion. In the revised volume one, there are additional pinkie fingering suggestions in the early songs of the book, although I prefer to wait to teach these additional fingerings until later because I want my students to learn about string crossings and building tone through the use of the resonant open strings for a time.

Train the Ears

Since Lightly Row, I have worked to strengthen the student's ability to recognize several basic ear training skills, not only in lessons, but also in group classes. I often make up new songs on the spot in group classes so that we can practice our ear training skills:

• Walking Fingers: These are scale-like passages where the notes ascend or descend by step. Students have a great deal of difficulty with the concept of ascending and descending pitch when it involves a string crossing. Some students "get it" but many do not without extra guidance from me.

• Skipping Fingers (aka "doorbells" or "cuckoos"): These are passages that contain interval skips of a third, such as the opening notes of Lightly Row or O Come Little Children.

• Patterns: These can be passages of rhythmic or melodic patterns. For example, the opening notes of the first two measures of Lightly Row are melodic and rhythmic patterns. Measures 7, 8, and 9 of Song of the Wind are melodic patterns.

Allegretto will involve all of the above, which is why students are sometimes so confused when they first learn it. For example, the first three notes are walking fingers, but then there is an ascending skip and a step backwards, and it involves a pinkie too! Then the rhythmic and melodic pattern is repeated but a step higher, and then we reverse the walking fingers down. Why, it is no small wonder to me that many teachers and parents come up with nonsensical words to make the process easier to remember. Sometimes I just want to tear my hair out! I cannot imagine what a parent must go through at home as they watch the child struggle to puzzle out what they hear on the recording with what the child can match on the instrument.

The best advice I can give parents is to make sure to play the recording a lot at home. I mean a lot! When a parent saturates the child's environment with Allegretto, the child will learn the song much quicker.

Stimulate the Rhythmic Pulse

Allegretto has a great rhythmic pulse: tah-tah-DUM, tah-tah-DUM, etc., which propels forward melodically, similar to our natural physical rhythm. At first, the student has to focus attention most on the melodic elements of the song, and so the rhythm may suffer while the student masters the finger patterns and notes. For more information about useful ways to teach rhythmic chunks, click here. For another practice tip idea that focuses on the work of Ševčík and how it can be applied to Allegretto, click here.

While a student learns Allegretto, I may focus on karate punching practice in group class. My students seem to enjoy my mixture of martial arts with music (we have a martial arts studio next door, and I have studied Kim Soo Karate). We stand in "horse stance" or ready stance and practice throwing karate punches, first with the right hand and then the left in time to the accents of Allegretto (on the quarter notes). Not only do we get a physical workout, we get a rhythmic lesson as well!

Stay tuned for an in-depth look at how I analyze and approach Allegretto specifically.

May Song

From a teacher's point of view, "May Song" may seem like a "dessert" song (see more about "dessert" songs). Students seem to learn this song quickly, and teachers find it easy to teach. The song is in ABA form like the Twinkle Variations. In fact, the song closely follows the same finger patterns of the Twinkle Variations and can be played simultaneously with the Twinkle Theme as a duet.

Left Hand Skills

• Little is new for the left hand. Combined with "O Come Little Children," Dr. Suzuki uses these two songs to outline an ascending and descending A major arpeggio.

• The song uses the same close 2-3 finger pattern as previous songs.

• The song uses the "super glue" spatial pattern between first and third fingers on the E string, similar to that found in "Song of the Wind."

Right Hand Skills

• The song introduces a dotted rhythmic pattern that involves various string crossings.

How I Teach the Song

• If you have not read my earlier post about teaching rhythmic units, you might find it helpful to start there. In that earlier post, I used May Song as an example, and the examples I included in the earlier post follow exactly how I teach the song. (click here for rhythmic unit blog post). Here I will briefly outline my teaching steps, but the actual teaching points I use are contained in the earlier post.

• Although I usually advocate beginning with left hand skills first in general, in the case of this song, I also introduce a right hand skill on open strings as part of a continuing ear training program. I play a "call and response" game with the student, where I play a series of open strings in a rhythmic pattern and ask the student to imitate what I played back to me.

• I use the opening dotted rhythmic figure: dotted quarter note, eighth note, and two quarter notes:

• I ask the student to use the above rhythm but play the following open strings: A - A - E - E. Note that this sequence of open strings matches the string crossing in measure one above.

• I ask the student to use the rhythm again but play a different sequence of open strings: A - E - A - A. This sequence matches the string crossings in measure 3 below.

• With this right hand and listening skills game, I now have the student practicing the song's string crossings without also having the confusion of the notes at the same time.

• I introduce the first four notes of the song: A - C# - E - high A and ask the student to play these four notes several times until the student is easy with the combination. I help the student master the rhythmic units, as described in my earlier post.

• The student usually figures out the next few notes by themselves.

• I make sure that the student holds down the index finger (use "superglue" to hold the finger in place on the E string).

• I ask the student to "toe tap" the 3rd finger while the index finger stays super glued in place on F#.

• The student and I work through the next pattern of notes.

• After the student has mastered the first line of the song, we work on the middle part. This part resembles the B part of Twinkle Theme, except for an altered rhythm that inserts an extra E string.

Later Problems (or just later)

• Although the rhythmic issue of the dotted quarter note and eighth note shows up right away, I am listing the problem here. What happens is that the student will play the song without the appropriate dotted rhythm, even though the student is conscientious about a listening program. Here is how I address this problem, and I would introduce this exercise whether or not the student has a rhythmic problem, because it is a great coordination exercise and leads to a later skill of using the human body as a human metronome.

• I teach the student how to "step" to the song, i.e., to march (or step) to the beats of the song and to play the song at the same time.

• I work on the first measure. I may have to break down the measure into teeny baby steps until the student "gets it." For example, stepping at the same time the student plays the first note may be all the baby step the student can grasp in the beginning. Then we add one note or one foot at a time until the first measure is done. Sometimes a student may take the assignment home to work on. Students do not seem to take longer than one week to figure it out.

• Once the student figures out the first measure, marching to the rest of the song seems to fall into place.

• This marching to the beat of the song is a great way to teach a student how to feel the rhythm with the body. It is also a useful tool for those passages when a student might "rush" the tempo. In the case of Perpetual Motion (book 1), it is even funnier if the teacher asks the students to "walk" on their knees in time to the notes. This is a hilarious group class activity, although adults do not enjoy it (hard floors and bony knees do not mix!). The kids look like penguins.

• The superglue finger comes loose in measure 2 and needs a spot more glue to hold it in place on the F#.

• The bowing and string crossings get a little messy.

• Students can play May Song simultaneously with Twinkle Theme as a duet, which is a great ensemble skill builder in beginning group classes.

I really like May Song, and my students do also. It is a bright, cheerful little thing. In the old books, there was a repeat sign so that the performer would play the entire song through twice. I am sorry that the revised edition took out the repeat. We really like playing May Song.

Happy Teaching!