Month 6 and 7 Violin Progress Recap: Mid-Year Milestones :)

Hello everyone! I haven't updated this blog in a while as life has been pretty busy with work. I also took a vacation and went on travel. This was a great opportunity to recharge my batteries and come back feeling mentally refreshed and with more motivation to continue practicing violin. I'm not gonna lie, after coming home from vacation it's hard to be motivated to do anything for a few days. However, my motivation is back in full swing now that I have settled back into my everyday routine.

So, what progress have I made since the last time I posted? Well, I feel like it's not much but there's definitely a few very important milestones that I have reached:

1)  My bowing is starting to get straighter. Therefore, my tone is getting more solid and consistent. I'm still having issues with my bow shaking when I'm using the lower part of it (near the frog). However, I think it's a matter of developing my hand muscles to get my bow under control.

2) I started songs from Suzuki violin Book 2. To my surprise, the first song in the book was a lot easier than I expected it to be. I was very pleasantly surprised.

3) I have started sight reading through pieces of music and to my surprise it wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. This is a huge milestone for me as sight reading is something that I do not enjoy practicing (and I don't put as much work into it as I should *slaps hand*).

In addition to this, I will also be getting my first violin next week (hopefully) :D. It'll be my early Christmas present to myself! At this stage, I have outgrown my rental violin and it's time to get one that's much better quality. The music that I am playing at the moment demands a much better violin. Even when I play a song well, it still sounds terrible because the strings constantly choke. A few weeks ago, I stepped into my nearby music store and tried out a few violins and I have to say, the difference is HUGE. The second you start running the bow across the strings you can feel and hear the difference. I always thought that the bad sounds I was making on the violin were caused by my technique. It's very encouraging to realize that it wasn't just me, the violin was also working against me. I am excited to get my new violin and see the difference that it makes in my playing. My teacher is going to come with me so she can play them as well. That way I'll be able to hear it played by a professional and see the sound that it's able to produce when you reach a certain level of playing. I'll keep you posted on what happens next weekend! I'm super excited about it! :D