This is the newest piece that the 3rd Grade violins and violas are doing. It uses the infamous “Chicken on the Fencepost” rhythm, aka “Mississippi Stop Stop” or Suzuki’s Variation A of Twinkle Twinkle. The reason we do this rhythm so much at the beginning, is you are practicing making a good, controlled sound. It helps practice controlling the bow by playing short staccato notes and using a small ammount of bow…the opposite (i.e. long smooth bows using most of the bow length) is quite difficult, so starting with staccato is much more approachable and teaches good sound.

TREBLE CLEF

ALTO CLEF

BASS CLEF

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I learned this tune when I was teaching classes at MacPhail Center for Music. I found a swing version on iTunes as well as some kid oriented recordings and a one from an album called “Ballads of the War of 1812.” Interesting. I may have to do more research on this tune, but the main point for us right now, is to practice using the first finger on the D string, alternating with no fingers on the D string. See the music below.

DOWNLOAD TREBLE CLEF

DOWNLOAD ALTO CLEF

DOWNLOAD BASS CLEF

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I use other rhythms, like Ivan Galamian’s, but this one separates the octaves by repeating the “home note.” It helps you be sure to know where each octave starts and ends, which helps you understand the scale better. Then you can break it up into octaves in your head. I also like how it sounds, because you are emphasizing the tonic so much.

All but one are “even” pairs (a term I made up) that contain no accidentals or all accidentals:

A-E
Ab-Eb

C-G
C#-G#

D-A
D#-A#

Eb-Bb
E-B

F-C
F#-C#

G-D
G#-D#

The “uneven” pair (with one accidental) is B to F.

Bb-F
B-F#

Visualizing where the 5ths are will help you “place” the other notes around them. For example, I’m practicing guitar trying to get a picture of the notes across the whole fingerboard in my head. With an unfamiliar scale, I can orient myself if I find the 1st and 5th notes of the scale.

A scale can be visualized as two sets of 4 notes. Each group of four is the same pattern — 1 2 3 4 with a half step between 3 and 4.

If you push your jaw toward the violin that creates a lot of extra muscle work.  If you let your jaw be in a neutral position, then you can use the weight of your head to support the violin. Clenching your jaw every time you play is just too much extra work.

Other things I know about the jaw and violin:

Your head is heavy enough to balance the violin, like a seesaw that pivots on your collarbone, so you don’t need extra muscle pushing down on the chin rest to keep the instrument in place.

The jaw muscles are “pound for pound the strongest muscles in the body.” They told me this at at Alexander Technique workshop.

The Alexander teachers also recommended that violinists have more than one way to orient their head to the instrument. This is especially necessary if you’re playing into a mic but you need to look to one side or the other.

An open mouth space and relaxed face helps tone. One good way to go back to a relaxed position is by singing. Another good way is by “resistance stretching” — that is, pushing with your hand and back with your jaw. Another thing to try is exhaling and relaxing.

Often overlooked at first by students, the jaw, tongue, neck habits can be critical. We must guard against TMJ and other overuse. Like all technique, we have to be vigilant so we can avoid injury and also play better. It sounds almost goody-goody, that last sentence, but in my experience it’s quite true.

1. Think ahead. Learn to hear a melody in your head, visualize how to play it on the instrument and play it– all within a split second or so.

2. Seek ultimate variety in melodies, phrase length, ammount of rests and notes, and note patterns. Play with expectations. Allow yourself to be surprised, too.

3. Practice scales and patterns. These are the building blocks and the cannon fodder.

4. Learn harmony. Track the chords as you play tunes, or at least be able to do so easily if you want to. A familiar tune should be like a drive through a familiar city. At each moment you know exactly where you are and you can picture the route you’ll take to your next destination. You also know many possible routes you might choose to take.

5. Play “ideas” not notes. Just as we should think a note or two ahead so as to be prepared, on a grander scale, we should endeavor to play a sound we conceive in our head. This is different from just rearranging notes and patterns we’re familiar with. Rearranging notes and patterns is one way to think when improvising, but if it’s just playing riffs with nothing to balance it out, it can get old pretty quick.

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PRACTICES

Play over a drone. Good for intonation and coming up with ideas. Also, more fun than playing alone.

Get as familiar as you can with the styles you want to emulate.

Make up scale variations and technical exercises using patterns you’d like to get better at.

Sing melodies and play what you sing.