Get while the getting is good

Good practice today, but I should have cut it off earlier. We got started a little late, but M was very cooperative at first. She got Kanga (her stuffed kangaroo) as an audience, and then pitched coins into Kanga’s pouch as an activity.

We started by listening to Meadow Minuet and identifying the four sections. I had taken blank playing cards and written the first 2 measures (for sections A and B) or the first 4 measures (for sections C and D) on them to use to decide what to work on. M and I listened a few times, pairing up the cards with the beginning of the sections. Then M picked a card (C) and we worked on that section (she played melody and I played bass). She did great, so we moved into the D section, focusing on counting in the two measures in which the C# is held for a total of five beats.

While we worked on this, M found the “evil twin” C# on the B string by herself, and we discussed note geography some.

Next, M conducted me playing Twinkle theme, Lightly Row, and Aunt Rhody. She lost the downbeat often, so I had her bang on the padded footstool with a rhythm stick on the downbeat. This helped some.

Finally, I asked M to play the Fuhrman Tanz with some musical ideas. She was game, but she did things pretty arbitrarily (i.e., she got quieter and louder at weird spots). Also, she kept playing the start of the B section wrong and couldn’t identify the problem when she was done playing.

I asked her to play the descending-scale section of the B section 10 times to conclude, and I adjusted her left hand quite a bit. She got cranky about this and started crying. She protested that I shouldn’t be adjusting her hand and said, “Alan said the most important thing is to be comfortable, and I was comfortable!” After a pause for calming down, she played three more repetitions, and she did not fight me when I adjusted her hand.

I should have finished earlier.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.