FORM'O Come Little Children has four total sections, with three unique sections: 

A - A - B - C.​

​

AURAL SKILLS This song presents a slightly more complex melody, with a greater number of skips than previous songs. When figuring out the notes to this song, it is helpful to divide each line into smaller two- or three-note groups. (more) 

​

BOW ARM 'O Come Little Children has a number of significant new points for the bow arm. First, we expand the playing zone with a new star below the old bottom star. This is also the first song that begins with an upbow (as opposed to a downbow), and it is the first song that introduces the feeling of playing two upbows in a row.  

 

Every line of this song follows an identical bow pattern (although it may feel slightly different because of differences in string crossings between each line). Starting at the middle star and beginning with an upbow, each line follows the following bow pattern:

​

HALF, FULL | HALF, HALF, FULL | HALF, HALF, FULL | HALF, HALF, SAVE

 

where the the half- and full-bows take one and two seconds respectively, and the save-bow uses half the bow over three seconds.

​

Students should first master this bow pattern on a single open string. 

​

LEFT HAND In the first two lines of 'O Come Little Children, there are ample opportunities to reinforce the floating, independent and anchor finger first introduced in Lightly Row.  

​

ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS Because this song uses a very particular bow pattern, students at this point learn to keep their eyes on the bow by default, rather than on the fingers by default. As students advance in skill, they will watch their fingers less and less and train the ear to be responsible for monitoring whether the fingers are landing in the correct location on the fingerboard. Students 

Before attempting to combine the bow pattern with the left hand, students should be able to successfully play the left hand with their eyes closed.