The practice sheet is still paying off. It's helping to keep me focussed. Although, sometimes I find I am not playing a piece often enough to keep to the twenty minute target. Something is going to have to give.
The lesson was at 2pm this week. It came at a good time since I had forgotten my glasses at home and by about that time I had a headache. Also, Sarisha was after me and she was bringing in a violin she was considering buying, and it was was okay with her and Laura that I sit in on her lesson. More on that later.
I start off as I often do with the exercises. They are less fun but more important than playing set pieces. The heart beats were pretty good. The sound at the heel of the bow is getting there. I am sure there must be techniques I'll learn later that will make use of that. This week I'll be doing the G-Major arpeggio instead of the scales, just to change things up a bit. The double stops exercise had improved. This week I have been advised to pause slightly on the first line when adjusting from playing two strings to playing one again - it makes a cleaner sound. And I still could not get a good even sound with the whole bow on two strings. At home it's not too bad but I couldn't nail it in class today.
Wave Machine was next. It sounded okay, but apparently I play with the edge of the hair on the bow instead of the flat surface. I just know there is going to be a time I will need to do that and won't be able to get it right. For now though I'll concentrate on doing that, and again, playing with longer bows - that is to say, longer strokes of the bow, not a physically longer bow...
I passed my Heat Haze. The sounds on the G- and D- strings were still a little off for some unknown reason but the rest of it sounded pretty sweet. This song has one-and-a-half beat notes (aka dotted quavers) and I was previously taught to count that as 1 2 and 3 4. Laura suggested using the power of mathematics, so that the first know is a three-count (instead of one and a half) and the half note is now a one count. I found this easier than the first way. Cheers Laura.
This carried over to Medieval Tale. This was good too and Laura suggested improvements, like really leaning in to the most important notes in a phrase to give them a little more oomph. Stuff like that is not written down in the music. It is something that is picked up as you go, and I am really grateful that I have a teacher who is willing to share this extra knowledge and experience. It may not seem like much but it can really make a difference to the way the music sounds.
Then came the new song - an Irish-themed tune called Raggle Taggle Hippie. Do they even have hippies in Ireland? A little while ago I learned to play grace notes (don't make me try to recall the technical term - it's late). Now instead of one grace note there are two and three of them at a time. I had a go and felt like I was getting there. It's much easier to do it on a piano :) This is quite a long song, especially if I honour the repeats. I think it is going to take a while to learn this, and to get it right, but I am sure it will be worth it.
I didn't get to play The Old Fiddler Man since we were out of time. Laura wants to hear me play it amazingly one time to pass me on it. It will have to be next week then.
With my lesson done, Sarisha came in with her violin and the one she was thinking about purchasing. Laura played it first and it sounded great. Sarisha said the asking price was $1,800. Just to compare them, Laura played the same music on Sarisha's current violin. The new violin sounded much better. Sarisha played one of her songs (King William's March I think) with it for a little while. It was hard because there were no "stickers" for the finger positions. Sarisha has been playing about the same length of time as I have and I know that I still check the stickers from time to time. Eventually Laura asked to play with Patience to compare it to the new violin. She played it, and I marvelled as I usually do that Patience can produce such sound. Yes, I know it's not all her, but that sound would not be there without her. Patience sounded nearly as good as Sarisha's new violin. Laura mentioned there were a few things she could hear in the newer violin but I'm not sure what they were. Personally I was happy my $500 (I'll be honest here, I think Patience was almost a steal at that price) violin compared favourably with the violin we were looking at. Eventually it was decided the new violin sounded great but did not suit Sarisha. I felt a little bit bad for her because she didn't end up getting it and had to keep looking, but good at the same time because she is one step closer to her next violin.
After the first song Sarisha played her other piece. It was from an old Indian Movie. I saw the amount of notes on the page and I was stunned. There were a lot of them, you see. And I thought it was amazing. It was so cool to hear something like that. Sarisha had not taken long to learn it, partly because she was so familiar with the piece. She is going home to India and wants to play that for her family. I hope they will like it as much as I did. To finish with, Sarisha was also given Raggle Taggle Hippie. It will be interesting to see how we both go learning that piece. One thing I picked up from Laura going through this with her is that it is okay to leave your finger on two strings if you are going to play them one after the other. I did not notice that so much in this sing, but there are other songs I am working on at home where this will come in handy.
After the lesson Sarisha mentioned that it has never been her intention to become a professional musician so she feels she doesn't need a violin to match. She just wants to be able to play for family and friends. And me? I hope to be able to become good enough to play at the same level as a professional musician. Could I be one? I really don't know. I suppose it depends on where the journey takes me.
I did watch Dancing With The Stars after my lesson. This clip shows Tina Arena and her dance partner Damian Whitewood performing a paso doble. The first time I watched it I found it hard to take my eyes of the violin soloist who provided the music for the dance. She was amazing. I figure if I can play well enough to appear on a TV show like that I would be more than happy. Then I found out who she was. Sally Cooper. I might not ever be better than her, but that doesn't mean I won't try (even if she looks better in that white dress than I would, but that's another story).
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