Viol Player Book 2
Chapter 4
• Review of Posture and holding the viol. Whether to use a rubber cloth to help make the viol feel secure or not? Practising long bows to maintain a good tone.
• P32 Exercises 1-4 How to spot chordal fingering by recognising intervals of a 4th. Discussing how it’s easier to go from the lower note to the upper note, than it is the other way around. Starting with the upper note in chordal fingering means having to add a finger first. Giving time to consider bowing technique when learning something new in the left hand.
• Chordal fingering and hand shape with a well behaved thumb. P32.
• How to hold the bow and do Pizzicato at the same time.
• P37March starting with chordal fingering. Playing with the bow and breathing preparation to start a piece. Playing with dynamics: how to play piano support the hair on the bow with the third finger. Realising the arm weight to play loud, rather than tensing up. Finding the ‘right place’ on the string to make it ring.
Category: Lower Intermediate Treble
Viol Player Book 2
Chapter 5
• P40 G major scale 2 octaves – holding fingers down on string crossing and looking at hand position on different strings. Keeping a ‘tunnel’ in your left hand shape. Learning new muscle memory.
• P40 Cotillion: String crossing over 4 strings and leaving the string ringing. Holding fingers down and recognising when it feels wrong if you lift your fingers where you shouldn’t.
• p51 Forqueray’s principles of bowing; principle 4. Looking at how much pressure to use with the second finger and where it originates or how you feel it originates in your body. Three options:
From the 2nd finger directly
From the anticlockwise wrist rotation
From the elbow and the turning of the bones in the forearm
• P44. Ronde [28 mins.10 secs Error should say 3rd finger on the bow hair to play quietly].
• 2nd finger the loud finger and 3rd finger quiet finger. Looking at each finger having a specific role in terms of dynamics. Learning to play with dynamics and phrasing so it becomes an automatic reaction when there are no dynamics written in the music.
• An introduction to Italian Ground.
Viol Player Book 3
Chapter 1
• Half position Exercise 1 page 1 – holding fingers down. No 3 – holding 2nd finger down , No 5
• P2 Dindirin – dynamics and text
• C major scale in half position – eyes closed! C major arpeggio in half position with 3rd and 4th finger.
• P 5 Mrs Nag Viol’s Challenge no 1 – holding g and b flat down together.
• Playing dotted rhythms elegantly. P6 Notes on the e string in a compound time signature.
• Jenny Pluck Pears. Learning a piece thinking of the left and right hand separately; putting each hand on ‘auto-pilot’ to free up thinking space for the other hand. Sometimes, just play and not think – let your body absorb what you’ve learnt.