Read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Online
Authors: Amy Chua
Tags: #Asian American Studies, #Social Science, #Mothers, #Chinese American women, #General, #United States, #Mothers and daughters - China, #Personal Memoirs, #Mothers - United States, #China, #Cultural Heritage, #Biography & Autobiography, #Mothers and daughters, #Ethnic Studies, #Chua; Amy, #Mothers and daughters - United States, #Biography
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (20 page)
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CHOW CHOW LeBOEUF Installation One.Only 55 minutes!!HELLO LULU!!! You are doing great. Light!! Light!!!! LIGHT!!!APOLLO Mission: Keeping violin in the position that allows it to stay up by itself sans hands, even on hard parts.15 minutes: SCALES. High, light fingers. LIGHT, ringing bow. 15 minutes: Schradieck: (1) Higher lighter fingers. (2) Hand position, so pinky always stands up and hovers. Do the whole thing with metronome once. Then DRILL hard sections, 25x each. Then do whole thing again.15 minutes: Kreutzer octaves. Pick ONE new one. Do it slowly first - INTONATION - 2x.CHALLENGE OF THE DAY:10 minutes: Kreutzer #32. Work it through YOURSELF, with a metronome. SLOW. Light bows. If you can do this, you rock.
LOS BOBOS DI MCNAMARA - BRUCH CONCERTOGOALS: (1) KEEP YOUR VIOLIN UP! Especially during chords! (2)
articulation
- focus on making the “little” notes clear and bright - use quicker, lighter fingers (standing up more) (3) shaping passages; dynamics - start with slower bow and get fasterDRILLSPAGE 7Opening measures: mm. 18 & 19:a. Use ½ the bow pressure & faster bow on chords. Lower elbow.
Keep violin still
!b. Drill little notes (da da dum) to make them clear - drop fingers more quickly and relax them more quicklym. 21:a. triplets on the string - 25x each!b. make 8
th
notes clearer - drill! RELAX fingers after tapping!mm. 23-6: Again, ½ bow pressure on chords and clearer, faster fingers on short notes mm 27-30: IMPORTANT: This line is too heavy, and your violin drops! Super light chord. Clearer articulation. MORE the second time. m. 32: Drop fingers from higher and relax them quicker. Keep violin and head still on the run. m. 33: Faster bow, lighter! Circle off (up!)!PAGE 8m. 40: This chord is way too heavy! ½ bow pressure and high violin! Articulate short notes.m. 44: This chord should still be light, even though more sound - use a faster bow!mm 44-5 - soft hand, soft wristmm 48-49 - make this more lively! Faster, lighter fingers! Stand them up but relax them!m. 52 - articulation!mm. 54-58 - each one should get LONGER BOWS! More exciting - grow!m. 78 - higher fingers! Don’t push - keep fingers light!m. 82 - really crescendo, start slow then faster bow! Then drop quieter and crescendo huge!FIRST run is
TAYLOR SWIFT
! SECOND run is
LADY GAGA!
!
THIRD run is
BEYONCE!
!m. 87 - more direction, follow the phrase (louder going up, quieter going down)PAGE 9:
mm. 115-6 - start with less bow and lots of bow on the high A. Direction!
m. 131 get quiet!
mm.136 -145 - really SHAPE this (louder and more bow when you go UP, quieter coming
down) Drill out-of-tune notes, 50x each
mm. 146-159 tranquillo but GOOD articulation
mm. 156-158 - keep crescendoing
m. 160-161 - articulationPAGE 10m. 180: Practice entrance. Direction! Start w/ slower bow, then get faster, most on high B!m. 181-83: drill clear articulation - quick, light fingers!m. 185: ½ the bow speed on chords - lighter! Clearer little notes (da-da-dum) - quicker fingerm. 193-195 - DRILL shifts - exact position! 50xm. 194: Start less, then really crescendo!m. 200 - memorize correct notes - drill 30xm. 202 - practice chords - exact hand position - intonation!m. 204 use very soft hand and relaxed wrist!
SPUNKY PICKS - ALOHA STREAM 7 MENDEL SSOHN!Perpetual MobilePage 2Opening:*On crescendo, energy goes up!*Also, it goes up 3 times, make them different - maybe LESS on last one* Last measure of line 2 is DIFFERENT HARMONY - so bring that outLine 3: Bring out melody notes, less on repeated notes. Then “rolling down”Line 4: Make sure to play important notes with MUCH LONGER BOWLine 5: Bring out WEIRD notesLine 6: So many As! Boring - so make them quieter and bring out the OTHER notes.Line 7: Huge long 2-octave scale - start LESS and make a huge crescendo!!Page 3Line 5: At the f, use almost the entire bow - make it exciting! - then diminuendo to tinyLine 6-7: Follow pattern - less, then suddenly EXPLOSION at f!Line 8-9: same thing - quiet and then sudden EXPLOSION at f!Line 10: Bring out TOP 2 notes, bottom note less important.MendelssohnOpening:Andante -a bit fasterMake this much more relaxed, intimate, like you are ALL ALONE WITH SLEEPING DOGS.Same thing happens 2x, then BRING OUT the 3
rd
time -open up a bit!Line 4: Now, a little more worried, tense. MAYBE ONE SLEEPING DOG SEEMS SICK?Line 5: MUCH MORE ENERGY ON HIGHEST note! The gradually bring it back to gentle, same low energy, relaxed like beginning.MIDDLE SECTION:100% different character - SCARY!Use very FAST BOW! Much more energy! WHOLE bow in some parts.Change bow speed!!Last 3 lines, going up little by little So start with less bow -and INCREASE by 1.5 inch each time.Line -2. P, then forte! Bring out nervous character!Page 11, line 1: More intense! Crescendo to high point!!
I have hundreds, maybe thousands of these. They have a long history. Even when the girls were little, because I tended to be too harsh in person, I’d leave little notes for them everywhere—on their pillows, in their lunch boxes, on their music scores—saying things like, “Mommy has a bad temper, but Mommy loves you!” or, “You are Mommy’s pride and joy!”
With dogs, you don’t have to do anything like this. And if you did, they probably couldn’t understand it anyway, especially not Pushkin.
My dogs can’t do anything—and what a relief. I don’t make any demands of them, and I don’t try to shape them or their future. For the most part, I trust them to make the right choices for themselves. I always look forward to seeing them, and I love just watching them sleep. What a great relationship.
24
Rebellion
Lulu, age thirteen
The Chinese virtuous circle didn’t work with Lulu. I just couldn’t understand it. Everything seemed to be going exactly according to plan. At considerable cost—but nothing I wasn’t prepared to pay—Lulu succeeded in all the ways I’d always dreamed she would. After months of grueling preparation and the usual fights, threats, and yelling and screaming at home, Lulu auditioned for and won the position of concertmaster of a prestigious youth orchestra, even though she was only twelve and much younger than most of the other musicians. She received a statewide “prodigy” award and made the newspapers. She got straight As and won her school’s top French and Latin recitation prizes. But instead of her success producing confidence, gratitude toward parents, and the desire to work harder, the opposite happened. Lulu started rebelling: not just against practicing, but against everything I’d ever stood for.
Looking back, I think things started to turn when Lulu was in sixth grade—I just didn’t realize it. One of the things Lulu hated most was my insistence on pulling her out of school to get in some extra violin practicing. I felt they wasted a lot of time at Lulu’s school, so several times a week I’d write a note to her teacher explaining that she had a recital or an audition coming up and requesting permission to take her out of school during lunch period or gym class. Sometimes I’d be able to cobble together a two-hour block by combining lunch, two recesses, and, say, music class, where they’d be playing cowbells, or art class, where they’d be decorating booths for the Halloween Fair. I could see that Lulu dreaded the sight of me every time I appeared at her school, and her classmates always looked at me oddly, but she was only eleven then, and I could still impose my will on her. And I’m sure it was because of the extra practicing that Lulu won all those music honors.
It wasn’t easy on my end either. I’d be having office hours with my students, then suddenly have to excuse myself for a “meeting.” I’d race to Lulu’s school to pick her up, race to Kiwon’s apartment to drop her off, then race back to my office, where there would be a line of students waiting for me. Half an hour later, I’d have to excuse myself again to return Lulu to school, then I’d screech back to my own office for another three hours of meetings. The reason I took Lulu to Kiwon’s rather than supervise her practicing myself was that I didn’t think she’d resist Kiwon, and certainly not fight with her. After all, Kiwon wasn’t family.
One afternoon, just fifteen minutes after I’d dropped Lulu off, I got a call from Kiwon. She sounded flustered and frustrated. “Lulu doesn’t want to play,” she said. “Maybe you’d better come pick her up.” When I got there, I apologized profusely to Kiwon, mumbling something about Lulu being tired because she hadn’t gotten enough sleep. But it turned out that Lulu hadn’t just refused to play. She’d been rude to Kiwon, talking back, challenging her advice. I was mortified and disciplined Lulu severely at home.
But things got worse as time went on. Whenever I arrived at Lulu’s school to pick her up, her face would darken. She’d turn her back on me and say she didn’t want to leave. When I finally got her to Kiwon’s place, she’d sometimes refuse to get out of the car. If somehow I succeeded in getting her up to Kiwon’s apartment—by then there might be only twenty minutes left—she’d either refuse to play or purposely play badly, out of tune or with no emotion. She’d also deliberately provoke Kiwon, slowly infuriating her, then maddeningly asking, “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
Once, in passing, Kiwon let slip that her boyfriend, Aaron, after witnessing a practice session, had said, “If I had a daughter I’d never allow her to act like that—to be so disrespectful.”
That was a slap. Aaron, who’d always adored Lulu, was as easygoing as they come. He was raised in the most liberal and lenient of Western households, where the kids didn’t get in trouble for skipping school and did pretty much anything they wanted. And yet he was criticizing my parenting, my daughter’s behavior—and he was totally right.
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