Violin Lesson #24

This week's practice was a mixed bag. By that I mean I practiced "Rockin It Bunny Style" and "Suo Gan" a fair bit, but not so much Waltz Of The Lovebirds. And there were times where I was playing songs with the third finger (which is something Laura has not taught me). I couldn't help myself. I was curious and wanted to see if I could do it. I did. I played songs I learned on the accordion and a pretty good version of Kumbaya if I do say so myself.

Laura recorded her part of "Rockin It Bunny Style" on my phone to help me practice my timing. It was a little awkward playing to a tune on a phone. It might have been better if I used headphones but I didn't have any. Even so, I think it helped, because Laura said we played well enough to pass the song. Huzzah! My daughter really liked Laura's part - she was playing it all week and getting into it - so Laura and I recorded the duet. I was happy with how it sounded, but listening back to it there are things I can hear that I don't like.


Click here to download the duet (I can't get it to play from the blog yet)

After this I started with "Suo Gan". To me it sounded okay at home, but Laura pointed out a few things. Firstly the notes were disjointed. It was stop-start rather than letting the notes flow together. There is no technical fix for this. Rather it is something in my head and something I will be working on in the coming week because this really is a beautiful tune. Secondly I play the open string notes louder than the first and second finger notes. If I move the bow exactly the same way across a string when it is open (no finger) it will sound louder than when I use a finger to produce a note. This is simple physics. It is also a reason why open strings are generally not used in music. However, since I can't make those notes any other way at the moment, I have to learn to modify how I play the open strings so they don't stick out like... It's going to take some effort I think. And I still have to watch my bow arm. It won't always play straight. I'll be practicing against the wall this week to try and fix that.

Then there is "Waltz Of The Lovebirds". I did practice some of this song as I said, but I was meant to play the last line of the music. This line involves what I believe are called chops, a glissando and a scoop. I think this song has more technical difficulty than "Suo Gan" but even though the Welsh lullaby is easy to learn, it is going to take a fair amount of practice to be able to play it well too.

As I was leaving Sarisha was waiting. Laura reminded me that at some point I will be able to sit in on her lesson. That will be pretty cool. It's funny ... when I turned up for my lesson I heard the James Bond theme from Laura's room and thought it was Sarisha having an early lesson. It wasn't. It was Nathan. He is a young Asian student. I wondered if he even knew who James Bond was. Apparently he does.