Week Four: Getting Somewhere

Entry number four! 
This week was both short and sweet and I was able to make quite a bit of progress. Needless to say, I'm very happy about this and feel both refreshed and encouraged to keep plugging away!   

     For starters, I didn't really have a 'low point' this week, which is awesome! The only regret I have is that I wasn't able to work on my playing as much as I would have liked. Between homework, extracurriculars and get togethers I was able to squeeze in three practice sessions including my lesson. Even though I am beyond satisfied with my progress this week, I think I would have improved more if I had made more time for practicing. However, one can only do so much and, as you may have figured out already, I have a tendency to believe I am Wonder Woman and fully capable of everything. 

     My lesson yesterday was excellent! Piotr was thrilled with my hand positioning, resonance, bow traction and posture. He was also able to accompany me on the piano as I played my scales and my Russian Dance Tune song. After playing the song a few times, we moved on to to bigger and better adventures! My new challenge is Lightly Row. Piotr and I both agreed that it is a much simpler song to play than Russian Dance Tune, so I haven't been struggling with it nearly as much. In order to make it more challenging we agreed that I would start playing with fourth position. 

Violin Positions

     On the violin, each string has three set positions. Conveniently, when you play fourth position it produces the same note as the next open adjacent string. The only real difference between the two notes is that the open string often gives a bolder sound and is easier to play because it does not require any positioning from the left hand. When you begin to play in fourth position, it requires a different stretch from your left hand so it takes some practice to get the right pitch. This is my next project. 

     Without a doubt, my lesson was the highlight of my week, especially after not making very much progress the week before. It is exciting to be moving on and to have a new technique to practice. 

     Moving into next week I will be working on Lightly Row and my fourth position playing. Hopefully I will be able to improve my pitch for that note! 

     Lastly, as owed, here is a quick recording of Russian Dance Tune. No, it isn't mistake-free, but my left hand positioning is very much improved and my E string struggles seem to be fading away fast!  

Week Three: Learning Curve

     This week was harder than I anticipated it would be. After a very long seven days, I discovered that the progress I believed I was making, was in fact, not much progress at all.
However, we all have good days and bad ones. Positive and negative experiences are a natural part of life and in choosing to accept the bad experiences, we learn how to improve when moving forward. So, this is exactly what I have decided to do.

     I will begin on a positive note and share the highlight of my week, which was that I was able to practice five times! This is definitely an improvement from my previous practice habits since I was able to make space in my schedule to specifically focus on the violin. I feel good about finally putting in some time to work on my posture, songs and technique because it has been a goal of mine and has helped me to feel as though I've accomplished something.

     In these practice sessions I was able to work on my scales and on the Russian Dance Tune song, as well as Largo, but I found that playing this week was very difficult. After every practice session my arms were sore and my neck hurt from placing the violin. As well as this, I was struggling to produce a clear sound with the bow. A lot of my playing was scratchy and this both surprised and frustrated me because up until now I have not had problems producing a clear tone...other than on the E string. (Which I explained last week.) 
I tried using multiple techniques that Piotr had shown me to help improve my playing, but I felt like I was glued to one spot, no matter how hard I tried to push forward.

     It didn't help that my lesson was cancelled last weekend because of Thanksgiving, so I had not been able to talk to my teacher at all about the difficulties I was having. What was even worse was that when I went into my lesson yesterday morning, Piotr smiled at me and said "Alright! Amaze me!"

I couldn't help laughing a little as I explained to him that I had been struggling with my bow pressure and sound, and that everything was very difficult for me this past week.

Improperly Rosined Bow

I showed him what I had been working on and he then helped me to correct my positioning. As it turns out, the problem once again was the positioning of my left hand. In trying to correct my bow sound throughout the week, I was forgetting to adjust the position of my left hand. It was once again falling flat instead of remaining upright and curved. As you will be able to see in my video, there is an obvious difference in both sound and look when you correct your posture.  
After I was able to correct my positioning, which is now rather easy to do when I remember, Piotr helped my to work on the bow pressure. 

Properly Rosined Bow

     He helped me to angle the bow so that there was more traction between the hairs and the strings, creating a louder, clearer sound. To help explain the importance of the bow traction, he used the analogy of trying to drive a car with worn out tires. 
"When the tires are worn out, there is no traction. This makes it hard to break and to turn and to control your vehicle. It's the same with the bow. Once you have the right traction, you will be able to better control the sound." 
This has helped me a lot, and even since yesterday I feel much more comfortable and confident in my playing. As well as this, Piotr also taught me the importance of keeping the bow properly rosined so that it is easier to play. With the weather changing, I've learned that the bow requires more care than usual. 

     So as you may imagine, the biggest let down for me this week was learning that I had been practicing a lot, but practicing wrong. Interestingly my biggest win and loss this week contradicted each other. It has left me in a spot where it seems as though I have made no progress. But as I said earlier, when we choose to accept our mistakes and bad experiences, it allows us to grow.

     Moving forward I plan to continue where I left off last week. I will keep working on Russian Dance Tune and Largo while paying extremely close attention to both my bow traction and left hand positioning. Even though I did not learn a new song or technique to share this week, I do not feel discouraged or as though I have achieved nothing. I have learned new information about bow traction and hand positioning that will help me to build on what I have been working on, and I have been given this encouragement to help me propel forward:

"The first years of playing the violin are a violent storm. You are stuck in a boat and feel like you are going nowhere. But after the first year, you enter into this place where you can finally see the light and then start heading towards it." -Piotr

        

Week Two: Russian Dance Tune

     This week, as promised, I worked on polishing the Russian Dance Tune song. As simple a melody as it is, it is not without its challenges. I was able to work on violin three times this past week, with each practice session lasting about forty-five minutes. Unfortunately, the song is still far from perfection.

     The biggest struggle I have been having with this song lies on the E string. Since E is the highest and thinest string on the violin, it requires just the right amount of pressure from the left hand and just enough bow rotation from the right hand in order to produce the right sound. The proper bow angle is very natural and close to the body, so it barely requires any extra thought, but an even amount of pressure from the bow is still necessary in order to produce the ideal pitch. When the mechanics are correct, E can be a lovely string to play on, but otherwise, the result is a shrill, piercing scratch that makes your ears scream bloody murder. 

The Danger Zone

     Unless you, or someone you know, has journeyed through the process of learning to play the violin, you are most-likely lacking an appreciation for how brutal the higher sounds of the violin can be. A few months ago I found a story about European violinist, Arcangelo Coreli, that related to my struggles with the E string perfectly. Apparently, Coreli hated playing the higher sections of the violin because he believed that it sounded like screeching. Even though he played phenomenally, he never wrote anything above a D. On one occasion, Handel asked him to play a piece that he had written. This piece went up to a high A and Coreli refused to play it. When Handel assured him patronizingly that it could indeed be played, Coreli laughed in his face and said "I didn't say, Herr Handel, that I couldn't play it. I said it shouldn't be played!"
These are often my thoughts exactly while practicing the violin. 

     So, I was unable to master the physics behind the E string this week, but I will not give up. I will continue to work on making sweet music flow from the E string, but for the next little while, I plan to remain in my comfortable territory...at least until my ears recover.

Arcangelo Coreli

     After I decided I was sick and tired of forcing painful noises out of my instrument this week, I took it into my own hands to start working on a new song. This one is a favourite of mine and I look forward to sharing it. Largo from The New World Symphony relies much less on the higher notes of the violin and more so on the lower ones. It is a few pages ahead of where I am in my book, so it obviously requires more skill in the area of freely moving the left hand, but I am absolutely in love with it. Even as I played the melody for the first time-as rough as it was-I was so excited! I can't wait to add vibrato to it in the next few weeks as my playing improves. This step forward was my highlight this week. Since I had no violin lesson due to Thanksgiving, my goal is to work on it so that I can surprise Piotr next Saturday. 

     For the next week I will be working on Largo religiously and also practicing the Russian Dance Tune...reluctantly...in order to improve my skills on the E string. Along with this, I will continue to adjust my posture as needed so that I am well on my way to becoming a real violinist. My final hope this week is that I will be able to make more time for playing the violin so that I am practicing more for longer periods of time. Lack of practice can only result in lack of progress, and that contradicts the purpose of this project entirely. 


Until next week!

Week One: Twinkle Twinkle

Time flies!

     I have almost completed my second month of playing the violin which, even though it sounds like a decent length of time, is realistically only eight lessons. I will try to remember this throughout my post so that I don't beat myself up more than is necessary.

     This week I continued to work on last week's assignment...Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This is the very first song I learned to play on the violin, so there is an excitement in its simplicity because it is the first melody I was able to craft on my instrument. The link I have included was my mid-week practicing of the song. I struggled with it quite a lot earlier this week while trying to apply my teacher-Piotr's-corrections to my posture. This was because the melody was quite broken as a result of focusing on technique. 

Incorrect hand positioning

     I was concerned going into my lesson this week because between grade retreats, work and school, I had only practiced once. The Twinkle Twinkle I had 'mastered' consisted of choppy, scratchy notes that I wasn't entirely proud of, and I was bracing myself for disaster. However, I was shocked when I played the song perfectly and Piotr was absolutely blown away! There was a stark contrast between my mid-week attempt at Twinkle Twinkle and yesterday's performance during my lesson. After I finished playing, Piotr compared my to Fritz Kreisler, a famous Austrian violinist. "In my opinion," he said with a giant smile on his face, "Kreisler was one of the greatest violinists of all time. He hated practicing because he thought it did nothing for him. He practiced on stage and the first ten minutes of his concerts were always scratchy, but after this, he played beautifully!" He went on to say how when I played scales he noticed me struggling, but as soon as he asked me to play a song, every correction he had made was no longer needed. "You just play this beautiful melody and it's perfect." He said, "Excellent." 
I left my lesson yesterday beaming and filled with a drive to keep pressing forward. This was by far the highlight of my week.  

Correct hand positioning

     As well as perfecting Twinkle Twinkle Little Star this week, I worked on correcting the technique of my left hand. If there's one thing that I've learned about playing the violin it's that the sound you produce doesn't really matter in the beginning. What are truly important are the methods that you use to produce the sound. When you play the violin, it is crucial that your hands, shoulders, neck and arms are relaxed, and that everything looks and feels entirely natural. Without this component, every time you play, you will feel tension, and prolonged tension in your muscles will eventually lead to health problems. Obviously, this is not beneficial, but as Piotr says, "How are you supposed to relax with piece of wood sticking out of your neck?"

After two months I have concluded that playing the violin is everything but natural!

Correct hand positioning

      The major problem that I have been having with the technique of my left hand is that I use too much pressure. I tend to focus on the sound produced instead of my posture, and I end up squeezing the finger board too tightly. This makes it difficult for me to play. This past week I worked on relaxing my hand so that the violin just rests between my thumb and forefinger without any tension. I also had to allow myself to produce awful squeaks and scratches until I could better get a feel for the violin. Being musical and a perfectionist, this by far, was my biggest struggle this week, but it was a struggle that is proving to be worth it as I develop firm foundations.

     Charging forward into next week, my goals are to perfect a new song, Russian Dance Tune, and to continue to work on my left hand posture. As well as this, I am going to make sure the sound I produce is bold and captivating. 

     I look forward to continuing my adventure and sharing my progress soon.