MUSE 355 String Pedagogy Handbook

Name: Shawn Knapp Date: 10/3/2021

Required Topics

#1 Violin and Viola Instrument Set-Up

Definition: Proper violin and viola set-up has good posture with the
feet flat on the floor. The chin rest should be placed on the jaw with
the instrument resting in a comfortable position but firm enough to
hold the instrument up with just the pressure between the jaw and
shoulder. The left hand should be placed along the top of the next
with the fingers curved so that that the tips of the fingers lay on top of
the strings. The left thumb for violin and viola lines up with the first
finger.

1. Have the students hold the violin or viola up with their hand and
use the chin as an anchor point. They can hold the instrument with
the left hand on the body of the instrument on the side of the upper
body that is further away from the students face. This will help keep
the instrument stabilized while they are holding it without having to
work about the left hand yet.
2. While holding the instruments, the students should be able to look
to their left and create a straight line between their nose, the bridge,
and the scroll. This will ensure they have a good angle and posture
while holding the instrument.
3. Have the students hold the instrument out with their left arm and
tell them it is like they are the statue of liberty. The bow is the torch,
and the instrument is the book. The book will work its way from the
outstretched arm to being rested against the upper chest and then
move it up to the shoulder. To establish a good balance and holding
both the bow and the instrument, have them pretend to hold the torch
with their right had up in the air and then holding the book with their
jaw as if they were using the torch to read their book.
4. To have the students work on the left hand attaching to the neck.
Tell the students their left hand should be holding a javelin and
getting ready to throw it. However, instead of throwing it, they
accidentally drop it and it get stuck in the ground in front of them.
(The way I imagine a person letting the javelin or stick get stuck in the
ground in front of them would create a curled shape of the hand with
the thumb meeting with the index finger). Have them pick up the
javelin and make a horizontal line that goes from the top of the
instrument to the armpit to help create a good angle and hand
position.
5.The students working on keeping the instrument up on the chin can
be told that it is like they are holding a spaceship in space and that
they need to keep the spaceship from drifting off into space so the
astronauts can return home.

#2 Cello Instrument Set-Up

Definition: The performer should be sitting in a chair on the edge of
the seat with their feet flat on the floor. The proper length for the end
pin is so that, while standing, the scroll of the cello is by the nose of
the player. While sitting, the cello should first be placed at arms-
length away, so the heel of the cello is in the center of the chest but
slightly to the left. The left hand should rest at the top of the neck with
the inside of the thumb pressed into the back of the neck and is
matched with the second finger while playing.

1. When bringing the left hand to the instrument, ensure that the left
arm is not collapsed so that the elbow is pointing at the ground. The
wrist and the arm should form a straight line away from the neck,
almost parallel to the ground.
2. Have students put their palms on their knees while the cello is
being balanced with their body. This will encourage them to not rely
on their left hand to support the instrument, as well as to relax their
posture if their shoulders tend to get hunched.
3. Ask students to pretend to hold a can of coke in their left hand.
Have them move their thumb so that is across from the second finger
if it is not already. Have them bring that hand shape to the neck of the
instrument. They should be able to feel the space created and the
curve in their fingers.
4. When students rest the instrument against their bodies, have them
hug the cello as if they were hugging a friend and rock a little bit with
it. This will give them a sense of how much they can move with the
instrument when sitting down and will encourage a gentle grip. They
should also be able to feel where the instrument can rest against their
chest.
5. Have students visualize a jack-in-the-box popping up. Students
should be able to stand up quickly and easily by holding the cello and
pushing it away from their body while standing up. This is
accomplished by the knees not gripping the instrument and the feet
being placed flat on the floor at a good distance apart from each other

#3 Double Bass Instrument Set-Up

Definition: The bass player should pull the end pin out so that the nut
of the bass is at their forehead while standing. The bass should then
be held at about an arms-length and let the side right side of the bass
rest into their body to keep good balance while playing. The left
thumb starts by being placed on the back of the neck with the pad of
the thumb angle slightly to allow for proper extension of the fingers
while playing.

1. Have students visualize that they are holding a football. The left
hand should be spread apart, and not have all the fingers placed
directly next to each other. The fingers should also be curved as if
holding something rounded.
2. Make sure the students are not holding the bass too perpendicular
or too far outward so that the position of the instrument is comfortable
and flexible. Students should have the bass at an angle so that they
will not have to lean too far when bowing techniques are established.
3. Have students wrap their arms around the bass like they are
hugging a tree, you can also have them rock back in forth with it. With
this they can feel how much they can move with the instrument, as
well as the contact points where the bass should rest on their body.
4. Teach students to establish the proper hand placement on the
neck of the instrument. Have them hold their left hand out, then
instruct them to point their index finger almost straight up while their
middle, fourth, and pinkie are all about evenly spaced apart. Have
them place this shape on their face, and they should be able to rest
their index finger on their eyebrow while their middle finger is under
their eye.
5. Students should pretend their shoulders are being controlled by a
robot, being drawn up and dropped down. This should put a physical
awareness on the height of the shoulders and encourage them to
have their shoulders down and back instead of tense and up around
their ears.
#4 Violin and Viola Bow Hold
Definition: The left hand is placed on the bottom of the bow with the
thumb hooked underneath with the back of the thumb touching the
hair. The middle two fingers are placed over the top of the stick and
the pinky is resting on top of the frog. The index finger is leaned into
the stick on the pad to create the pronation needed to put weight into
the bow.

1. Students should practice their bow hold with a pencil, wooden rod,
or some straight stick. This will allow them to establish good hand
position and technique without worry of breaking the actual bow.
2.Using a pencil or rod, have the students practice the motion of the
bowing by resting the pencil on the opposite index finger to establish
proper bowing technique and pronating.
3. Have the students learn the bow hold by having them take their
middle two fingers and make them like a rabbit with is buck teeth and
bottom tooth (the thumb). The thumb and two fingers will “bite” the
stick of the bow and use the phrase” all rabbits have buck teeth” and
push the fingers over the stick of the bow. The bunny moves and
hops on down to the frog and then goes to sleep as his ear flops over
to create the pronating index finger. The other ear rests on top to
provide the rabbit a stable place to sleep so that it creates the resting
pinky on the bow screw.
4. To make sure the students are properly having the middle and ring
finger over the frog, have them pretend they are hiding the eye of the
frog from a scary monster trying to find the eye so they must protect
it.
5.Have the students imagine that they are washing windows with the
bow so that they develop proper balance between the index finger
and the pinky.

#5 Cello and Bass (French) Bow Hold

Definition: The fingers are draped over the top of the frog and finger
pad. All fingers are relaxed and slightly curved with the third finger
near the “U” shape cutout in the bow. The thumb is curved, and the
edge of the thumb rests across from the second finger. The hand is
more perpendicular to the bow stick.
1. Make sure the students have a relaxed hand and are not clenching
the bow into a tight fist or holding it too light. It should be balanced
and held between the pivot of the thumb and the pressure of the
fingers.
2. Pretend the thumb is a seesaw and the students need to play a
game where they try to keep the seesaw balanced without it tipping
from side to side. The have them develop the proper thumb hold that
lines up with the second finger.
3. The fingers should not be resting too far over the stick and make
sure they are not making it look like they are holding it with a fist or a
claw.
4.Have the students pretend they are hanging on monkey bars and
holding themselves just barely up. This will help the students have
the proper amount of their fingers hanging over the stick with them
between or close to the first and second knuckle.
5. Have the students they are holding a hot potato and they only want
to hold it with the least amount of pressure, just enough to hold the
potato in their hands without dropping it on the ground.

#6 Détaché
Definition: The regular bowing technique that stand for separate bow
directions for each note or set of slurs.

1. The students should place the bow close to the frog and press
down onto the strings with the bow and push away and down from
their body to help create the first sounds with good pressure.
2. The students need to find an effective speed to help produce a
solid tone and make sure they are playing above the furthest opening
of the f-hole on the body of the instrument.
3. Have the students think of the motion of the bowing as them sliding
an object on a smooth table. Like pushing it out smoothly so it slides
across the table but putting enough pressure down to get it to move.
This should help create the idea of putting pressure down and
keeping the motion smooth to help create the motion shape.
4. They should try to make the shape with the box, big-v, and the
triangle to help produce the proper bow motion and fundamentals for
the basic détaché bowing. To do this have them imagine they are
holding a string and making a string move along a single line to help
create the shape.
5. Have the students imagine they are going to sling a rubber band at
something. They are going to put pressure on the bow by pronating
and thinking about stretching the rubber band and then bushing off
with the bow to help create the sound and releasing the rubber band
and moving back and forth for the individual bowings of détaché.

#7 Staccato
Definition: A bowing technique where the bow strokes are separated
and played with a bouncy bow (but bow is still on top of string). It is
notated by the staccato markings above or below the note heads.

1. The motion of the bow is stopped after every note that is under the
staccato markings. Make sure the students create space and stop the
bow completely to create a good staccato.
2. Explain to the students that there are invisible spaces and rests
between the notes so that they give a good amount of time between
each note.
3. Imagine you are skipping rocks on a pond and every time the rock
hits the pond there is a note but when the rock is in the air there is not
sound being played.
4. It is like a game of red-light green-light and have the students stop
and go with space in between so that they get the concept of
staccato.
5.Have the students imagine that they are using a faucet and they
want to interrupt the waters flow. Have them wipe their finger through
the water and stop the flow for a short period of time. That is what it is
like to play a staccato and stopping the sound of the note for a short
amount of time.

#8 Brush Stroke and Spiccato

Definition: Bow strokes that use progressively less hair on the surface
of the string and bounce the hair on and off the string.

1. To achieve this bow stroke it is very important that students are

relaxed. If the arm, wrist, or shoulder are tense, then it will be much
harder or impossible to achieve a nice bouncy stroke.
2. The goal in teaching beginning brush and spiccato is to control the
bounce of the bow against the string. Students should only have one
bounce per stroke of the bow and the motion should be controlled,
not recklessly bouncing off.
3. Imagine you are skipping rocks over a lake. As you watch the rock,
it hits the surface just slightly before soaring to the next point that it
hits, then soars again. For this bow stroke, you should imagine your
bow as the rock hitting the surface of the water, soaring off before it
bumps the water again.
4. Have students visualize holding a paintbrush and moving it against
a canvas. Emphasize the motion of the brush only lightly hitting the
surface before bouncing off and then returning in an arc to the
surface. The bow should lightly brush in a continuous almost circular
motion.
5. Ask students if they have ever bounced on a trampoline. Have
them visualize the bow as the person bouncing and the strings as the
trampoline. Every time the bow meets the strings, it should be
“bounced” away in a motion similar to how it came down. For brush
stroke this means with more space and with spiccato this means less
space.

#9 Louré
Definition: Bowing technique where notes are played in the same bow
direction but with only a little bit of separation between the notes. Also
known as slurred legato. It is notated by a series of legato markings
underneath a slur.

1. The motion should be a continuous bow stroke with only small bits
of space in between each note in the same bow stroke.
2. Make sure the students are effectively pronating and keeping a
consistent speed while they are getting close to the tip of the bow.
3.The students should imagine they are in a pool and pushing water
down to create waves in the pool. This is like Louré because it
creates a small motion of the water but not too much that it splashes
to create an almost continuous sound with light interjections.
4. The students should think about the bowing as they are gently
tapping on a table to help create small points of pressure just like in
the bowing.
5. Tell the students they are emulating a heart monitor and they are
like the pulses of the heart. The line always goes but the heartbeat
pops up as the sound stops for a short amount of time.

#10 Slurred Staccato

Definition: A bowing technique where notes are played in the same
bow direction, but the bow stops and starts each note while still going
in the same direction with more space between the notes. It is
notated by having staccato markings on notes with a slur attached.

1.Make sure to point out there still needs to be consistent and

constant motion of the bow with stopping and space between each
note in the same bow direction.
2.Make sure the bow is still going form frog to tip no matter how many
notes are in the slur.
3.Imagine you are skipping rocks on a pond and every time the rock
hits the pond there is a note but when the rock is in the air there is not
sound being played.
4. The bowing is like a sowing machine and the needling being
pressed down into the fabric is like the space between the notes, but
the sound of the thread is still continuous as it punches through the
fabric.
5. The idea of slurred staccato would be like using a computer mouse
and the click of the mouse would be like the sticky and push of the
bow as the note is separated and resounded.

#11 Retake
Definition: Lifting the bow off the string and restarting the bow position
at the frog to take a new bow. It is notated by using a breath marking.

1. A retake can be taken at any point in the bowing and can be done
as an up or down bow. However, is usually regarded as a down bow
especially for beginners.
2. The students can learn retakes by taking the pencil or rod they
used to practice holding the bow to address the motion of the retake
at carrying distances of travel from tip to frog.
3. Have the students imagine they are playing tug of war and when
they are about to be pulled over, so you must pull harder and
reestablish footing. This is like that and making sure that when you
replant your feet you start from a strong position.
4. Compare it to playing fetch with a dog. The ball will always return
to the spot the owner is standing and keep the cycle going. This is
similar to the way a retake works and should return to the spot that
the bow needs to.
5. Have the students imagine a retake is like throwing a boomerang.
They throw it out and it will go around in an ellipse and come right
back to where it was being thrown from.
#12 Hooked Bow
Definition: Playing two notes in one bow stroke where the rhythm
alternates a long notated rhythmic note and a shorter notated note.
Both notes are notated with shorter articulation markings to help
notate the space between the notes.

1. Make sure the motion of the bow comes from the pronating of the
hand and the light arm motion that is relaxed so there is no tension to
create a tightened sound.
2. Make sure the bow speed is consistent and allowing for the time to
stay the same. This can be done by working with two notes of the
same value and working towards having a difference like actual
hooked bowing.
3. Have the students imagine they are playing jump rope and every
time they jump and land, they are playing a note. The first note is
longer because it takes longer to go up and shorter amount of time to
get back down. And the cycle repeats.
4. Have students visualize tossing out a yo-yo. The motion of the toss
is slow, but the motion of pulling the yo-yo back is quick. This is best
to reference a dotted half and an eighth note hooked bow, where the
first note is held longer while the second is short.
5. The students should think about a frog jumping and how it takes
longer for the frog to load up his power and jump than to jump. Or
even about a cat waiting on his prey, when they are stalking a toy or
laser, it takes them longer to pounce than the actual action
themselves. It is like the longer portion of the hooked bow is the
patience of the cat waiting to pounce and the short note it the act of
chasing after the toy and catching it.

#13 Slur
Definition: A bowing stroke where you play more than one note in the
same bow direction. Notated by a curved line above or below the
notes.

1. Have the students play four ascending notes (A or D string

preferably) with regular bowing and then while instructing, have them
connect the first two notes on a down bow and the last two on a down
bow. Then switch so the up and down bows switch.
2. Have the students sing a scale and shadow bow the different
pitches, normal bowing first and then switches to slurred bowing with
two notes per bow and then work towards 3 and 4 notes per bow
stroke.
3. Tell the students their bow is a saw, and they are cutting a piece of
wood. Or scissors and they are cutting paper. The continuous motion
of the tool with multiple steps in between the actual full stroke of the
saw or scissors.
4. Have the student imagine their bow is like a bird flying through the
air and they have smooth motion, but every flap of the wings is a
different note.
5. The bow needs to be moving continuously as they play multiple
notes so tell them that they need to say “la la la la la” like a person
singing with one breath so that they can visualize that a person
singing is like a note and each breath the singer takes to say all of the
notes is one bow stroke.

#14 Tremolo (Bow)

Definition: A bowing or finger technique where the player either does
a rapid series of up and down bows that is noted by three beams on
the note stems. Tremolo can also be the rapid up and down pressing
of the finger on the string to quickly alternate between two pitches,
and it noted by connecting the two notes involved by three beams.

1.Students should experiment with this technique in various parts of

the bow, starting at the frog and moving to the tip. They should be
able to feel where it is the easiest to play it in comparison to where it
takes a lot more work.
2. Show the difference between a hand/wrist tremolo and an arm
tremolo, as well as where they would be used. Arm tremolos are
more common in forte sections of music and more measured tremolo.
Hand/wrist tremolo are used in more piano sections and will be used
with unmeasured tremolo.
3. Compare playing a tremolo to a shimmer of light. It can be played
gently or loudly and is there more as an effect.
4. Have students visualize leaves blowing in the wind. With large
gusts they shiver in small motions until another large gust blows
through with leaves shifting through the larger gusts of wind to match
the small notes.
5. Have students scribble with a writing utensil in a back-and-forth
motion. When doing measured tremolo, have them match a
metronome. They can feel the difference between the large tremolo’s
vs the small tremolos, faster tremolos vs slower, and the unmeasured
vs. the measured.

#15 Sul Tasto

Definition: A bowing technique of keeping the bow on the fingerboard
while playing to create a light and thin sound.

1. Students should hear the difference between playing over the

fingerboard and then over the middle of the strings with the same
bow stroke, bow speed, and part of the bow.
2. Students should also associate it with dynamics, since playing over
the fingerboard provides such a large contrast between dynamics.
3. Compare playing over to fingerboard to whispering. Have students
whisper quietly, then attempt to whisper loudly. Explain that this is like
playing over the fingerboard. By having the bow placed over the
fingerboard, even attempting to play loud, the tone will still be quiet.
4. Ask students to visualize their bows as feathers. They should be
playing over the fingerboard with a featherlight touch of the bow;
however, their bow should also still be flat – just as a feather would
lay flat against the strings.
5. Relate the bow speed to drawing lightly on thin paper with a
marker. You do not want the ink to bleed through, so you use a light
amount of pressure and fast movements to color in the sections.

#16 Sul Ponticello

Definition: A bowing technique of keeping the bow hair near the
bridge while playing to create a wispy or ethereal sound.

1. Make sure students understand the sound for sul ponticello is

going to be more on the metallic side in comparison to sul tasto. The
type of sound should not take away from the quality of the motion.
2. There should be an emphasis on the use of a flat bow and
maintaining a straight bow stroke while being so near to the bridge.
3. Compare the sound of sul ponticello to what students may have
heard before. Have them think of suspenseful music to get them in
the mood of how the sound should be like a scary movie where the
villain is about to discover the main characters hiding spot.
4. Have students imagine that their elbow is a door that is opening
and closing. Their right arm of moving their right arm is being moved
just from the elbow and wrist in straight lines to maintain the proper
placement of the bow on the strings.
5. Students should feel what it is like to go too far over the bridge
when playing sul ponticello, reference this to going over a waterfall.
Although they have been swept away by the motion of the bow, it is
possible to adjust their angle and return to the proper lane

#17 Collé
Definition: The idea of bowing with a “sticky” bow. Adding weight to
the bow to create a more distinct space and sound between the
notes.

1. The students should think about the pressure and pronating that is
takes to produce a more “glued” sound so that it can sound a tiny bit
crunchy at the start of the sound but not a distasteful crunch but a
good crunch.
2. Have the students imagine they are using duct tape and they are
placing it on a surface and taking it off. They need to use enough
force to pull the tape off the table.
3. Students should make sure they are using the correct amount of
pressure and pushing off with the correct amount of speed to produce
a solid tone instead of a crunchy sustained note rather than just a
sticky start to the note.
4. Have the students imagine they are flicking dust or crumbs off a
table. They need to be quick at flicking and have the motion be
accurate to use the motion as many times as needed.
5. Have the students imagine that they are a fly stuck on one of those
sticky fly traps and they need to escape. To do so, they would need
to move very fast with a bit of strength so it would be like using a
small amount of pressure with some speed to produce a proper collé
stroke.

#18 String Crossings

Definition: The process of bowing on one string and then moving the
bow from that one string to another within a single passage or
measure.
1. Students should be aware of their right elbow height as it moves
from string to string. The elbow is the main control center of the angle
of the bow, so the higher the elbow, the further over string it can
reach and the lower the elbow the closer the string can reach.
2. The motion of moving between the strings should be at a minimum
even with slower passages. Students should make sure to not use
excessive motion when going between strings to not bump other
strings on accident. Have them keep the motion smooth and
accurate.
3. Students should think of their bow as a person walking and the
strings as a curved bridge they are trying to get across. To make it up
and over the bridge, they would take different sized steps than they
would walking on flat ground. Connect this motion to the movement of
the elbow to reach the further away strings.
4. Ask students to demonstrate how a fish swims with their hands.
Have them show the difference between a fast-moving fish (small
hand movements) and a slow-moving fish (large hand movements).
Show them how when moving between two different string levels
slowly, the bow movement is larger, and the pattern is like how their
hands were moving. When doing fast string crossings, the motion is
smaller and takes up less space.
5. Have students visualize a rocking chair, where the bottom curved
piece gently moves between positions. They should think of the bow
hair as the bottom section of the rocking chair as it rolls between the
strings.

#19 Hand Frames

Definition: A left hand process where the hand changes shape to play
certain notes for those specific hand shapes.

1. Violin/viola hand frames include 12 3 4, 1 23 4, 1 2 34, and 1 2 3 4.

These hand frames are easily integrated into scales. It is best to start
with the most spread out hand frame and move to the most
compressed. Cello and bass should think of hand frames as a
starting point. Cellos have minor third between the first and fourth
finger. Basses have a major second between the first and fourth
finger.
2. The fingers should be curved and creating tunnels is essential for
having successful hand frames.
3. Students should think of these hand frames as blueprints that
outline where their hand should be in correspondence to the piece
being played at the moment.
4. Compare hand frames to letters. By combining letters, you can
create a word Similarly, by combining the different hand frames you
are able to play music.
5. Have the students think about the fingers and hand frames as the
rainbow and all of the colors mixed together correctly and in the right
order creates the right spectrum of colors. So all the hand frames and
fingerings correctly place will create the correct and accurate notes.

#20 Shifting
Definition: A left hand technique used to move the hand to a new
position on the finger board where the first finger (or second for bass)
anchor point with the thumb moves up and down to play higher or
lower on a specific string.

1. The motion should be smooth and continuous, not jerked from one
position to the next to maintain a good sound and not cause stress on
the wrist. The thumb should always move with the corresponding
finger.
2. Good wrist position is vital when shifting, since a collapsed wrist
would not be able to smoothly make the transition from one position
to the next. A bad wrist position would also cause the fingers to
collapse which would affect intonation.
3. Have students think about ice skating. The motion of ice skating is
always smooth and connected from one movement to the next, and
jumps are carefully prepared.
4. Students should visualize a thermometer as it increases or lowers
in temperature. Even when there is a sudden spike, it still moves in a
steady fashion to reach the indicated number. In a similar way, even
when there is a sudden jump to a higher position, the left hand should
still be moved gradually.
5. Tell students that their thumb is a well-oiled gear, and the neck is a
larger gear it is turning against. The thumb should easily move from
one position to the next and is not the most important part of the
shifting process.

#21 Tone Production

Definition: Tone production is the balance of bow speed, bow weight,
and bow placement.

1. Students should understand that sound comes from the instrument

from the vibration of the strings. This can be done both by plucking
and bowing, and different techniques with both will draw out different
quality of sounds.
2. Although there are three main variables to good tone, students
should also understand that these three variables are applied to a
variety of factors including: size of string, location of the bow relative
to bridge or
fingerboard, pitch of the note, bow angle in comparison to string, and
that the variables all correspond together.
3. Have students visualize the vibrating of the strings as a ceiling fan.
If you stop the ceiling fan, the air stops moving around the room.
Similarly, if you stop the strings from vibrating, the sound being
produced stops.
4. Make tone production a recipe that can only be complete with the
three components. Students should understand that only when all
three components: bow weight, bow speed, and bow placement, will
a good sound be produced. If you combine two and forget the third,
then a good tone will not be produced.
5. Have students visualize riding a bike. Like these tone production
standards, riding a bike has guidelines. If you balance and steer but
do not pedal, you will fall over. If you steer and pedal but do not
balance, you will fall over. If you pedal and balance but do not steer,
you will not get where you need to go. So, if you do not use all three
tone production principles, then the desired effect from playing will
not be achieve

#22 Vibrato
Definition: A left hand technique that uses the wrist or arm, and the
fingers the slide the pitch lower and higher as an ornamental gesture
in the music.
1. To begin, the vibrato motion should be wide and slow. Upper
strings should practice leaning their finger backwards and forwards in
a controlled fashion. Lower strings should focus on sliding their hand
slowly and in control from the main pitch
2. Students should understand that vibrato takes a while to develop
and can cause strain if forced in the beginning. The motions should
not be too tense or move excessively. They can practice this by
putting their instrument in guitar position and eventually on a wall to
help support the instrument without having to worry about keeping the
best grip on the instrument until properly trained.
3. Students should think of the finger that they are using to vibrate as
a single tree in a storm. The finger that is vibrating should be the only
one on the string at a time.
4. Draw a wavy line on the board and have the students think that the
sound they are trying to produce is that wavy line. The size of the
humps in the wavy line can change depending on the vibrato style
wanting to be achieved.
5. Relate the motion to driving over a few big hills and then to a
bunch of smaller hills. When driving over the big hills, the motion is
full and slow. When going over the small hills, it is almost as if driving
over speed bumps, the motion is quick and occurs at smaller
intervals.

Five Elective Topics (These must be string playing skills)

1st Elective Topic:_Wiggle String (Sympathetic Vibrations

Definition: While playing a note that could be played on an open
string, but on another string. When the note is in tune with the open
string, it will vibrate and start to “wiggle”

1. The open strings should be in tune and played well as well as the
fingered notes should be developed and properly played with the tone
being good.
2. This can help match pitch so that they develop good sense of
tuning and hearing the difference between different fingerings and
different strings compared to open ones.
3. Have them imagine they are playing music loudly and they can
hear the vibrations in the floor or in their body. This is like the string
hearing the same note being played and vibrating along with the note.
4. Compare the two strings as two dancer who like the same music.
They will move together when the same music is being played but not
when they are hearing different music.
5. The vibrations of the open string is like when you are having an
argument with someone and then one of you realizes the other is
right so you want them to be wrong but you eventually with agree and
continue working together with the person.

2nd Elective Topic: Bowing in triple meter__________________

Definition: When bowing in triple meter, the bow directions can
change every down beat and alternate down bow to up bow on the
down beats (and vice versa).

1. The bowings should be alternating and have the students work

slowly at first so they can work their way up to faster three and more
patterns.
2. The students should work on playing different bowings around
different lengths of beats instead of the same lengths.
3. They can imagine that the bowings are different steps in a dance
and the different ways a person can move but still to the same music.
4. This could also be compared to skipping a rock because there are
different rocks that can be thrown the same but have different results.
So, the different bow directions should create the same sound but
may not go the same direction each time.
5. The bow directions should be related to the wind because the
direction of the wind can change at any point in time but the wind will
still blow over a sign if it is strong enough.

3rd Elective Topic: String Tuning___________________

Definition: Tuning the A string and then working in 5 ths for viola and
violin, and harmonics in the cello and bass. For harmonics, the cellos
alternate splitting the string in half and in fourths with the first and
third finger respectively. All while the bass tunes finding the
harmonics using third position using alternating the fourth finger and
first finger for adjacent strings.

1. Tuning should be matched first to allow for each individual string to

be tuned and then work towards working in fifths and then in
harmonics.
2. The harmonics should be taught with the correct hand frames and
making sure they can shift and find the proper positions for each
finger.
3. Tuning is similar to finding the food you want to eat in a day. It may
not be the same every day but you will find something you like and
that you and your stomach can agree on.
4. The vibrations of matching pitch will sound like an agreement and
then agreement on something. Matching with the different tones will
allow for less time to come to an agreement on the fighting pitches.
5. The pitch matching is also like two different waves crashing into
each other and eventually they will match and wave together through
the water.

4th Elective Topic: Improvisation__________________

Definition: The skill of making up some form of musical idea, melody,
rhythm on the spot.

1. Using open string improvisation and having the students play

different rhythms and dynamics while playing on the open strings
only.
2. Have the students only use the first three or four notes of a scale
and have them improvise over different chords.
3. Have the students listen to some music (simple or complex) and
have them imagine what the music makes them imagine (a place, an
animal, a person). When the students have done that have them play
improvise whatever they want based on the thing they imagined.
4. Tell the students that they are on a busy street in the middle of a
big city. Have them describe sounds they might hear on the street
and what kind of musical things could be happening. Car horns,
buskers, street performers or whatever and have them come up with
a melody based on the city scape they imagine.
5. Put the students into small groups and tell them they are different
emotions, angry, happy, sad, etc. Then have the groups of students
come up with a four-measure musical passage (could be abstract or
rhythmic or whatever) and have them perform that for each other to
see if the other students can guess what emotion they are based on
the music they improvised.

5th Elective Topic: String Dynamics___________________

Definition: The different dynamics require different amounts of bow
speed, weight, and pow placement (same as tone). The louder the
dynamic the faster the bow, more weight onto the bow, and the closer
the bridge the bow should get. The softer dynamics have slower bow
speeds, less weight, and move farther away from the bridge.
1. Dynamics should be discussed in terms of the bow speed and
weight so that they can understand and experience the different
physical movements that come along with different dynamics.
2. Different dynamics should be approached differently and
expressed differently. Make sure the students have the proper
balance to the different dynamics so they can learn about blending
and keeping the sound consistent.
3. Dynamics are like emotions and require a specific balance of
feelings to produce the desired outcome of those emotions.
4. Have the students imagine they are using a sink and the more
amount of either of the faucets will produce either hotter or colder
water. So, the more speed and weight they use they louder the
dynamic and vice versa.
5. Have the students imagine they are going to exercise. If they
wanted to run, they would need to breath and move in a balanced
way so that they could go farther for longer but if they were breathing
too heavily, they would get more tired quicker. So, they would need to
relate that to the fact that if they had too much speed but not enough
weight in the bow, the sound would be too quiet and not have enough
tone.