Violin Lesson #30

I can't believe it. 30 lessons, and I love it as much now as I did when I started (though I am less nervous).

Today there was a change in lesson structure. Laura suggested I started preparing for exams at some point in the future. I am still not fully certain just what benefits taking exams will bring but it is something I want to do. We started off with sight reading. I get to look at some music I have not seen before and then play it after a few minutes. One important thing to remember was to play it straight through without stopping. This turned out to be fairly easy given that the notes were on open strings, ir was reasonably short and the rhythm was simple. The next exercise was to guess the time signature of some music and clap along with the beat. I guessed 4/4 time when it was really 2/4 (after Laura suggested it could only be 2/4 or 3/4 time). After that Laura played a tune and I had to clap back the rhythm. This was easy enough too. The last test was to "sing" a note Laura played on the violin. I don't like to sing, but I got close enough anyway =)

I played 'Home Sweet Home' first and it sounded pretty good. My first and second fingers were in tune and my sound was great. For next week Laura wants me to play it faster. I have heard a number of times that it is   better to learn a piece slowly until you get the foundations (the sound and the rhythm) correct, then try to speed it up gradually. When I tried to speed it up the bowing and fingering went out of sync. I am sure it will be fine for the next lesson. Laura told me about one of her auditions. She was given some music to learn. She could only find one performance on YouTube. Not having any other reference, Laura learned the piece at the same tempo. At the audition Laura played it as she had learned it. "That's fine," they said, "but can you play it faster?" So Laura did, and because she had prepared so well, she was able to play it faster well enough to win the audition! Obviously, preparation is key. Not only do you learn the piece, but you get confident playing it.

After this I played 'Waltz Of The Lovebirds'. This is getting better too, and sounds good now that I can play it from start to finish. The problem I am having at the moment is keeping the rhythm. I don't usually have this problem so I am not sure why it's happening now. Perhaps it is because I am more confident with some parts and less confident with others. Thankfully I have a metronome which will help heaps.

I had just enough time for 'Happy Birthday'. Laura said to watch the speed for this. People generally like to sing it reasonably quickly, and that's fine, but for me to get the good sound, it needs to be stately and majestic (like The Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheeba or something). One suggestion was to let people sing the  song first, then I can play it at my own pace. We also touched on phrasing. The song can be broken up into four phrases and I should aim for a good strong high note in each phrase. I have seen people talk about this before on YouTube and now I have a better idea what it means. No doubt there will be people on the night recording the event, so stay tuned for live footage towards the end of July.

There has been some suggestion I start a YouTube channel of my own. I don't know that I am confident enough to put up my own recordings. It is something to consider down the track.

And as I was leaving, I asked if it was okay to "muck about" with the violin. Sometimes after I have finished practice for my pieces, I start playing tunes of my own. Usually they are tunes from when I was learning the accordion. The other night I was playing God Save The Queen and Michael Row The Boat Ashore as well as trying to nail the themes for Gilligan's Island and Spongebob Squarepants. Laura said she had no problem with that EXCEPT... I must still maintain my posture and play everything as if I was playing one of my set pieces. Mucking about does not mean poor playing. The danger there is that the poor playing may carry over into my "real" practice. And of course, I should not neglect my set pieces. They get first priority. Having said that, I am tempted to record some of the fun stuff too.

I came away from the lesson feeling happy and confident. I have some definite goals for what I want from the violin, but not knowing where this journey is going to take me is exciting.