This week brought many interesting twists and turns.
My biggest struggle was once again finding the time to practice. I managed to work on my playing three times thanks to some in-class time and my Saturday morning lesson, but if had I not had guaranteed time set aside, I don't believe I would have practiced much at all. I fully intend to improve on this next week, but unfortunately with a busy school schedule it is hard to guarantee anything.
Another struggle that I had this week was fully learning how to play in fourth position. After what work I was able to do on my positioning, the pitch of the note is still not quite right. However, Piotr assured me that my posture and playing on the string itself is excellent and that it just requires some tweaking to get the pitch right. With each practice session it slowly sounds better and I am hopeful about future practices.
After working on Lightly Row and my fourth position this week, Piotr told me I was (to my surprise) ready for a new challenge! He would like me to work on playing faster and pushing myself more because he believes I can rise to each new level that I move towards. Hungarian Folk Song is my new endeavour and the highlight of my week! I was able to learn the melody within eight minutes on Saturday and will now spend next week mastering it. As well as this, Piotr showed me how to bow the strings as if I were 'massaging' them. This sounds odd, but after a few attempts it made perfect sense. Both the feel of the bowing and the sounds leaving the strings were much more full than they had previously been, and my playing improved a lot from this single adjustment.
I feel very inspired moving into next week thanks to both Piotr and my passion project group in my class. All of these people have pumped me full of both wisdom and encouragement and I look forward to the continuation of my adventure!
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