Violin lesson #93

No free concerts and not a lot of practice time this week. I did get Friday off for the G20 summit - a gathering of various political leaders.

There was a request for the Sage to perform at a recital. Oh frabjous day. At the lesson it was decided to perform the Telemann Minuet I recently completed and Jumpin' Jelly Beans by Loreta Fin.

Also this week Sirisha forgot her violin so Patience did double duty. It was kind of weird to hear someone else (other than Laura) play my violin, and I am not sure how it felt for Sirisha, but it sounded pretty good. Her violin is similar to mine so I imagine she felt fairly comfortable.

I played 'Te Deum' first up. This week I learned how to play close to the bridge. I need to play slower and lean into the string more and in return I get a richer sound. Obviously I can't play everything like that, but this is a slow majestic (maestoso) piece so it is appropriate. To my inexperienced ear, I was getting a very similar sound to the sound Laura was playing. I am the first to acknowledge there is a big difference between Patience and her violin, and I am sure there a things I am missing when I try and compare sounds like that, but to me it felt good that I was able to get a sound that I felt was comparable to a professional violin player.

After this there was time to go through Jumpin' Jelly Beans. Here there were tips on how to cross quickly between strings. By keeping my elbow on a level that can easily double stop (play two strings at once) I can keep the elbow steady and change strings with my wrist movements. The tricky part for me is to play fast enough so that my bow and fingers can keep in sync with what they are doing. Also, having so little leeway between the strings means it is easy to miss the string I want and hit the other, or play both at once. So I want to be able to, above all, play this cleanly yet as quickly as possible. It is listed as 140 to 160 beats per minute. The Old Fiddler Man I eventually got to 150 so it is within my range. And since this going to be a recital piece we want it to be extra polished.

Sirisha started learning a new rhythm too, and it was a Carribean one. To me the first part of it sounded like "ency clo pedia" :) Funky. I like it.

Mostly that's it. Short and sweet and lots to do between now and December 20.