#makeshiftmetronome

So yesterday I texted my teacher asking if he was able to help with my orchestra repertoire as well as cover My assigned stuff. He offered an hr session which I agreed to do. He said let’s cover the orchestrastuff first during my lesson I wish we started as usual because we started off great but it just went downhill from there as I was really struggling with the rhythm but I think it was more the Bowing and everything else we did end up getting to my assigned pieces and I played barcarolle which he said is sounding really good so hopefully I can get the green light on my pieces and technical stuff next week. But I’ll be adding in my metronome more into my practice sessions. So I felt after my lesson that I was my teachers worst student and a failure but he is only doing this to make my sightreading a lot easier down the track and to make me a better as a musician, from this lesson it’s put a fire in my belly to really work on my rhythm first.

Overall good lesson I have quite a lot of stuff to work on but nothing I can’t handle.

When I arrived to my lesson today my teacher asked if my practice slump was over. My answer was “yes, I think so!” He said well that’s good. We as usual started off with a couple of scales G Melodic Minor, and A Major scale, and A Major arpeggio. He didn’t give me the green light on those because even though he knows I can play them second try, he wants them done first go ahead because he said even though these scales are easy (to me they’re not easy) if I become lenient now when he gets me to do the harder techniques I will struggle because I didn’t get the easier notes. Which he is right and he did say I’m very close to having these done though. We also did some work on one of the technical exercises which I’m having issues stretching from c natural to D# which he said it’s nearly there just need to really stretch my 3rd finger a little more. He then asked to hear a couple of my pieces high I started with barcarolle and he said that it’s getting better but I really need to exaggerate the dynamics which I’m having issues differentiating piano to forte as the violin is under my ear and what I think I’m doing dynamic wise as he can’t exactly hear the dynamics but he did say that the fluidity, smoothness, and tuning f the pieces are great, just need to focus on the dynamics and work on polishing up the bow touches ect, and these pieces will be done. For me this is all new and I’m experiencing these things for the first time so for me it’s quite exciting seeing something I’ve been working hard on paying off can’t wait for these pieces to be done and I can move forward

Today’s lesson was a little different from my normal lesson. Halfway through my week I sent my teacher a text explaining that I feel like I’ve hit a wall with one of my pieces and I don’t know what to do to make it even that 1% better. When I arrived at my lesson my teacher asked if I had gotten through my wall yet my answer was a no. So he basically said well we need to get to the bottom of this as this to me is more important then the scales, and technical exercises at the moment. So we spent most of the lesson unpacking what the musicality f this piece is. He asked a simple question about the emotion of the piece which I answered it sounds like 2 people are in love. To my surprise after my lesson I did a little research on this piece and it’s about this guy who falls in love with this lady but she doesn’t love him back but instead of telling him that she doesn’t love him she instead seduces him to think she loves him, and she is only doing this because she was promised a diamond ring by this other guy, which I think it’s kinda tragic. Overall i feel like this lesson was a great motivator to getting me focused at the task ahead but it’s also something that I can take with every single piece I encounter. My teacher did say that next week he expects that my scales and technical exercises will be good. He also mentioned that I am so close to moving forward with my scales and technical exercises and my pieces.

My lesson this week was good, we got through quite a bit of stuff I arrived early in the hopes that I could warm up my fingers in another room while he taught a student in his teaching room. Well that didn’t happen but he did tell me to go practice while he made himself a coffee and was responding to a couple of emails so I warmed up with a few scales and after about 10mins he said “ok I can’t take that anymore, let’s just start the lesson.” 😂😂 so he started with a couple of scales G major, and A Melodic Minor in different bowing patterns. And 1 arpeggio which was F major. My teacher seems to think that I could have these done next week or the week after depending on how much I practice them. And same with the technical exercises once I have achieved what the technical exercise is targeting and I execute it right then I’ll move onto the next set of technical exercises. Which I’m apparently doing well and I’m really close to moving on. He also listened to my 3rd position studies the ones I was having issues with and made me aware of what I was doing the 3rds I’m fine going up to D3 but coming down my intonation is all over the place so I’ll be addressing that issue in my practice sessions. The other study has 4 crotchets to a bow slur and I was having issues with making it sound clear and even. My teacher just said all this study is basically a whole bow you don’t have to do much with your right hand, the left hand has to change the note which makes sense. He said the tendency I have is to use so much of my bow on my first 2 notes and then run out for the other 2 notes so he said try and keep the bow speed even and instantly I think making the issue known helped a lot to make something click and then execute what the study was achieving. He then asked to hear a piece and for some reason I chose cantabile but kept stuffing up he did say that he wanted to give me a new piece but I guess that didn’t happen. I think he was secretly hoping I would play barcarolle which I’m burning out and can’t think of any other way to make it sound better even that 1 percent better it’s starting to feel dry and I don’t know what else to do. I’ll have to talk to him about this piece next lesson in the hopes of either moving on or taking a break from it. He then finished off the lesson with my vibrato exercises and checking in with how I’m doing which the wall knocking is going great I just need to build up those muscles which can take time I guess. Overall I had a great lesson jam packed but I also felt deflated that I didn’t do as well as I hoped I would.

My lesson today was a couple of scales, a few of my technical exercises, and working on the double stop phrase of the piece barcarolle. He said that my scales are getting better and are pretty much in tune, I just have to work on my bow distribution. The 2 Technical exercises we worked through were the chromatic finger movement and the preliminary shifting exercise the only thing I have to work on for those is making sure I release the tension of my finger for the chromatic finger movement and make sure that with the shifting I’m in tune for first finger in 3rd position, which it was better after the second run through. We then went through a couple of the studies in 3rd position and I had to be honest with him in saying that I’ve been struggling with the studies and haven’t really focused on them much as there is just way too much of them to work through and I get overwhelmed so we decided to only focus on 3 a week and chug along at them making each one consistent ect. He understands that I do work and that so he isn’t against me not practicing them but I think in order to get better it’s now time to focus on the studies as they will help once I start to explore more advanced repertoire that needs 3rd position shifts and fingering. We did some quite extensive work on My piece barcarolle today he asked to hear it all no interruptions I did stop a few times while playing which he has told me I need to stop doing so that he can diagnose the problem because if I stop he doesn’t know if it’s a wrong note or bowing or something so that’s a habit I need to break. He then asked if I could play the double stop phrase which I did and each time it got better and better he also mentioned that the B and open D need to be more intone with each other so he pretty much told me that it’s a small difference but the violin resonates more when it’s perfectly in tune. He also made a comment that rhythmically it’s perfect and he said it was better then he was expecting since I have issues with my rhythm at times. Overall it was a good lesson, and I can really see where my progress is and what I need to work on to get better.

So far (February 15th 2018) I’ve been compiling all of my violin methods and I’ve decided to share them for free. All of them are copyright free for they are quite old and vintage. Feel free to send me any method you have, in order to add the to the list and grow the information exchange. Go and spread the world, violinists of the world! https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ImN-naFU8duIdJAMncemAgM3lS9Qs36f

Today’s lesson was on a rainy Saturday, I usually have a lesson on Thursdays but since I have been working all week and my teacher didn’t want me to miss a lesson since he was going away he suggested I come in on Saturday morning before he had some rehearsals for the festival he is playing at. As always we started off going through last lessons stuff and stuff he had said I needed to work on from the previous lesson, which we started off with theme from Beethoven’s concerto as I have been working on legato I’m playing the legato fine but I still need to work on string crossings as I kept on hitting other strings. We went through May time and I was given the pass on that one. We for some reason didn’t go through the g minor stuff, but we did go through the mixed time signature pieces and he pretty much said they were fine. However, the triplets I can’t play at a slower tempo so he suggested I play them a little faster along with his makeshift golf stick metronome and it was much better. Still I have to work on the triplet piece. Because I’m near the end of my book he has given me the 6 performance duet pieces to work on while he is away. Lastly we went through alla breave or half time which like of you remember with 6/8 time I’m very confused and it didn’t make sense at all but I’m sure that I’ll get in my own time. I’m hoping I’ll stay occupied for the next 2 weeks, I’ll try with the metronome and work on the rhythm and string crossings. In other news the reason why he wants me to work on the pieces is so that I can start the ameb technical book and pieces which I’ll have for 6-12 months at a time, as each grade have pieces that are jammed packed with technique that will take longer then 2 weeks to master, I’m excited!