Violin Lesson #57

Another week, another lesson.

I brought the klezmer how-to book that I picked up at the London Klezmer Quartet show last week. Laura liked it and started playing some of the tunes from it. Despite the fact that the easier parts are to the front of the book and the harder parts to the back, Laura found a song that she thought I could play somewhere in the middle. Okay, not the whole song, but the first part ... for now. I am currently playing four pieces so I'm even more keen now to finish them.

Also, I must remember to ask how far away, roughly, is "Jar Of Hearts", which was in a women of pop book I bought a while ago. There might be easier songs in that book, but I'm really looking forward to playing that one.

There was, again, less practice this week than I would have liked, but some weeks are like that. I just hope there aren't too many. I was able to play three pieces today: First Base, Plesiosaurus and Hear That Whistle. They are all getting very close to being finished. A lot of the instruction now is for fine-tuning the pieces, and to me that's very important. Whether I end up just playing for myself, or one day playing for others, I don't want the playing to be mediocre. That's not why I'm learning.

A few things that stood out today were my left thumb needs to be far more relaxed and lower on the next of the violin. If I can't get a good first position thumb everything else will be difficult so I will really be concentrating on that this week. Also, I need to have "McDonalds" fingers for the harmonics - that is to say, they have to be arched, not stretched. No, I'm not going to forget that any time soon =)

I have kept it short this week because it is very similar to last week. I know what I have to do to improve. Here's hoping I get a little more practice time this week.

Sarisha and I shared lessons again this week. Sarisha had scales and exercises (which I hope to be getting soon) and then her Indian piece "Paruvam Vanaga" from the movie Roja. There is a lot to this arrangement and it sounds so cool. The beginning few bars of the arrangement remind me of the Star Wars theme. It also has some technical elements I have not yet learned, but will learn eventually