Four String - Six String- Eighty-Eight Ivory

I've finished my first piece of junior year. After playing the Bach Double, learning another concerto that borderline modulates every few measures (quite typical of him) was significantly easier. With that being said, my Junior Voice recital was this past weekend (which went very well), so most of my time until now has been devoted to that. This could have been learned faster, but it's here regardless.

Focus has been on my bow hold/wrist for the past year, and hopefully some of that efficiency is present. Bach is famous for the "three notes in one direction, one note in the other" approach, which often shoves everything to the top part of the bow. Writing in "USE BOW" throughout my music at important sections helps, but I'm still working at it. Thinking in formations of whole and half steps is also helpful in playing this correctly, and even though mistakes I usually wouldn't bother publishing are here, this was the first take, so I'd rather it stay.

In other news, my violin student Adalyn is also doing incredibly well. My education classes have shaped how I use Suzuki, Kodaly, Dalcroze, Blooms, Piaget, etc. in lessons. The best part is that it's working. She's already using the fourth finger, she can play her songs in two different keys, and she's starting to effectively read the staff at only six years old. I plan on making a binder (said the education major) full of our lesson logs, emails back in forth with her parents (who I still haven't met in person), any handouts, and misc. documents for my own record. I'm incredibly proud, and once again, could go on forever about what an incredible child she is.

Nonetheless, enjoy the (for the most part) gloriousness that is Bach.

My first school year with a Violin Secondary has ended. Ann gave me this piece to work on over the summer, and it's been going fairly well. Along with this piece, I've been peeling through Mazas' first volume of Etudes. I've finished one of them and hope to learn at least two more before the summer ends.

This piece required a lot of shifting to odd places on the finger board (which Mazas' No. 15 helped with quite a bit). It's a shame that I don't have someone accompanying me (as usual [wah]) because the chords underneath sometimes change, making it less repetitive.

I recorded this on the last day I taught my violin student for the summer. I leave for New Hampshire on Wednesday, and won't get back till late August. Adalyn has been doing so well, and I could type about her for ages, but I have my own personal records and notes on my teaching, and for now that'll be enough. We plan to continue when I return.

I'm preparing for my Junior Voice Recital in the fall, and I'm currently looking at a hectic Fall Semester. My progress on the Violin could go in any direction, but I'm thankful for the productive year I had. I'm hopeful that my practicing will stay consistent.

The semester’s almost over, and tomorrow is my String Jury. I’ve come a long way with this piece, and it’s definitely my favorite of the semester.

Some of the challenging factors of this piece were grace-notes throughout particularly fast passages, quick shifts in mood, and of course, tempo. While I could technically go faster than the tempo recorded in this video, the tension/possible injury that could result really isn’t worth it. Trying to find that balance between relaxation and speed felt like a lot of push and pull, and took quite a while.

I do feel accomplished with this piece, and hopefully tomorrow will go quite well. This semester had a lot of heavy workload in other classes, so practice time still fell short. I'd like to think that I utilize my practice time more resourcefully now, though. Ann gave me Massenet’s Meditation from “Thais” to work on over the summer, so I won’t be abandoning my practice time throughout the break.

I’ve spent the entire spring semester with this Viotti Concerto, and I wish that this recording displayed my ability to play it, but that sadly isn’t the case. This semester is certainly a busy one, and I can barely find the time to practice a piece, never mind record it. Once Ann told me that I was moving on to Monti’s Czardas, I did all I could to find time to learn what she had given me.

Speaking of time, I officially have my first violin student. Her name is Adalyn and she is five years old. Her mother plays the violin as well, and started her on the Suzuki method. Things have gotten hectic for her mother at work, so Adalyn was registered at my university’s community music program, and here we are. She is very shy, so trying to make her comfortable during lessons has certainly been a challenge, but I do believe I’m making progress. The most important point I can make about this experience is that I am having so much fun. Teaching private lessons is new to me, but it is something I want to do in the future. She has only had three lessons, but I’ve enjoyed every single one, even if they are hard work. I hope to update this blog with further information on these private lessons. Now, back to the Concerto.

The first half of this video is from my lesson, with Ann accompanying the concerto on her violin. My phone ran out of memory, so the video abruptly switches to a recording that was supposed to be for personal use. There are mistakes, and I intended to reflect on them and rerecord the piece before posting it here, but time has not allowed.

The main obstacle in this piece was tempo. I ended up being able to play most of this piece at 104BPM with a fair amount of accuracy. Most professional recordings of this piece are somewhere near 154BPM, which seems quite impossible, especially in the second section where the video changes. One way I was able to work on speeding up tempo (oddly enough) was by playing it faster than where I wanted to be. This made the overall goal seem a bit easier, but this isn’t a method I’d like to rely on in the future. The first half of this video is severely under tempo (Ann most likely had me play it somewhere between 90-95BPM), and the second half is a bit faster, but the purpose of that video was to improve technique, not tempo. I hope to get better at using the bow efficiently, and hopefully I’ll revisit this piece someday with the tools to play it faster.

The new semester has started up again, and after many snow storms and cancellations, I've finally moved on from this Handel Sonata. I've spent over seven weeks on this sonata as well as an etude when including the break. Parts of this video make me cringe, and some make me proud. Ann has started working on very particular components of my playing, including my bow hold. It's very tense, as you can tell from the second movement of this where I'm practically bouncing up and down on the chair.

Another component of these videos that can be a bit frustrating is the fact that my school's practice rooms absorb all resonance. Without the accompaniment in such a dead room, "performances" don't have much potential. I wish I could have someone accompany each of these videos, but that sadly isn't the case.

Pieces from the Baroque era such as this one can be very tricky to learn, as I found out when playing the Bach Double. Once they've been learned, Baroque pieces in my opinion really are very freeing, though I must say I didn't get the chance to really feel that way with this piece over the break. I wasn't practicing from 7:30-9:00am every weekday, and now with my spring schedule, that routine is impossible.

Lastly, this was the first piece I've worked on alone since beginning lessons at my university. Not having that guidance did complicate things, and I do wish I had time to work on it with Ann a bit more, but we've moved on to Viotti's 23rd Concerto, which I will surely benefit from.

Here's the audio track from my lesson on December 3rd. My teacher Ann is playing bits of the piano part under me on the violin, and it really makes for quite a unique sound.

I've spent the last three weeks with my fifth and final piece for the semester. This piece overall is very basic, but does quite a lot with the color of each note depending on what string it is played on and is very beautiful. Because the piece is fairly slow and constantly shifts, intonation was a big obstacle in this piece. Nevertheless, it is my favorite piece out of all the pieces I've performed this semester, by far.

I’ve spent the past three weeks with this Haydn Concerto, and it has been quite the learning experience. The concerto is seven-nine minutes with orchestral accompaniment, but still around five and a half without it. In this specific video, the first solo was recorded on the 12th, and the rest on the 13th. I suppose I could have recorded each section after I was finished with it, but my main intention was to play it all the way through. In the end, I figured I would take advantage of the starting and stopping I do in this piece.

A few challenges this piece presented were persistent rhythmic subdivisions, many double stops, and of course, the cadenza at the end of the piece. This is my first cadenza, and at this point in the video, I’ve only had one week with it. While I wish I could spend some more time with it, my lessons go on regardless. To be quite honest, I’m not completely satisfied with my ability regarding this piece. It may just be because I’ve developed some type of stockholm syndrome with this Haydn work, or maybe I’m just being too critical. Most likely both. Either way, enjoy!

October 22nd, 2013:

I have officially moved on from the Bach Double Concerto in D Minor. Along with this, I also recorded my lesson from later that day, but my phone couldn't handle the hour long video and erased the file after a software update. As a result, I only have a recording of my part alone, which isn't meant to be a solo, but suffices for the purpose of this blog.

Some technique that demanded my attention in this piece was the use of my fourth finger compared to an open string, rhythmic accuracy (especially compared to the first violin part), and consistent shifting of positions. I do believe I have made significant progress in those areas by learning this piece.

October 7th, 2013: (Happy Birthday to Me!)

I’ve finally moved onto the Bach Concerto in Volume Four, so I thought to record the Vivaldi before getting too integrated in the tougher sections of that piece. I think it’ll be a good habit to record my pieces before I move on to the next one.

There are, of course, the usual intonation errors in this recording, mostly after the fairly difficult sequence in the middle of the piece (which I was much more successful at in an outtake, which I will post after this). I do notice a fair amount of confidence in this piece with my bowing, phrasing, etc., that I didn’t see in the recording of the first movement. I spent more time on this movement, so it was a bit more performance-ready in this recording.

Though it may be slow, I do see a lot of progress in my playing, especially compared to last year’s entries. I cannot stress enough how much I love what I’m doing, whether the outcome be great or small.

Sept. 19th, 2013,

At this point, I have had two college lessons as a Violin secondary. I recorded this while practicing yesterday morning on the 19th, being the first piece Ann has given me to work on. While this is the first movement of the Vivaldi's concert in A Minor, Ann decided that it was fine to move on to the third movement given the speed she prefers I currently play it at.

Slow practice has been a definite theme these past two weeks, so for both of our sakes, I tried to speed it up for documenting purposes. I found this challenging to record mostly because if I made one solid mistake, I had to start over completely. In practice and lesson settings, it isn't much of a problem to just keep going, so the fact that this piece isn't performance-ready at the moment was a large obstacle to overcome. So there are a few minor mistakes here and there, but the overall is certainly a benchmark for my own personal progress.

Hello all!

I'm currently back at school, and had my first violin lesson as a secondary this past tuesday. My first piece for the semester is the first movement from Vivaldi's Concerto in A Minor, as seen in Suzuki Book 4.

I already learned the piece, but my professor really wanted to help me perfect it, and I am so glad she chose to do so. Many of the tricky descending sixteenth-note runs seemed very much above me before my first lesson alone, and now they seem very reachable.

I'm also in my University's Orchestra, where we are playing medleys from West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Pirates of the Caribbean, James Bond, and John William's movie compositions.

So far the experience has been a blast! I wake up at 6:15am every weekday, get to school by 7:30, and practice for 1.5 hours or so until my first class. That way I am able to focus and not be completely exhausted from the daily 5+ back to back classes in a row, and then some. I have a total of 14 classes! Possibly subject to change, depending if I add two more ensembles for voice.

I will try my best to keep this up and running, especially if I feel confident enough to record a piece while practicing. I definitely get more practice time in than ever before, so fingers are crossed!

Till next time,