Inside the Mind of a Musical Doll

Most students, when they get a new piece, want to master the whole thing right away. If it’s really really super easy or if the song has a ton of repition, you probably could. But if it’s a full length concerto you’re after, it’s probably not a good idea.

The trick is to take sections of the piece and work on it for a few days(or weeks depending on the length or difficulty) and master it, then move on to the next section. In no time will you have all phrases flowing into a beautiful masterpiece.

This strategy obviously doesn’t apply only to music. It can apply to other aspects in life such as midterms. Rather that trying to study everything at once, work on one subject at a time. Soon you’ll finish with flying colors:)

Yes, it’s midterms week. Yes, I’m trying to preach to myself. =)

I found this awesome way to make my students bow correctly… Tape! It’s an age old trick that I never paid attention to because I didn’t think I needed it, but it works wonders! Put a piece of tape about 1/4 from the tip and 1/4 from the frog and forbid your student from shifting the bow until they pass the tape. I used this technique yesterday just to try to make my student use a full bow, and it worked! In the process, it also forced him to straighten out his bowing! Man, if I had known this before, I would have everyone put tape on their bows!

It’s totally cool because in order to vibrato, you need your fingers. In order to vibrato on a note that’s on an open string, you need to use your fourth finger (in first position) on the string before that. Since G is the lowest string, you can’t vibrato on it. Or so I thought. Dr Gordon told me to do it and I was like Dr. Gordon, that’s impossible! Then he showed me how to do it and I was like… whoa, that is so cool! I know most of you aren’t gonna get what I’m saying, but I just thought I’d let everyone know what I’m sooooo excited about =)

P.S. Renae just called and said I needed to be a bit more specific… I’m taking about my violin… THE G STRING ON THE VIOLIN!!!!