Theme from "Witches Dance"

It is Summertime and Jewelia is out of school.  

She has been being good and practicing her violin every day. 

Usually Jewelia can learn a song pretty quickly, but then it is a matter of memorizing it and asking her brother to play the accompaniment with her.  Sometimes it is a little tricky to get her brother and herself to match up equally, or sometimes her brother likes to play too loud or fast or slow and so they have to practice learning how to play together.

It doesn't take long though.  They can be ready after just a few days of practice.  

Here is the latest song she has been working on.  It is called "Witches Dance":

            

This time her violin was in tune, and if you notice she is keeping her wrist out more.  Jewelia has been working really hard trying to break the bad habit of touching her wrist to the neck of the violin.  She has improved a lot!

Jewelia Helps Her Brother Compose

Jewelia is a pretty smart little girl.  She has been working hard to improve on her violin.  

Often, she will team up with her brother Caleb on piano to play songs together.  They are a good team.

Last month she was asked to go play her violin or sing at a friend's church.  She was supposed to play a certain easy church song with simple accompaniment, but her brother didn't like the arrangement.  Caleb decided to find a fancier piano arrangement, but then it didn't have a violin part to go with it.  

Caleb and Jewelia worked together so that Caleb could arrange the song to fit the new fancier piano accompaniment.  Jewelia liked it and suggested a fun ending that her brother wrote into the music as well.  

They did this all in one night, so there was only time to practice maybe 3 times before church.  Jewelia was so awesome that she was all ready to play it just overnight!  

Here is the song they played with the violin part that was arranged by her brother Caleb:

Jewelia Performs in the School Talent Show

Jewelia auditioned for her school talent show and she made it as one of the youngest performers!  She was so excited to play one of her fiddle songs.  She even got all dressed up in some "fiddle playing clothes".  

Here she is playing "Kesh Jig" (with the repeats that she remembered all by herself) at her school talent show:

           

Jewelia Turns 7 Years Old!!!

Jewelia celebrated her 7th birthday and this year she requested a violin cake!  Her mom worked pretty hard to make it just right.  It turned out pretty well.

She had a great day.  She even got her hair all curled and beautiful.  

She is excited to be a big 7 year old now.

Last Song as a 6 Year Old

Jewelia has done so well as a young violinist.  She was great as a beginner playing her first song at 4 years old, and at 5 years old she learned a lot.  At 6 years old she has been awesome.  As it got nearer to her birthday, she wanted to perform one more fiddle song.

This one is called "Ganglat Fran Mockfjard" which Jewelia just loved to say.  It is an old Swedish walking song.  

                

Songs in Suzuki Book 2

While Jewelia really loves her fiddle songs, she is still learning songs from her Suzuki violin books.  She is nearing the end part of book 2.  

Here she plays "Bouree" with Caleb accompanying:

          

And here is another one, "The Two Grenadiers":

          

Her pieces are becoming a little longer and more detailed.  Some of Jewelia's biggest challenges right now are trying to keep her wrist out from touching the neck of the violin.  Sometimes she's a little flat on notes, but she is working hard to be a good little violinist.  

Jewelia Plays in Church

They asked our family to speak in church, and when they ask us to speak, we think rather to play music!  So, along with all of us talking, we had each of the kids do a musical number.  

It was kind of a late notice, so Jewelia had only 3 days to learn a song on her violin.  She practiced a couple of different songs, but in the end, the one that sounded best was "Families Can Be Together Forever", so that is what she played.

Here she is practicing at home with her brother Caleb as accompanist:

             

She did just great in church speaking and playing her violin!

A Fiddle Song for Easter

It's Spring time, and Jewelia got a new Easter dress!  

No Easter songs here, but maybe it's time for another fun fiddle song!  

Here she is playing "Kesh Jig":

           

Jewelia's Song

Jewelia's brother plays the piano and sometimes he composes songs.  For a competition this spring, he wrote a song for both piano and violin.  He made it pretty easy so Jewelia could play it with him as part of the competition.  He named it "Jewelia's Song".  

They went to Park City to perform it and he won 2nd place for his composition.  

Here's a little video of them rehearsing it at home:

         

2012 Fiddle Fair

The music store down the street was holding a "Fiddle Fair" where they were going to have an "Open Performance Showcase" where anyone could come and play a stringed instrument.  You didn't have to be a professional.  It was just a chance to practice performing in front of an audience.  So, Jewelia packed up her violin and went to play a few songs.  

Kind of seems funny as she is playing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" in a music store with electric guitars hanging behind her, but she had a fun time.  

The music store even took some nice pictures and posted it on their website. 

1st Talent Contest for Jewelia!

Jewelia joined her brothers to compete in her first talent contest this last week.  She played "The Happy Farmer" on her violin.

She was the youngest contestant out of about 23 kids going up to about 17 years old, but she did great!  

She earned a green ribbon and had a lot of fun!

Here is the video from her performance:

                                             

Here Come the Primary Songs!

Jewelia has gotten a new violin book that has all primary church songs in it.  It is a pretty easy book for her to play, but it is fun and has some pretty piano accompaniment arrangements.  She is having a good time learning to play all her favorite primary songs.  

First she wanted to play "Keep the Commandments":

       

Then, she loved to play "Do As I'm Doing" which turned out really pretty:

       

Just wait, as you will be hearing a lot more primary songs in the future!

Jewelia Gets Her Accompanist Back!

Jewelia has gone solo for a while as her accompanist brother had arm surgery, but now his arm is healing, so they are back at it again!  

Over a year ago, Jewelia wanted to play a church song on her violin, and her first violin teacher, Mr. Hooper, made up a little version of a church song that she could play on her violin with piano accompaniment.  We don't know why it took so long to finally get around to it, but here is "I Know My Father Lives":

            

Mr. Hooper is now Elder Hooper, serving a church mission. 

 I'm sure he would be proud.

Hunter's Chorus

Jewelia thought she was pretty cute today with her hair down but with braids going across the top of her head (and with flowers too!).  She's been doing pretty well in violin.  She has memorized a new song from her Suzuki 2 Book called "Hunter's Chorus":

            

Back to New Songs from Suzuki

Well, Christmas is over, so back to the regular songs for Jewelia!  

This week she has been working in her Suzuki Book Level 2.  She is working on keeping her wrist away from her violin.  It is kind of tough when you have a short little violin, but Jewelia is working hard to break the habit.  

Jewelia has been growing a lot.  Wow, her hair has been growing so long!  Maybe she will need to go up to the next size violin soon.  She started with a 1/10 size violin when she was 4, and then went up to a 1/8 violin when she turned 6.  But the next size up is a 1/4 violin and that is quite a jump.  We shall see when she turns seven.

Here she is playing her latest song from Suzuki called "Musette":

          

Good job Jewelia!