The Foundation check

This is the end of the foundation half of the course — and the first of the two hard gates. You've covered setup, first-position reading, rhythm, the score's whole vocabulary, musicianship, and the bow. Before the road turns toward shifting, vibrato and real repertoire, it's worth checking the ground is solid.

This is a self-audit, not a test. Nothing here unlocks or locks. Read it honestly, and if a few things feel shaky, circle back — the next half of the course is built directly on this ground.

The six things the Foundation gate asks

1 · Read and play any first-position tune in G, D, A or C at sight. Every note named, its string and finger found, the rhythm counted, the key signature understood — slowly, without panic.

2 · Keep steady time. Clap and count a line of quarters, eighths, dots and rests against a pulse before you play it, and hold that pulse through the piece. (This was your strength coming in; the gate just confirms it survived adding the bow.)

3 · Produce an even, controlled tone with the core strokes. A sustained son filé frog to tip. An even détaché. A connected legato slur. A martelé with a clean prepared bite. A string crossing with no bump. On open strings and simple scales — not polished, but reliable.

4 · Hear when a note is out of tune, and fix it. Against an open string, against the drone, against a ringing tone — you notice the note is high or low, and you move it.

5 · Hear a simple four-bar tune in a known key and play it back — unaided. No notation. You find home, work out the pitches by ear (finding-a-tune-by-ear), correct your guesses, and get there. Slowly is fine. This is the goal the whole course points at.

6 · Read a printed bowing. Direction signs, where-in-the-bow marks (Sp., au talon, WB), slur groups, an f–p echo that needs a bow change, the difference between the composer's marks and the editor's.

Check yourself

Where this leaves you

If most of that felt solid, you've reached the Foundation gate. You can read a first-position piece, play it honestly with a real bow, hear when you're out and fix it, and — the thing you came here for — hear a tune and find it yourself. That's a genuine musician's starting kit.

The intermediate half (Stage 6 onward) begins here: shifting into the higher positions, vibrato, sight-reading as a trained skill, and then the giants — Bach, Vivaldi, and Mozart's Third Concerto. None of it is a leap from here; it's all built on exactly this ground.

If a few areas felt shaky, there's no rush. Spend a week or two circling back through those stages. The foundation is worth getting right.