An hour isn’t that much time

It’s hard for me to believe how quickly an hour goes. We had a good practice today, but it felt rushed.

We began by choosing, together, what optional items to practice. Then we spent a few minutes on note reading off the instrument.

We then worked on With Steady Hands, which was the hardest part of our practice. I asked M to say the name of each section as she started to play it. This was difficult for her, and she spent a fair amount of time just being frustrated and not playing. Eventually, however, after much encouragement, she did a great job one time through the second section (A1/A2/B1/B2, repeated). And that was enough.

For Meadow Minuet, we did something new. Yesterday, I wrote up a Noteflight score of just the guitar part. I played it back on the computer, and as we listened, we focused on the bass notes, which are the open E, A, and D strings. I asked her to say, when the bass notes played, “lowest,” “middle,” or “highest.”  We did this several times through, and she got better each time. Then I had her play along with the score. She got most of the notes right. Finally, I asked her to identify which bass note was the hardest for her, and she correctly identified the D. That note occurs the least, and I led her to see that it occurs in predictable spots.

Otherwise we did:

  • The D scale (up the neck, saying note names)
  • May Song (with the metronome)
  • Tanz 2 (J.C. Bach — rusty!)
  • Perpetual Motion

At the start of every lesson for the past 3 days, M has put Read This First on the list, but we never have time to get to it. Tomorrow I think I’ll do it first, since it’s one of the things M is enthusiastic about.

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