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Strengthening Fingers with Clothes Pegs
I purchased some medium sized art pegs. They’re about half the size of a clothes peg but if you can’t get these, a clothes peg will work fine. The student needs to make a curved ‘Pacman’ shape with their thumb and first finger on the peg (has to be that curved ‘C’ shape for this […]
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Mystery surrounding AMEB 4th Grade Violin Exercise 8
Well folks, I worked out the mystery today after being led on a bit of a wild goose chase with Exercise 8 in the Level 1 Violin Technical Work Book. My edition of the Technical Work Book is the 2001 publication. With each grade I have going through, I make sure I know the technical […]
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Bow Hold Buddies™ – Dianna Denley’s review
I recently purchased some of Ruth and Martha Brons’ wonderful Bow Hold Buddies™. Their website ‘Things for Strings’ is listed in my links column (as ‘Bow Hold Buddies’). What are Bow Hold Buddies™? A FANTASTIC idea designed to help students develop their bow hold with ease, with the assistance of some buddies (photos from the Things for […]
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Distracting students with devious devices
I recently purchased a new distracting device with the aim of using it to distract my students whilst they play a particular song, to see if they can keep playing without, well, getting distracted. It’s an important performance technique to learn, don’t you think? The device is called a “Gotto-Go Machine” and cost me about […]
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‘Kitten on the Fingerboard’ – violin third position shifting song
Having decided that some of my students needed a reminder to relax their thumbs whilst shifting and as preparation for upcoming exam pieces, I wrote this song along with a simple piano accompaniment. It was well received and thoroughly enjoyed. Start off with a slow shift up and down to the notes, so students can […]
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‘Lesson 1 A Tune A Day’ Part 2 (young violin beginner)
There is an awful lot of pre-preparation work for younger students that needs to be done with the violin before we can begin to play the ‘dots’ on the page. The aim today with one of my littlies was to get through something on ‘Lesson 1’ from the A Tune A Day book. Even if […]
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It’s all about the movement…
Ever had a student who is just really stiff? Stands there and looks incredibly uncomfortable whilst holding the violin? This is a good activity to get them to loosen up. After all, we are encouraged to be relaxed when playing the violin to avoid injury so for those ‘stiff’ students, this is fantastic. I also […]
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