March 22, 2006 at 3:15 AM

An adorable video of a VERY small kid. Make sure you get to the end!

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on March 22, 2006 at 8:16 AM

Kelsey, thanks for posting that. the kid is almost beyond belief. I watched and listened to a video of the pianist play solo, and that was just as remarkable. How did you find these videos? Who took them? Wow!!!

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on March 22, 2006 at 8:41 AM

I prowled around on that site and answered some of my own questions. Now I have a few more. What size violin do you think that is? How do you like his vibrato and shifting? It's incredible!

From Carley Anderson
Posted on March 22, 2006 at 10:57 AM

Wow! That is incredible! Looks like he plays so effortlessly.

Note to dad: Pictures are distracting. :O

From Emily Grossman
Posted on March 22, 2006 at 11:02 AM

What's he say? The first time I watched it, I thought he was calling out the correct chord to the accompanist, and this was after assuming he was simply parroting the notes by rote, as most young children do. The thought that he might actually be paying attention to underlying chord structures in the accompaniment just about made me wet my pants! That would just take the cake if that's what he was doing.

The little squeaking sounds that his shoes make when he turns to the girl are great.

He's not using vibrato at any point, that I'm aware of. Also, his fiddle is too big. He seems to have no problems with the awkwardness, though.

See how relaxed his bow arm is? Perhaps if I had started this young it would all come to me as second nature, as it does for this guy.

What he does with his mouth during the little unaccompanied interlude on the G string is my favorite part.

From Patty Rutins
Posted on March 22, 2006 at 2:17 PM

How old is that kid? He's pretty amazing!

When you're that little, it's hard *not* to have your violin be too big -- believe me, a proper full-size is still a bit big for me, and my arms are as long as they're gonna get without using ancient torture devices. Given how well he plays, the size doesn't seem to bother him and was probably a choice that teacher/parents made to get a bigger and/or better sound. Weeny violins tend to have a very bad sound!

From Kelsey Z.
Posted on March 22, 2006 at 4:54 PM

I have no information on the kid whatsoever! I just happened to come across it!

Emily, for the vibrato here's another video of him which I think is the one Pauline mentioned.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3007229855013842624&q=violin

I would guess that his violin is a 1/4 size but I don't know for sure. It doesn't look small enough for a 1/8 or 1/16 but not big enough for a half.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on March 22, 2006 at 5:28 PM

Emily, Kelsey is right. I saw his vibrato on another video, along with him shifting positions. I thought he was saying something like, "Aw, gee." His piano accompanist was very impressive, too. I watched some videos of her playing solo *very* well. I think I'm hooked on that Google site now. I saw another good video of a little girl, not as little as the buy, in a bathing suit, playing The Star Spangled Banner next to an indoors swimming pool in advance of a swim competition. There were also some good shots of the swimming contestants by the pool listening.

From Emily Grossman
Posted on March 22, 2006 at 9:03 PM

Oh! Pualine, you had me going there for a minute. I'll have to check out the other video now.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on March 23, 2006 at 6:28 AM

If I wanted to be really evil, I could tell my adult beginning students to watch the video. That would be evilness worthy of Linda.

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.