During my lesson this week I was told to get Suzuki Book 2! This is very exciting and a huge milestone for me! Although we haven't completely finished Book 1, my instructor likes to go back and forth between the end of Book 1 and the beginning of Book 2. She likes to go back and forth between some of the shorter pieces in Book 2 and the longer pieces at the end of Book 1 since learning so many long pieces one after another can get tiring for a beginner student. We shall see how this goes!
This week I feel like my bowing is finally starting to click and feel more natural (on most days). My tone is also a lot more consistent than it ever has been. I went back this week and practiced old pieces that I haven't touched in a very long time and I have to say that it sounds so much better now and feels more effortless. It was kind of surprising. A month ago those pieces didn't sound nearly as decent as they do now. They're not perfect but what a huge difference a month can make in one's playing! I was always a little bit skeptic when we moved on to a more advanced piece when I felt that the previous piece I was playing didn't sound decent enough. I guess sometimes you just have to sleep on the pieces and come back to playing
them after spending a while practicing more advanced songs and skills. If I stayed on the same pieces until they were perfect I would probably never move on to learn more advanced skills and songs plus I would probably get sick of playing violin very quickly. There's only so many times that I can play "May Song" or "Song of the Wind" before I get bored out of my mind with them.
In addition to this, my low 2's and high 3's are a tad better now. Now I also started learning low 1's. The use of the fourth finger is getting a lot better too. I still have to think about it every time I am going to use it though. I doesn't come naturally yet and sometimes lands in the wrong place. Hopefully it will get there at some point.
I am quite happy with the progress I have made. I am glad to be moving on to Book 2 as I think I'll enjoy playing the pieces in it a lot more. I have listened to people on YouTube playing these pieces and I do like them very much as they have more substance to them. A lot of the pieces in Book 1 are very boring (they obviously have to be since you need something easy to start off) so sometimes it took all the will power I had in me to practice, especially after I had played the song a few times already. To be honest, I am glad that my instructor departs from Suzuki Book 1 and gives me songs from another book too. Doing all the songs in Suzuki Book 1 would be extremely painful as I don't like them very much (with the exception of the Minuets). I like having pieces in the Suzuki Book 1 substituted for others that teach the same/similar skills or notes that the Suzuki songs do.
Currently, I am starting off "Happy Farmer" from Suzuki Book 1. There is interesting bowing in this song, which will take me a while to get used to. Looking forward to learning the last pieces in Book 1 and the rest of the Minuets as they are some of the more interesting songs in the whole book. Also, I have to work on my sight reading a bit more. That's the part of learning music where I slack off a bit. I should do it every day instead of only a few times a week (or sometimes not practicing at all). I'm trying to get on track with that and work on it for a few minutes each day at the end of my practice sessions. I hope I can get myself on track and stay on track!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Month 3 Violin Progress Recap: Minuet 1 and the Violin Slump
This is my 3 month and 1/2 (almost 4 months) recap. It's hard to believe that I have been playing the violin for almost 4 months. It definitely doesn't feel like it. It feels like I just started yesterday!
This month (and the end of July) has been a little bit slow as there were two or so days that I did not have lessons. Therefore, not many new tunes have been added to my repertoire. For the most part I have been polishing my older pieces. However, I finally made it to Minuet 1 by Bach! YESSSSS, my first REAL piece!!! I have been wanting to play the Minuets forever. It's nice to be able to play a piece that is more than 2 or 3 lines long.
Of course, with the Minuets come a few new skills that will take some time to improve on and polish. One of these is the use of the fourth finger. This has been giving me a bit of difficulty as it feels awkward and my finger isn't very "fit". I get very inconsistent tone when I use the fourth finger and my finger never lands in the right place. It will probably take some time to get the muscle memory to kick in so I don't have to think about where my finger is supposed to go.
In addition to this, I think this is also one of the first few pieces I have played that involve the use of more than 2 strings. Therefore, swinging my elbow to move around the fingerboard is a bit of a challenge. This is especially true for using the 4th finger since I really have to exaggerate this motion to be able to stretch and reach the note as my fingers are short. My coordination for this needs some work. My Minuet 1 still sounds quite awful and is very slow so I assume it will take more than a few weeks for me to improve and feel more natural while playing it. I can't wait until the use of the 4th finger feels a bit more natural so I can play this piece more smoothly.
Another piece I have been working on recently is the fight song of my local University. I am half way through it. Apparently this week we'll discuss new notes that show up in the remaining portion of this song. It's much easier than Minuet 1 so far so it hasn't been much of a struggle. We'll see how that changes this week when I learn the rest of it.
Ok, so how do I feel about the progress I have made in almost 4 months? It could be better but I feel that I am doing well for the amount of time I can practice violin. I go through these slumps where I just don't want to practice very much so on weeks like those I don't practice every day (which is not good). However, then I learn a new skill or piece that I like and get my enthusiasm back so I go back to practicing every day. My "slump" so far lasted about 3 weeks. I just didn't feel like doing anything because I was "stuck". I was not seeing very much progress and wasn't learning any new skills. During one of those weeks I only practiced less than 3 hours, which is extremely little given that I try to practice 1 hour a day (every day). Eventually I recovered and got my motivation back. I guess I just have to plow through practice even during the days when I'm just not feeling it. I'll thank myself later for practicing.
This month (and the end of July) has been a little bit slow as there were two or so days that I did not have lessons. Therefore, not many new tunes have been added to my repertoire. For the most part I have been polishing my older pieces. However, I finally made it to Minuet 1 by Bach! YESSSSS, my first REAL piece!!! I have been wanting to play the Minuets forever. It's nice to be able to play a piece that is more than 2 or 3 lines long.
Of course, with the Minuets come a few new skills that will take some time to improve on and polish. One of these is the use of the fourth finger. This has been giving me a bit of difficulty as it feels awkward and my finger isn't very "fit". I get very inconsistent tone when I use the fourth finger and my finger never lands in the right place. It will probably take some time to get the muscle memory to kick in so I don't have to think about where my finger is supposed to go.
In addition to this, I think this is also one of the first few pieces I have played that involve the use of more than 2 strings. Therefore, swinging my elbow to move around the fingerboard is a bit of a challenge. This is especially true for using the 4th finger since I really have to exaggerate this motion to be able to stretch and reach the note as my fingers are short. My coordination for this needs some work. My Minuet 1 still sounds quite awful and is very slow so I assume it will take more than a few weeks for me to improve and feel more natural while playing it. I can't wait until the use of the 4th finger feels a bit more natural so I can play this piece more smoothly.
Another piece I have been working on recently is the fight song of my local University. I am half way through it. Apparently this week we'll discuss new notes that show up in the remaining portion of this song. It's much easier than Minuet 1 so far so it hasn't been much of a struggle. We'll see how that changes this week when I learn the rest of it.
Ok, so how do I feel about the progress I have made in almost 4 months? It could be better but I feel that I am doing well for the amount of time I can practice violin. I go through these slumps where I just don't want to practice very much so on weeks like those I don't practice every day (which is not good). However, then I learn a new skill or piece that I like and get my enthusiasm back so I go back to practicing every day. My "slump" so far lasted about 3 weeks. I just didn't feel like doing anything because I was "stuck". I was not seeing very much progress and wasn't learning any new skills. During one of those weeks I only practiced less than 3 hours, which is extremely little given that I try to practice 1 hour a day (every day). Eventually I recovered and got my motivation back. I guess I just have to plow through practice even during the days when I'm just not feeling it. I'll thank myself later for practicing.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Month 2 Violin Progress Recap: OCD About Violin Tone Production
Ok, this is my 2 month and 3 week recap. I have been quite busy and didn't have time to update. I have been working on a few new songs and also reviewing old ones. Here is the full repertoire of songs I can play:
My complete repertoire:
1. Twinkle, Twinkle (and variations)
2. French Folk Song
3. Drunken Sailor
4. Song of the Wind
5. May Song
6. Saints Go Marching In
7. Ode to Joy
8. Aura Lee
9. Can Can
10. Flop Eared Mule
11. Blow The Man Down
I have been working on improving a few different things that have been bothering me. The E string was my arch nemesis for a long time. It always sounded so screechy and I absolutely hated the sound of it! Therefore, I worked on improving the sound of my E string and am pleased to say that it sounds much better now. I think it's my favorite sounding string now. I now love playing songs that involve the use of the E string.
In addition to this I have also been working on my tone. Tone is something that I have always been very OCD about so I'm still trying to find the sweet spot for the bow and straighten my bow. My bow is all over the place. I watch myself in the mirror to make sure it's straight and as soon as I stop looking I know that it starts to get crooked. The bowing doesn't feel any different to me whether it's straight or not, which makes it hard to know if I'm doing it correctly or not when I am not looking in the mirror. Hopefully it'll click in my brain at some point. Guess I just have to keep trying.
My complete repertoire:
1. Twinkle, Twinkle (and variations)
2. French Folk Song
3. Drunken Sailor
4. Song of the Wind
5. May Song
6. Saints Go Marching In
7. Ode to Joy
8. Aura Lee
9. Can Can
10. Flop Eared Mule
11. Blow The Man Down
I have been working on improving a few different things that have been bothering me. The E string was my arch nemesis for a long time. It always sounded so screechy and I absolutely hated the sound of it! Therefore, I worked on improving the sound of my E string and am pleased to say that it sounds much better now. I think it's my favorite sounding string now. I now love playing songs that involve the use of the E string.
In addition to this I have also been working on my tone. Tone is something that I have always been very OCD about so I'm still trying to find the sweet spot for the bow and straighten my bow. My bow is all over the place. I watch myself in the mirror to make sure it's straight and as soon as I stop looking I know that it starts to get crooked. The bowing doesn't feel any different to me whether it's straight or not, which makes it hard to know if I'm doing it correctly or not when I am not looking in the mirror. Hopefully it'll click in my brain at some point. Guess I just have to keep trying.
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