Tuesday: Our 20 minutes in the morning didn’t go so well—I stuck with the plus/minus tactic, and handed out a lot of pluses. We worked on May Song, trying to fix a new note mistake.
In the evening, I had M play an ear-training game at Theta Music Trainer: paddle pitch, which is a little like pong, but you have to type the number of the pitch you hear. She got much better at it over the course of a few minutes, and I was very pleased that she did not get discouraged even when she made lots of mistakes.
We then practiced for 10 minutes or so after dinner. She was more cooperative, and I was less demanding. We did:
- The Bach Tanz. She played with Noteflight. She again screwed up the structure badly a few times, and she quit playing the first time she did so. I’m still not crazy about her left-hand position in this song. But she stuck with it and improved over 3 or 4 repetitions.
- The last line of the Canon in D, twice. The first time through, she made only one note mistake in the next-to-last measure. The second and last time through, she played it note perfect.
On an unrelated note, I learned today that her group teacher’s son, who’s an excellent 14-year-old guitarist, started on violin and (briefly) piano before switching to the guitar. I think I’ll try to talk to her group teacher about how you decide whether to switch instruments.