Recently I have been compiling a list of etude materials to help with second and fourth positiions.

1. Sevcik Opus 1, Book 2 covers the second through seventh position including some shifting in between the positions.
2. Sitt Studies for the Violin Part 2 covers second through fifth positions.
3. Whistler’s Introducing the Positions Volume 2.
4. Shradieck School of Violin Technics.

Recently, at the Texas Music Educator’s Association convention in San Antonio, Texas, I had the pleasure of meeting Mimi Butler. Although I can highly recommend her policies, I am not sure that this book would benefit anyone who didn’t have the management skills to operate a studio in the first place. Her first book is called “The Complete Guide to Running a Private Music Stduio.” In the book, Butler goes through various ideas, all of which are practically necessary for running a studio. She covers fees, communication strategies, teaching strategies, and much more. I find that many of the ideas are ones that have already been addressed in my current studio.

In my current situation, I have to schedule 40+ students each week, teach, find locations, have necessary equipment when I travel, book recitals and group classes, and much more. It’s not an easy task, but with good organization skills I am able to manage quite well. This book discloses no secrets. This is what successful studios have to do. Teaching music is a business, but it’s not cutthroat. You have to be careful with your time and energy as a busy studio teacher.

In doing my taxes for the past few years, I have learned a lot about being self employed.

1. If you have a designated home “studio” or office that you don’t use for any other reason, you can deduct it from you taxes. I find it hard to get anything done but teaching and practicing in my studio area, so I think it’s safe to say that is an area I can write off on my taxes. You calculate the square footage of your home and then measure the room and calculate a percentage of that square footage of living area. The rent and utilities are all things that can be deducted, so save your utility receipts and rent receipts.
2. Keep track of expenses for training workshops and conferences. Keep airline fare receipts, ground transportation receipts, and food expenses. You can also claim a per diem for out of town trips for meals and incidental expenses.
3. Keep track of your mileage used on your own personal vehicle to travel to gigs and other events. Mileage rates change from year to year, but keeping track of this expense adds up in the long run if you make many trips out of town.
4. You can write off the depreciated value of your musical instruments used for playing and teaching. It take seven years to depreciate an instrument. This is wise to do for teaching instruments since cheaply acquired student instruments don’t go up in value through the years.
5. Keep track of supplies purchase for the office, recitals, and other expenses related to your studio. Since music is consumable (frequently lost or written in), you do not need to depreciate it over a number of years.

I have recently discovered that there are a large number of books available to any teacher at any certain time. I believe that you must do the best job that you can at picking the books that will most significantly benefit your students without overburdening their pocket books.

Here are my thoughts on books to recommend to help for a variety of Levels.

1. Suzuki Book 1 (for violin, viola, or cello) with CD – This is the first and most important in a student’s journey to music. Even if you use a modified Suzuki method, I believe that this book has everything that the student needs for the first year of development or more. Although not initially intended for students to learn by reading, it can be used by the parent to take notes in order to best help the child. Older students should begin pre-reading as they start this book. Older students, especially, should be reading by the time they get to the Minuets.
2. Essential Elements 2000 – This is a good book to help reading. I do not use it as prescribed. I would go a little bonkers having kids doing pizzicato on all of those exercises. Typically, I start my students from the being with the bow. It teaches common terms and symbols used in music.
3. Christmas Kaleidescope by Frost – This book is amazingly helpful at getting students reading music.
4. Suzuki Book 2 – Necessary as students complete Book 1. It contains wonderful repertoire.
5. Wohlfahrt Foundation Studies – This book assists students in reading and rapidly progresses their technique.
6. Samuel Applebaum’s Beautiful Music for Two Stringed Instruments – This book addresses a wide variety of reading and counting skills.
7. Suzuki Book 3 – As with the other Suzuki volumes, this book contains a number of great pieces strategically ordered for student progress.
8. Wohlfahrt Foundation Studies Book 2 – This book introduces the different positions on the violin.
9. Introducing the Position by Whistler – This book is essential to developing good shifting.
10. Suzuki Book 4 – Has a number of concerto movements that students.
11. Kayser 36 Studies – This will be one of the last books students should work on before entering college. Very advanced students may move past this etude book, but this may be all students will need.
    

There are other books that I have and supplement with, but these are the ones I feel are absolutely necessary for the student to purchase themselves.  Depending on the student, it maybe be good to move into Suzuki Books 5 and 6, but these are very advanced pieces.

Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow) is a show piece that spotlights the bow. It has some playful and interesting bowings that must be well rehearsed. It is typically paired with Liebefreud.

The following technique must be addressed:

• Retaking to an up bow – Can be practiced using a Dounis Op. 21, The Attack and Accent. Any etude can be used. Exercise 2b, in particular would be good to practice this.
• Rapid retakes to the frog – These can also be used with Dounis Op. 21, The Attack and Accent. Exercise 7b, would be very beneficial for this.l
• Second, Third, Fourth and Fifith Positions – The left hand frequently makes expressive changes back and forth between different stings. These shifts should be practiced with guide notes. Fortunately, some of these guide notes can be left in in the final product.
• Double Dotted Rhythms – May be practiced with a Variation of Wohlfahart Foundation Studies Book 2, #34.
• Bow Distribution – The bow distribution for this piece is very difficult and changes frequently. I don’t know of any exercises that practice this, but being able to switch back and forth in the dounis exercise mentioned above will be a great help.

Liebeslied can be found in The Fritz Kreisler Collection published by Carl Fischer.

Liebesfreud (Love’s Joy) is a very nice show piece that has some terribly tricky parts including double stops and intricate bowings. It is typically paired with Liebesleid. Both pieces are very expressive.

The following technique must be addressed:

• Double dotted rhythm and bowing – To practice this, you may assign an etude such as Kayser #23 or Wohlfahrt Foundation Studies Book 2, #34 and use a doubled dotted variation to get the bow snap.
• Up Bow Staccato – Up bow staccato may be practiced with an etude, such as Kayser #33, Kreutzer #4, or any variation of similar etudes.
• Second Position & Fourth Positions – The student should play a few etudes or small pieces in second and fourth to review before playing this piece. There are several in the Second and Fourth Position String Builder by Applebaum. Surprisingly, this book is still in print.
• Spiccato – Can be practiced using any etude. It should include string crossings.
• Double Stops including sixths, fifths, fourths and thirds – Several pieces from Melodious Double Stops by Josephone Trott may be selected. Most importantly any scale with thirds should be played in a variety of ways. One of the most troubling parts about the thirds is that they move parallel to a neighbor tone a half step below and back up. They alternate between major thirds and minor thirds, also, making it even more challenging. On top of that, shifting makes finding finger spacing for these thirds even more difficult. Dounis finger exercises from the Daily Dozen may be used for this.

Liebesfrued can be found in The Fritz Kreisler Collection published by Carl Fischer.

Recently, I was reminded of the dreaded Dounis exercises that I was introduced to almost two years ago when I visited the Czech Republic. At the time, I just couldn’t believe anyone would willingly participate in such torture.

I have come to appreciate hard rules of playing the violin. Here are the ones listed at the beginning of the Dounis Daily Dozen:

Five General Rules
To Be Strictly Adhered To

1. Cultivate at all times a feeling of absolute comfort while practicing.
2. In practising finger-exercises watch your bow; in practising bow exercises observe a good position of the left hand.
3. Accent the weaker notes; make every note sound with a clear, full and round tone.
4. Remember always that in technic evenness is that which counts most.
5. Form the habit of listening to your playing with the utmost attention. Sharpen your hearing so as to detect the slightest disturbance  in the flow of tone.

In taking into consideration the exercises that follow, I can only see contradiction in words and action. There is something more to know about playing that I must not yet know.

Exercise 1 is a finger independence exercise that sets the hand four whole steps apart starting with low 1 on the G string and placing each finger on a different string. The player must then lift each finger, or sometimes two fingers at a time in the manner listed. The most difficult exercises in this section alternate 1 and 3 with 2 and 4. Truly, finger independence must be developed for this exercises. Fortunately, it begins with the “Easy Setting.” The “Difficult setting reverses the finger pattern so that the low 1 begins on the E string.These exercises are to be practiced without the bow.

Exercise 2 uses independent fingers in a different way. There are two three fingers moving in different subdivisions of time. 3 and four move in quarter notes while the lower fingers move in eighth notes. All the while, the bow is moving in double stops.

Exercise 3 uses “Horizontal Movement” of the fingers. It should be clarified that in my class on Dounis, this meant moving the finger to a new position without shifting the hand. This exercise could also be practiced with shifting, but the author intended for it to be a stretching exercises.

Exercise 4 is an exercise in thirds. This builds upon the finger independence developed in Exercise 1. It has a variant for fingered octaves.

Exercise 5 is arpeggios used for tuning. I would imagine that playing this with a drone would be quite helpful for intonation. Shifts must be working solidly before intonation can be developed.

Exercise 6 is a shifting exercise. One note is played while finger replacement shifts are made through all of the fingers up and down a C major three three octave scale.

Exercise 7 works on different bowings and bow distributions at the nut. Exercise 8 does the same for the middle of the bow. Exercise 9 uses the tip of the bow. Exercise 10 develops the whole bow.

Exercise 11 is a tone development exercise that cycles through several accents in one bow in various rhythms. The second part of exercise 11 also develops tone while playing double stops with sustained tones on one string only.

Exercise 12 is for practicing left hand pizzicato.

Needless to say, in order to teach fifth position, students must have a firm understanding of third position before proceeding to fifth position on the violin. A good shifting mechanism should also be developed prior to shifting to fifth position. (Unless you must remediate a student on these skills, at which time you may be working on a variety of shifting skills in addition to giving the student an understanding of fifth position.)

1. Shortcut Shifting Exercise – My version of shortcut shifting has a part that works on descending with the first finger to practice shifting back down. (It is a version adapted from Linda Fiore’s Shortcut Shifting. In doing shortcut shifting, I have the student keep the hand shape and drop 2, 3 and 4 on the string in the position. I start students going to fifth position. Usually, this exercise is done all by ear.
2. G Major Three Octave Scale with the extra notes (Galamian) at the beginning. The fingering I use is:
   0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 -1 2 3 4 1 2 -1 2 3 4 x4 4 3 2 1 -2 1 4 3 2 1 -2 1  4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 0
   There are some other ways to play this scale, but I find this one pleasing for the use of instruction. When extending the 4 in fifth position, I have the student keep the lower fingers down (since they will be coming back to them) in order to keep the hand shape. When shifting down to third, hand shape should also be considered.
3. Play a piece with fifth position. There are numerous pieces with fifth position. I like the Rieding Concertino in G Major from the Barbara Barber books.
4. Play Introducing the Positions (Whistler) exercise number 181 through 200 if necessary.
5. Read several etudes or pieces with fifth position spots. (I find the etudes that stay in fifth position in the Whistler book are too challenging for student just starting fifth position.)

Recently, I have been working in Smart Score X Professional to do some scanning of a score that I was given to play at an upcoming festival. Not only was I charged with getting musicians who could play the score, I was also charged with making parts. Although it is not painless, the process of scanning music and creating a copy of it with software has gotten easier than the days of entering a part by hand into Finale or cutting and pasting from the score. Yikes!

The process is pretty streamlined:

1. Scan using Smart Score X Pro. It allows you to place your score on the scanner bed. It lets you know when it is ready for each new page. I suggest starting with a small number of pages of your score to make sure that it will recognize what you have scanned. I found it easiest to scan a few pages at a time.
2. Edit the score for basic aspects that were not scanned such as key signature and time signature. (Make sure your palettes are out, or you won’t be able to do this.)
3. Edit parts in Smart Score that appear highlighted. Usually, it tells you when it had trouble recognizing something. I found this to be a bit time consuming, but worth it once I imported into finale.
4. Save as Music XML.
5. Import your Music XML file into Finale. (Combine multiple scan sessions in Finale, if necessary.)
6. Edit in Finale. The bowings, dynamics, and articulations required some finessing.
7. Extract Parts. (Then edit them as necessary.)

Now, after all of that, hopefully, you will have parts to use whenever you need them. Now good luck  getting the first violins to play that entire page that’s in fifth position.

I have to say through this whole process, I have learned a lot about using Finale and Smart Score X Pro.