Suzuki Book 2!! Woohoo!

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!