Month 1 Violin Progress Recap: The Violin Journey Begins

I have been taking violin lessons since April 23, 2013. My lessons are once a week for 30 minutes. So I have taken a total of 9 lessons up to this point. However, I actually started "playing" on the violin on May 7th, 2013. Therefore, I have been "playing" the violin for about 7 weeks. The first 2 lessons were mostly just getting to know each other, getting set up with an instrument, learning to hold the bow and violin properly, and bowing on my shoulder to get a feel for how the bowing should feel like. I was not allowed to play a single note until we had worked on these things and I completely understand why!

 Now, about a month and a half into my lessons, I am pretty happy with my progress. I play a few teacher improvised songs (or exercises) designed to teach me a certain skill. These aren't actual songs. In regards to real songs, I can play "twinkle, twinkle" and its variations,  "French Folk Song", and "Drunken Sailor". My sailor is still a little bit drunk and needs some extra time to sober up. :) When I play it too fast my bow or fingers don't move as fast as I want them to so I am still working on my accuracy at higher speed. Currently, I am working on "Song of the Wind" from Suzuki Book 1.

I use 3 different music books in my lessons. My teacher uses the Suzuki method to teach adult students. Therefore, I have the "Suzuki Violin 1" book. In addition to this I have the "I Can Read" book for reading music and an additional book that has some folk/children/classical music (can't remember the name at the moment).

In regards to reading music, I am starting to recognize the notes (especially the ones from the A and E string) much faster than I used to. I still need to learn to read ahead and also to keep my bow in the right place while I am sight reading. While sight reading my concentration is fully on reading the notes and consequently my bowing technique and left hand finger positions go out the window. Hopefully this will improve with time.

I have been keeping a log of the hours that I have practiced (we'll see how long I'll be able to keep that up and not forget) just to know how much time I have actually spent playing. I try to practice at least one hour a day. Some days I can't practice but I try to stick to practice time every day as much as I can. If I can't practice one day I try to make up for it by practicing more than one hour the next day or during the weekend. Up to this point, I have practiced a total of 43 hours (this does not include the lesson lesson times).  Only 43 hours?! That's pretty much equivalent to a single work week (40 hours). It definitely feels like I have been practicing more than 40 hours! I still have a long long way to go. However, I am happy with my progress so far and look forward to more!