Today's lesson started with 'Happy Birthday'. No, it's not my birthday, but I want to learn to play the song. My mother is turning 70 next month and she would like me to play it for her on the violin.
To play this song I need to learn how to use the third finger. The third finger is place right next to the second finger. It makes a note a semi-tone higher. Laura got me to play four sections (which is most of the song, since it is only eight bars long) to get used to placing the third finger accurately. And true to her word, most of the time my finger was too high. No matter how much I tried to correct it, the note was always too high. I think for that reason I started looking down at my fingers, This just made things worse, and pretty soon not only were my fingers wrong, but I was getting the "zombie neck". At this point Laura touched my head to remind me to fix my posture and joked that I was have her charged with assault. My head is shorn and shaven, and I have people patting it for good luck, so I am sure not going to mind Laura touching it to improve my playing. In the end we had to leave it though I am confident that once what I have to do sinks into my head I will play it well enough. It's just like "playing blind" last week. It was hard to do in class at the time, but by the end of the week-end it was going along really well.
From here it was on to 'Suo Gan'. I played this through a few times, and while some parts of it were quite good, I am going to be playing it for another week. Last week I mentioned I may have been nervous playing in front of Laura. This week I am not quite so sure that is what's going on. I think now that I may be putting too much pressure on myself when I do play, and it is because I want to play it well in front of her. This is not helpful, since I can be playing okay, but when I make a mistake (as I do from time to time) I let it show instead of just carrying on and it affects my playing and confidence. Laura quite rightly pointed out that most people won't notice if I make a mistake, and that while *I* may not like the way I played, others may have enjoyed it. I'm not quite sure how I am going to get over this but I know I will. Perhaps I should look at the music, even though I know the piece well enough to play without it. It's not that I make an effort to remember it - it just happens after a while. The piece is 24 bars long, and the first eight are repeated n the last eight, so there's really not a whole lot to memorise. Looking at the music might take my mind of the self-analysis that is undoubtedly going on while I play. I need to enjoy the music (and it is very pretty music to be sure) while I am playing and analyse the performance later.
Then came the first line of 'Home Sweet Home'. That went okay but it needs another week, especially now that I have 'Happy Birthday' to practice.
Finally came 'Waltz Of The Lovebirds'. Now I can play the whole song all the way through. This is going well and will continue for another week. It is a case of more practice to get it smooth and flowing.
If this sounds like a lot for one lesson, you are right. By the time I had finished it was almost an hour later. And what made it worse is that Sarisha turned up just as I was going in, so she was waiting outside all that time. For that I am very sorry.
So I have plenty to work on this week. Fortunately I have Monday off work as a day of leave. Mrs. Sage has left her job and is in the process of starting up before- and after-school care
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