Practice Notes

Catch Up:
Average Practice time: 2 hours plus.

Third position is going well, but still has a way to go. I've begun Suzuki 1-14, the next Minuet in third and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My stamina is improving on the etudes, though when I try to do the basic pattern in third position it became 'very' clear why hand position is so important.

I also recently began discovering note pressure, and what was an unrecognized over compensation in my third finger, and correcting the same.

Vibrato, is basically just sitting there for the moment as I hammer on 3rd position and so forth. I did pick up a couple pointers beyond what my instructor has shown me related to the need for a relaxed hand when doing vibrato.

I put new strings on today, and was well pleased.

I'm up through the excellent Brahms Waltz now, and have it memorized. I'm working on the bowing and expressiveness at this point; and, discovered in the piece before it, the little Long Long Ago slur and stacatto exercise a lot of fun. (and hopefully technique?)

My general playing list is growing nicely. I've added Ms. McGuire's song, Ebb Tide in a couple keys, the Theme from Masterpiece Theater so far in three keys, and a little Neil Diamond after hearing a girl at work talk about it. I've also found that I'm going to have to find 'some' method of keeping my list better. I learn a piece and forget that I worked on it; and, sometimes I would like to master a piece and .... so the story goes.

IAP

I found myself overwhelmed by areas I need/want to practice every day. So as a good generalist here's my approach and current topic list. This post will be on going and added to as needed.

4th finger--10 minutes a day
3rd position- 30 minutes a day
etudes - 20 minutes a day
general playing - 30 minutes a day
new material 30 minutes a day.

Lesson Night

We hit a couple variations on the etudes, talked about shifting--which created the question for me that if I am to be practicing 3rd position, do I not have to practice shifting as well. We talked about alternating the bow direction on the G-string, clearing up a question I had formed because of lack of information. We didn't work on vibrato any, but I haven't done much on my own either, other than using the wrist I already am developing.

Practice Notes

Wow! It's been nearly 10 days since blogging!. I don't think this is what I had in mind in consolidating my blogging activity...

Anyway, I'm much more deeply into 3rd position, having watched my strength and agility improve though not where it needs to be, signficantly. For instance I was solidly 45 minutes on 3rd position exclusively last night, even pulling the Wohlfart into the mix.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul means here, that as a result of focusing on 3rd position, I've neglected the basic etude variations somewhat.

I began laying the formal foundations for vibrato, played with richochet, shifting, and have de-emphasized portamento for the moment. I haven't focused much on martele. Learned Ms. McGuire's theme (Fascination), and I'm always picking out music from piano, though I don't always remember them.

I have found that some music from other instruments is interesting on violin and some not. I was disappointed in "I Believe in You and Me" from the Four Tops and Whitney Houston. At the same time simple things like "Old Man River" from Porgy and Bess are very cool.