The Bow

Last week Alex proved to his teacher that he was ready to start playing with the bow. He has been taking lessons for three months now and we have been working very hard to get to this point. I have definitely taken for granted all it takes to play an instrument. We practiced putting his feet between rest and play position using his foot chart you see below, holding the bow correctly, holding the violin correctly (still not correct in the photo, his thumb should be on the back), getting the violin correctly under his neck in the correct position, holding the violin with your neck muscles, etc.)

Yes, there is a seal on his bow. We named him "Brownie". He has been a motivation in our exercises. We give "Brownie a ride" instead of calling it boring things. Now Brownie serves as a marker of where the bow needs to hit the strings and how far to drag it back and forth.

Alex really likes playing the violin. He is generally excited to practice and will typically practice for up to thirty minutes even though his teacher says that ten minutes is enough. Some days he doesn't want to practice and that's okay too. We keep it fun and guided by him. Part of our practice time we spend singing songs and clapping out the beat (which I'm horrible at, I have no sense of rhythm).