So why is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star so important?
When learned correctly, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star sets the student up for success through the rest of their playing years. The student needs to have mastery of each “Pre-Twinkle” step in order to play Twinkle correctly.
We don’t teach math students multiplicaiton when they’ve just figured out how to add numbers; we let them master adding, and then, when the time has come, multiplication is a breeze.
Learning to play a musical instrument is very similar. We have to have complete mastery of the small steps to be able to put the big picture together.
Learn the A Major Scale
(with Mississippi Stop Stop and other Rhythms)
Violins will start on the A string and “go up” (but not down) the Monkey Song. Then they will lift the fingers of the left hand and rock to their open E string and play a Moneky Song going up on the E. They will “go down” the Monkey Song on the E string. After that, plop fingers on the A string and rock the bow to the A string to “go down” Monkey Song on the A.
Keep the stops between the notes, and give lots of time for the student to place their third finger on A string and rock their bow to go down on the A string.
Here are the instructions for parents to use:
Open A Ready Play.
Drop 1 Ready Play.
Drop 2 Ready Play.
Drop 3 Ready Play. (Student must lift fingers for next note.)
Open E Ready Play.
Drop 1 Ready Play.
Drop 2 Ready Play.
Drop 3 Ready Play.
Keep 3 Ready Play.
Lift 3 Ready Play.
Lift 2 Ready Play.
Lift 1 Ready Play.
Plop and Rock Ready Play. (Student must plop fingers on A.)
Lift 3 Ready Play.
Lift 2 Ready Play.
Lift 1. Ready Play.
Students should begin to learn about the musical alphabet at this time.
Eventually, students will learn the letter names of the A Major Scale.
The Twinkle Burger
Everyone knows the words to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Have you ever noticed that it says “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, How I wonder what you are” at the beginning and at the end? We’re gonna call that the bread section. (You have bread on both sides of the sandwich.)
We are gonna call the center section the meat. We’ll actually have a double cheeseburger when we’re done. Although the words are different, the notes are the same for “Up Above the World So High,” and “Like a diamond in the sky.”
So it’s gonna look something like this:
Bread
Meat
Meat
Bread
The Bread Section
The notes of the Bread Section are:
A E F# E D C# B A
Here are the instructions for the Bread Section:
Open A Ready Play
Rock to E Ready Play
Drop 1 Ready Play
Lift 1 Ready Play
Plop and Rock Ready Play (Student must plop fingers on A.)
Lift 3 Ready Play
Lift 2 Ready Play
Lift 1 Ready Play
The Meat Section
The notes of the Meat Section are:
E D C# B
The E is the “cheese” because it’s on top.
Here are the instructions for the Meat Section:
E string Ready Play
Plop and Rock Ready Play
Lift 3 Ready Play
Lift 2 Ready Play
Lift 1 Ready Play
After students can get each section with commands between notes, you can try to eliminate the “ready play” part from the command. Eventually, you can try to eliminate all commands except the one for plopping and rocking the 3 on the A string.