Choose a few activities each day for the practice challenge. Turn in your challenge sheet each group class. Compete with members of your group and with other groups!
Get 10 points for sending me your own idea, 20-40 points if I add it to the list for your class!! ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
As we go through this time together, let’s have fun!
(♡ >ω< ♡)
Miss Winters
Take a hike through Book 1: Make cards with the names of all the songs you know. Use these to make stepping stones around the room. Now follow the stepping stones and play each song. At the end, celebrate with a game of chase. (20 points)
25 bowholds. Do these on your bow, or on another item you choose! (10 points)
Lights Out: Play THREE pieces with your eyes closed. (10 points)
Floor Time: Play THREE of your pieces lying down. (10 points)
Sunshine Time: Practice outside for at least 20 minutes. (10 points).
Makeover: Set up your practice area in a new way. (20 points)
Song marathon: Set a stopwatch for playing review songs continuously and set a PR (personal record) for time. Tell Miss Winters your record. (30 points)
Practice 3 times in one day! (30 points)
Early bird: Play your violin first thing in the morning for 5 days in a row! (80 points)
Composer of the week: Choose a composer to listen to while doing schoolwork this week
Learn a song by ear. (50 points)
By-ear sharing: Play your by-ear song for someone else in the studio (20 points)
Sight-read an open string song. Find songs here.
• Maker’s Melody: Create a melodic composition: (NOTE: You’ll need to position the note exactly or it will disappear.)
• Maker’s Rhythm: Create a rhythmic composition.
• Tempo Terms: Explore a melody at different tempos. (Hint: You’ll need to choose the tempo first for the melody to play.)
• Learning Fun: Play one of the music concept games: (e.g. (Match the Melody, Beat & Rhythm).
Play date: Facetime someone else in your group class (or another friend) and play a song for them! (10 points)
Facetime concert: Call someone on video chat (grandparents, friends) and play a song for them (15 points).
Front yard concert: Give a concert in your front yard. Play at least 6 songs. (15 points)
Email pal: Write an email to someone in the studio and ask them to be your email pal. Be sure to tell them some things you’re doing and ask them some questions. This will get the conversation going. (10 points)
Instruments of the Orchestra: Explore each section of the orchestra using the online tool here. (10 points)
Draw an instrument: Choose one instrument of the orchestra and make a drawing of it. (10 points)
Carnival of the Animals: Listen to “Carnival of the Animals” by Saint Saens. Which animal is your favorite? Draw a picture of it! (15 points)
Metronome exploration: Find a marking on your metronome. What song goes with this speed? Now play the song! (10 points)
Practice 3 times in one day! (30 points)
Lights Out: Play THREE pieces with your eyes closed. (10 points)
Floor Time: Play THREE of your pieces lying down. (10 points)
Sunshine Time: Practice outside for at least 20 minutes. (10 points).
Makeover: Set up your practice area in a new way. (30 points)
Early bird: Play your violin first thing in the morning for 5 days in a row! (80 points)
Upside down: Play a song TWICE holding bow upside down at the tip. Then play the song the regular way. What do you notice? (10 points)
Learn a song by ear. This can be any popular song (pick your favorite artist)! (50 points)
By-ear sharing: Play your by-ear song for someone else in the studio (20 points)
Jazz and blues play-along: Play along with this video by Christian Howes, or any of his videos (they’re all fun!). (20 points)
Cup games! Here is a good one to get you started (link). Then you’re ready to do this one. (10 points)
Body percussion! This one is super fun and easy to master (don’t worry if it seems hard in the beginning!). Remember you can slow down the video if you need to. (10 points.)
Sight-reading (20 points):
1. Create an account on SmartMusic.com. Make sure to choose “New Smartmusic.”
2. Search “Violin.” Choose something interesting and click the title.
3. Use the drop-down menu under “MOVEMENT” to pick a song.
4. Click “OPEN.”
5. Hit the play button to play the song ONE TIME.
6. Sight-read the song a few times without the audio. It’s okay if you don’t get it perfect – the goal is just to read something (and hopefully have fun)!
7. Finally, play the audio again, this time playing along. You can slow down the tempo (the control is on the left side).
Another resource for sight-reading is https://www.violinschool.com/library/.
Choose an activity from Music Play Online. (5 points each):
• Maker’s Melody: Create a melodic composition: (NOTE: You’ll need to position the note exactly or it will disappear.)
• Maker’s Rhythm: Create a rhythmic composition.
• Tempo Terms: Explore a melody at different tempos. (Hint: You’ll need to choose the tempo first for the melody to play.)
Karaoke: Solfeg.io includes melody, lyrics and chords for many famous songs. Choose one to sing or play. Don’t worry about getting all the notes the first time — relax and have fun! (30 points)
Musical storytelling: Make up a story to go with one of your pieces. (15 points)
Musical moves: Make up a dance to go with one of your pieces. (15 points)
Classics for Kids Podcast: Choose a podcast to listen to, here. At the end of the episode, choose one piece to listen to from beginning to end. Write the name of the piece and composer on your practice sheet so you can tell me about it at our next lesson! (20 points).
Instruments of the Orchestra: Explore each section of the orchestra using the online tool here. (10 points)
Draw an instrument: Choose an instrument of the orchestra and make a drawing of it. (10 points)
Violin drawing challenge: Violins have lots of unique curves; in fact, violinmakers use wooden templates to be able to carve each one perfectly. You can choose to draw either the whole violin, or just the scroll. Do this several days in a row and you’ll see some good progress. Make sure to save your early versions so you can see how much you’ve improved. (One week of daily drawing = 90 points)
Play date: Facetime someone else in your group class (or another friend) and play a song for them! (15 points)
Facetime concert: Call someone on video chat (grandparents, friend, family) and play a song for them. (15 points)
Front yard concert: Give a concert in your front yard. Play at least 6 songs. (20 points)
Practice partner: Email someone in the studio and set up a time to practice online at the same time. You’ll be on mute but you can chat, and talk whenever you need a break. (15 points)
Metronome practice: Choose one of your songs to practice with the metronome. Play it at least three times through (you’ll get better each time). It’s okay to make the metronome faster or slower so that it’s easier. (10 points)
Composer exploration: Choose a composer you’d like to become more familiar with. Listen to TWO works by that composer, and explore his / her biography. (60 points)
Bucket list: Listen to violin music on YouTube (or elsewhere) and make a “bucket list” of 3-5 songs you’d like to play when you are ready. (30 points)
Juilliard challenge: Do TWO practices in one day (at least 80 minutes total). (40 points)
Heifetz challenge: Practice 3 times in one day (at least 60 minutes total). (30 points)
Makeover: Set up your practice area in a new way. (20 points)
Early bird: Play your violin first thing in the morning for 5 days in a row! (80 points)
Learn a song by ear. This can be any popular song (pick your favorite artist)! (30 points)
By-ear sharing: Play your by-ear song for someone else in the studio (20 points)
Intervals: Use an app such as Interval Trainer to learn your musical intervals. (Make sure to search “musical intervals” when finding an app you like.) (10 points)
Metronome: Play THREE review pieces with a metronome. (30 points)
Karaoke: Solfeg.io includes melody, lyrics and chords for many famous songs. Choose one to sing or play. Don’t worry about getting all the notes the first time — relax and have fun! (30 points)
Jazz and blues play-along: Play along with this video by Christian Howes, or any of his videos (they’re all fun!). (20 points)
Composer exploration: Choose a composer you’d like to become more familiar with. Listen to THREE works by that composer, and explore his / her biography. (60 points)
Etude: Learn a new Wohlfahrt (link), Mazas (link), or other etude (20 points)
Double stops! Purchase the Trott etudes (link), which teach double stops. You’ll be working through this book soon in your private lessons. Learn one of these on your own! (50 points)
Cup games! These simple games are challenging and a great change of pace. Start with this one (link), then graduate to this one. (10 points)
Shadow bowing: Try shadow bowing for 5 minutes then playing for 5 minutes. Do this THREE times per practice for 3 practices. What improved when you practiced shadow bowing? What new things did it help you to notice? (50 pt)
Upside down: Play a song TWICE holding bow upside down at the tip. Then play the song the regular way. Notice how this affects your balance and awareness. (20 points)
Select and watch a Strings Magazine session. (minutes = points)
Technical tips: Choose one of the articles below to read. Implement at least ONE strategy. (15 points)
• Improve your vibrato, by Laurie Niles
• Bowhold workout, by Scott Flavin
• Practice strategies, by Robert Howard
• Effective memorization, by Molly Gebrian. (Bulletproof Musician is my all-time favorite blog. I highly recommend subscribing!)
Violin drawing challenge: Violins have lots of unique curves; in fact, violinmakers use wooden templates to be able to carve each one perfectly. You can choose to draw either the whole violin, or just the scroll. Do this several days in a row and you’ll see some good progress. Make sure to save your early versions so you can see how much you’ve improved. (One week of daily drawing = 90 points)
FaceTime concert: Call someone on video chat (grandparents, friends) and play a song for them (15 points).
Front yard concert: Give a concert in your front yard. Play at least 3 songs. (40 points)
Practice partner: Email someone in the studio and set up a time to practice online at the same time. You’ll be on mute but you can chat, and talk whenever you need a break. (15 points)
Sight-reading: Explore some public-domain works for violin and piano on IMSLP (here). Find one that you’re interested in and read through it! Don’t worry about mastering it; just have fun. (20 points)
Karaoke: Solfeg.io includes melody, lyrics and chords for many famous songs. Choose one to sing or play. Once you get the melody, follow the chord chart: play long tones in the beginning, then begin to fill in other notes of the chord. (30 points)
Juilliard challenge: Do TWO practices in one day (at least 90 minutes total). (40 points)
Galamian challenge: Practice THREE times in one day (at least 120 minutes total). (65 points)
Composer exploration: Choose a composer you’d like to become more familiar with. Listen to THREE works by that composer, and explore his / her biography. (60 points)
Intervals: Use the apps Perfect Ear (Android), Earpeggio (Apple), or Teoria (web-based) to learn your musical intervals. (Make sure to search “musical intervals” when searching for apps.) (10 points)
Octave reading: Choose a moderately easy etude that you’ve never played. Sight-read the whole piece an octave higher. (30 points)
Alternative styles: Select and watch a Strings Magazine session. (minutes = points)
Strategize your practice: Read one of the articles on the Practice Strategies page, here, or another article or book chapter you find. Implement at least one strategy from the article. (20 points each)
Cup games! These simple games are challenging and a great change of pace. Start with this one (link), then graduate to this one. (10 points)
Violin painting: Create a painting of a violin, in a medium of your choice. Consider what setting and mood you want to create. (120 points)
Violin drawing: Violins are a notoriously difficult subject to draw (violin makers use a template for both the body and the scroll). Draw either the whole violin, or just the scroll. Draw this three days in a row. Notice your progress! (50 points)
Music theory 101: Some videos to get you started (15 points each)
• This video by Composerily offers the quickest, easiest explanation of music theory I’ve ever seen. You’ll see him showing concepts on a DAW, or “digital audio workstation.” You can download BandLab (Android) or Garage Band (already on every iPad) if you want to play around with this.
• This video by Piano Pig on four basic chord progressions.
Autumn Leaves is a famous jazz standard. Watch the following videos (40 points for the first four assignments):
• Nat King Cole’s performance is considered the original definitive version in English.
• Now read the history of the song here and listen to the original recording, in French, by Yves Montand.
• Now compare these versions to this performance by Eva Cassidy & London Symphony
• Watch this tutorial video for understanding the chord sequence, by Learn Jazz Standards
Finally, open iReal Pro and use the search box to find the song and play along with the chords. (45 points)
Musical notation: Choose a song that you like. Now, using Finale Notepad or a similar music notation software, figure out how to notate the melody. Use your violin to help you figure out the notes. Resist the urge to go online and find the printed music — try to figure it out yourself! (40 points)
BandLab: Create a composition on this app (Android) or on GarageBand (Apple) (100 points)
Octave play: Choose one of your graduated songs and play it an octave higher. (You will probably need to go into 3rd position.) (30 points)
Mode change: Play your piece in the opposite mode — i.e. if it’s minor switch to major and vice-versa. (20 points)
Transposition: Play your piece in a different key. Pick a key that’s a little bit challenging for you! (30 points)
Composition: Choose an image from nature, or an emotionally meaningful object from your daily life. Create a composition that captures this experiences. (80 points)
Create harmony part: Choose a familiar song that is interesting to you. It can be a song from your repertoire, or something else. Create a harmony part on Finale Notepad (you’ll want to enter the melody first). It is easiest to create another violin part; but if you prefer cello, a simple trick is to write it in treble clef, then switch to bass clef once you’re finished. (50 points)
Jammin’ with a pro: Jazz violinist Christian Howes has a whole series of videos to teach rock styles and more. Choose one and have fun jamming out!
Basic 1—5 chord jam: Choose a familiar folk song with just I and V chords. Good choices are Mary Had a Little Lamb, Ein Vogelhochzeit (German), Skip to My Lou and Paw Paw Patch. (Each step below = 15 points.)
- Record yourself playing the song several times in a row, in A major.
- Now play the recording and find the correct bass note that goes with each beat. Your choices are A and low E (1st finger on the D string). Practice this several times.
- Find the triads (three notes arranged in skips) based on A and E. Practice these two triads until they’re easy.
- Now play the recording again. Instead of playing each bass note, play the triad that goes with it. Practice this until it’s easy.
- When you’re ready, add a rhythm challenge, e.g. sprinkling 1/8 notes here and there.
- Once you’re fluently adding rhythms to the simple triads, extend your range into higher or lower octaves.
Basic 1—4—5 chord jam: Choose a familiar folk song with just I, IV and V chords. Good choices are Twinkle Twinkle, Yankee Doodle, Button You May Wander, Kookaburra, and Momiji (Japanese). Follow the same steps as listed above. In A major the chords you’ll need are A, E and D. (Each step = 15 points)
Improv: Explore the iReal Pro app, following the steps below. (20 points)
- Open the app. Choose any song and open it.
- Click anywhere on the chord chart to reveal the settings panel.
- From here, choose a tempo and key you like, then play the song.
- When you’re ready, pause the song (click anywhere) and return to the settings panel.
- Now click the musical staff picture (bottom right).
- Highlight the music staff icon. Now play the song again. The notes in each chord now appear! Very useful once you start playing along.
- Now open “Forums” (globe icon at the bottom).
- You’ll see a list of genres. Click “Jazz,” then “Jazz Practice Exercises.”
- Download the following: Exercises (ii-V-I) by Composer Aaron Brown • Major 7 Practice • Dominant 7 Practice. These exercises are all relatively easier and will give you a good place to start.
- Now go back to “Jazz.” This time click “Jazz 1350.”
- Choose a couple of songs that have easier chords, and download them.
Simple Blues: Find “Blues, Simple” in the iRealPro songs list. Select from the activities below (they get harder as you go down the list). Feel free to do several sessions at one level before moving to the next (earn points each session).
- Play two-octave arpeggios following the chords given (30 points for your first time, then 10 points)
- Play the same arpeggios, but now twice as fast (10 points)
- Add a few 8th note rhythms, instead of doing the same steady rhythm (10 points)
- Do the same thing, but add some direction changes (e.g. mix up the order of notes slightly) (20 points)
- Now add direction changes AND some rhythmic variety. Keep it simple at first. (20 points)
- Once you’ve gotten the hang of the Simple Blues chart (e.g. in a week or two), choose another chart that seems approachable and follow the same steps.
Watch a musical. Some of the very best are listed below. Tell me your favorites and I’ll add them to the list! (20 points)
Ages 4-8:
- Sound of Music
- Mary Poppins
- The Wizard of Oz
- The Lion King
- Beauty and the Beast
- Cinderella
- An American Tail
- Frozen
- Mulan
- Peter Pan
Ages 8-14 add the following to the above list:
Ages 14+ add the following to those above:
- West Side Story
- Cats!
- Les Miserables
- Moulin Rouge
- Rent
- Sweeney Todd
- Little Shop of Horrors
- Chicago
- Hamilton (still in theatres, but listen to the soundtrack)
Here is the videos page. Points = minutes of the video (round to the nearest 5), with a maximum of 80 video points per week.
You can still get points if you watch a portion of a longer video.
Feel free to watch other videos not on the list, as long as they’re violin-related! If you find a video you especially like, share it with me (5 points).
Enjoy!!!
Daily movement helps keep you emotionally balanced as well as physically healthy. (10 points per practice).
Here’s the Yoga Videos Page with my suggestions!!
Add a 50-point bonus if you do six days in a row!
The morning pages activity comes from The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron (link). It is a way to find your purpose, discover your best self, build mental focus, find peace of mind, and respond with clarity to challenges.
Practice challenge: Do morning pages at least 5 days in a row (50 points).
“He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.” – Lao Tzu
“Morning pages become in time an Inner Mentor, listening with increasingly sage ears, granting us the wisdom we need to persevere day by day.” – Julia Cameron
“What exactly are morning pages? How and why do you do them?
The “what” is three pages of longhand writing first thing in the morning. The “why” is a little bit more complicated than that.
First of all, let us say that although you will contact a great deal of inner wisdom through the practice of morning pages, not much of what you actually write in the morning pages will, or should, strike you as wisdom. Far from it. Morning pages are about anything and everything that comes into your mind as you write. In this way they are very different from standard “journaling” in which you set a topic and try to say something meaningful, or write in response to a specific agenda.
In the morning pages, anything goes. This means they will be scattered, often trivial, frequently negative, petty, self-doubting, angry, and seemingly pointless. They are not.
All that mental debris is the clutter that comes between us and our creative potential. We often call the pages brain drain because they are designed to siphon off poisonous attitudes, the “pond scum of the mind.” Like the first dragon, we do morning pages to rise from “the Mist of Not Knowing.”
You can expect morning pages to contain everything: the flotsam and jetsam of your relationships, etc. Put it all down. Report in the pages anything you think or feel about your life, and write it as fast as you can. Some days the pages may be joyous: your hopes for your happiness; your pride in a job well done. Other days sadness will sweep through the pages as you discount your life as one long futile endeavor.
In the morning pages you are free to feel and be exactly as you are in the moment. The pages are completely accepting. To put it in psychological jargon, they are meant to be a safe place.
Do not tame your pages. Extreme emotions, judgments, and reactions are all part of what the pages help clarify and ground. On the days when life feels like a battleground, think of your pages as a field report. And as in a debriefing, put in every nagging thing that occurs to you.
Be petty. Be picky. Be silly, be joyous, be crude – whatever. Don’t look for deep thought or deep meanings. Simply record what occurs to you and keep your hand moving across the page until you have filled three pages longhand. Do not analyze them or yourself. Just write. Write fast.
RULES OF THE ROAD
Some guidelines:
1. The pages are written on three pages, one side each of 8.5 x 11 inch paper. (Small notebooks crimp our thoughts, and legal size is daunting.)
The pages are never to be shown to anyone else. They are your private place to dream, to fantasize, to complain, to exult. Keep them private.
They are not to be reread or mulled over. Write them, and move on. (Do save them. For now.)
It is three pages a day. If you write five today, it is still three tomorrow. If you write one today, it is still three tomorrow. No racing ahead or catching up. (Hint: If you hit the wall at a page and a half, use the rest for prayer, wishes and dreams, or disputing your critics or other negative voices.)
It is okay if they are half to-do lists.
….
Notice that morning pages may take time, but they will also give you time by prioritizing your day. For most of us the actual time it takes to write pages gradually decreases as we become more and more fluid.
A Warning
Even talking about doing morning pages, you may experience yourself vacillating between two poles of your personality – the Tyrant and the Rebel. The Tyrant is a perfectionistic bully who says:
“You’ll never do this every day.”
“You will never do this well.”
“This won’t work for you.”
“You never stick to anything.”
The Tyrant is an all-or-nothing character. This extremism is not in your best interests. Even doing a small percentage of what we ask will be extremely helpful.
The other voice to watch out for during this time is the Rebel, the “I don’t care what they say” voice. This voice wants to cross his or her arms and say:
“Who are these people, anyway?”
“I am doing fine just as I am.”
A master of camouflaged self-destruction, the Rebel may try to keep you from even beginning to work with this material. You may already have heard this internal voice, cynical and wary, like a petulant teenager, balking as you read. The Rebel is often guarding something – a jealousy, an insecurity, a long-held resentment, or something she should do – and is unconsciously afraid that the morning pages will bring this fact to consciousness. Watch for our Rebel to act up when your explorations get too close for comfort.
Remember these characters are at play when you are tempted not to start morning pages because you might not do them perfectly or when you are tempted to quit the process because your skeptic is saying, “If you can’t do something right, don’t do it a all.”
It is not necessary to silence, avoid, or even be distressed about the Tyrant or the Rebel – or any of your other voices. We all have them to one degree or another. Just be aware when they are speaking.
Why By Hand
Years of experience have taught us that the morning pages are best done by hand. Computers may be faster, but computers tempt us to edit, to shape our feelings into “real” writing. Morning pages are intended to show us our unedited thoughts and feelings; they are supposed to be loose, messy, disorganized, disjointed, and flighty. It is out of this deliberate chaos – a positive form of not knowing – that order will spontaneously be born.
Why Three Pages
The 3-page quota is carefully chosen. We have found that writing less than that keeps your burners on low heat. More than that turns the fire up too high and may send you into a level of introspection that makes it difficult to return to normal functioning for the day. Cook it all at a low simmer, and try to write three pages, not less and not more. If you miss a day, don’t try to catch up If you are a go-getting, don’t try to race ahead. The 3-pages-a-day quota is tried and true. Work within it.
Why in the Morning
“But my only private time is in the evening! Can’t I write them them?”
“No.” Two reasons.
First, morning pages done in the evening can only review the day you’ve already had. Because one of the primary functions of the morning pages is to consciously and unconsciously lay the track for the day ahead, evening pages are from that point of view useless.
Second, morning pages are not journaling. In traditional journal writing, topics are set and explored. Morning pages are purposely more free-form than that. The waking mind slips around rapidly from subject to subject. Morning pages tend to do the same – except we have a word trail, a kind of cognitive tracer that lingers in the subconscious mind long after we have finished the conscious writing, the ideas and problems of our lives being then sent to “cook” in the unconscious while we go about our daily routine.
To do morning pages, you need to get up early. If you already do, you’re used to it. If you don’t, the adjustment will quickly feel normal. (We have a longtime student who jokes that by the time he gets up in the morning his Critic is already awake and has smoked a cigarette and had a cup of coffee.)
Morning pages usually take from twenty to forty-five minutes at first. And everyone gets faster as he or she goes. We think the faster the better.
As you become accustomed to moving your hand freely across the page, your writing time will speed up. You will also notice a curious phenomenon: As you take the extra time in the morning, you will find yourself winning more and more frequent windows of personal time in the rest of the day. In other words, morning pages both take time and make time. They do so by prioritizing and ordering our days according to our authentic needs and agendas, needs and agendas that are often lying just outside our awareness.
….
Because the morning pages work simultaneously in the past, the present, and the future, may people find them a viable form of meditation. (This is what the academically inclined call a reflective technology.) No matter what you call them, MPs create an internal “holding environment” – what we call a sacred space – where your true thoughts, feelings, insights, and inspirations can safely emerge.
The Bottom Line
It is better to do morning pages sometimes than at at all. It is better to write some pages on the commuter train or at lunch than to go without writing; better to catch four out of seven days than to let weeks go by because you cannot do them perfectly. Even scattered and ragged, rushed, late, or incomplete, morning pages will help you. Three pages of morning pages daily will help you most of all.