Friday, October 31, 2014

Practice Tips for Long, Long Ago Suzuki Book 1




   Get ready for a dynamics roller-coaster in your new piece, Long, Long Ago. Here are some tips to go along on the ride with this folk song:
  
Playing Position. Go to playing position a few times with your eyes closed. This will help challenge you to get ready to play.

Structure. The piece is laid out in 3 parts. The order in the songs is the following: part 1 (first line) mf, part 2 (second line), part 3, and part 2 mf (third line).

New Skills.
1. Theory: Moderato means medium speed, decrescendo means get gradually quieter.
2. Rhythms: half rest equals 2 beats and looks like a small box sitting on the third line of the staff.
3. Dynamics: crescendo. The crescendo was introduced in O, Come Little Children, where in part 2 and 3 we get louder and louder. Towards the end of the song we have a decrescendo, which means to get softer and softer
4. Three Strings: We now have the opportunity to play a song that uses the E, A and D string. In part 3 we hop the first finger from the A to D string.
 

Strategies.
1. Warm-up with the bow exercises, now with an emphasis on crescendos and decrescendos.
2. After you listen to the song one time and follow the notes, listen again and clap the notes along with the song to starting learning the rhythm of the song.
3. Practice hopping each finger 3 times from the A to the D string.
4. Play along with the Youtube video above.
5. Add crescendos and decrescendos to numbers 1-6.

     If you want a quick way to boost the speed of your progress, challenge yourself to do a 2-minute Theory Flaschard Challenge. This means that you push yourself to see how many flashcards you can get in 2 minutes. Let me know how it went and were my tips helpful?



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