October 1, 2025 Homework Accelerando

ByVicky Bufano

Welcome Accelerando!

Next week October 8: BASSES have techniques class!
  • Accelerando: Should be spending at least 15-20 minutes a day on practice for this class. These are minimums not maximums. If a student is hoping to move up to Sinfonia next year, they should already be bumping up their practice time from the minimum to make sure they have mastered the fundamentals before moving on to more difficult music and concepts.
    Listen to all the pieces. This counts as practice!
    1) Bow hold exercises: they happen every day.
    Check for:
    *bent thumb on top of the frog, inside the bow
    *Middle finger right across from the thumb
    *ring finger right next to middle finger
    *pinky bent and on top of the bow
    *index finger touching close to the 2nd joint and relaxed
    With this good bow hold, do
    1 Rocket Song (up, down, across, in a circle)
    10 Windshield Wipers
    5-10 Elevators
    Mississippi Hot dog rhythm is done in the middle of the bow (not the frog!)
    2) Red Finger pattern
    Practice red patten
    Violins and Violas: Play red pattern with the mississippi hot dog pattern on the E,A, D, and G string. Use 4th finger!
    Cellos and basses: On every string except your highest string with mississippi hot dog (like we did in class).
    Optional: Red pattern with shifting
    Basses: Use shifting pattern
    3) Blue Pattern
    Violin and violas: low 2s. Still use 4th finger instead of open strings
    -play on every string and use the mississippi hot dog pattern
    4) Yellow Pattern
    Violins and Violas:
    D-1-2-high 3-4
    Cello: D-1-2 on the 3rd finger tape- 4 beyond the tapes
    5) D and G One Octave Scale with Mississippi Hot Dog Rhythm
    Double check violin/viola holds (keep out to the side, hold with your head. Violin/viola should be flat and not tilted up or down)
    Cellos use the Low D for your D scale (starting on the 1st finger on the C string, use the yellow pattern)
    Violins use the middle G for your G scale (3rd finger on the D string)
    6) Burst: Learn all. Mark any notes you need into the music neatly with a pencil
    7) Ninja:  Learn all. Mark any notes you need into the music neatly with a pencil. Use 4th finger when you see a “4” above a note.
    8) Mahler’s Mysterious March:  Learn all. Mark any notes you need into the music neatly with a pencil. Low 2s on the A string for viola and violin. Cellos use 2 instead of 3 for the C naturals.
    9) Christmas Grace:
    -start listening and learning the notes
    -This includes red, blue, and yellow patterns. Practice these separately as a warm up
    -we will go through all of this next time so be sure to practice it ahead of time
    10) Music Reading Practice: If it is only your 2nd year of reading music/reading music on your instrument, OR you find yourself struggling to read the pieces at the speed we go in class, do the following:
    Step1: Print an extra copy of all your music
    Step2: Write neatly above each note the pitch (not the finger number) of the first line
    Step3: PLay through the first line
    Step4: Repeat with 3rd,4th, 5th and so on lines
    Step5 (optional): Bring it to me or a class helper to check notes if you are not sure if you did it right

    Scales

 

Theory homework: Please click on the link to download and print your homework.  Students working out of All for Strings will have their own book and it is not linked here. 

Theory A:

Open Strings (violin)

Open Strings (viola)

Open Strings (cello)

 

Theory B: Off Week

Theory C: Off Week

Theory D: Off Week

Theory E: Off Week

 

 

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