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La Folia – Variation 7 Rhythm
I have a student working on La Folia. We got to variation 7. She worked through it and her counting the next week wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t exactly accurate. Rather than having her write the counting into her book and clutter up the page with information I wanted her to have in her head I created this worksheet. I took out the pitches and took out the bowing. This allowed her to focus on the counting alone. Working in 2 measure groups I had her write in the counting and then play it counting out loud on open D. The first run through of the 2 measure phrase we…
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Wedding Music for Violin
It’s wedding season. Our social media feeds are filled with pictures of celebrations. We live at the beach and at this time of year we see multiple weddings taking place every weekend. No piece says “wedding” quite like Pachelbel’s Canon. I was thinking about how many times I’ve played Canon in D for weddings and my love hate relationship with it. I remember learning this as a kid to play with my cousins for my aunt and uncle’s wedding, and I thought I was “hot stuff” because I could play it. Now, I’ve played it more times than I can count, and in more ways and renditions than I can…
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9 Free Easy Christmas Songs
Here are 9 free easy Christmas songs for beginning violinists. All of these songs are in first position. They begin with the easiest finger pattern. You will find one note change in Deck the Halls. This change avoids a using a high 3rd finger on the D string. Then the songs progress to using low 2nd fingers. The final song Carol of the Bells include using a low first finger on the E string and a high 3rd finger on the D string. G Major and D Major Christmas Songs In mid-Suzuki book 1 I usually teach Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, Angels We Have Heard on High, and Joy…
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The Happy Farmer Fill in the Blank
When a student starts learning The Happy Farmer in Suzuki Book 1, I assign them The Happy Farmer Fill in the Blank exercise. This exercise helps them learn the form of the piece and the endings for the A theme. We discuss how there are 2 sections or themes in Happy Farmer, the A theme and the B theme. The B theme is always the same, and rather short. But the first two times we play the A theme we step down from F# on the D string – “F#, E, D” or “three blind mice.” Then when the A theme comes back after we play the B theme, the 3…
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A Twinkle Etude – Twinklepated
I’m teaching the Boccherini Minuet from Suzuki Book 2 to several students. I give my students preview “spots” before we jump in to the whole piece. And one of the spots is the rhythm in measure 26 and measure 42. This syncopated rhythm is the first time this rhythm is found in the Suzuki literature. So for this reason I want to expose them to the rhythm before they get to it in the piece. Voila! A Twinkle Etude – Twinklepated was born. Twinklepated is a syncopated variation of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. What’s a Twinkle Etude? The concept of twinkle etudes is that students learn a new skill on an old song. In…
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Christmas Violin Play-Along Books – Part 3
Here are 2 more reviews of books in the series Christmas Violin Play-Along Books. These collections are from Hal Leonard. The Play-Along Books are for different levels. You can also read about other Play-Along Books here: Part 1 and Part 2. Hal Leonard Violin Play-Along: Favorite Christmas Hymns Vol. 77 Arrangers: Peter DeneffPublisher: Hal Leonard CorporationLevel: 5 or 6 (because of position work) Pros: These arrangements are not just the melody part. Often the player plays through tune 2 or 3 times. But there is variety and variation that gives interest on each stanza. This would be a good collection for an intermediate player who is comfortable in 3rd position. It does…
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Christmas Violin Play-Along Books – Part 1
Do you love violin Christmas Play-Along books? True confession: I used to have a very snotty attitude toward violin play-along books. Through the pandemic I began to see these violin Play-Along book were meeting a need. First, these books come with performance tracks and accompaniment play-along tracks. In a world where students live in earbuds. Sometimes creating your own live music is disappointing. These books give them a soundtrack to play along to. Which is really exciting and can be very fulfilling for the student. Second, many of these books have more popular titles from movies and artists that students like and know. So, while there is a value of…
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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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Listen to the Bird Tweet
Listen to the Bird Tweet is a great pre-twinkle song that helps us on our journey to Twinkle. The words are were created by Susan Kempter. Students play the rhythm from variation A in Suzuki Book 1 four times. At our school we first teach it using just 1 open string. So all 4 repetitions of the pattern are on one string. (But like any good Suzuki exercise, it can morph into whatever you need!) How this post developed: We have been doing lots of different pre-twinkle songs in group. Songs like, Up Like a Rocket, Pumpkin on a Fencepost, Chicken on a Fencepost, Open E Concerto, Open A Concerto,…
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Intermediate Violin Christmas Solo
Looking for violin Christmas music? It is that time of year when music teachers begin choosing and introducing Christmas music. (And you wonder why we are tired of it by the time Christmas rolls around?) There have been some years I have waited until Halloween in order to introduce pieces, but that means I often only have 3 or 4 weeks for them to learn the piece well enough to play at a Christmas recital. So I usually begin talking about titles and choosing music at the beginning of October. I had trouble finding Christmas music that challenged my intermediate and advanced students. Many of the publications I found are…
