Saturday, May 28, 2011

Foxtrot and Beginning Bow Hold

Alan gets ready to lead
 
 Lots of good work this week . We moved on to our first two note tune . Foxtrot uses D and A, the two middle strings.  Here are the notes

Foxtrot 

DDD _ AAA_ DDD_ AAA_            

DDD_ DDD_ AAA_ AADsh

Here is our programme today

Vivaldi in G                       pizzicato on open G
 Twinkle                            pizz.       on open D
Toreadors March              pizzicato on open A

Foxtrot                              using D and A

New Words today  piano  soft 
                              forte  -loud

Bow Hold with a pencil  
Make a ring with thumb and middle finger Right Hand .
Slide the pencil in  making the rabbits' ears,
Bend your thumb

Sunday, May 22, 2011

New Notes D and A

Today   there was Spanish flavour to the classes . We learned :

1 How many notes there are in the musical alphabet. Can you remember the number ?Answer at the end of the post.

2 We learned how to play pizzicato on the next two strings  D and A

3 We had a roll call clapping our names . Most names had how many sounds?

4 Everybody is really good at rest and playing position. There was a shoulder policeman in each class . What was his job?

We played pizzicato on G to Vivaldi in G ,  pizz. on D to Twinkle Twinkle and finally  to the Toreadors March.  Where would you find a Toreador? 

New Words: TEMPO    or speed
                     Fingerboard    Long black piece of wood under the strings.

Ms Vaughan's class heard me play a duet Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps with Aileen Sexton .   Hopefully we will have a visit from her again soon.

Some people made really good leaders. Lets see if I remember . Naomi, Seosamh and Ada were leaders today.

Getting the hang of it

What word would you use to descibe the  Tempo of the Toreadors March?

Ans 7 letters  A B C D E F G

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Beginnings - Week 1

The first violin classes took place this morning Thursday  12th May. The room was cleared of desks and relaced with 25 mats , one for everybody including the teachers with a violin on each .

Pizz perfect!
 
Martin with blue violin

 We learned how to hold our violins comfortably in playing and rest position, how to stand while playing and very important how to bow to our audience.


The 'Roadies'

All together Pizzicato

We warmed up with some finger exercises. Next we learned the name of the  lowest string (G)  and how to play pizzicato to a steady beat  of our favourite song from Mary Poppins.

Finally we were introduced to other members of the bowed string family , Cello and Double Bass . 

NEW WORDS  PIZZICATO                           PITCH
'This Way'