Violin Concert...otherwise entitled "How Does She Do That?"

Haley has been learning Suzuki songs at a rather quick pace. After the summer with no lessons, she had one song she had never had a lesson on (but which I had videotaped her teacher playing so she could learn the bowings to) and three more to learn. She has had 5 lessons so far this year and has learned all of those songs. At her lessons on Monday this week, she worked on polishing up the Boccherini Minuet and playing it with the accompaniment and Minuet in G by Beethoven, both of which she was to play at a concert on Friday. At the end of lessons, her teacher asked her to quickly play the last piece (they went out of order for those of you who know Suzuki repertoire), Gavotte from "Mignon", which I had videotaped her teacher playing the week before. After she finished playing it, her teacher said that she could call her and play it over the phone for her on Thursday night and if it was easy for her to play it in order (something we had not worked on much), then she could perform it as well in the concert on Friday.

Haley worked really hard on all 3 pieces for the concert in the 3 days in between. She practiced them with accompaniment and without, polished up the spots where the bowing or fingerings were giving her trouble and learned the order of the last song. She played the Mignon over the phone and made a mistake at the end because she stopped to itch her nose then messed up the bowings and the endings of the last part but I assured her teacher that if she thought it sounded good, she had been playing it fine for the last 2 days. Here is video of her performance on Friday. I don't know how she performs better in front of a group of people than she does when practicing!

The Boccherini Minuet is not complete because my tape ran out but you can get an idea of all the parts. Her teacher said she sounded like she had completed 6 weeks of practice in 4 days! There are still a couple little improvements we can make before she does her Book 2 concert but I am so proud of how she performed on Friday.

Today, Haley and her brothers performed at a Fall Festival in the next town over. It was so cold they shivered through the performance but they did a great job considering how cold it was! Maybe we should save outdoor performances for summer!