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.
