Ludwig von Beethoven

Ludwig von Beethoven is the Composer of the month for August 2013.  I love to play and to listen to his music and have so all of my life as a violinist.  When I was 11 years old I had my first significant experience playing in a summer school orchestra and the piece that we did was the third movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.  Hearing the brass section behind me and playing those incredible lines got me hooked forever!

Here is a link to one of his most exciting pieces, the 1st movement of the 3rd Symphony.

Eroica Symphony, 1st movement

Enjoy!

Group Lesson Activities

The first two groups today were duet lessons!  Emma and Sarv attended for the Book 2-3 level.  Thanks to Sarv's dad for bringing our glazed donuts, traditional treats for group days. We practiced Tonalization with different rhythms and in harmony, did sight reading and Suzuki review and played the Memory Game.  Sophie and Jade played together in the Book 1 group.  Here you see them note reading.

The advanced group played 3 octave scales and a shifting etude to warm up.  Then we focused on reading and feeling rhythms.  We clapped and counted the rhythms from the book Winning Rhythms by Edward Ayola.  Then we did quite a bit of sight reading from different pieces and found a beautiful blended sound.  Here are excerpts from Waltz by Brahms and Hallelujah arranged by William Starr.

The Inside Thumb

It is a great thing when a Twinkler, after several weeks of pre-Twinkle games and exercises, and months of polishing the Twinkles, is ready to insert the thumb on the right hand into the little niche of the violin bow. Previously it had been on the underside of the bow to achieve good contact of bow hair to the violin strings.
Here is Colby's best new bow hold with the thumb inside!  Colby passed off his Twinkles in June.