Stand Hand

Rather than telling my violin and viola students what not to do (like don't play with "pizza hand"), I have taken to asking for positive actions. I ask my students to look at their left palm while they are playing. This causes the wrist to drop and the arm to go under the instrument, which, in turn, causes the fingers to drop from above and the notes to sound in tune.

I made some hand-shaped stickers that I thought I could stick in my students' music in order to give them an easy visual reminder to look at their palms while playing. During my last lesson I decided to affix one of the stickers to my music stand. It didn't stay in place, so I stuck it onto an index card, which I clipped to the music stand.

It's my stand hand.



In this capacity it is useful for all occasions. It can be clipped to the stand itself or to a piece of music that is on a music stand.

I'm giving the stickers I made to all my violin and viola students! And I'm sharing the idea here.

You can find a PDF to print on sheets of sticker paper here!

(And for an updated version with clefs, go here.)

Scalemate

We all need to practice our scales, but there are just so many to choose from. Like the clothes in our wardrobe, most of us tend to go back to the same scales day after day, ignoring the ones that are problematic. We also tend to begin our scales on the tonic, a practice that sends some of us into "automatic" mode: playing scales by ear. I can do this kind of scale playing in my sleep, which means that I get little out of it besides a bit of finger exercise.

Several years ago I came up with a game that I hoped would make practicing scales both fun and intellectually challenging. I just found the board part of it, and thought I'd share it here. The green spinner comes from some kind of board game, and the spinner on the right is a old-fashioned paper fastener. The round spinning wheels are either old CDs or pieces of cardboard shaped exactly like CDs.

The directions call for companion articulation cards. They can be made from index cards. Mine had rhythmic patterns with different configurations of slurs and separate notes, and were written in various meters.

There are, of course, many possible variations on this theme. You could add more spinners for dynamics, double-stop intervals, or type of articulation (detache, martele, etc. for string players). You could also have something to generate a metronome marking, or you could go beyond the physical and write a computer program that would do the same kind of thing. It could even be digital stand-alone device that could be adjusted to meet the needs of any instrument. It could even generate a nice loud tonic (or dominant) pitch to give the person playing with it a consistent frame of tonal reference.

Since I have no plans (and obviously very few skills) to make a commercial version of this game, I encourage anyone who does to give it a try. You can even use the name if you want.

More Musical Uses for Index Cards

Happy Birthday to me! Actually, my birthday is still a few weeks away, but Michael gave me an early present: a Noligraph music writing pen.

I still have a bit of a learning curve (no pun intended, really) as far as writing straight staff lines is concerned, but I thought I'd share the use of index cards for Fux counterpoint exercises. This one is for second species. Eleven measures fits perfectly on an index card. The reverse side has the same cantus firmus in the other voice.




I can work on my counterpoint in pencil and erase it when I'm done. It is also the perfect size to use at the piano. The possibilities for fun with these tools are limitless. Thanks Michael!

Related posts:Musical Uses for Index Cards, Stand Hand

Musical Uses for Index Cards

My family and I, along with thousands of people around the world, have gone index card crazy. For all the people who have followed the trail of index cards to this page, I can offer the way I use index cards for musical purposes.

I review CDs. Every other month I get a large stack to review for the American Record Guide. While I am listening for the first time, I jot down my thoughts about the recording on an index card. Then I slide the card into the CD case (it fits very well), and listen to the next CD in my stack. After I have listened to all the CDs, I refer to the notes on the index cards when I write my reviews.

Another way I use index cards is for teaching. Many of my students (and I assume all young students) need to be reminded of basic technical elements of playing all the time. When a student is working on a piece or an etude I use a paper clip to attach a brightly-colored (young students like bright colors) index card to the opposite page with guidelines written on it. When the student needs to be reminded of something technical I simply point at the item on the index card, making it unnecessary to make the student stop playing to make the technical adjustment. When the student has overcome the particular technical difficulties listed on the card, s/he can keep the index card for future reference. One student likes this method because she says the index card acts as a bookmark. I like this method because it leaves the printed music open for written directions that have more to do with music than technique.

Related Posts: More Musical Uses for Index Cards, Stand Hand.