Violin lesson #80,#81

It's still a case of steady as she goes. No more stickers since last time and no new pieces.

Looking back at the last blog there was no small not of pessimism. I should not be so negative. There have been no stickers but I have been learning all the time. I learned what it means to play baroque style (no vibrato - unless it is an embelishment - which is good because I don't know vibrato yet). I learned that advanced and professional violinists prefer to tune by ear rather than use tuners or smart-phone apps because there is a certain ringing you can hear when the instrumnent is in tune that can't be picked up otherwise. I learned about chromatic scales - they are scales which use every half-tone in an octave. Laura mentioned this because Sirisha was playing in third position and wanted to know how to tell whether adjoining notes  were close-fingers (half tone apart) or open-fingers (whole tone apart). If annyone asks you, B and E are the only naturals that are not followed by an accidental (sharp) when ascending. And of course that makes C and F as the naturals without a flat when descending.

There has also been constant fine-tuning of my bow hold and violin hold. I know I will be thankful for this one day. Laura tells of times when she was at uni where a teacher would get her to do a very basic exercise over and over again to reinforce some point or other. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to know how to play beautiful and intricate pieces yet spend hours on some seemingly minor point. I get an hour lesson a week (shared with Sirisha) and sporadic practise at home so it is going to take a little longer fo rme to get things right. It's not good or bad: it is how it is.

The other thing is getting my body to do stuff. It's the same problem that plagued me when I learned yoga and tai chi. The more I try and make myself do something or copy someone the harder it gets. For the violin it is learning to relax. Shoulder, arm, wrist, hand fingers... all need to be relaxed. When I think they are, Laura shows me they can relax more. I didn't know I carried tension like that. It is only obvious when I hear the difference between playing with relaxed muscles and playing with tense muscles.

My lessons have moved to the 5-6pm time slot. It means I get home a little later but won't need to make up time during the week.

And tomorrow I look forward to a Mzaza event. Can't wait :)