Jaron
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing, and make sure your fingers aren’t stretched too high), Perpetual Motion (keep aiming for that final play-through! Practice playing the whole piece without stopping and with consistent tempo), and Allegretto (add in rhythms short-short-long).

Olivia – good luck with your playing test!
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: review 2-octave Major and minor scales (try to memorise fingering patterns for each scale, and focus especially on scales with shifting such as D and E Major), Danse Macabre (shifting positions, and watch out for B-flat and E-flat in the key signature – lots of low ones!), and see if there’s anything you want to add to our Zero to Hero arrangement.

Amaia – your Halloween costume looked fantastic, I hope you have a great Halloween!
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing – although your posture and bow hold look great, just a good routine to have!), O Come Little Children (try to aim for finishing this piece in the next few weeks, focus on incorporating long and short rhythms into the second half of the piece, the first half sounds good), and May Song (full piece now, focus on second line, just play through slowly and get familiar with the notes).

Preet
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: 0-1-2-3-2-1-0 fingering patterns on each string (warm-up), G, D, and A Major scales (doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing), Twinkle (theme and variations A, C, and D – make sure C and D have different rhythms for long-short-short and equal 1-2-3-), and Lightly Row (watch out for second line and playing 5 of each note, and make sure your hand isn’t slowly sliding up the neck of the violin).

Grace
– Recommended practice time: 20 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: 2 octave Major scales (with focus on shifting to third position in G and D Major, plus our new scale shift to fourth position in E Major), and Gavotte (practice sixteenth note passages slowly and then increasing tempo, and watch out for intonation and try not to go too sharp in the first section).

Hendry – congratulations on playing through to the end of Catharsis! Now, to master it!
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: C, D, E-flat, F, and G Major scales (2 octaves, doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing, and pay close attention to intonation), D minor scale (1 octave, natural and now adding our new harmonic scale, where the seventh note is raised to C#), Waltz (add in dynamics, legato, and tempo changes), and Catharsis (practice third position shift at the end, and keep watching out for key changes between E-flat Major and D Major).

Thank you, stay safe, and happy playing!