Rowan & Joe

Welcome to your lesson notes page Rowan & Joe!

Sat 13^th July 2026

First lesson with Joe!

Holding the violin

• See last lesson’s notes.

Learning the open strings

• Open the Fiddle Time Scales book on page 8. Ask Joe to point to a G, then take it in turns to pluck a rhythm on the G string. Then see if he can spot a D and do the same thing. Repeat with A and E strings.

Fiddle Time Starters

• P.8: Practice The Drunken Sailor and Jelly on a Plate, then put them with the CD (sorry I forgot to put the CD back in the book! You can find the tracks here).
• P.9: Have a go at the Be a composer section.
• P.15: Try At the zoo pizzicato. Rowan, maybe you could play bars 1, 3 etc. and Joe could answer? When you’re happy, try with the backing track. Then…

Bow hold

• Practice this on a pencil first, as it’s lighter!
• Help each other build up a good bow hold before transferring it to the bow.
• If you feel you’d like to try a piece, try At the zoo. Remember to change your elbow height to help get the bow on the right string.

If you get this far, feel free to tackle the pieces on p.16 in the same way you learnt At the zoo.

Thu 14^th May 2026

Your first lesson with me! 😄🎻

Please do contact Bridgewood and Neitzert about setting up your violin. Until that’s done though, you can practice holding the violin up under your chin, memorising the string names and setting up your bow hold. See below for more detailed tips.

Parts of the Violin

It’s helpful to see how many of the different violin parts you can name:

Holding the violin

• Hold the violin facing away from you, with your left hand on the shoulder. Support the bottom of the violin with your other hand if you like.
• Hold it up like the statue of liberty with her torch.
• Turn the end-button towards you, and rest it against your pulse point, with the violin at a 45° angle to your nose.
• Try to keep the violin scroll level with your nose.

Pizzicato on open strings

Pluck the open strings 4 times each, starting with the lowest. When doing pizzicato, rest your right thumb on the corner of the fingerboard, and pluck c.1cm away from the end of the fingerboard with the fleshy pad of your index finger. To remember the names:

• G – Grandad has the lowest voice
• D – Dad
• A – Auntie
• E – little Emily

Parts of the Bow

Bow Hold

Forgive the quality of the video – it was a lockdown special! – but here are all my bow tips in one place.

Quick reference tips:

• Squeeze and release a ball of socks or small cuddly toy to see the knuckles curved nicely.
• Hold the bow with your LEFT HAND around the middle of the stick.
• Make a rabbit finger puppet with your right hand, curving the thumb and covering the thumb nail with the top section of your middle and ring finger. Wiggle the index and little fingers and make sure each finger is nice and curved.
• Open the rabbit’s mouth slightly and pop the thumb, on its very tip, on the bit of wood between the lapping and the frog. Then curve the middle fingers over the stick, opposite the thumb and slightly apart from one another.
• Sit your curved little finger on its tip on the surface of the octagon stick that’s just towards you. Tap it a few times to make sure it’s curved and relaxed.
• Lie your index finger on its side.
• When you’re ready, slowly let go with your left hand!

Bowing symbols:

• Down bow starts near the heel and travels towards the tip.
• Up bow starts near the tip and travels towards the heel.