Violin lesson #113

The Sage had another great lesson this week. We covered a lot of areas. I don't know what Laura had prepared, but she showed she was able to incorporate my questions, which was very cool.

During the week, Sirisha linke us with this video. It is an Indian player, sitting cross-legged on a bed, playing violin. Essentially the violin is upside-down but he seemed to have no trouble playing it and getting a great sound. Contrast this with Greta Kelly sitting in a similar position but holding the violin differently. I wonder whether each could play the other's style of music without changing how they hold the violin. I then wanted to know how to play sitting up (cross-legged can come later). So Laura showed me how best to sit on the corner of the chair where my legs are naturally apart, so with a good posture I can still play all strings with the full bow.

After this we moved on to scales again. This week I played an ascending scale but after each note I played the one two notes further along, so I would play 1st, 3rd, 2nd, 4th, 3rd, 5th note and so on. I should say "we" played because Laura played the same pattern one bar behind me, so it was played as a round. For something so simple it sounded beautiful. If people are practising together it is a great way to experience playing scales. The other pattern we played was 1-2-3-1-2-3, 2-3-4-2-3-4, etc. Once the patterns are memorised it is easier to think about bow position and string crossing.

The first piece I played was El Padrino (The Godfather). I did some very good during the week and it was sounding pretty sweet. Laura had a few pointers for me to work on before the next lesson. I don't need to play this song quickly which means there is more time to give love to each note.

Then I played Click Go The Shears. This was sounding good too. I need to work on bow positioning to get the best sound for some of the longer notes. Also, I need to work on my fingering. There is one place where I need to put my first finger on a higher string than the second and third fingers. This proved to be quite a challenge. I need to relax my hand to be able to move the fingers independently without affecting the shape of the palm. Relaxing your hand sounds easy, but I can see it's going to take me a little while to be able to manage this without the brain getting in the way.

More than two years on I am still loving my lessons as much as ever.

On a side note, this month I participated in Mindful In May. This had two purposes: a) to teach mindfulness through meditation, and b) to raise funds for clean water projects around the world. I mention this because I think I can apply mindfulness training to the way I practice. Indeed I might find out that Laura's teaching will lead to the same result. There's only one way to find out...