Long Bows (warmup - about 3 minutes)
Focus: Bowgrip, tone & sound quality, feeling the balance / weight change as bow goes from tip to middle to frog and back
Primrose (F maj, ii pos, about 10 minutes)
-Scale on all strings (4-finger patterns)
-Patterns 1 & 2 on all strings
Focus: "ratchet" movement of LH / arm between strings, relaxing thumb and LH, removing tension from LH esp on lower strings
Sevcik Bow Technique (about 15 minutes)
-reviewed eighth note bowing practice (stopping & starting)
-added half note / half rest patterns, LH of bow
Focus: consistent tone during sustained notes, no bouncing / chattering / pulsing on sustained notes, feeling beginning and end of each note, maintaining bow plane on double stops.
Gazda 3 (fingering, meta-phrasing, about 40 minutes)
Bach B-minor Allamande (readthrough, about 30 minutes)
Friday, September 5, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
OOF!
That was the sound of me realizing I haven't updated in a month... whoops.
Well, the good news is that I haven't been idle during that month. School has kept me mucho busy, and I'm playing 20 hours / week and more. I'll start posting practice logs again soon, because I want to keep track of my progress a bit closer now that I'm actually taking lessons again.
Well, the good news is that I haven't been idle during that month. School has kept me mucho busy, and I'm playing 20 hours / week and more. I'll start posting practice logs again soon, because I want to keep track of my progress a bit closer now that I'm actually taking lessons again.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Quick Tuesday session
Primrose, Cmaj 7th pos all strings. ~ 25 mins. Hand fatigue wasn't as bad, but may have had something to do with starting out on lower strings instead of upper.
Schradieck, #1 2nd half on G. Felt it by the end - I think I'm going to continue doing a few lines a day on G in addition to running through half/full exercise on a diff string.
Just a quick pre-lesson warmup - don't actually teach for another hour, but needed to get my fingers working a little bit here.
Schradieck, #1 2nd half on G. Felt it by the end - I think I'm going to continue doing a few lines a day on G in addition to running through half/full exercise on a diff string.
Just a quick pre-lesson warmup - don't actually teach for another hour, but needed to get my fingers working a little bit here.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Monday, part deux
I got a good 90 minutes in this evening. A lot (probably too much) of tension in LH in high position on low strings - gotta work on that and need to remember to ask Davidson about it. I also need to start writing down how long I practiced everything, because... yeah, times might be a good thing to note.
Anyhoo.
Primrose: Cmaj, fifth pos. All strings (as mentioned above, LOTS of LH tension)
Sevcik op1: 1, 1st line + a few measures. Having problems putting down 4 with the drone and with leaving all other fingers down - top of the hand wants to stop the higher string as well. Something to ask about.
Sevick op2: 1st exercise all strings, plus read ahead a little bit.
Schradieck: 1, G. Got the first half before hand fatigue became an issue. I think I need to focus a bit more on work on the G to strengthen LH a bit more.
Trott: #2, getting both notes to sound clearly and evenly. Did some work with just open strings to try to get consistency there - it helped, but still needs a little bit of work. I tend to lean to the high string on the longer notes. This, too, can be resolved.
Gazda: #2. reworked a few fingerings, as the C on G doesn't want to speak on the downward runs when it's the last note. I'm thinking that playing something else on the G before the C will help.
Anyhoo.
Primrose: Cmaj, fifth pos. All strings (as mentioned above, LOTS of LH tension)
Sevcik op1: 1, 1st line + a few measures. Having problems putting down 4 with the drone and with leaving all other fingers down - top of the hand wants to stop the higher string as well. Something to ask about.
Sevick op2: 1st exercise all strings, plus read ahead a little bit.
Schradieck: 1, G. Got the first half before hand fatigue became an issue. I think I need to focus a bit more on work on the G to strengthen LH a bit more.
Trott: #2, getting both notes to sound clearly and evenly. Did some work with just open strings to try to get consistency there - it helped, but still needs a little bit of work. I tend to lean to the high string on the longer notes. This, too, can be resolved.
Gazda: #2. reworked a few fingerings, as the C on G doesn't want to speak on the downward runs when it's the last note. I'm thinking that playing something else on the G before the C will help.
Monday
Despite the lack of posts, I *did* practice some Sunday as well as earlier today (about 45 mins each session), but it was primarily sight-reading to try to stave off boredom. I think that's really the hardest part about not having had a lesson in almost 6 months, I've not been given anything other than remedial work so I don't have anything to move forward on. But, oh well.
Going for another session tonight.
Going for another session tonight.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Practice Session 1
Did pretty well today, got a bit over 30 mins in so far.
Primrose - Cmaj iii: G Did the 'scale' over all four strings along with some moments of honesty thanks to the tuner... Very revealing. VERY revealing. One more thing I need to work on.
Trott #3 - smooth changes between notes and stretching within position between some of the trickier intervals (I have small hands, reaching an octave in 1st pos can be a pain from time to time). This is a LOT easier with the Jeandel, at least sound production wise. The Carlesso sounds a lot scratchier and more forced.
Sevcik op2- 1, all strings. Getting a little bored with this one, but I did notice a difference (especially on E) between doing it right and doing it wrong.
Schradieck - 1: 1-13 on D. Started to feel fatigue in LH so put away, will return later in the day.
Gazda - 2 w/ metronome. Notes are there, need to work on dotted 8th-16th rhythms with the metronome a bit more, and then just work on making it as pretty as possible for my next lesson (after all, I shoulda been working on this more over the summer... whoopsies).
I'm feeling a little guilty for not digging out Yost or Hrimaly or Flesch to work on alongside the Primrose, but... those will probably be assigned at some point in the not terribly distant future anyway. For now, just getting the time and the effort put in should be enough.
Hrm. Maybe I should dig out the Bach for later in the day.
Primrose - Cmaj iii: G Did the 'scale' over all four strings along with some moments of honesty thanks to the tuner... Very revealing. VERY revealing. One more thing I need to work on.
Trott #3 - smooth changes between notes and stretching within position between some of the trickier intervals (I have small hands, reaching an octave in 1st pos can be a pain from time to time). This is a LOT easier with the Jeandel, at least sound production wise. The Carlesso sounds a lot scratchier and more forced.
Sevcik op2- 1, all strings. Getting a little bored with this one, but I did notice a difference (especially on E) between doing it right and doing it wrong.
Schradieck - 1: 1-13 on D. Started to feel fatigue in LH so put away, will return later in the day.
Gazda - 2 w/ metronome. Notes are there, need to work on dotted 8th-16th rhythms with the metronome a bit more, and then just work on making it as pretty as possible for my next lesson (after all, I shoulda been working on this more over the summer... whoopsies).
I'm feeling a little guilty for not digging out Yost or Hrimaly or Flesch to work on alongside the Primrose, but... those will probably be assigned at some point in the not terribly distant future anyway. For now, just getting the time and the effort put in should be enough.
Hrm. Maybe I should dig out the Bach for later in the day.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Bad Violinist...
....didn't practice today (and didn't go beyond the first 30 minute session yesterday).
Tomorrow, I'll be making up for this (and then some).
Tomorrow, I'll be making up for this (and then some).
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Practice 1
30 mins
Primrose - Cmaj ii : G
Trott - #2: focus on smooth finger changes and string crossings. especially the 00 - 20 - 03 transition.
Schradieck - I 1-25: E
Sevcik - 1: All strings
Primrose - Cmaj ii : G
Trott - #2: focus on smooth finger changes and string crossings. especially the 00 - 20 - 03 transition.
Schradieck - I 1-25: E
Sevcik - 1: All strings
Whoops....
... well, there went four months of not updating this blog at all.
It's not a huge deal, as my plan for summer lessons fell through due to finances and I was honestly quite happy to take some time off to rest my shoulders. I've still been teaching so it's not as bad as it could be. I also played a concert in late June, so I've only really been 'off' for a month. Not bad. Definitely time to get back into things before school starts.
Right now, focusing on 30 minute sessions, hopefully 3x -4x / day. Just going to focus on the etude / remedial work for the time being. I'll slowly expand the time and repertoire once I get going with it again, but I don't want to get too far into anything because I don't know what Davidson is going to want me to study. All I know is that I'm bored with Bach and I'm thinking that Bruch might be too big of a bite for me to chew at the moment. We'll see what happens.
It's not a huge deal, as my plan for summer lessons fell through due to finances and I was honestly quite happy to take some time off to rest my shoulders. I've still been teaching so it's not as bad as it could be. I also played a concert in late June, so I've only really been 'off' for a month. Not bad. Definitely time to get back into things before school starts.
Right now, focusing on 30 minute sessions, hopefully 3x -4x / day. Just going to focus on the etude / remedial work for the time being. I'll slowly expand the time and repertoire once I get going with it again, but I don't want to get too far into anything because I don't know what Davidson is going to want me to study. All I know is that I'm bored with Bach and I'm thinking that Bruch might be too big of a bite for me to chew at the moment. We'll see what happens.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Picking a warmup routine
Proposed Daily Routine
Beginning of practice session:
After a short break:
After a longer break:
No practicing Fri or Thurs - bad JamiJo
Beginning of practice session:
- Primrose / 5 mins
- Sevcik Bowing practice / 5 mins
- Sevcik Fingering patterns & intonation practice / 5 mins
- Schradieck Fingering patterns / 5 mins
- Trott / 5 mins
- Gazda / 5-10 mins
After a short break:
- Primrose 2 mins
- Sevcik Bowing 2 mins
- Sevcik Fingering Patterns 2 mins
- Schradieck Fingering pattern 2 mins
- Trott 2 mins
After a longer break:
- Primrose 3 mins
- Sevcik Bowing 3 mins
- Sevcik Fingering Patterns 3 mins
- Schradieck Fingering pattern 3 mins
- Trott 3 mins
No practicing Fri or Thurs - bad JamiJo
26 March 2008
Had two practice sessions today, the first one was so-so, the second one was really good. Both were probably about an hour. The good fiddle is in the shop getting some open seams along the bottom fixed, so it took a little bit to get used to the not-so-good fiddle. I should really name the both of them to tell them apart better. (I think the not-so-good fiddle is gonna be called Chip, because someone chipped all the varnish off from the purfling to the edge of the instrument around the top and the bottom plates - very odd, never seen anything else like it, but it certainly is disctinctive. I have NO idea what to call my other fiddle).
In any case...
Session the first I spent a little bit of time on Primrose to warm up, a little bit of time on the Schradieck, and then played through the Bach A-Minor concerto for some fun. It really wasn't too productive, other than the amusement factor. I do like the piece, and it's probably worth spending some time to actually work up to speed. Feeling guilty, I pulled out the Bruch and worked some on the lyrical section and the chromatics and then played through the first page a little bit. Again it was okay, more amusing than any real work being done.
Session the second was quite a bit more successful. I didn't set my timer, but I worked on the Primrose 2nd position C-Major 'etude' for 3 or four minutes with the metronome, going through the first two iterations of speed. Even working on it for just that short period of time really gets felt in my arm - which is good, because it means that I'm working and not reverting to lazy habits when Davidson isn't there poking at the back of my hand. It's challenging to try to correct the hand position after playing for so long the wrong way. Did about 3 minutes of the first bowing exercise in the Sevcik in all three bow locations and on all four strings. That's the book that's going to be the hardest for me to do focused practice on. Whee, yayfun, open strings and bowing patterns. What could be more boring? But if I start working it in as part of my warmup routine (which I really need to solidify and get consistent about), it shouldn't be so bad. Then the Sevcik technique book. It's all about fingering patterns, kinda like the Primrose, but I'm supposed to be using it for intonation practice against a drone - I was having difficulties hearing the resultant tones at my lesson, but I heard them really clearly today. Maybe it's just Chip being more obnoxious about overtones than the other one (probably even more so due to the open seams on the other one). Maybe it's just that I was better prepared to listen to them today. I heard them though. Took the first line of the Sevcik technique book and went through that nice and slowly and VERY focused on it. Probably spent 7 or 8 minutes just on that (which is a lot, considering that I was focused for the entire time). Then I tossed Schradieck up and went through a few lines on that. Again, could definitely feel that I was working a little differently in my LH, kinda like with the Primrose. Trott, just played through. Tomorrow I'll work more on #3 and getting the string crossings as smooth as possible, then start honing in a bit more accuracy on the fingerings. And then I spend a good 30 minutes working on Gazda, getting fingerings settled in for #2. That's something that's also going to be really good, making me sit down and think about the fingerings and actually write them in. So, it's fingered for now. I'll come back to it tomorrow and make sure that I like them and start breaking it up into smaller chunks. The whole point of the Gazda etude book is to make things sound preeeeeetty, lyrical and singing.
In any case... that's it for today.
In any case...
Session the first I spent a little bit of time on Primrose to warm up, a little bit of time on the Schradieck, and then played through the Bach A-Minor concerto for some fun. It really wasn't too productive, other than the amusement factor. I do like the piece, and it's probably worth spending some time to actually work up to speed. Feeling guilty, I pulled out the Bruch and worked some on the lyrical section and the chromatics and then played through the first page a little bit. Again it was okay, more amusing than any real work being done.
Session the second was quite a bit more successful. I didn't set my timer, but I worked on the Primrose 2nd position C-Major 'etude' for 3 or four minutes with the metronome, going through the first two iterations of speed. Even working on it for just that short period of time really gets felt in my arm - which is good, because it means that I'm working and not reverting to lazy habits when Davidson isn't there poking at the back of my hand. It's challenging to try to correct the hand position after playing for so long the wrong way. Did about 3 minutes of the first bowing exercise in the Sevcik in all three bow locations and on all four strings. That's the book that's going to be the hardest for me to do focused practice on. Whee, yayfun, open strings and bowing patterns. What could be more boring? But if I start working it in as part of my warmup routine (which I really need to solidify and get consistent about), it shouldn't be so bad. Then the Sevcik technique book. It's all about fingering patterns, kinda like the Primrose, but I'm supposed to be using it for intonation practice against a drone - I was having difficulties hearing the resultant tones at my lesson, but I heard them really clearly today. Maybe it's just Chip being more obnoxious about overtones than the other one (probably even more so due to the open seams on the other one). Maybe it's just that I was better prepared to listen to them today. I heard them though. Took the first line of the Sevcik technique book and went through that nice and slowly and VERY focused on it. Probably spent 7 or 8 minutes just on that (which is a lot, considering that I was focused for the entire time). Then I tossed Schradieck up and went through a few lines on that. Again, could definitely feel that I was working a little differently in my LH, kinda like with the Primrose. Trott, just played through. Tomorrow I'll work more on #3 and getting the string crossings as smooth as possible, then start honing in a bit more accuracy on the fingerings. And then I spend a good 30 minutes working on Gazda, getting fingerings settled in for #2. That's something that's also going to be really good, making me sit down and think about the fingerings and actually write them in. So, it's fingered for now. I'll come back to it tomorrow and make sure that I like them and start breaking it up into smaller chunks. The whole point of the Gazda etude book is to make things sound preeeeeetty, lyrical and singing.
In any case... that's it for today.
Papagei Geige - Take 2
I need a place to record my practicing and musicalishness - so this be the spot. Sorry if it's boring from time to time, but I need something that's mostly for me.
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