Agassiz Beginning Violinists Demonstrate great violin positions!

Agassiz Beginning Violin Class has violin position down! Look at how they are using the strength of their neck to hold their violins- not their violin arm. Violins are over their shoulders- nice job! 

Practice See The Pretty Flowers with Ms. Mariah!

This is a 5 minute practice video, Practice see the Pretty Flowers along with Ms. Mariah 10 times. Repetition is the absolute BEST way to practice. 

Here's a helpful visual too!

Practice Video for 7 year olds and up!

If your young violinist is in 2nd grade or older, they are probably starting to learn their first song called "The Flower Song."

The Flower Song goes like this:

"See the Pretty Flowers" on open E string, no fingers down.

"Blooming in the Garden" on E string, 1 finger down- this note is called F#.

"See the Pretty Flowers" on open E string, no fingers down.

"Red and Green and Purple" on open A string, no fingers down.

On each note, the rhythm is Mississippi Stop Stop. ("See the pretty flowers" is the same rhythm as "Mississippi Stop Stop")

In this video, the students have just begun learning it, so they are stopping before each note and making sure, for example, when they set their first finger on the E string, that their finger is "curly" or forming a "bridge." They should be placing their first finger down at the tip of their first finger.

Practice Video: Practice Mississippi Stop Stop with Ms. Ashley

In this video, not only do we practice the "Mississippi Stop Stop" rhythm, but we practice our routine to get properly set up before putting the bow on the string. Follow along with us!

Here is what is necessary to check before starting to play- for a beginning violinists, this is very important to form great violin playing habits:

1. "Violin Statue" to get the violin on the (left) shoulder (make sure after doing the violin statue that you haven't moved the violin to your chest- we call that a "violin beard!") Here is video of just violin statue.
2. Check bow hold- thumb is bent under the frog, fingers are hanging all the way to the edge of the frog, and pinky is on top! If you tell your young violinists this at home they will show you this great bow hold. You can also check this blog entry to see examples!
3. Check that feet are a few inches apart and you're standing up straight!

(The video is directly from class- I apologize for the poor quality and if it is difficult to hear, see if it is helpful for your child to practice along, and then practice without the video after it is over)