Tips for Practicing

The most basic tip is to take good care of your instrument- this includes wiping down the strings and loosening the bow after practice. I am always surprised at how many students forget to do this after years of study- so it still needs to be said! The other big issue is when the violin is resting in its case somewhere, make sure that the bridge side is facing up or to the side. Unfortunately, a lot of parents will pack the violin case in the car upside down. This position is not good for the bridge. The bridge is the most fragile part of the violin, thus you never want the weight of the violin itself resting on it. Also leaving the violin in the car during hot and cold weather is damaging for the wood of the violin. Just bring it with you, if you are going to a doctor’s appointment or the store.

About the bridge- its best position is perpendicular to the wood of the violin so that the bridge is straight up and straight across. This position allows the string length from the entire fingerboard to the bridge to be equal across the 4 strings which allows you to more easily play in tune. Taking care of the bridge is a bit more advanced than the other factors mentioned above. You can adjust it ever so slightly with your own fingers if you see that it is out of alignment. Bridges will get warped if you neglect them and replacing them can be time-consuming and costly since you will need to take it to the shop for this repair. It cannot be done at home by yourself, like changing strings. Taking care of your violin in these ways will keep it sounding good and save you money.

About practice: There are different goals depending on your mastery of the violin at any point. I’m going to outline some tips for beginners and intermediate players here.

For the absolute beginner, the most important hurdle is getting into a habit of practicing everyday. You want to establish a routine of picking up the instrument at some point during the day. Practicing is a habit, and like all habits, they take effort in the beginning and then before you know it, it’s a part of your life. You know it’s a part of your life when you don’t have emotional reactions or resistance to practicing. You just do it.

After the daily habit has been established, the next big concept is for students to practice the more challenging parts extra times. The majority of early students practice a piece from the beginning to the end a few times and call it a day. What result do you get with this kind of practice? The beginning is excellent and then there will be some funky-sounding parts in the middle or the end. And the piece sounds the same…week after week. And you must have very kind neighbors if you don’t hear anything from them. Nothing in the quality of playing will change unless those spots are worked out with extra practice. It is a big step when students take the initiative to do this, because it means they can hear the discrepancy and care enough to work on something that is hard.

To fix a passage that isn’t smooth, it takes some analysis of why it isn’t working, creativity to try different things, and some maturity to stick with it even if it doesn’t miraculously sound better after two tries. The more advanced you get, the quicker you get at diagnosing and finding a cure for the musical issue. Lessons are one place where you can get immediate answers for your tricky spots, but if you can figure out as much as you can before your lesson, you will advance even quicker. Here are some ways that an intermediate player can work out a tricky violin passage:

1. Work on it with hands separately. This means playing it pizzicato to get the rhythm and intonation right. Then work on it with just the bow, on open strings. So you would read through the passage and play the ‘note’ but without the left hand, so you are only playing open G, D, A, and E strings. This can help figure out the down and up bows, where you should be in the bow, as well as string crossings. And you can hear whether your basic bowing has a nice tone or is scratchy. Pianists practice hands separately all the time; it’s a good idea for violinists to do so also.

2. Check for correct rhythm: Rests throw people off. Especially eighth rests. After hearing thousands of skipped rests, I’ve concluded it’s a mentality that’s steeped in our culture, that we have to ‘do’ something all the time. Additionally, most students aren’t trained in rests from the beginning. This makes many students disregard rests and just skip to the next part with ‘notes’. However, rests are like a beautiful frame for the melody, like the negative space on a painting. It gives context to the actual notes, highlighting their importance after silence. In order to not get thrown off by rests, it’s a good idea to put the violin in your lap, count out loud the beats (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and) and simultaneously clap on the notes that you would play, and still count out loud the beat on the rest (you’re just not clapping). You’ll also learn your rhythm deeper if you practice this way with the metronome. The fastest way to improve your basic rhythm is away from the violin. This is really helpful for understanding orchestra pieces, especially for youth symphony seating auditions.

3. Correct Notes: Around Suzuki Book 4, just playing the correct notes become a major issue since the pieces are in higher positions and in minor keys. It’s a great idea to practice those higher-position passages in 1st position instead where you are confident of where all the flat/sharp notes are. Then once the melody is in your ear, play it in the higher position. You can also transpose them one octave down to hear the correct pitches. Another option is to play it on the piano if you have one.

4. Practice similar passages together: You might have noticed that music repeats. A melody often appears many times in a piece, sometimes in a different key. Practicing similar passages is efficient practice because your brain will process the similarities and you will build confidence when you realize you’ve already played it before. So many times I have seen a student nail a passage in the beginning and then totally flounder when it comes up a few lines later- often it’s due to a visual thing- somehow the passage looks different because it’s split up over a couple lines (like a hyphenated word) or it’s right next to a repeat- so it’s a matter of training the eye to read the music, not the passage itself. Or…there are some rests before the similar passage, ha! Anyways, there will be no need to reinvent the wheel all the time if you practice similar passages back to back.

5. Release Tension: Another important factor when learning a passage is to check how relaxed your body is when performing the action. An action is completely learned when the mind can stay with the motion all the way through and your body is alert but relaxed. In this state of awareness, you can enjoy the music more and it will have a bigger emotional impact on your audience. If you are still tense while playing the passage, most likely it won’t go the way you ‘practiced’ during a performance. The tension that wasn’t worked through during practice will magnify under the pressure of a performance. And then you will be confused as to why it didn’t work out. But the truth is, if you cannot play a passage cleanly every time, you’re still trying to wing it, basically hoping it’s going to sound decent because you don’t know all the physical motions of executing it. It does takes a lot of technical understanding to figure out all the components of a tricky passage- (what the notes are, how your left hand is balanced, how much bow pressure, the speed of the bow, when to release a shift, the intervals involved in a shift, the speed of vibrato and how that affects the bow, the tiny adjustment of the bow during a big shift, string crossings.. the list goes on and on). When we don’t understand something entirely, we will start squeezing various small and big muscle groups. However, the biggest culprits of physical tension are the neck, the shoulders, the thumb and first finger on the left hand, and the thumb on the bow. If you can constantly check that those body parts are released, then that is an advantageous step for figuring out the rest of the passage.

6. Building Technique:

   With scales and etudes, you can get the most out of your practice by doing bowing and rhythmic variations. Since you’ve learned the left hand pattern, why not train your right hand further with it? One key component of mastery is to do something harder than what is required so that the original becomes relatively ‘easy’ . The added benefit of practicing this way is that it fuels your creativity. You want to be able to think outside the box with your practicing- this leads to you becoming a more curious, interesting musician. Because you are used to thinking of the music as more than what’s simply on the page, you will train your interpretative mind also.

   To illustrate this point, here is Aya playing the first two lines of Wohlfart op. 45 no. 1 in a few different variations:

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Variation 1:

The bowing is slurring 2 notes, half bow per note so the whole bow is used.

Variation 2:

The bowing is slurred staccato, 4 notes to a bow, each getting 1/4 of bow.

Variation 3:

The bowing is 2 groups of 2 notes slurred (1/4 bow for each note)

Variation 4:

Starting up bow, 4 notes are slurred in a bow, 1/4 bow for each note.

It is SO helpful to take an etude like this (and scales) and practice them starting up bow. You will know the left hand 100% if you practice the bowing with the opposite direction. And there are so many more variations you can use- for instance, you could play this etude using only the bottom quarter bow- that will really train your bow changes at the frog.

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And finally,

7. Maintaining Basics: No matter what level you are, playing clean open strings is a good way to work on your absolute basics of tone production. Here Aya is playing Sol Re Sol with pizzicato (this checks the left hand/arm/neck/violin position) and then with bow to practice string crossings and contact point of the bow.

We endeavor to learn an instrument because ultimately we want to have fun playing it. Being able to play a piece or improvise to the best of your ability requires that you maintain and expand your basic technique, and work extra on the new or tricky concepts. And know that this is a process, that not everything is meant to be understood right away, but you will master it eventually and then you will be onto the next new challenge.

What can happen in 3 years? Besides a pandemic?

Hello, it’s been over 3 years since my last post…yikes!

Not to make any excuses, but in the last 3 years we have moved houses twice.

My oldest child Gabe had his orchestral debut playing Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D with the Symphonieorchester Bergisch Gladbach orchestra in Germany in 2018 at age 9! That was exciting and a big trip!

Gabe at a sound check in this beautiful German church, 2018

And…

I HAD ANOTHER BABY!

The new daughter is now 2 years old. Going from four to five children has taken more of my time and energy than I thought, hence my absence posting on this website.

However, my children haven’t stopped practicing, I haven’t stopped teaching violin and piano, and I also started a recorder program at my children’s Montessori school!

This blog followed Rafi, my second son, and he is quite advanced on the violin now. Additionally, my 3rd child, my daughter Aya has also started violin. And Nate, my 4th child, is playing piano. The plan was for him to start cello this year at age 5 but the coronavirus pandemic has pushed that back a bit, so lots of piano instead for Nate.

As I write this in August 2020, my family has settled into a stay-at-home routine. The children have been practicing during the morning and late afternoon for several months now since school shut down. For a while it was difficult to hear someone practicing some instrument all day (since now there are 6 musicians + a 2-year-old in the house pretty much all the time) but now we have a more regular household sonic schedule and my ears have adjusted. We also have an outdoor studio where my husband and I take turns using, so that is immensely helpful.

Some adjustments I have made to stay more happy and musically productive during this quarantine period:

1. Putting more focus into musical analysis with my children- looking at the music’s scale structures, spending more time seeing where phrases repeat, where the end is, and helping them figure out why the music requires more dramatic contrasts at a one measure more than another measure. This way I hear more interesting and vibrant music making in the house, as opposed to practicing that is mindless and just sounds the same all the time.

2. Nudging my private students whom I see on FaceTime to be more aware and responsible in their practicing. Because without recitals to prepare for, orchestra rehearsals, in-person lessons, and outside motivators, it is really hard for kids to keep practicing. For anyone. The main thing that can inspire you in this pandemic time is your own progress, however small. The only way to improve daily is to become your own teacher. So I have shifted my focus more for my students to pay more attention during their daily practice.

It also became imperative after initial lockdown to get rid of excess objects in our house. I’m rather a minimalist in my possessions, but I was able to raise the bar for deciding what was clutter. Toys that were played with not that much have left the house, and I either finished or completely cut unfinished projects. The mental energy that unfinished projects took up in my psyche could no longer compete with having all my children home everyday. Also, I delegated more housework to the children since it really does add up when we are all together. It’s good for them to understand just how much work it is to maintain a house and be considerate of everyone’s space. For instance, now that they have to fix our futon couch that slides down when jumped on, they jump on it way less and don’t mess it up anymore.

Making of an Artist: Rafi #7

Filmed February 7, 2017: Long Long Ago, Ode to Joy

After the upper half of the bow becomes manageable, it is time to learn how to play in the lower half of the bow. Playing in the lower half is much more cumbersome than the upper half because the bow itself is much heavier due to the hardware of the frog. Additionally, the technique for playing in the lower half requires engaging the complete opposite set of arm and hand muscles than is used for the upper half. In the lower half, it is mainly the upper arm that moves the bow (instead of the forearm), and the pinky and ring finger balance the bow. So in order to play from the frog to the tip of the bow, an energy transfer occurs from the upper arm and little fingers through to the forearm and big fingers and then the process is reversed back going from the tip to the frog. This must happen on every bow stroke to produce a beautiful tone. This transfer takes an extraordinary kinesthetic quickness and awareness and can take years to perfect. Without the transfer of energy, the sound will be tight in the lower half. So a lot of young students avoid playing near the frog because it's uncomfortable and they haven't quite got the hang of balancing the bow with the pinky. You can see on this video that Rafi's fingers on the bow during Long Long Ago go out of position. This must be frequently guided back to a more comfortable bow hold.

What's also new is we switch to the advanced bow hold in order to use the lower half of the bow. So now Rafi's thumb is on the stick of the bow, not the metal piece under the frog (beginner bow hold).

Ode to Joy is one of Rafi's favorite songs and we enjoy very much playing a violin duet!

Making of an Artist: Rafi #6

Filmed 1.5.2017

Rafi is learning Perpetual Motion here, which is a landmark in Suzuki Book 1- once students can play this song fluently, I introduce note-reading. I have yet to meet a violin student who does not like this piece- it goes fast, has a hypnotic quality to it, and just feels "violinistic". The fingers keep busy in a way that you feel quite accomplished playing it. If you can play this piece at a good tempo with the bow and basically in tune, it means a major hurdle has been crossed- the young student has got the hang of the basic coordination of the right and left hands.

Learning to read music comes rather quickly at this point since the student doesn't have to focus so hard on the technique of creating beautiful notes. The ear has been trained to listen so adding a visual demand of note-reading does not tamper with the attention needed to listen to what's actually being played.

This sequence of some physical violin mastery and then reading contrasts with the way I was taught- many years ago I was taught to read from the beginning, and it took a long time for me to change some unhealthy technique I formed as I just stared at the music. I also could not hear my faulty intonation. Your first impression is formative- and for me much of my attention was focused on the music sheet, not necessarily on what was coming out of my violin! 

Rafi and I are reviewing some earlier songs with piano accompaniment. Review is always a good idea and can be more enjoyable after the hard work required to learn new songs. 

Rafi Candid

Sometimes our violin practice doesn't occur at our usual time due to a small detail called life, and we end up just playing through our pieces right before bedtime. It is nice to vary the practice routine this way. As a parent it would be much easier to do this all the time...but then he wouldn't progress.

Here is a slightly wired Rafi playing amongst sleepy siblings. 

Making of an Artist: Rafi #5

New Violin!

Filmed 10.24.2016

Rafi has turned 5 years old and now has moved up to a 1/10 size violin! This means everything is a little bit bigger, requiring an adjustment of the left finger spacings. The bow is also going to be a little further out than on his 1/16 violin. 

The adjustment necessary to play in tune is evident while Rafi is playing A major and D major scale. It takes a little bit of time but you just train the hand to follow the ear. 

He has also started Go Tell Aunt Rhody, which is the fourth song in the Suzuki book. 

At the time of this video he hadn’t quite learned the middle part of the song. The two phrases, do do-re mi mi fa fa mi-re do; do do-re mi mi fa fa mi are very similar and thus can be a bit confusing. It is best to try to fix a problem with a student when it happens (much like when disciplining a child, it’s best to do it when the misbehavior has occurred, not hours or days later). If I keep letting Rafi play Go Tell Aunt Rhody incorrectly, it sends him mixed messages and will be more difficult to change later. To get him to learn the music, it’s important to remember that everything we do is a direction from the brain- the fingers move because of the mental concept of how a song sounds. Thus when you are learning something or fixing something, you are changing your mind’s concept of the song. In my teaching experience trying to play it over and over usually does not work- instead you have an exhausted and frustrated student. A more direct approach is to simplify the problem- here it is not that Rafi doesn’t know how to play the notes but that he’s got the notes in the wrong order. So the most efficient way to learn the correct notes of a song is to sing it without the distraction of the violin. And solfege is the best way. In my earliest teaching days, I used to have my students sing C# C# D E E F# F# E D C#. It was a mouthful and not appealing. Switching to solfege has saved so much time and is a much more musical, pleasant experience. 

La La Sh Sh is a foundation song that is a big part of the early learning stages. It may seem simple, but to play it beautifully takes a lot of knowledge and concentration. This is still practiced everyday because it is a great warm-up and reinforces a respect for the basics.

The new bow song, See Saw is the first song that combines the bow with left hand- we add one finger, si, and this is a big step!

At the end of the video Rafi is letting the bow bounce- this is very fun to do and helps keep the bow fingers loose in the early stages. It is never too early to practice spiccato as well!

Making of an Artist: Rafi #4

Rafi has added the following songs to his repertoire: Jingle Bells, A major scale with arpeggio, Happy Birthday, and Lightly Row (the second song of the Suzuki Book 1). He is able to use all four left hand fingers now with a lot of control. Happy Birthday and Lightly Row are still new, so it is easiest for him to learn the songs while I help place the fingers. Whenever I place the fingers, I also make sure his fingers are curled and relaxed.

For bowing, Rafi is still working on La La Sh Sh, starting down bow (middle) and up bow (from the tip). He has learned to keep his fingers more  relaxed on the bow. While he is playing I am constantly checking that all limbs are moving efficiently. That includes raising his left arm if it has drooped down. I am adjusting the position of the violin this way. 

Also I am keeping my hand on his right shoulder to make sure it doesn’t go up during the bow stroke. A shoulder that goes up creates physical tension and an unpleasant sound; thus it is to be avoided at all times. 

With my other hand I am also supporting his right elbow. Here I am making sure his elbow is at the same level as the bow and that the entire bow arm adjusts to the different heights necessary for the La and Mi strings. Basically, you want your shoulder to be down and your elbow to be up!

Additionally, Rafi is simply resting his right arm on my hand, allowing the weight of the arm to rest in my hand. Using the arm weight of the right arm is essential for beautiful sound production. It takes a while to get the feeling of letting the arm be heavy while suspended in space instead of letting it flop down completely. It is super helpful to have someone hold your arm while practicing bowing to get the feeling of this (I wish I had learned like that when I was younger!). In the production of a beautiful violin tone, there is a lot that can be seen with the eye (such as seeing the bow touch the strings with the correct angles) as well as ones that cannot be seen, such as the weight of the arm that is released into the string.

Since Rafi is getting better at La La Sh Sh, the next step is adding the rhythm and bowing patterns to his practice. The “I like chocolate ice cream,” “Grasshopper,” “Mississippi is a river,” and “strawberry, blueberry, pineapple” tapping rhythms (see video 1) are now played with combinations of quarter and half bows. These bowing patterns will be used in the future to play the first song in Suzuki book 1, the Twinkle Variations.

Making of an Artist: Rafi #3

In this video Rafi is plays Eggs, Sol Re Sol, Saita, and the entire Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star all by himself. He is now able to use his left third finger (ring) for Twinkle independently. He has improved so much on all these songs since the first blog post. The comfort and confidence is very different now when he plays the violin. We have gotten to this point by practicing all his songs three times each day. In the last few weeks we practiced every day except two. 

A delightful part of his musical development right now is his ear's ability to listen for intonation. At 1:24 Rafi fixes his C# in Saita, lowering the note the second time because the first time was too sharp. Again at 1:50 he fixes the F# in Twinkle, also lowering the second F# of the phrase (The F#s fall on the word "lit-tle" in the lyrics "Twinkle, twinkle, little star"). 

In my teaching once the left third finger is mobile (ring finger), I introduce Old MacDonald had a Farm to incorporate the fourth finger (pinky finger). Naturally this finger is going to need extra help at first. But it is so important to get all the left hand fingers working as a team sooner rather than later- physically and psychologically, as I have met many young violinists who have a mental block when it comes to using their fourth (pinky) finger. 

Around 2:50 in the video Rafi is talking about the notes sounding "weird". Once again, he is talking about the intonation not being correct.

We move on to the bow, where now during La La Sh Sh Rafi and I take turns. In blog post #2 I moved the bow for the entire song, so here also is big improvement due to consistent practice. Making a full sound with the bow is still tricky, however, and Rafi is at times too loose with the bow, getting a soft, thin sound (at 5:50). The key to getting a nice tone (making the string vibrate well) is to be able to feel the the interplay of the bow with the resistance of the string. Thus, it feels like pulling the bow against the string on the down bow, and pushing the bow into the string on the up bow (up bow here is Rafi starting at the tip and ending in the middle of the bow). Controlling the string vibration this way is easier when the bow starts from a good contact with the string. Thus I am emphasizing stopping the bow at the end of each stroke so that the next 'start' of the bow is a good one. 

The bow doesn't move well either when the right fingers are gripping it too tightly - at 3:55 when I notice that Rafi's last bow stroke had a scratchy edge to it, I know that he is squeezing his thumb and fingers. So I ask him to tap the first finger on the bow - this usually releases any extra tension on the bow so that he can reset the fingers and start with a clean plate for the next notes. 

This lesson is split into two videos because the cameraman inadvertently stopped the recording, then was able to resume recording (about 3 seconds pass between the videos). So here Rafi and I finish working on La La Sh Sh for the day - you can see that Rafi has better control stopping and starting the bow here.

Performance: Rafi

With the coming school year, there is a flurry of sign-ups for after-school activities. Three of my private students auditioned for the local youth symphony that begins rehearsing in September. In preparation for the audition, I organized a mini-recital for the students to play their scales, solo piece, and orchestral excerpts. I really enjoy this kind of audition-prep recital partly because it is so great to hear students perform scales. This experience elevates the scale beyond a tool of music theory and technique- we work on every element of making the scale sound beautiful. 

Besides the more advanced symphony students, this recital also featured three beginners on their pizzicato songs. Here is a video of Rafi performing Mary Had a Little Lamb- a big step forward since the earlier blog post where I first helped him put his fingers on the correct notes with this song!

Making of an Artist: Rafi # 2

After some comfort level is reached playing Eggs and Sol Re Sol, it is a good idea to introduce the bow. I have put tapes on Rafi's bow (the wooden part) marking the halfway point as well as each quarter point. He also has a pinky house, the most fantastic teaching tool, at the bottom of the bow for his right pinky (you can see it prominently around 1:10 in the video above). In my previous blog post I mentioned the importance of training the left pinky for a great left hand technique- likewise, keeping the pinky on the bow hand flexible is equally valuable. Human beings are mainly creatures of habit after all, and if you can start your bowing experience with a supple pinky that can bend and not lock, well, you are light-years ahead in the mastery of violin. The pinky house does just that, putting you in a perfect bow-hand position!

In the video Rafi and I start off with some bow exercises apart from the violin. The exercises here (Stir the Soup, TV Antenna, Unicorn, Pinocchio, Butterfly, Wind-Shield Wipers) cover the big muscle movements required in bowing as well as some fine finger movements and are fun to do. We also "bow" some rhythm patterns using a tape roll. This is a brilliant way of practicing the arm movements in a bow stroke because the tape roll keeps the bow moving up and down in the same spot- this motion of keeping the bow in the same angle is crucial for a beautiful tone on the violin. You might also notice that throughout this video I am adjusting Rafi's fingers on the bow- I am checking that his fingers are naturally relaxed on the bow, especially the thumb. One way I can do that is by having him tap the fingers on the bow (shakes out any tension). It is human instinct to grip something (ever notice how babies have such a mighty grip?) so balancing the bow with the right amount of flexibility and strength is a learned behavior that requires constant reminding.

In the beginning it is best to learn to use the upper half of the bow, as it is much easier to manipulate than the lower half. Already there is a lot going on- balancing the violin on the collarbone, balancing the fingers on the bow, and then putting the two together! Rafi is doing silent string-crossings, where he rolls the bow from string to string using the arm like a lever. Then I help him play La La Sh Sh. By moving the bow for him, he gets to hear a nice violin tone and to get a kinesthetic feel of how the bow moves when the bow is making a clear tone. As I mentioned above, we are creatures of habit and by hearing a better sound with the help of a teacher or a parent moving the bow for the student, the student will be able to produce a beautiful tone much sooner (in my early violin study I just moved the bow however which way, completely oblivious to the tone quality- this took years to correct).

It is important to spend many weeks going over the bow exercises and to be able to play La La Sh Sh with fluency. It takes time for the body to get used to these movements, but it is one of those instances where 'you spend time to save time'. In the long term of violin playing you save a lot of time by learning to use the upper half of the bow really well now. 

Making of an Artist: Rafi #1

Here Rafi and I are going over the first steps of learning to play the violin. The most important step is being grounded in your body from the feet up. We find our balance by putting our feet together and then taking a step so that they are shoulder-width apart. Feet apart are better than feet together- if you think about it, when you throw a ball or get ready to hit a tennis ball, you automatically connect your feet to the ground apart, never feet together!

The first songs to learn, Eggs and Sol Re Sol, use the left hand pinky finger. By using the smallest finger from the beginning, we train it well and this leads to a beautiful left hand position. All too commonly, violinists are not taught to use their pinky finger until months into their study (this happened with me when I was a child) which creates many difficulties learning more advanced songs and negatively affects intonation, shifts, and anything regarding left hand technique! However, by teaching Eggs and Sol Re Sol, my experience has been that students have an excellent start to a great left hand. Additionally, these songs are simple enough that at the end of the first lesson they can engage in chamber music (here, playing with piano accompaniment). By playing with another person, you learn to listen and feel rhythm very naturally. A powerful aspect of music is the act of sharing, and it is utterly enjoyable to make music this way from the beginning.  

Next Rafi is also playing some songs with pizzicato (Italian musical term for plucking the strings). They include Saita, a Japanese melody, the beginning of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Mary Had a Little Lamb. Currently Rafi feels comfortable playing the Twinkle by himself, and in the other songs he prefers that I place his left hand fingers. By helping him, I can make sure that his hand stays supple instead of squeezing too hard. In time he will be able to pizzicato all these songs and will not want my help at all.

We will do a video using the bow next time!