Violin Lessons #13,#14

These two lessons were all about consolidating what I have learned. I know how to play the four notes with the first finger. What needs to happen now is to get good technique in playing those notes. I need to form good habits here before I carry on.

In lesson 13 I struggled with 'My First Waltz'. I found it very hard to get good sound consistently, especially from the E-string. Surprisingly, 'The Kettle Tune' was much better. It seems I find it easier to play on the lower strings than the higher strings. At the end of lesson 13 Laura showed me Slur and Stomp Song. I am allowed to play the first, third and fifth lines.

The week between lesson 13 and 14 was good for violin. Laura suggested I buy a few things: a Willy Wolf shoulder rest (one like hers), a corn pad, a metronome from Aldi and a full-length mirror. The corn pad was easy to get. This is to help train my left thumb to stop sliding along the neck of the violin. For some reason I seem to want to pull that hand in towards me. This may be from the tension I mentioned last week. The mirror we bought too. It's currently in the play room where I practice, but I think a sweetener was that we can use that mirror in the spare room upstairs when we need it. The metronome I could not find but Laura found one for me. She rocks. I paid her for it the next week and bought a Kit Kat to say thank-you. The Willy Wold shoulder rest can't come from America because they are not allowed to ship it here. This means I have to buy it from here, and since Simply For Strings is 25% cheaper than Animato, I'll be getting it from them some time next week.

Lesson 14 was good. Apart from getting the metronome, we placed the corn pad on the neck and that seemed to help the thumb. Unfortunately, my finger placement was not the best so I was still getting wrong notes. On top of that I now have to be aware of my back posture and head / neck posture. And my shoulders were still carrying tension. I'm going to have to review all that every time I start to play a piece to eventually start to do it automatically. One the plus side, I earned a stamp for 'My First Waltz'. Practice for that song had paid off. 'The Kettle Tune', which was good last week, was not so good this week.

The lesson went a little longer because the next student had cancelled so I had some extra time. At the end of the lesson was another surprise for me. Laura wants me to compose a piece. Me? Compose? Apparently so. I have learned eight notes and a handful of types of notes (cow, monkey, bumblebee) and rests as well as accents (>) and short notes (.). I am to write in D Major and it is to have eight bars. I can tell from now next week's lesson will be very interesting.