Practice Notes (weekend summarized)

Had a pretty intensitve weekend. Average = 2 hours each day. Pretty much finished memorizing Schubert: Ave Maria, and played most of the way through Bach's. Accompanied my other coach on Bach's, up to the point that I've learned it(almost all). Either tinkered or played with the first seven variations of Wohlfahrts etudes, doing pretty well. Learned most of a small Mozart minuet, and should finish both this, and Bach's Ave Maria up this week. Caccini's is next. I found the Bach version especially nice, and as mentioned earlier fairly easy--my treatment and level considered.


I also played around with the 4th finger exercises some. And when I do some of the earlier Suzuki 1 in warmup have begun extending the bow tip to tip. I worked through this tip to tip as well on Bach's AM with my other coach--"save your bow!." I hope this will make me more stable on long slow pieces. I have found for whatever reason, I seem to have better bow control on more dynamic pieces like the Musette (2-2), and the Bach minuette (1-12--I think).


The name of the baby trill is a mordent. If there is a perpendicular line going through the middle of it, it is played one note below the note annotated. If there is no perpendicular line, the note is above the note annotated. The mordent is a Baroque flavored device that is most often used in keyboard music, but as in the case of at least one version of Schubert's Ave Maria, is also used on violin.

One potential use of the mordent is to simplify an accent, particularly when the music is very busy, but it is important to mention that the mordent also has a somewhat specific and unique effect upon the accent being formed--potentially.