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Carol of the Bells – Easy Violin
It’s November! Can you believe it?!?! 2020 has flown and dragged on all at the same time. I’ve been teaching some classes online and haven’t had time to blog. But hopefully you’ll see some of the fruit of that work sometime. But, here is a free easy Christmas violin arrangement that I just did for my group class. I’ve been working on Christmas music with my private lesson students the last few weeks. There is so much good Christmas music out there. And I’ve just finally admitted to myself that I really love Christmas songs. Although by January I’m usually ready to not hear Jingle Bells for a veeeeerrry long…
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Thanksgiving Rhythm Worksheet
Here is a Thanksgiving rhythm worksheet for your students with the classic turkey drawing. Students will add up the number of beats in each measure and then using that total will follow the color code to color the picture. The rhythm patterns found in this worksheet use sixteenth notes and eighth notes. Students must identify the groups of notes with 1 beam or 2 beams or notes with 1 flag or 2 flags. Eighth note rests are also included. A fun way over Thanksgiving break to reinforce rhythm reading. Check out some of our other November worksheets. A much easier Thanksgiving rhythm worksheet for a beginner can be found here.…
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Coloring Pages for String Players
I like to introduce beginners to different musical symbols via a coloring page. They can learn how to recognize these symbols and what they are called. It’s a great way to begin basic music literacy. Students can color these different pages while listening to their Suzuki recording! Sign up for Amazon Music and stream Suzuki recordings. Amazon Check out these other coloring books for students to do while doing daily listening. For a basic theory book designed for kids, check out the series from Horsehair Music, The Magic of Music Theory. Activities designed to introduce students to basic music theory concepts. With listening assignments and writing activities even the smallest…
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Learn the Parts of the Violin
Ideas for teaching the parts of the violin.
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Flashcards
I was organizing my teaching basket and realized that I had lots of different sizes of flashcards. Which made it hard to keep track of everything and store them. So I redid my music alphabet cards, A scale cards, fingerboard ID, and treble clef first position flash cards. Now they are all the same size and fit my storage containers. Music Alphabet Flashcards or A Scale Flashcards You can do the same activities with either the music alphabet flashcards or the A scale flashcards. You can read more about some group class activities with these cards here. But these cards are great for saying the alphabet forwards and backwards. First,…
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New Easter Violin Solo
A new Easter violin solo is available of the gospel song Christ Arose (Lo in the Grave He Lay). This has been a long time Easter favorite for over a century. Robert Lowry of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania wrote both the tune and text for this song in 1874. Many of Robert Lowry’s songs are still sung in churches today – songs like, I Need Thee Every Hour, Nothing But the Blood, Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy, Here is Love, Something for Thee and many more. If you think you might use the duet version some day, this Easter violin solo can be played with just the 1st violin part…
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Draw the Clefs
I have created videos on how to draw the clefs, treble clef, alto clef, and bass clef. I made these videos to go along with The Magic of Music Theory series. Sequence of Learning to Draw the Clefs PreReading B In the early books students learn to recognize the 3 different clefs. Clefs are first introduced in PreReading B. The clefs are introduced through a story and each clef is related to an instrument. The treble clef related to the violin, alto clef to viola, and bass clef to cello. Then students color a full page coloring page of each clef. They also are introduced to tracing their clef and…
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I Spy Rests Notes and Clefs
I Spy is a worksheet to help students identify rests, notes and clefs by their name. How many times have students heard you refer to it in lessons, but then when you ask them what it’s called you get a blank stare? In the lesson I’ve started asking them to repeat the word or read the definition out loud. I’ll often ask a question where they have to answer with the term. Students might understand the concept but not know what it’s called. I find this to be especially true of rests. They often call it a “rest.” I’ll ask what kind of rest…. that’s when the sheepish grin happens….…
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Christmas Count-Down Practice Chart
I saw an advent calendar puzzle this year that had acts of kindness for each day of December. Ideas to help us be intentional being kind to others in a month that can be hectic, busy and tiring. It also helps us not think of ourselves in a month where we think about everything we want. It got me to thinking that it might be fun to do something similar with practicing. Helping my students want to practice and have a little spark of fun to practicing. So I created a Christmas Count-Down Practice Chart. Pick one tree or bell to do each day in the month of December. Some…
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Christmas Solos for Violin
Here are some recommendations of Christmas solos for violin. All of the Christmas titles listed below come with a printed piano accompaniment. Some of them have downloadable piano tracks to practice or play along. Enjoy some old favorites in new ways this Christmas season. March Level 1B The Nutcracker signals Christmas for many people. And for many students who also take ballet, this is a great opportunity for them to play a piece they hear as they prepare for their part in the Nutcracker. This arrangement is set in the key of D, and the student will need to review moving 2nd finger from low to high. Bow retakes are…
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Thanksgiving Violin Note Names
It's November! Here is a thanksgiving note naming worksheet for violin. Do you have students traveling over the holidays and can't take their instrument? Here's a way to keep violin note reading up over the break.
