It was a short week this week because The Szechuan Sage is off to the Buddha Birthday Festival tomorrow. Perhaps this time I will remember to take notes and photos. I have been for the last few years now and I always have a great time.
With short weeks practice time is even more important so I was sorry to miss one day. That was the day we had to take The Prince for his first term interviews. Two things stuck with me. One, when his History teacher mentioned they studied feudal Japan (with their ninja punches and all) it was the first time we had any idea they covered that in class. Two, when my son was told God spoke to the prophet Mohammed he asked "what does God's voice sound like?". That's my boy and I love him as much as he drives me crazy.
I forgot to mention the "budgie hold" last week. No, it's not a wrestling maneuver. It is a way to think of holding the bow. One doesn't grip the bow. One holds it gently, like a budgie. Laugh if you must but that's how it is. It has only happened to me once and it was a while ago but I still remember a moment when I was playing and thinking to myself "the bow weighs almost nothing at all". I think this is the feeling I should be aiming for.
There were no stamps today. I was pretty sure Walking My Dog was going to be good because it sounded pretty sweet in practice. It was good, but not good enough. I think part of the reason is when I know I have made a mistake it takes a little confidence away. Laura already told me to play through mistakes, and I do my best to do that, but I think it still gets to me. My straight bowing still goes askew sometimes. This week I had to imagine my bow hand aiming at Laura's purple stiletto. Then I had a brief mental image of playing at QPAC and asking for a purple shoe on the floor just in front of me before I could play. However, I think it was helping and I'll try to imagine it for my practice. The Princess has been asking for the tune this week so she will be happy to hear it again I'm sure.
Rocking It Bunny Style still needs work too. It's all about timing. I will focus on this piece more than Walking My Dog (as fun as Walking My Dog is to play). Rocking It Bunny Style is a duet, and it takes a little bit more effort to play a duet than a solo piece where one can be a little bit theatrical. I think I enjoy duets as much as solo pieces and for different reasons.
Like I said, no stamps today but there are two new pieces (or parts of new pieces more precisely) to play. The first is "Empire Of The Sun (Theme Song)" and it has nothing to do with Empire Of The Sun (the band). It is also called Suo Gan and is a traditional Welsh song. Laura, who has Welsh heritage, arranged it for me to play and said we would expand on it later on. I have not seen the movie and I am not Welsh so I did not know the music but my-oh-my it was pretty. Part of me was reading the music as Laura played and another part was captivated by it. I found a link to Suo Gan here. I am really going to enjoy this. The piece for me is written in ternary style (or ABA) where the first and last third are the same and different to the middle third. I'm learning all the time.
And the second piece is Laura's composition and is called The Lovebirds. I am not to play much of this but to practice two techniques. The first I don't know what it's called but it involved playing two notes a semi-tone or two apart. The first is very quick and does not count in the time for the bar where the second is almost the full beat.It takes a little manual dexterity but I think I was getting it. The second technique is one I have been looking forward to: glissando - a slide from one note to another. I have already posted a link to Heifetz playing Paganini Caprice #24 so I won't do it again, but there is a masterful example. Laura's was very good too. Mine? Eh, not so good. I couldn't work out how to get the rest of my hand out of the way of the violin as I was sliding my finger along the string (from high note to low). I am sure I will get there in time.
For now I am looking forward to Buddha Birthday Festival, my lesson next week and my Tokyo String Quartet concert next month.
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