Left-hand skills are the ones generally covered in method books, so it’s likely you are already teaching most if not all of these skills in your classes. Still, left-hand technique covers a lot of ground, so it’s good to take
I’ve heard professors say on multiple occasions that students are often two years behind in right hand skills compared to left hand skills when they get to college. I don’t have any evidence to back that up, but I believe
Rhythm practice is a daily part of my orchestra classes at all levels. Rhythm is one of the most basic music concepts, yet I’ve found that it requires more practice than just about any other aspect of playing for my
You step up to your podium, facing a classroom full of students ready to start playing. You finish your tuning routine and then think “Now what?” Shouldn’t you do some sort of warmup before you jump into rehearsing the pieces?
You’ve taught all the stuff, done all the exercises, and used all the tools. You are pretty darn sure that your students know what it means to be in tune and how to play it, but your groups still can’t
Once students can accurately and consistently match pitch on their instruments, it’s time to start teaching them to tune intervals. This is where things get tricky! Matching pitch is pretty straightforward, even when matching different octaves. Tuning intervals and chords,
My master’s project was all about teaching intonation to beginning string players, and as part of that I read a lot of books and interviewed a lot of teachers about their best practices. Over and over I heard the same
The second violins missed the D sharp again. It seems like every time you hit that note, it’s out of tune. You go to the piano and play the note for them. They play it back, still out of tune.
Any intonation training needs to start with pitch matching. Until students can match unison pitches, they’ll never be able to tune their instruments, let alone play in tune as an ensemble. Pitch matching should be one of the first things