Violin lesson #67

It has been two weeks since my last lesson. In that time I had leave from work and a break at Scarborough with my family. That was all well and good. The only down side was the lack of time to practice. I don't think I even practiced enough for one week let alone two.

It was great to be back at lessons. I did miss my time with Laura and Sirisha. 

I started this lesson with some sight reading. I feel comfortable with sight reading and enjoy doing it when I get the chance. It would do better if I slowed down a little and focussed a little more on what I was doing. This music had slurs and I missed many of them. However I do tend to get to the end of the piece without stopping or stalling. Another test involved clapping a rhythm and that went well. It was not so good when I had to sing it back - I have very little confidence in my singing voice. It was good enough for the purposes of this test. My last task was to tell by hearing whether the second of two notes on the piano was higher or lower than the first. These are all things I have to do when I sit for an exam .. eventually.

After this I got to play. Huzzah! I passed my two-scale G-Major arpeggio. And I did fairly well with my G melodic minor scale, even with the two bowing styles I had not practiced a great deal. I like the sad scale :)

None of my pieces passed. Again the Fiddler Fancy (which I played) and Hornpipe (which I did not play) are very close. But as close only counts in horse-shoe pitching and hand grenades, there was no sticker. I did learn though that you can hear when someone's fingers are not curved enough. No, really, it's true. I was there. I did learn some more about the music I am playing and there is plenty of work to do this week.

Sirisha was next. She earned a sticker for Raggle Taggle Hippie. Yay! And dare I say, it sounded better than mine. Or perhaps just different. I'm not sure.

Then there was a few minutes left for the Paploma duet. I didn't think it would be so hard to play something different to something the person next to me was playing. I have done this a number of times with Laura when she would accompany with violin or piano. Why it should be different this time around I am not sure. I don't pay enough attention to what Sirisha is playing while I am playing my part. And I am not 100% confident with what I am playing yet. I lose my place too easily for my liking. This means it needs more practice on my part.

On a side note... something I have learned since starting lessons is to recognise Monti's Czardas when I hear it. I turned on the radio the other day, and I knew it almost immediately even though it was a version with mandolin and accordion (instead of the violin). And yes, the rest of the family had to listen to it as well. The slightly spooky thing is that very same recording played again a few days later. This has been on my wish list since I heard Laura play part of it very early on in my violin education. And seeing as it is a Grade 8 piece I am guessing it is going to be on my list for anywhere between eight and twelve years. Gee, perhaps I can learn to play it well enough to perform it when I'm sixty LOL. If not perhaps Laura will be kind enough to play the whole piece for me.

This is one of my favourite versions not only because of Maxim Vengerov (one of my violin idols) but also because of the three bass players. Outstanding.