Laura tells me this week and next week will be the last lessons of the year and after them the concert towards the end of the month. This lesson was crammed full of music and knowledge. I wonder how Laura gets so much into a lesson. Then it occurred to me: she runs over time :) Not just for Sirisha and I but I think for many of her students.
We are fairly happy with how Minuet is going to sound so there was no focus on that this week. There is still no sticker for Jumpin' Jelly Beans so this needs the most work. I don't get it. The piece sounds pretty good at home and I work on what Laura tells me, then when I play in class it goes to pieces. I expect part of that is to do with confidence. After a few mistakes nothing seems to stick. Last week Laura said I needed to swap strings faster. The next day at home and for the rest of the week that part was good. And in class today it was poor again. There is a mind-set here that is holding me back and when I find out how to fix it that will be a good thing.
Laura mentioned that I should play the piece slowly and speeding it up will be easier because it has been practiced so well. And I need to practice with a metronome to find out where I am rushing or where I am slow, and to make sure the speed is consistent all the way through.
Te Deum is going well, There are still some issues with the notes on the E-string. I will have to be mindful of those when I practice this week. It does sound pretty cool. Again, I got stuck playing from a certain bar because I did not recognise the notes. I can start from the beginning of a phrase but I struggle to play a particular bar. I don't know how concerned I should be about this. It may only be important in class when we are learning to play a piece ... or there may be more to it than that.
There was also theory this week, oh yes there was. We looked at duplet and triplets and how they can be simple or compound, and how they go together to form time signatures. It all comes back to mathematics, and since I speak mathematics fluently it didn't take long to see what Laura was talking about.
I also had a moment to bring up ABRSM exams. I am going to prepare for Grade Two. Laura showed me some of the pieces I can play for the exam, and there along side the William Tell Overture was Londonderry Air (aka Danny Boy). Laura thinks I should be ready by March or April next year depending on how much time and effort I can put into my practice. I think I need something like this to keep me focused and to set some challenges. I was a little surprised that Laura was surprised I wanted to do ABRSM exams instead of the Australian AMEB ones, and it surprised me more that not many of Laura's students went with ABRSM. Laura made it sound really good last week so I don't know why more people don't do it.
Sirisha's pieces also sound really good. Here Laura started talking about different ways of playing the same piece. She mentioned one of them had warm sections and cool glassy sections. What sound you make depends partly on the bowing and I think partly on the player's own creativity and feelings. It's intangible. A student and professional musician can play the same piece but it can sound quite different. A professional musician can add colour and texture and feeling to a piece that a student can't. It's hard to explain, and I think also hard to teach. I think I'll know it when I play it and also when I hear it.
For one of Sirisha's songs - a Caribbean tune - Laura suggested a different bowing technique. It's one that is not annotated in a standard way but violinists know what it means. It's "somewhere between staccato and legato" :) All I know is I like the way it sounds and certainly did give a different vibe to the piece.
I think this is the part I am going to like the most about playing - letting out what is within, Playing pieces in different ways for different effects. Right now I will settle for playing correctly and be assured that playing with colour etc will come in due course.
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