Since it is the beginning of Christmas Break, I normally wouldn't have a lesson this week, but because I missed two of my lessons earlier this year, I had the privilege of a makeup lesson. They squished both of mine together, so I had one on one time with Piotr for an hour and a half! This was the highlight of my week. I played my violin about five times this week. In my lesson, Piotr decided to take me back to the beginning for review. We spent the first fifteen minutes of my lesson bowing on just open strings. By doing this, I was able to see the different ways that I could improve my posture and sound, and Pitor gave me a lot of helpful tricks. We talked about keeping the weight of the bow even, being able to apply force to the bow without squeezing, as well as the importance of letting the violin rest on you. Now that I am becoming more comfortable with the instrument, everything that he had been telling me from the beginning was much easier to understand and apply to my playing. After a long warm up filled with scales and bowing techniques, we went back into some of the old songs that I had learned. By playing these again, I was able to see how I had improved. I was very pleased with myself in this sense. When we got to the page with my Christmas songs, he asked me which one I wanted to play, so I chose Silent Night. To my surprise, this is what we spent the rest of the lesson on. He took me through the whole song and got very excited as my playing progressed within the ninety minutes. He told me the best ways to begin the song and how to guide the bow so that it was softer and more delicate. Even after I was content with the sound, he continued to get me to play, and then he accompanied me on both the piano and violin until he was satisfied. When I left he told me I had no choice; I had to perform the song for my friends and family. So that is what I did. I have had no real struggle this week, other than not being able to work on Turkey in the Straw or St. Anne's Reel, but Piotr promised that we would work on them more in the new year. As well as this, he told me that we would work on vibrato as well. I am very excited and look forward to this. For now, I have left you with a recording of Silent Night from today. Moving into next week, even though I do not have a lesson, I will try to work on my fiddle tunes and scales as much as I can, remembering all of the little tips and tricks I learned this week!
There is not much for me to report this week, but I will do my best to summarize it nicely. Much to my disappointment, I did not progress with Turkey in the Straw as much as I had hoped.
First Position
I was able to practice four times this week, including my lesson, but I am still not very confident about my playing. I'm finding it difficult to use a shorter bow and transfer back and forth between strings so many times during the fiddle tunes. This, along with trying to maintain a constant speed, has been very challenging. When I played the song for Piotr, however, he was impressed that I had made as much progress as I had in just one week. He suggested that moving forward, I try to relax in the song so that it becomes more fluid, and I hope to work on that next week.
Third Position
Instead of playing St. Anne's Reel, we continued to work on my Christmas songs. I am happy to report that they are continuing to improve! Inspired, I attempted Jingle Bells this week as a new Christmas tune, but it was awful! Interestingly, I learned that the bad sound was not entirely my fault. Piotr told me that almost all pieces for the violin are written in keys with sharps. For example, G, D or even A, but my copy of Jingle Bells was written in F, which contains B flat. The finger positioning for this note is very different than the sharp notes that I am used to playing. As well as this, I also learned about third position this week. This position is used to play higher octaves and is kind of interesting. I've taken some pictures that show the difference between first position, which I am used to playing in, and third position. Piotr provided me with some exercises to get used to playing multiple octaves of my scales. This was the highlight of my week because it was cool to learn something entirely new.
Moving forward I will continue to work on Turkey in the Straw, and practice playing in third position.
As promised, Piotr gave me two fiddle tunes! Turkey in the Straw and St. Anne's Reel will be my focus for the next week, and I am very excited about it. Whether it's the speed, the key, or the general feel of the songs, I do not know, but I love playing them already. This week, I worked on my violin three times. Up until yesterday when I received the fiddle tunes, I was plugging away at my two Christmas songs. They are slowly becoming beautiful, and I hope to have them nicely rounded for Christmas. My brother is a typical musician who loves a good jam session, and my cousin plays fiddle music in various folk competitions. I hope to be able to play with both of them when they come home this year.
It was very interesting when Piotr explained the difference between classical and fiddle music to me yesterday. Before we started Turkey in the Straw, I played Silent Night for him to hear. He pointed out ways for me to lengthen the notes on my bow, and to make my movements more grand and fluid. Quite contradictory to this, once we started the fiddle tunes, he instructed me to use a very short bow, fast movements, and to not worry about hitting wrong strings now and then. The reasoning behind this is the historical background of the song. Every time I learn a new song, Piotr makes me think about who would have played that type of music when it was written. In this instance, Turkey in the Straw would have been played by farmers who were out working in the fields all day. Piotr explained,
"The men would have been tired. They'd come home, sit in their chair and play light, fun songs. Not grand, complicated pieces with crazy movements!"
Understanding the historical context is always very helpful, especially when it comes to learning different styles of music. Fiddle music is very 'messy' compared to classical violin playing, so hitting other strings now and then only adds to the character of the song. Piotr explained to me that if it the music is too clean, you lose the effect that fiddle music is supposed to have. When he discovered that my cousin is an avid fiddler, Piotr became even more adamant about me learning new songs in this style of music and promised we would work on more next week. It is all very exciting. In short, my highlight this week was learning Turkey in the Straw and exploring a new genre. My lowlight was once again my lack of practice...other than that I don't really have any regrets. Moving forward, I will continue to work on Turkey in the Straw and St. Anne's Reel. I did not share a video this week because I only learnt the songs yesterday and am very far from anything that sounds melodic! Hopefully next Sunday will be a different story! Until next time!
