Violin Lesson #36

Practice this week was tough. Not because the pieces or the exercises were hard, but because of how much there was to do and the way that I like to practice. I like to practice (and I like to play, anything) and I also like to spend time with my family. So it is a balancing act how much time to devote to practicing. I have been trying to aim for half an hour. By and large this seemed to work. Some sessions were shorter and others were longer. I would rather NOT limit the time I spent practicing because I don't like to feel rushed. I enjoy it. But I also need to be practical and consider my family as well.

I turned up a little earlier than my 5pm start time. I like being at the studio early because I never know what I am going to hear. For example, last week I heard Bach Cello Suite No 1. in G (the prelude sounded familiar but I had to look up the piece). This week I heard young Nathan playing the theme to Raiders Of The Lost Ark. The music belongs to the movie but will forever remind me of The Idea Of North performing a Star Ward medley. Also, Laura was accompanying young Nathan on piano, and it sounded pretty good. Apparently I don't get to play that until later. Much later. For now I have plenty to do. The things I am learning now will help me prepare for the exam I want to take in due course. John Williams will just have to wait =)

To my lesson ... it started with sight reading, and here I only stuffed up because I count my fingers incorrectly. When I was learning the accordion,  my right hand fingers were numbered from one (my thumb) to five (my pinkie). To this day, when I think of some of the songs I learned over thirty years ago, I can still remember which finger played which note - not necessarily the notes themselves. And since I have been playing some of the old accordion songs on the violin, some of that numbering has carried over. When I was asked if there were any second finger notes in the piece, I said yes. There weren't any. What I was thinking of as second-finger notes were actually first-finger notes. First finger in violin was second finger in accordion. While it may be fine to learn to play the old accordion songs this way, I am going to have be more diligent about fingers and notes as they pertain to the violin.

Then I played "Blast Off". While it is not a complicated song, there are things I was not doing correctly. I was not respecting the rests in the music. I was rushing through the song. When I slow down it sounds much better, and it gives me time to move my hand to the correct position for the fourth-finger harmonics. I need to keep my hand setup the same and just slide it along the neck of the violin to the body. What I was doing was moving my hand around the neck. I gather from what Laura was saying that this is something I will learn to do correctly later on.

For next week I will be doing the next song in the Super Studies book, called "Operation Space Station". This song also involves harmonics, and includes third-finger harmonics. This requires a feather-light touch with the left hand, and a "grip and rip" accent with the bow.

Then came Shark Attack. I didn't feel confident enough to play it with the CD accompaniment, but I did get out the metronome and play it all in time on Monday night. This week it will have to be with the CD. It generally went well, though the dynamics weren't always there. I want to make sure I can play my music with dynamics. It's great to play like a virtuoso, I'm sure, but even then music will sound pretty ordinary without light and shade in volume.

Next I went through the scales for A major and D major, one of them with whole bow and one of them with quavers. This passed so for next week I will be learning the G major scale. This involved first and second next to each other. All my work to this point has been with a gap between first and second fingers, so this will be interesting.

I didn't get a chance to play the arpeggios or the left-hand pizzicato so they will have to wait until next week.

I was quite happy with how this lesson went. I can relax a little for the holiday tomorrow. Unfortunately, there is no holiday for Laura who will be working on the Gold Coast.