This week:
Practice Essential Elements: Exercises 20, 22, 31, 32, 36, and 41. We are possibly playing these at the Christmas concert, so please work hard on them!
For Exercises 31-32: These are a bit different than what we have done before. There are A string notes. For D on the A string, place your 3rd finger on the blue tape on the A string. For C# on the A string, place your 2nd finger on the white tape on the A string. For B on the A string, place your 1st finger on the red tape on the A string. When you are playing A string notes, make sure you are plucking the A string, and when you are playing D string notes, make sure you are plucking the D string. Make sure you lift and land your left hand fingers like rockets when you move from note to note!
For Exercise 36: These are all notes we have played many times before. But, there is some skipping around between notes. Make sure you have the correct fingers on the correct tapes for G, F#, and E on the D string, and that you pluck open D and open A with no fingers on the tapes.
Next week, we will start playing with the bow! This week, PLEASE work on your bow hold. That is very important to playing with the bow! Remember, keep your right hand fingers curved, and keep them as relaxed as possible. There should be a slight gap between your index finger and two middle fingers, and a slight gap between your pinkie and two middle fingers. Try to make it look as much like the following pictures as possible!
Bonus question: What is the symbol, #, called?
Adam Barker 417-294-1318