I hope everyone is continuing to stay well and safe!

Jaron – thank you for getting your violin tuned!
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (focus on keeping your second and third fingers squeezed together, but your transition between strings has improved so much!), O Come Little Children (focus on the notes in the last 2 lines in particular, and also starting each phrase with an up bow), and May Song (look ahead if you’d like!).

Olivia – I’m so glad you’ve been practicing more and making goals for your violin playing!
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: review 2-octave major and minor scales (try to memorise each finger pattern on each string), Mirror Duet (with focus on the second section bowings and take it one bar at a time, but it is much improved!), and Avatar State (clean rhythms for duet and practice transitions in between sections).

Amaia
– Reminder: your A string is very out of tune and we cannot tune it in class together, so please see if you can get your violin tuned! I recommend calling Long & McQuade or another music store to see if you can drop off the violin and get it tuned by a professional.
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: bow hold with curved fingers for the window washer exercise, G, D, and A Major scales (going up and going down the scale), an Twinkle (theme and variations A pepperoni pizza and C green pepper – make sure to play the middle section starting with E twice!).

Hendry – thank you for your patience today as we tuned your viola! The winter weather can really affect instruments and make them out of tune!
– Reminder: if you want to try tuning by yourself, remember that the pegs are for when your viola is very out of tune, and the fine tuners are for when it is a little out of tune
– Recommended practice time: 20 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G and D Major scales (1 octave), C Major scale (2 octaves and make sure to do a posture and bow hold check before playing all scales), Minuet 1 (practice bowing m. 3-4, and watch out for 1-2 and 2-3 finger patterns on D and A strings in second section), Question (congratulations on playing through the entire thing! Keep playing through the second section slowly and getting familiar with the notes), and Starting the Case (first 2 lines and watch out for G# low first finger, and look ahead if you want to!).

Grace – it was so nice to meet you today, welcome to ABC!
– Reminder: when tuning by yourself, remember that the pegs are for when your violin is very out of tune, and the fine tuners are for when it is just a little out of tune.
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: posture and bow hold (with curved fingers, and look out especially for the pinky and thumb on your right hand), window washer exercise with bow hold, play on each open string down-up-down-up, and practice your own version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (we’ll look at this more next week!).

Thank you and happy playing!