I’m enjoying having music to guide me, and learning what it all means.  The Suzuki method does not focus on reading music until book four, but all the songs are laid out in proper staffs – while I’m no expert at looking at scores, to my eye there is an awful lot of musical notation present for something that is not directly taught!  Of course I learned to read music when I was a child, so I’m bringing it back slowly, with the help of my teacher, but not as slowly as a Suzuki newbie (age 4 or so) would!

The score of my new Bach Minuet, number 2 in the book, which I started in yesterday’s lesson, contains a new mark/word for me – a Tenuto.  I asked, so Teacher explained it as a long, full sound.  Wikipedia says, “This symbol indicates that a note should be played for its full value, or slightly longer; it may also indicate a slight dynamic emphasis. It may be combined with a staccato dot to indicate a slight detachment.”  And indeed, in the Minuet, it is combined with such a staccato dot on six notes positioned throughout the piece.

A long, full sound that indicates a slight detachment.

I’m truly not complaining, and I’m thrilled for those beginners who are able to work with such guidance, but for me, such guidance is just not something I’m ready to deal with yet.  I am worrying about where to plop my fingers and which general direction the bow should be moving.  I’m getting better day by day, and I actually started working with the indicated dynamics (mf and p) in the first Minuet, but, in honesty, I think I’m just going to pretend I don’t know what a tenuto is for a while.  Because, well, I guess I don’t!

Thanks for reading.

Ryan