Violin Lesson #16

This lesson was going to be tough because I feel I did not practice enough this week. My freelance work is getting close to delivery, so I am spending a lot of time with it. This is necessary because the funds from this work will, I hope, pay for two things: a new Lenovo laptop for more freelance work, and my own violin.

During the week there was a very odd violin on gumtree.

"Beautiful Professional Violin with only one owner. MAde in 1940. Has been kept as a prize possession and is in as new condition but of course its tone is very mature and beautiful. Has been played in top Orchestras and movie soundtracks in NZ and now features in String Quartets and Orchestras in Australia. Owner is also a solo performer. Violin deserves an owner who wants something special. They will be 2nd only owner.
Seller is ready to negotiate a price."

Oh, and it cost $21,000. Laura said she would look into it. I know she has played professionally in New Zealand and Tasmania. How lucky am I that she is teaching me here and now. Laura said she would try and find some information about this seller but she thought it was suspicious. She had nothing for me at the lesson.

Also during the week I finally bought a Willy Wolf shoulder rest. It is the same type that Laura uses. Her shoulder rest has been comfortable for me before, so I held high hopes for my own. During the lesson, my violin still felt like it was slipping at times. Perhaps this is more to do with my posture and getting my jaw on the chin rest correctly than with the shoulder rest.

And I composed a second piece during the week. I don't recall exactly where the tune came from but I had been hearing it in my head for a while. The piece I wrote last week started off like Twinkle Twinkle =) This one I annotated in Noteflight and printed a copy to take to class. Laura was very happy with it, and so was I when I heard her play it. It sounded really good. She said I could learn to play this with slurred notes. That's good, I thought, because I can barely play this at all. In any case, it will become part of my repertoire.

I was not happy with the way I played my pieces. I need to use more bow, and thus to practice with more bow. To me, though, it seems like that means louder, and subconsciously I worry about disturbing the rest of the family. I'm going to have to get over that though because I really want to learn to play properly, and if Laura wants more bow, you can bet I am going to use more bow.

I have plenty to practice for next week, and my lesson is a day earlier since next Friday is Good Friday. I'll try really hard to make more time even though I have this freelance work going on. Perhaps next time I will schedule the freelance work a little better.