HAT Journal #2

Summary:
            Your beginning string classes should really have a strong focus of foundational
skills like posture, hand positions, bowing skill habits, intonation, and other fairly
overlooked musicianship aspects. They recommend for beginner students to use most
of your time in their first and second year to go over those fundamental aspects as a
musician. Success is not measured by how far you are in the method book but rather
how musically they are playing and how well they play. Spend most of your time
reviewing. The book recommends that you teach left and right hand skills separately.
Once the independent activities are mastered then you may begin to teach them at the
same time. Also catering to different learning styles is a very good way to demonstrate
your mastery of concepts. Visual learners are needed to be taught just as much as
kinesthetic learners. This can be demonstrated through modeling. The book also
recommends that you go from ear to note so students or generally starting out focusing
on listening rather than just reading. They recommend for a beginner class to set up in
rows by section so that it is easier for the teacher to give individual feedback. the book
also gives out lists of things that you really should be focusing on with first and 2nd
year students and it is listed out. Improvisation is also a fairly prominent part of this
chapter. Students should really be working on improvisation. Working towards giving it
students correct instrument sizes is a very important aspect of properly outfitting a
student for success. the book also gives a lot of guidance on how to teach good
posture. The book then goes into detail about how to use pizzicato and then proper
finger placement. I know that in class we use the word hand frames for everything but
the material that is discussed in this chapter is very consistent just using different
terminology. I really appreciate that on page 60 and 61, they use pictures to show bow
holds in different ways to practice and build strength. They go into detail about how to
properly detaché on the different instruments as well as different ways to practice it.
They then begin to talk about string crossings and ways to use that as well as applying it
to hooked Bowing. Then working on aural skills is a huge factor in string playing
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 how could you properly size an instrument if you have limited funding in your
program.
 How should you go about placing and sizing students on instruments if they have
certain physical limitations that can't be solved with sizing?
 How would pizzicato work with a German bow?
 
A
 All of the figurative speech that are used in the posture teaching strategies are
very well put together
 . All of the positioning figurative speech that is used is also very clear
 I was actually unaware that there were different techniques for using pizzicato
between the instruments
 
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 the basic skills and concepts that are listed on pages 36 and 37 are good markers
of what students should be learning and pacing. I will definitely be using these
landmarks in my classrooms
 the sizing charts that are found in this chapter and sizing guides are very useful
 The step-by-step manual for cello sizing is also very useful