As we herald the arrival of school — enthusiastically by one, reticently by another — we return to some of our post-abroad “responsibilities,” a very Montessori manner of saying ” Here’s your job, kid. Get to it.”
The young lad above recently acquired a new-to-him instrument. Bigger, bolder, $$ and capable of making him sound — hmmmm — a whole lot better. Rather nice.
However, bigger also means heavier. This is a 3/4 violin, only a couple of inches away from a full-size instrument. There’s a fair degree of weight to balance between chin and shoulder, as the arm doesn’t shouldn’t be holding up the violin at all. Thus the medieval straps and posts and bindings pictured above.
Can we stop with the pictures, already?!
This is the droop. It creeps up on one after a time, especially during periods of concentration. The idea with the straws and pencils and Liliana’s hairbands is to create a frame of reference so that the maestro can see when he resembles a forgotten houseplant.
Much better. Once you get the corrected feeling into the muscle memory, it starts to come together.
And then they do it wrong just to taunt you.
Nice bow hold, however. Fixed that one with elastics and mousetraps too.
Just kidding about the mousetraps.
Sorta.
The Country Mice 
AH, we too need to get back into a practice routine. Although we did pick up the instruments a number of times during the summer holidays, I think not often enough.
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I was wondering, did you pick up eht 3/4 in germany?
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