The Fourth Finger
The Perpetual Motion is the first song in the Suzuki books to incorporate the fourth finger. When you play fourth finger it will be the same note as the open string to the right e.g. 4th finger on the open A string is the same note as the open E string.
Good areas to review before learning to use fourth finger:
- Keep left fingers curved and knuckles flat. Fingers should be bent at all joints.
- Left pinkie should be relaxed and hovered over the fingerboard like the other fingers. Never keep it curled inward toward your palm when playing. If the pinkie tightens and curls, there are some good exercises to help keep it relaxed to keep it over the fingerboard. This will also help keep you entire hand from being tense, and will not feel tired after a short amount of time.
- The left arm should be under the violin and palm should face you. You will hear me say over again “come around!” which means to get your elbow more in front. This will help reach the fourth finger more easily.
*When you play with the fourth finger, it will at first may seem like a stretch. Just remember to keep the pinkie curved and it will eventually feel less weak with practice.
The Suzuki Book I has a good 4th finger exercise with the Perpetual Motion which I always like to use with my students. It lets you play first with open E and then try to match the note with fourth finger.
The “Bunny” Bow Hold
Learning how to hold the bow can seem very technical in the beginning and there are many specifics. Trying to explain all the details of holding the bow may seem like a lot for a child.
Here is a fun way to learn how to hold the bow. We are going to learn how to make a bunny with our right hand. You can try it on a pencil first.
Let’s pretend the pencil is a carrot the bunny will eat.
First open up your hand and bend your thumb.
Take your middle and ring finger and place on the thumbnail. These will be the bunny’s teeth. They will be the fingers that will be “holding the bow” along with the thumb.
The 'Bunny Bow Hold' in 4 Steps (click to enlarge)
Memorizing “Pepperoni Pizza” Twinkle
Having good memorizing skills will help later on if you ever want to perform a piece for a recital. There is something freeing about playing from memory rather than having to use energy to read the notes off the page. First you have more room to think about phrasing and bring out certain notes – that is the essence of the performance experience. It is also good for young children that haven’t learned to read music. This develops a good ear training and intonation rather than thinking about reading music. Note reading will be taught later in Book I.
Let’s take the Variation A of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a.k.a. “Pepperoni Pizza”.
When you memorize a piece, you always need to take it in sections. You cannot expect to play through the whole piece several times and memorize it. The brain likes doing things in layers and sections.
With Pepperoni Pizza Twinkle, you have your larger A section, two small B sections , then the A section again to finish. I always describe the Pepperoni Pizza Twinkle like a sandwich. The A sections are your breads and your B sections are the meats.
First thing, LISTEN to the recording along with practicing. Listening to the songs is just as important as practicing the songs.
You first want to play through the “bread” section – use the music in the beginning. This is the opportunity to work on intonation and tone. When you’re playing on the open strings, you want to have a brilliant and clear sound coming out or “ringtones”.
Try playing the bread section without the music. If there are any missed notes, go right to that spot and correct, don’t start from the beginning.
Once you have mastered the bread section, begin learning the “meat” section. Take the same approach like we did in the bread section. Be sure you have two sets of meats in your Twinkle sandwich!
After memorizing the meat section, play the meat sections and add in your bread section at the end.
After that start from the top with your bread and you should be on your way to building your Twinkle sandwich!
6th Grade Violin Rehearsal – Cario Middle School – Mount Pleasant
Lauren and I had the privilege of rehearsing with the 6th grade violins at Cario Middle School for the Mark Wood Experience Electrify Your Strings school concert. They were playing “Born to be Wild” which gives variety to what the students can learn and play along with the classical orchestra pieces. Great group of kids!
