Category: Home-lesson recaps

Rocky but effective

Early practice today so I could go to a class. M was fidgety, which drives me nuts. At one point I threatened to practice double tomorrow if she couldn’t cooperate. She got a horrified look on her face and settled down.

I’m making it sound worse than it was, though. That was the lowlight. We actually got a lot done:

  • Watched/listened to the Fuhrman Tanz on Noteflight and talked about the dynamics.
  • M played the Tanz‘s A section through 10 times (2 groups of five; the second time, I actually asked for 4 repetitions; she did one on her own). I resurrected an old device: giving her a point score depending on how she did. She could get a total of 6 points per repetition, 1 point each for:
    • Eyes on left hand
    • Hugging the frets
    • Decrescendo/crescendo in first part
    • Echo in last 2 measures
    • Legato
    • Vibrato
  • In her first set of repetitions, the first 3 were okay and the last 2 were careless. When I went over her scores for each repetition, I pointed this out, and I asked her what happened in the last 2. She said, “I got lazy.” Which was exactly right.
    • Note: I didn’t accuse her of being lazy, and she wasn’t putting herself down as being a generally lazy person. She was just acknowledging that as to those repetitions, she had acted lazy. This is just another way of saying that she didn’t pay good attention to what she was doing.
  • That took most of the lesson, but we did work on Meadow Minuet‘s A section.
    • M and I played together 10 times a 2-measure part of the song that she was playing wrong. This was a great part of the lesson because she really focused on what she was doing the entire time. I made a point of remarking on this and of explaining that our approach — identifying a problem spot, then isolating that spot in practice — was the best way to make progress.
    • M played the melody and I played the bass, then we switched. She stumbled at first, but after I had her sing the section, she played it well.
  • Her left pinky is looking pretty good. If she can remember to watch what she’s doing, she’ll master these songs.

A duet and the Meadow Minuet

We practiced before dinner because we were going over to a friend’s house. I decided to do something we have never done: play a duet in Read This First that was not a Suzuki song. First, M read through the notes about 3 times, identifying the note names. I was a little frustrated that she couldn’t identify the problem notes after we went through it; I’m trying to get her to problem-solve on her own, rather than always having me identifying what needs work.

But she got through it, and we played it through together a few times. It sounded nice, and we played one four-bar passage several times to get it sounding good. This was all conflict-free and seemed to have a pretty good payoff in M’s satisfaction.

Next, we worked on the C and D sections of Meadow Minuet as follows:

  • M played melody, I played bass;
  • I played melody, M played bass; and
  • M played both in the C section only.

This went well. Her only issues are (1) pinky shape, and (2) paying attention (aiming) before starting to play.

At one point, as she was figuring out what bass note to play, she said:

“I’m corn. Because I’ve got such good ears!”

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.

A solid start on A-M alternation

Good practice today. We did:

  • G scale on the G string.
  • Perpetual Motion on the G string.
  • Perpetual Motion in first position, with A-M in the right hand. M played with authority, though she was digging in a bit too deep on the pad instead of playing with her nail. Still, for how new this exercise is, she did well.
  • The Fuhrman Tanz twice through. M seems to have the structure down. She didn’t do much with her dynamics, but she did play nicely legato.

I wonder if she might get a better handle on some dynamic ideas (e.g., echos) if we practiced just those portions of several songs, rather than playing entire songs and trying to incorporate multiple ideas in each song.

Preparing for the Guitar Olympics

Today we practiced after dinner. We did:

  • Song of the Wind with the metronome. Yesterday’s repetitions paid off — M played all the right notes. Areas to improve:
    • The second repetition often was weaker than the first. I pointed out that this is a pattern we see in several songs.
    • The rightness of M’s right-hand fingering was variable. She had a hard time remembering to start on her “m” finger, but she gave a good effort.
    • M’s left-hand fingering got sloppy as she got faster, but she was rock-solid with the metronome, even up to 100 bpm.
  • Conducting. M got off of her pattern a lot at first (i.e., she was going sideways on the downbeat, not down), but this improved.
  • Perpetual Motion with A-M fingering. This was remarkably good — M played with authority, and paid good attention to what she was doing. The novelty must have helped. She did, however, have problems keeping track of her place in the song’s structure.
  • Perpetual Motion on the G string. This was also remarkably good, though M again had problems knowing where she was in the song’s structure.

As our activity, M pitched coins again. She picked out some plastic bugs before the lesson to earn as bonuses when she got a coin in the glass.

Overall, a pretty good lesson, particularly given the lateness of the hour.

Teaching targeted practicing

I took lousy notes, but here’s what I mostly recall about today’s practice:

  • We did half before dinner and half afterwards. This worked pretty well. We stuck with tossing coins.
  • We started with lots of note reading. She continues to enjoy it and excel at it.
  • We worked on Song of the Wind, and M kept making the same mistake in one section. I coached her to identify the mistake, and then we played the problem section together over and over.
    • I discussed the concept of targeted practicing: figuring out what particular area of your playing needs work, then focusing on that when practicing.
  • We worked a little on With Steady Hands (perhaps just on the B1/B2 sections?). Though we haven’t practiced it much, she’s doing well with it.
  • We probably worked on some other song or exercise, but I’ll be darned if I can recall what. I’m sure we talked about playing musically, since that’s one of our assignments this week from her studio teacher. (Perhaps I asked M to play the Furhman Tanz with attention to musical details? Who knows?)

This recap is embarassingly vague. I usually ask M what she thought of her playing when she finishes a song, and I always make her give me specifics, since “good” or “not so good” isn’t informative enough. And here I am, very short on specifics.

Pitching pennies before dinner

We had a pretty good practice, but I continue to be baffled at how little we get done in an hour. And M was generally cooperative! We did:

  • Sight reading in Read This First. We played two songs, three times through (first saying beats; second saying notes; third saying fruit rhythms). I suppose this took longer than it seemed.
  • The double-note Perpetual Motion variation, with a stuffed rabbit to help M keep her wrist up.
  • The Fuhrman Tanz. Per M’s studio teacher, I asked her to focus on playing “musically” (we first went over a list of “musical” items she could add to her playing — crescendo, ritardando, vibrato, etc.). She got some things in, and she got the structure right. There’s still room to improve. What I noticed and discussed was how she could play more legato by not bringing her pinky down on the high A too early.
    • As an exercise after the Tanz, I asked M to play A-F# repeatedly 10 times and watch her timing to keep it legato. She did perfectly!
  • As our inter-song activity, M pitched pennies in a glass. This was a pretty good choice (low distraction, not too time consuming), except when she started to get upset when she was missing. This will probably work better if she has a higher success rate.

The one bummer for me today was how M responded (during a play date) to a friend’s dad’s questions about playing the guitar. First, when he asked if she played an instrument, she said, “I’m a rock star!” So far so good. But then he asked, “What do you like about playing the guitar? Do you have a favorite song?” She answered “nothing” and “no.”

Normally this doesn’t bother me much (though obviously I wish she answered differently), particularly since she has bought into the guitar in other ways (as shown by the “rock star” remark). But the mother of M’s friend had earlier been telling me about her daughter’s ice skating and gymnastics and had remarked with pleasure that her daughter really seemed to enjoy both activities. The contrast with M’s attitude about the guitar struck me.

On the positive side, while M and I were making a Keva-plank structure, she liked something I did and said:

You rockstarred it!

Here’s the bunny we used during our lesson (M kept it under her wrist while she played Perpetual Motion):

sparkly bunny

The power of the stopwatch

I have been a terrible blogger. I haven’t been posting daily, so naturally I can’t provide great specifics about the previous few days.

At a general level, the most notable event this week was the arrival of the stopwatch. Based on the notion that we change the things we measure, I decided to use a stopwatch to keep track of time M wastes during our lessons by dawdling. It drives me nuts, and I’ve tried to explain that if she wants more time to herself after our lessons, she can waste less time during them. But this hasn’t worked, so I thought to myself, “I need to show her exactly how much time she is wasting to make it real for her. I need a stopwatch.”  I got this simple one:

She responded well all week — whenever she took too long to do something (e.g., pick up her guitar, get into ready position), I’d reach for the stopwatch, and she’d almost always immediately do what I’d asked. The most wasted time I clocked in any lesson was about 1:30.  We’ll see how long it lasts.

Technically, this week our focus was big tone and a steady right hand. Some of last week’s work has sunk in, and she regularly gets a nice, loud sound. Now she needs to work on keeping an elevated wrist. I did a lot of silent correction on this toward the end of the week — and it turned out to be the main thing her studio teacher pointed out at her private lesson on Saturday. Nice to know I was on the right track.

I can’t quite decipher my notes for Wednesday the 23rd through Friday the 25th, but it looks like we did:

  • Some note reading to start every practice (most days, both fruit rhythms and the see-say note page; Friday, just the note page).
  • Scales, iuncluding a ping-pong D scale on Thursday.
  • The G scale on one string.
  • Song of the Wind with the metronome.
  • The Fuhrman Tanz, with an emphasis on playing legato.

Concentration

Pretty good practice today, but we started after dinner, and it might have showed in M’s concentration. We did:

  • Note reading (see-say note page @ 42 bpm)
  • Note reading/rhythyms (50-measure hurdles with fruit rhythms)
  • G scales (normal)
  • May Song, focusing on right-hand technique, then doing radio on/radio off
  • The Fuhrman Tanz
  • The A2 section of With Steady Hands

I decided to start with the note reading off of the guitar, since M finds this fun, and she was nearly flawless: she missed a single note on the see-say note page and only one or two rhythms (and they were hard ones). I have mixed feelings about working off of the instrument, but at least it gives us a positive starting point.

As for her playing, her physical technique is still pretty good (she’s playing with vigor and steadiness in the right hand), but her mental technique is a mess. The first time through May Song, she played it like a salad — instead of returning to the beginning at the repeat, she went to the middle, which she then played three times. She also cut the ending off too soon. And then, when I asked her how it went, she said she played all the right notes!

To deal with this problem, which is a concentration lapse, we did some radio on/radio off, first with her playing and then (for fun) with me playing and her directing. She did fine.

But she then blew the structure of the Fuhrman Tanz the first time through. A third time through, she did a great job, including playing with nice dynamics. Finally, she did a nice job on the A1/A2 sections of With Steady Hands. Given that we haven’t played it in a week, she did surprisingly well.

I remembered to stop on a pretty positive note. As her inter-song activity, I read to her from a Red Riding Hood picture book. And she told this joke:

Once upon a — I’m telling time!