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Welcome! Hi! Welcome to our Violin Stars Study Guide! This course will help guide you through Suzuki Book 1. This course is not designed to teach you how to play the violin, it is meant to be used as a study guide for book 1 in addition to your regular lessons. If you don't already know how to play, then you need to put this course away and find a teacher or purchase our beginner violin course. You need to have the basics down before you begin
this program.
Meet Your Instructors! Kim & Christina Walters are your instructors. As of 2008, Kim (22) and Christina (18) have been playing for 5 years and teaching for 4 years. They have taught violin classes in several different schools in their community as well as private lessons. Though they are young, they both receive high praise for their teaching skills and passion for playing.
Kim
Christina
What You'll Need Okay, before you begin there are just a few things that you will need. Obviously you will need your violin and bow! But you will also need a music stand and a copy of Suzuki Book 1. If you need a copy of Book 1 you can get one in most music stores, or buy one off of our website www.violinstars.com
How to use this course Before you begin studying a certain piece I would recommend that you watch the DVD first. And go ahead and watch the entire video even if you aren't working on some of the harder pieces yet. It's good to see and hear them because it will help you learn them faster when you begin working on them. It would also be helpful for you to mark the measure numbers in your book, mine doesn't have them so I wrote them in. That way we can communicate better. For example, Lightly Row has 16 measures, so if I wanted to give you a tip for measure 10 you could quickly find it if you have it wrote in. If you don't even know what I'm talking about then you need to learn some basic theory right now! If that is so then try this link www.teoria.com And go through some of their free tutorials. Also if you don't know the names of the notes then go through your pieces and write the names above the notes. Again, the Teoria site can help you learn the note names if you need help.
If you are just beginning Book 1, then this is where you start! I like to call Variation A Huckleberry Pancake. The main tip I can give you for this piece is to always remember to stop the bow before changing strings! That means if you are on the E string, stop the bow before you move to the A string. This will also give your fingers time to find their correct places on the string as well. Whenever you go from the open E to the 3rd finger on the A string, put the other two fingers down as well. Since you will be using your 2nd finger right after the 3rd finger it makes sense to already have it down and ready to play. This is called block fingering. Stopping the bow before changing strings will give you the time you need to sort your fingers out. Christina will demonstrate Twinkle on the video with the bow stopping before she changes strings, and as the bow stops you will see her quickly place her fingers as well. This is the secret to producing a clean sounding tone. Only when you are ready, should you attempt Twinkle without the stops. If you have done your homework you will make the transition very smoothly! We call Variation B Mama Oh Mama. If you look at the notes you will see two 8th notes grouped together – an 8th note rest – then one 8th note by itself and then two more 8th notes grouped together. (Again, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you better buy yourself a beginner's theory book or check out
www.teoria.com) So the first two 8th notes represent Mama - the 8th note rest is silent – the single 8th note is where we say “Oh” and the last two that are grouped together are Mama. It is helpful to sniff during the rest. It helps you time it better. So it would go like this “Mama 'Sniff' Oh Mama 'Sniff' etc. Again remember to stop the bow between string crossings. And each note should be short and crisp. Don't use a lot of bow, and make sure you stay in the middle of your bow. Variation C we call Down Pony Up Pony. This one is fairly simple to get the hang of. You can also say Down Tiny Up Tiny If you look at the notes you will notice that each set of notes consists of an 8th note connected to two 16th notes. The 8th note represents the Down and the two 16th notes stand for Pony. You can use a little more bow on the 8th notes, but use a tiny stroke for the 16th notes. If none of this is making sense, don't worry, you'll know what I mean when you watch the video. Variation D we call 'Wish I had a motorcycle'. You will notice that the notes are grouped into sets of four 16th notes. The trick to this one is keeping your bow hand very loose and relaxed. Only use a small amount of bow. You can try playing this variation while sitting on your bed to get a bouncy feel that will help you lighten up and relax. The final Variation is Twinkle Theme. This one (though it appears easier than the rest) can be difficult to master. You need to have absolute control over your bow. Don't try to use a whole lot of bow at first. Start out with a tiny amount of bow and then gradually build up to more and more bow. It's important not to
press too hard or too lightly. Many children push too hard and strangle the strings, while adults (fearing a bad sound) often press too lightly which produces a distorted whistling tone. Try to think of the weight of your arm sinking into the string. And instead of forcing the tone out try to draw the tone out. Bowing on the violin is like petting a cat or dog, if you push too hard they might growl at you (funny, so does the violin . . . ) and if you only lightly run your hand over the top of their fur you'll just tickle them. Animals like to be stroked which means you use an even pressure, it feels good to them, and the violin likes it too.
It's always so exciting to move onto Lightly Row after mastering all of the Twinkle Variations! Lightly Row is not a difficult little tune, especially if you did your homework with Twinkle. The main thing to remember is to stop the bow between string crossings. Stop the bow after each note while you are learning. Once your fingers figure out what to do then you can take away the stops, but if at any time you start getting a distorted sound then you need to slow way down and give yourself plenty of time between each note.
Song of the Wind presents us with a couple of new challenges. The first challenge is in measure 3. See the number 1 with a long line underneath the notes? That means that they want you to hold your first finger down for that entire measure. Measure 3 begins with the 1st finger held down on the E string (the note is F#) and while the 1st finger stays down, the 3rd finger can hop over to the A string, and then it will hop back to the E string and then finally it will lift off and the 1st finger on E will play again. So the passage goes 1 -3 -3 -1 -E And the first finger stays down for the whole measure. Then we come to measure 4 where we encounter our next challenge. A quarter note rest. So use a lot of bow on the quarter note E in measure 4 and then lift your bow off of the string during the rest and land back on the string lightly near the frog. This takes practice! Try to make a circling motion when you lift your bow off of the string and then lightly land back on the string a little ways above the frog. If you land in the middle of the bow or near the tip you will get a big loud Crunch when you land! But you want to land silently so practice until you get it right. Also make sure your bow is completely stopped before you try to move it. If you try to play as your bow is landing, you'll get a distorted scratchy sound. Measure 5 is a repeat of measure 3 so you get to do it again! Remember to lift the bow when you see that rest. Always start down bow after completing the lift.
After completing Song of the Wind, Go Tell Aunt Rhody usually feels pretty simple. There is nothing complicated in this little tune so it is a good one for you to practice your bowing on. Remember to stroke the string, try to create a singing tone. This takes some experimenting so play around with it until you find the right bow pressure. You can also try some dynamics, try playing part of the tune a little softer and then build the volume back up for the ending. Be creative! And here's a tip, to play softer, move the bow closer to the fingerboard, and to play louder move the bow closer to the bridge. Again, you will need to experiment!
This one is tricky! See that V shape above the note in the 1st measure? That means 'up bow' So you will begin up bow. Until this point, we have always began with a down bow. So start in about the middle of the bow, you don't want to be down at the frog or you won't have any bow left to go up with! In measure 2 that funny little shape above the E means down bow, which makes sense since our first note was up bow. A violinist must learn to follow bowings very carefully because they can get quite
complicated at times. And if you ever play in an orchestra everyone's bow must go in the same direction. So pay very careful attention to the bowings, they are the hardest part of this tune. And do stop the bow if you need to between string crossings. It's better to go slow and do it right, then fast and sloppy.
Now on the next page we have a tonalization exercise. The point of the exercise is to give the open string a good strong pluck and then listen to the sound of the vibrating string. Then take your bow and try to produce the same full tone as you did when you plucked.
I love May Song because my birthday is in May! In May Song we make our first encounter with the dotted quarter note. There is a real good tutorial about the dotted note at www.teoria.com So if you get confused check it out. The rhythm is not that hard though, so just watch the DVD and listen to how it goes and you shouldn't have too much trouble with it.
Long Long Ago can be tricky because it introduces us to the D string and we need to use longer bow strokes for some of the notes. If you look at the 1st measure, you will play the open A note with a long down bow, then you will play the two 8th notes with tiny bow strokes and then the 2nd finger C# will be a long up bow. So this pattern just repeats over and over again for the whole tune. Long . . . Tiny . . . Long . . . Tiny . . . Long . . . Tiny . . . Long And then sometimes we have a half note which is extra long! If the D string feels difficult for you, try playing some of your more familiar tunes, like Twinkle on the D string. That will help you get more comfortable with it.
Allegro is a fun little tune. It is in the key of A Major, just like all of the other pieces that we have played. How can I tell that it is in A Major? Well there are three sharps right by the treble clef in the first measure, so that tells me that it is in A Major. The amount of sharps or flats that are shown by the treble clef is called your 'key signature' So in A major all of our F, C, and G notes are sharp. For more info on this subject you can checkout
www.teoria.com They have a lot of great information and it's all free! Now, about this piece. In the first measure you will notice that there is a dot above each note. Those are staccato dots, which means the bow needs to be stopped after each note to make a crisp sound. In measure 2 the group of four 8th notes do not have dots, so you can play those smoothly. Make sure you practice that measure slowly and carefully because those 4 little notes can be quite a handful for most students! If you find yourself having problems then take measures 1 and 2 and just slowly repeat them over and over again until your fingers relax and figure out what to do. Make a song out of just those two measures! In measure 4 you get another group of four 8th notes so do the same thing, take your time and stop the bow between each note until your fingers relax. In measure 9 you will notice the word 'dolce' Dolce means 'sweetly' so you can use more bow for the next four measures and try to create a sweet singing tone. When you get to the last measure you will see 'rit.' which means slow down. There is also a decrescendo marking underneath the rit. So that means you can get softer. You may hold the last note in that measure for as long as you want to create some suspense . . . and then lift the bow and make a big snappy entrance in measure 13! This is where the main theme returns and it is marked F which is short for Forte and means to play loud!
Perpetual Motion is is the first piece that you get to begin using your 4th finger on. You will notice that you now have two options over all of the open string notes. Look at measure 2, you will notice that there is a 0 above the E note and also a 4 above the E. So you could play the note with your open E string, but they would rather have you use your 4th finger. If you see an E note with only a 0 over it, then that means you are not expected to use your 4th finger and they would like you to use your open E string instead. Confusing I know! But whenever you see that 4 above a note, use that finger! It takes a while to build up strength in the pinkie and this piece is an excellent one to use for that. When you first begin working on this piece, you will need to stop the bow after each note and go very slowly until you are feeling pretty comfortable with it. If you run into a measure that frustrates you, then go even slower and repeat that measure several times in a row until the problem clears up. You need to be very patient with your fingers for this piece and give them plenty of time. Once you are feeling confident then you can try playing the piece using Variation B shown on the 2nd page. So instead of using 8th notes, you will be playing using all 16th notes. This will mean you need to repeat each note. Remember to keep that bouncy feeling in your wrist. And in the beginning it is good to stop the bow between each note. So in measure 1 you would play AA rest BB rest C#C# Rest C#C# so each note now gets played twice. When you get this down good then you can take out the stops and play through the whole piece smoothly using 16th notes. The key to playing fast is staying relaxed! So do not push yourself, go very slowly and gradually build up speed.
On the next page you will find some exercises for your 4th finger, a tonalization exercise and a D Major Scale. Take a look at the key signature, you will notice that there are two sharps. That is the key signature for D Major and it means that all of our F and C notes are sharp. However our G notes are not sharp, as in A Major.
Allegretto can be tricky because we are now mainly on the D string, we have to use our 4th finger, and there are even some notes on the G string! Almost every note in the piece has a staccato dot underneath it so that means that we need to use a short crisp bow stroke. Wherever you see a 4 above a note, make sure you use your 4th finger! We also have some accents, those are those little arrow looking things underneath some of the notes. That means that you can give that note a little bit of bite with your bow. So move the bow faster on the notes with accents and make sure you only use the 'bite' at the very beginning of the note, then let it fade. Toward the 2nd half of the piece we have a rit. So you can slow way down right there, as much as you like,
make it sound really dramatic! And then go back to the short crisp staccato strokes to finish the piece.
This piece is similar to Allegretto. It is in D Major as is Allegretto and we use a lot of the same notes and rhythms. However, we don't have as many staccato notes. You will notice that in measure 1 the first two 8th notes do not have a dot, so they can be played smoothly, however the quarter note following them does have a dot so it needs to be short and crisp. So we have a pattern that repeats throughout the whole piece. Two smooth 8th notes followed by a staccato quarter note. Then in measure 9 the romantic part of the piece begins. It is marked Forte and there are no staccato dots. So this means that you can use a lot of bow and really draw out the tone. Make it sing! Play with a big full tone and then . . . when you come to measure 12 where the rit. Is slow way down and get softer until your tone nearly dies away . . . but wait, there's more . . . just before you completely fade, come back in at the 'a tempo' and build up to your final ending where you can use a big rit. Begin slowing down in the measure before the last one to create a really dramatic ending.
I always find it funny that there is a piece actually named 'Etude' because advanced violinists study entire books full of etudes. And etude is usually just a technical piece used to increase your technique, they are similar to scales, only more interesting. So for you Book 1 students, here is your very first (of many) etudes! This piece is tricky because it is in G Major. I hope you practiced that G Major scale at the top of your page. Did you notice the 2's with a circle around them? That means that your 2nd finger goes right next to your first finger. It will feel a lot different, so give yourself plenty of time to get used to it. In G Major we only have one sharp so you won't have C#'s on the A string anymore, instead your 2nd finger will snuggle right next to your 1st finger to produce a C natural. The same thing happens on the E string. No more 2nd finger G#'s instead the 2nd finger tucks itself in right by the 1st finger to produce a G natural. Confusing, I know! But you'll get it. So you can study this piece the same way you did Perpetual Motion. To begin, stop the bow after every note so that you can prepare your fingers. You may find it difficult to reach with the 4th finger now that your 2nd finger is pulled back next to the 1st. Don't give up if that happens, just reach as far as you can, and bring your thumb way underneath the neck of the violin. Try not to stick your wrist out backwards, as you reach, rather bring your wrist in towards the instrument. If you need more help, ask your teacher for advice, or email me
[email protected] As a beginner I had severe
problems with the 4th finger, so much so that my own teachers were stumped as to what to do! So I have developed a lot of tricks and strategies that will help with 4th finger problems. The biggest trick to mastering this piece is remembering where all of the low 2nd finger notes are. So go through your notes and circle all of the notes that you need to use your low 2nd finger on, to help you remember. And be careful because the 2nd finger notes on the D and G strings are not low. If you have studied your G Major scale, this shouldn't be difficult.
Wow! We've made it to the Minuets. Now we're into the 'big kid' pieces! The Minuets are challenging, but so beautiful and fun to play. Minuet 1 is in G Major, so if you figured out where all of those low 2nd finger notes were in Etude, then you should pick up the fingering in Minuet 1 pretty easily. In the very first measure we encounter a new challenge. Hooked bowing. That's when we play two notes with the same bow stroke. Do you see that curved line connecting the two notes in measure 1? That line tells you to play both of those notes in the same bow stroke. Also notice the dots over the notes? Those are our staccato dots so that means we stop the bow between each note, that way you can clearly hear each note even though they both went up bow. You can practice the rhythm of the first measure on an open string. Down Up Up.
Down Up Up. Down Up Up. And that will help you get the feel of it. The same pattern happens again in measure 3. In measure 8 you will see that we have a dotted half note. That's a long note! It's worth three beats so make sure that you hold it long enough. In measure 10 we have an 'accidental note' You will notice a # sign next to the 2nd finger C. That means that for that measure only the C is sharp and so you will place your 2nd finger right next to the third. The same thing happens again in measure 12. An accidental sharp or flat can appear in a measure at any time, however it's only good for that one measure, and then the bar line will cancel it. There are a lot of tricky eighth notes in this piece, so be sure to take your time and play each set of eighth notes very slowly, stopping the bow between each note until you get the hang of it. You never want to rush yourself, and if you take the time now, you'll be playing the piece up to tempo in no time!
This piece introduces us to some more difficult string crossing and it begins in the very first measure! Before you try playing the notes, try playing the pattern of the first two measures using only open strings. So it would go like this D – A – A – E - A -E – E – D – D That way your bow can get the hang of it before you even mess with trying to teach your fingers their job! After you teach your bow what to do, go ahead and set it down and play the actual notes this time, but just pluck the strings.
That way your fingers can learn the notes without you having to think about your bow as well. Then once you know the notes, try putting the two together and play the notes using the bow. Again, go very slowly and stop the bow after each note while you're learning. Stopping the bow is the best thing you can do for yourself! About 95 percent of beginners usually ignore those directions, and as a result they end up sounding distorted and scratchy. In measure 15 we have a new rhythm – a triplet. See the three 8th notes grouped together with the number 3 underneath them? That 3 doesn't stand for a fingering, it means that that group of notes is a triplet. A triplet means that you fit three eighth notes into the length of a quarter note. Normally we can only fit two eighth notes into the length of a quarter note. So how do we get three to fit? Well each note has to be a little faster than a normal 8th note. You can find more information about this on the Teoria site. And it's actually not as complicated as it sounds. Just watch the video and you'll get the hang of the rhythm just by listening. However, another tricky thing about that triplet is all three notes are slurred together! That means you have to play all three of them on one down bow. They don't have dots so they aren't staccato, but while you're learning to slur them, pretend that there is dots and stop the bow after each note. So that you go down – down – down And when that feels easy then take the staccato away and try slurring them together in one smooth bow stroke. In measure 18 and 20 we have some more hooked bowing, but you remember how to do that. Both notes go up bow, but there is a space in between them since they have staccato dots. In measure 23 we have another triplet. So that means those three 8th notes equal one beat. Then we have another surprise in measure 23 – a high 3rd finger. See that #
sign next to the 3rd finger D? That's an accidental, so that means you have to stretch that finger a half step higher than you normally would. In measure 24 you have a 4th finger E note, so if you played your D# correctly then your 3rd finger should have been right next to the 4th finger. I hope that makes sense. If not then ask your teacher, or email me. In measure 25 there is a natural sign next to the 3rd finger D so that means that it is back to D natural which is just normal 3rd finger. In measure 29 we have two slurred quarter notes followed by a staccato quarter note. So play those two slurred notes very smoothly in one bow stroke and then make that staccato note sound very crisp. Use a heavier slower bow stroke for the two slurred notes and a lighter faster bow stroke for the staccato note. Once you get through that section you are back into familiar territory as you repeat the theme from the beginning.
This is a beautiful piece. Christina and I played this as our first solo the first year we began learning violin so this is one of our favorite pieces. It's not real tricky. It uses all of the technique that you learned in the other two minuets. There are some slurs and hooked bowings. There are also a couple of accidentals, so be aware of those. In measure 8 that little tiny note is called a grace note, which is a type of ornament that we occasionally use
in our playing. It can be played either before the beat or on the beat, but either way it will take away a tiny bit of time from the dotted half note. You'll get the hang of it when you listen to how it goes. Other than that, I don't think there is much of anything too tricky. Just practice slowly and carefully using all of the techniques that I have taught you.
This can be a tricky little tune. It has lots of hooked and slurred notes plus lots of tricky string crossing. So be prepared to spend some time on this one! I would practice a lot of it on open strings first and leave the fingers out of it. So the first three measures would go like this if I were using only open strings D – D -A- A – D – A -E -E -E – A- A- And so on. So that way I'm teaching my bow exactly what it needs to do, but I'm just using the open strings and not worrying about playing the fingered notes. Next, I would probably set the bow down and just pluck the notes while teaching my left hand how to finger all of the notes. Finally I would put the two together, but I would stop the bow between each note while I was learning. In measure 9 we have a quarter note slurred into a staccato 8th note. There's also an accent above the quarter note. So move the bow faster right at the very beginning of the quarter note so that you can hear that accent, then let it fade. Make sure you don't forget the staccato on the 8th note. Also notice the accent above the 8th note
in measure 10. So give that note a little bit more 'bite' so that it sounds different than the others.
This last piece in Book 1 is a very difficult piece. Most students work on it until they can do the best they can, and then they move onto Book 2. You may be nearly finished with Book 2 by the time you completely master this Gavotte! So don't think you have to play it perfectly, just do the best you can do and give it time, because it's a tough one. The first measure begins with staccato so play each note with short sticky bow strokes. In measure 2 there is a grace note which is played very quickly. Look at the next page for some practice exercises. In measure 7 we have an accidental on the G string. See the # sign by the C note? That means it's a high 3rd finger. They also have a 4 above the note. That means that you could also play it with a low 4th finger. If you chose to use that fingering then your 4th finger would land right next to your third finger if it were in it's normal position. So you can use either a stretched 3rd finger or a low 4th finger. It's your choice. As you advance in your playing you will learn that there are many different ways that you can finger a given note. The trick is to find the fingering that works best for that particular passage.
The dramatic part of the piece begins in the second half where it is marked 'piu cantabile' This means 'singing' So make it shine! The lines above the notes are 'tenuto' marks. This means to play the note for its full value, but to also separate it from the other notes. Sort of emphasize each note. When you get to measure 20 you run into a tricky little passage of 16th notes. You will see an exercise on the following page of your book that will help you with this passage. What you need to do in the beginning is leave out the slur and play each note separately. Also notice that in the first group of 16th notes there is a 2nd finger C# but in the second group of 16th notes the C# changes to C natural. So in the first group you have a normal 2nd finger, and then in the second group you have a low 2nd finger. This is hard enough for the brain, but then to have to slur them altogether as well?!? So take your time, and don't feel bad if you struggle with it because this is usually everyone's 'Nightmare Passage'! It is normal to still be trying to perfect that passage while you're working through Book 2. And there's nothing wrong with that. Pay attention to those hooked 8th notes in measure 21. They shouldn't give you too much trouble. In measure 24 you have another group of 16th notes to practice slurring. They aren't as hard as 'The Nightmare Passage' though so just take your time with them, and practice without the slur at first. In the next section there are more slurred 16th notes along with some staccato quarter notes that have some tricky string crossing. Just go very slowly and carefully. You have practiced string crossing in other pieces so you should be able to figure this out as well. In the final two measures you have two up bows and then to pizz. Notes. Pizz. Means to pluck with your right hand. So instead of using the bow, you pluck those two notes which
adds a special effect to the piece! Take advantage of those two up bows, they are there for a reason – they can help you get to the frog of your bow which makes it much easier to pluck the next two notes. You'll notice that there is no rest between the bowed notes and the pizz notes! So there is no time for messing around. Get to your frog and then lift your index finger off of the bow, without changing the rest of your bow hold, and use that finger to perform the pizz. It takes some practice before you can do it smoothly! At first you may end up nearly dropping your bow or plucking the wrong strings! Don't worry if you do, it's normal! After that you repeat the beginning of the piece again until you come to the word 'Fine' which means the end!
This completes our study of Suzuki Book 1! I hope you had fun working through the book! You are now ready for Book 2. If you have any questions you can email me at
[email protected] And also don't forget to check out our website www.violinstars.com For all of our latest news!
