Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Trouble Getting Started

For some reason, I'm having real trouble this week getting myself to start practicing violin.  Once I've started, I'm quite happy plugging along.  But getting started is a whole different thing.  I need mojo!

I'm slowly coming back to where I was when I left in August.  I'm really rueing my lack of practice while overseas.  But, what's done is done.

I can do scales and broken thirds again, including scales in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th position.  I haven't practiced the left hand moving between positions much (the actual shifting), though.

I've been working on the bowing technique book, from the beginning.  It's slow going, and it takes a lot of concentration.  I need to start back on the fingering technique book, the shifting book, and the double stop book.

I'm in the midst of Suzuki Book 3 again.  Book 1 was sort of hard, then things got easier with Book 2, I think because my hands started remembering what they were supposed to do again.  And with Book 3, I'm sometimes surprised at how I can read through a piece and do okay even the first time through, and then with some attention, get it sounding pretty decent.  Both Book 2 and Book 3 pieces took me a fair bit of work the first time, and I think the memory of that work is slowly rebuilding.

I need to start working on the vibrato thing again.  I was at the point of beginning to try to move my wrist slowly and such.  It's going to be slow going, I think, because it's sort of a weird motion.

Sometimes I watch youtube videos of Itzhak Perlman or Hilary Hahn, and their hands look so relaxed and soft on their instruments that it's a wonder everything doesn't just fall.

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