Month 4 and 5 Violin Progress Recap: Left Hand Death Grip and Building Speed

Boy, has it been a busy couple of weeks! So busy that I didn't even have time to update this blog. I'm still practicing violin, even though the amount I've managed to practice for the past few weeks has been very little. However, I'm slowly getting back on track with violin practice now that my schedule is finally winding down a little bit.

Moving on to my recap, not many new skills or songs have been added to my repertoire since the last time I posted. I wasn't able to take lessons a few times so I have mostly been working on polishing up my old songs. I think the only songs I have added to my repertoire are America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee), Happy Farmer, Mexican Hat Dance and Minuet 2. I am currently working on Minuet2, which is my favorite song from the Suzuki Violin Book1. I have been dying to play this since I first started with the violin so I am very proud to have gotten this far. This song has some crazy string crossings but I really enjoy the challenge!

In addition to this, I have also been trying to reduce left hand tension. I sometimes have a death grip on the violin neck, which starts causing pain in my left hand after I play for a while. It's slowly getting better. However, I still have to think about it while I'm playing. My hand isn't "tension-free" quite yet. I assume it will take a while to get rid of it as it seems to be a very common problem among beginner violinists. I have to constantly remind myself to keep an eye on it.

For the past few weeks I have also been trying to get more comfortable with the instrument and stop being too careful while playing. My teacher tells me that I am a bit too cautious, which could end up being a hindrance instead of an advantage. I agree! I over-think way too much and don't really build up my speed because I'm afraid of hitting other strings or having my fingers land in the wrong spot. Therefore, I'm trying to just "go for it" when I'm playing without thinking too much (even if it sounds awful for a while). I've been building up my speed every day. Hopefully it all clicks at some point and I can play faster without making too many mistakes.

I guess that's all for now! There are probably other things I've worked on during the past few weeks that I forgot to mention in this post. I'll come back and post about them if anything else comes to mind. :)