First fiddle lesson...

Haley had her first fiddle lesson today. What fun that is going to be for her- no inportance placed on posture (many fiddlers play with horrid posture by classical standards) and correct bowing (because there is no "correct" way to bow a fiddle piece) so she gets to just learn to play the songs and have fun. I think it is going to be a wonderful supplement to her Suzuki training though I must insist on correct posture when she plays so she doesn't get lazy with her classical playing.

I think she really shocked the teacher. The teacher asked her to play a piece she knew already so she could get an idea of what she knew and how she played. Haley played her the Bill Sullivan polka and the teacher was really impressed. The look on her face was priceless. I could tell from her emails and our conversation on the TV that she thought I was exaggerating because she has never taught anyone this young. She played the piece with Haley then noticed that Haley had figured out the slurs in the song simply by watching her play them.
She then said she would give Haley a new piece called Britches Full of Stitches. I told her I thought Haley might have figured that one out as well from the DVD because it goes with Bill Sullivan's polka but since I hadn't watched the DVD with her I wasn't sure which song was which. The teacher played it and Haley repeated it right back to her so she decided to give her another completely new piece. She played it so I could record it then when she had finished Haley played it almost perfectly through even though she had never heard the piece before today.

The teacher told me that she knows of get-togethers where children fiddle together and said that Haley would be able to play with them for the next one. She was extremely impressed with Haley's intonation and posture/hand position (if she only knew the "work" that went into the latter). Haley can't wait to go for her next lesson. I had originally wanted to do it every other week but I guess if she really likes it we may do weekly.