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Lower Intermediate Tenor Lesson 1: Chordal Fingering

Viol Player Book 2
Chapter 4
• P32 Chordal Fingering explained: Keeping different fingers down on the same fret, either 2 and 3, to replace 2-2, 3 and 4 to replace 3-3. You can also use finger 1-2 on the same fret. Barring with 1st and 4th finger is allowed but not with 2nd or 3rd finger.
• Hand shape and chordal fingering. Keeping the wrist up (in a tunnel shape).
• P32. Pizzicato Exercises 1, 2 Try not to look at your left hand!
• No 3. Changing hand shape from chordal fingering to playing a 4th finger. Eyes closed!
• Transferring finger weight to each finger to stop the hand from clamping on the fingerboard with a bent out thumb, so the hand is flexible, supple, relaxed and strong.
• No 4. Playing the top note on chordal fingering first. Eyes closed.
• Tallis’s Canon: Spot the Chordal Fingering: it should feel wrong to play 2-2! Holding fingers down when you come back to the same finger. Although it’s not marked in the book, it should start to feel wrong when fingers come off.
• P34. Bransle de Royne:Preparing for chordal fingering in bar 2. Chordal fingering marked with a bracket so it looks like a fret.
• Placing the bow on the top string: Using breathing in and out to relax the position of your right arm when it’s so far away from your body. Keep the elbow down. Looking at the difference in hand position between barring and playing with 4 fingers down. Feeling where the weight is in each finger to avoid clamping onto the fingerboard. Bar 14 consecutive back bows and how the bow goes forward and back. Preparation for bar 16 with 3 strings to cross.
• P35 Shepherd’s Dance:How long can you hold a chordal fingering pattern? Pizzicato to make sure you have good contact with the fret. Keeping a well behaved bow especially when you play faster.
• P36 No 19 Mrs. Robertson’s Fancie: Looking at Chordal Fingering over 3 strings, then playing secure octaves by holding fingers down across the strings. Listening for fingers coming off when they shouldn’t! Try to finger notes in intervals of thirds. Practising in sections, rather than the whole piece

Lower Intermediate Tenor Lesson 2 Expressive Playing

Viol Player Book 2
• P40 Chapter 5 : Playing on the top string: Exercise 1 Memorise a few bars to check the bow. Looking at the difference between the C string and the top G string.
• P41 C major scale, two octaves: Keeping a high wrist so fingers stay down when string crossing. Looking at the ‘right place’ on the top string and how the place for the bow changes across the strings.
• C major arpeggio, two octaves: pivoting on 2nd finger on the A string. Say the notes allowed when playing them.
• La Bouron: Holding fingers down to find the next note across the viol. 14.28 Error: should say easier for the 1st finger to jump.
• P50 Forqueray: Principles of Bowing: 4th Principle – explained and demonstrated.
• Chap 5 p40 no 1: Experimenting with the use of the 2nd finger on the hair, having a heavy arm and playing loud.

• P46 Italian Ground: Working phrase by phrase: Supporting the bow hair to play quietly and phrasing off where needed. Bar 4: playing consecutive back bows and leaving the string ringing. Planning bowing so weak beats are not accented.
Three ways to apply pressure with the 2nd finger
1. From the finger pointing towards the floor
2. From the wrist in an anticlockwise direction
3. From the elbow with bones in the forearm starting to cross.
Using the skills we have learned to play more expressively with this piece.

Lower Intermediate Tenor Lesson 3: Half Position

Viol Player Book 3
• P1 Half Position: Mrs Nag Viol’s Challenge no 1. Going back a fret and adding a finger to make sense of half position. Holding fingers down when changing strings and for fingering notes so they resonate in thirds.
• Page 3 F major scale. Looking at playing E natural with 2nd finger, rather than 1st finger in 1st position. Arpeggio; Chordal fingering in half position with 3rd and 4th finger. Pizzicato and arco. Play three times and third time with eyes closed.
• Page 2 and 3. Notes on the F string: Notes on the D string
• P4: No 3 Putta Nera Ballo Furlano. Learning one hand at a time, thinking firstly about the notes and secondly playing with dynamics. Demonstrating what happens if your hand position isn’t correct and how affects string clearance. Playing loudly with bow speed and more pressure and playing quietly supporting the bow hair with less bow speed.
• P5 B flat major: keep 1st finger down on b flat, when playing the whole arpeggio. 3 times, 3rd times eyes closed.
• How to handle the bow from to arco pizzicato, in one quick movement!
• No 5 Ronde VII: Starting from bar 9 pizzicato to establish barring with 1st finger. Line 3 needs more practice as it’s faster! Playing the first line f and then p. Looking at the use of 2nd and 3rd finger for dynamics and checking on which fingers need to stay down. Looking at learning notes and then finding them an octave lower.

Lower Intermediate Treble Lesson 1: Chordal Fingering

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.

Lower Intermediate Treble Lesson 2: Forqueray’s Principles of Bowing and Dynamics (42)

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.

Lower Intermediate Treble Lesson 3: Half Position

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.

Lesson 4 Playing with a Flexible Wrist & 10 Technical Points for Bowing (44)

Viol Player Book 3
Sticky dots and their use especially for violinists, where the thumb might wander off the back.
Hand position and keeping a ‘tunnel’ for the bow to fit into. How to practice to improve your ability, focusing on the left hand, then the right hand.
F major Scale and looking at playing an E with a second finger
F major arpeggio x 3 times, with Chordal Fingering in half position.
Why bother to do scales? It helps with sight reading especially if the key signature can be remembered.
P8. More notes in half position on the D string; Playing
B flat major – The ‘three fingers scale’
B flat major arpeggio
B flat major scale with slurs.
No 3 Mrs Nag Viol’s Challenges. Measuring across Playing B flat in octaves by holding down fingers down.
Chapter 3: Playing with the bow with a flexible wrist: Demonstrating the wrist on a push and pull bow. P 12 Exercise – just the crotchets. Looking in the mirror to check bow direction. Bar 5; dotted rhythms and how to avoid confusing finger movement on the bow (jelly fish bowing) with moving wrist. Bar 10; quavers then semi-quavers.
P38 Chapter 5
10 points of bowing so technical issues can be put on autopilot allowing more complex left hand technique.
Each piece has an open string version enabling bowing technique to develop without having to think about on what string the left hand notes are on.
Pavan d’Angletere: looking at moving the wrist starting on a back bow. Supporting the hair on the tip of the third finger to keep a string ringing
No 25 Where to should I express:
Open string version, starting with a back, a crotchet worth of bow from the tip. Learning more skills with the bow: leaving the string ringing in the next beat, taking the bow off the string and replacing it at the tip on a pull bowing, and working down the bowing using Z bowing.
Chapter 2 p 15
Excerpt: Lachrimae Antiquae : Playing quavers right the tip of the bow (the delicious end!)
Playing a crescendo on a back bow. Playing diminuendos supporting the hair to play quieter.

Lesson 5 Easy Melodic Minors & Playing Elegant Dotted Rhythms (45)

Viol Player Book 3
P21 Book 3 Melodic minor scale in three easy steps.
1. Ascending: Play G major scale
2. Then play g major, but lower the 3rd note a semitone
3. Descending: Come down in the key of the lowered 3rd note; b flat major

G minor arpeggio: Chordal fingering across 3 strings.
P22 Mrs Nag Viol’s really quite simple exercise, once you know the notes!
No 1. Looking at the position of the arm on when playing the 5th string g. Push with a pronated wrist on a push bow and opening out the hand with a back bow.
No 3. Demonstrating wrist movement on semiquavers.
No 12. Goddesses Looking at identifying the key of the piece. Starting with pizzicato for first 8 bars and getting used to playing an e flat. Holding fingers down on string crossing and how it should feel right. Preparing to play with good technique before you start. Playing quavers with right hand orientation. Playing on the bottom string and looking at how the hand supports the fingers.

Chapter 5 p41
Harvest Home; Open string version. Playing elegant dotted notes. Playing away from the tip because lots of string crossing. Playing pizzicato and looking at where to hold fingers down including a barre. Bar 8 arco: rocking the bow across the strings. Add dynamics and play quicker.