I felt I had a good week of practice this week. Typically I will try and play each piece through ten times then stop and think about how it went and what I can improve. There were three pieces this week so it took a little time to get through them all. Even so, I had a little time to work on repertoire :)
Before the lesson I had time, at work, to listen to some ABC podcasts. One was about Wagner's "Ring" cycle operas, specifically Siegfried. The other was the aforementioned concert with the Australian Youth Orchestra and Joshua Bell. The concert was great, but I was more interested in the interviews during the broadcast. It seems that two out of three professional musicians have come through the AYO. I am nearly 47, making me almost twice the maximum age of an AYO member. So, if I do become a professional, I will be in the minority who are NOT alumni of the AYO.
On to the lesson... which this week started with me giving Laura the copy of Women Of Pop for violin that I bought from Simply For Strings when I bought Patience. There were a few songs in a key suitable for my level, one of which was Raise Your Glass, by Pink. Laura wasn't sure if she knew the song so she did what any professional violinist would do and just started playing the score. That's the level I want to, and will, get to... one day. When Laura got to the chorus she realised she knew the song after all :)
Next was sight reading, which is something we will be doing frequently from now on. I enjoy it, and I nailed the song except for the start of the second line. What I was most proud of was that when we played it as a duet and I mucked up, I recovered enough to finish the song. Laura's advice was to "finger" the song as I am reading it before playing to help with learning it before playing.
The first song I played was "Home Sweet Home". It was close last week, and closer this week. So close it was worth a sticker. I felt good playing it too. I needed to play some of the notes a little quicker but on the whole it was good., especially when I used less pressure on the bow. Patience doesn't like too much pressure :)
Following this was Piggy's Song. I told Laura I hoped I could play it as well as I did Sunday night, because I felt I nailed it then. I was even playing the ending with variations, and toyed with the idea of playing one of those variations in class. But I didn't. What I did do was play the song well enough to pass it. It's a cute song, and one I will try to record and post later this week.
Next was Railway Express. I was a little less confident with this song because (a) it was newer, and (b) I had practiced it less than the others. Alas, this one did not pass. I felt I rushed it, so the good sound wasn't there, and I didn't know this piece as well as the others. Never mind. It will sound better next week.
After this the new work started, and it just kept on coming. There is a new song called Shark Attack. This is from Sea Suite, which itself comes from String Time Joggers. This is longer than any previous song I have played - it is 42 bars of music. There is the the first song in Super Studies For Violin. It's called Blast Off and is simple enough. Then there are scale exercises where I need to play the A major and D major scales up and down in whole bows and four quavers (aka "alligator"). And finally left-hand pizzicato. I am sure this will more than keep me occupied for the week.
I have noticed that most, if not all, of the music I have played thus far has been in D major. For those not musically inclined this is different to the C major scale on the piano - the scale that consists entirely of white keys and is usually the first scale learned in piano. In fact, I have been able to "transpose" the songs I knew from the accordion from C major to D major just by playing each note one tone higher on the violin. Ah, scales... I remember thinking when I first started that I would like to play scales. Here's my chance.
And that is that for this week. Like I said, there is plenty to do.
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