Week 10

The Maestro came on Saturday morning because his sister was sick on Wednesday. Last night was quite exciting and between that, The Maestro’s sleepiness today, and perhaps the rush around his house to get things ready for a church event, The Maestro wasn’t quite up to a lesson. He really did try, but he struggled from the beginning. A bump on his cello (he ran into the studio with the cello and it knocked against the door frame) started him out with slight correction from me. That might have made things difficult. Opening the case took a while, and so did bowing. Other distracting factors were all the new posters in the room. With some encouragement from Riley he got the cello out and eventually managed a bow. Riley bowed with him to make it easier.

I tuned the cello and he was able to tell me all the string names just from me plucking them and him hearing them.

Today several things were practiced and learned, but the less formal the approach, the better he responded. For instance, I was able to get him to show me his cello fingers by number only after we played a little with our thumbs, which we have never talked about or numbered.

He finally got on track but then I switched to the practice bow, and as soon as I asked, “Do you want to practice?” he crawled out of the room like a kitty. It has apparently taken some real creativity at home for Riley to keep him doing his exercises, and “practice” may be a bad choice of words on my part. After some meowing and a trip to the bathroom, The Maestro decided he was done for the day. He was asked to bow in order to be able to play with Mini-Chester, so the kitty became a boy long enough for a bow.

Outside of the studio he played with Mini Chester and managed a great bow hold considering the tiny size of the bow. Thumb bent and everything. He demonstrated a down bow, starting at the frog, and an up bow. The bow hold is there – he managed to get it down before the suggested 100 times. That’s fantastic. Hooray for Riley’s patience and creativity. Now we just have to have him perform rhythms before he can get his real bow. Perhaps he can demonstrate the Twinkle Variation rhythms by clapping or tapping and show me that next week.

Things to practice (play) J at home:

-Variation Rhythms – tapping, singing with words, clapping, dancing, etc.
-Finger numbering (this is very easy to do at random times throughout the day)
-Practice bow games (Rocket, monkey, windshield wipers, train)
-Tucka bow with stickers to help show down bow and up bow
-Knuckle knocks and ski jumps
-Finish up the 100 bow holds (practice makes permanent – we want to keep them good. Maybe 1-3 per day or whatever approach works best)

2:30 p.m.
I just got off the phone with my dear friend and Suzuki master teacher P. today. She was so delighted to hear about The Maestro and had a lot of great ideas for tucka-bow practice. When I told her about the small practices throughout the day rather than one big practice, she exclaimed, “That is perfect! That is the ideal! Suzuki said that 2 minutes of joy is worth much more than 15 minutes of struggle.” So we’re on the right track with practice, and we have some things we can try with the bow.