Ode to Joy
The tune this whole course is named for. Beethoven wrote it as the theme of the choral finale of his Ninth Symphony — a melody deliberately simple enough for anyone to sing. It stays inside a five-note range and never leaps.
Phrase 1
How to play it
All on the A string — high 2, 3, 4, and 1. Whole, even bows, one per note, in the middle third of the bow. This is a singing line: no accents, no bumps, each note flowing into the next. Keep the fingers behind the note down so the walk down (E–D–C♯–B) is just lifting, not re-aiming.
Phrase 2 — and the dotted turn
How to play it
Down to the open A and back up. Then the phrase's little sigh: C♯ held a beat and a half (a dotted quarter), the B clipped short on the '&', and B again held two counts to land. Bow slowing slightly into that last B, dead in tune. Count '1 2 3 & 4' for the dotted bar.
Phrase 3 — the opening returns
How to play it
Exactly phrase 1 again. Same singing line, same fingers-down walk. The tune's shape is A – B – A – B′.
Phrase 4 — and this time it lands home
How to play it
Like phrase 2, but the dotted turn is B–A instead of C♯–B, and it settles on the open A — the tonic, home. Phrase 2 left you hanging on B; this one resolves. Let the final A ring.
The whole tune, to play through
The one thing this tune is for
Phrasing — playing four notes as one thought, not four separate events. Sing the phrase first. Where does it rise, where does it settle? Let the bow follow the voice.
The usual mistake
Playing it as eight equal notes and flattening the dotted bar into evenness — the little long–short lean on "wonder" (phrase 2) is the whole character. And clipping the held B and A at the phrase ends: hold them the full two counts, counting through.