I thought I’d share one of my practice sessions with you. Certainly not intended to teach. When I practice I try to cover scales, playing songs and practice the book lessons set out by my teacher. I play for an hour or more and when when I’m a good student I play daily. This video runs for about 8 minutes
I’m here and loaded with excuses for not posting or practicing.
Excuse #1 I moved my business. I realize I’m not going to make a living as a rock star so I have to keep my “real” job going and moving to a new and improved location has got me re-enthused about my career.
Excuse #2 I miss the acoustics of the practice room in Mexico. It’s possible something happened to the violin after flying with it to a foreign country. But I sound terrible. Maybe I sound terrible because I’m not practicing as much as I should.
Excuse #3 Can’t afford the lessons right now with a son in first year college and moving.
Excuse #4 Probably the main reason I’m not practicing is I miss the progression of the lessons. I’m playing the same things over and over. Same songs, scales and exercises. There are improvements in my physical ability to play but I’m bored. I know they say repetition is important and I agree but having something new to work on is fun and makes me want to practice. I could move forward in the lesson book by myself but hearing the exercises helps me read the music. Kind of backwards but it works for me. That’s a topic for another post.
But life is slowly getting back on track and I’m going to call my teacher and schedule a lesson for next Saturday. I know he’s going to be hard on me for not practicing and I deserve it. It’s time to get back at it even if the lessons are every other week for now. I love playing.
I think it’s time to post a new video too. Hmm…
We’re off to Mexico for 3 weeks and there is no way I’m going without my violin.
My Pug Buddha, 17″ Mac Computer and violin has to be the oddest carryon I’ve ever had. But it worked, we’re here at our palapa. For those unfamiliar with palapas, it’s an open space covered with a palm leaf roof. We fortunately have two closed in bedrooms, perfect to practice in. In fact the acoustics in this cemented room with stone tile floor is pretty cool. I was so concerned with disturbing the peace of the neighborhood when I discovered our neighbors are musicians too. A young man practices drums to American rock and roll, got to love that and he’s pretty good and a woman behind us is, you’re not going to believe this, learning to play the violin. Ha! Unbelievable there must be something going on with so many learning to play music now. Maybe it was always there and never noticed but needless to say my practicing even with the windows open isn’t a problem in this neighborhood.
I’ve gone almost 2 weeks without playing. That’s too long. With the downturn in the economy landlords are making deals so I decided to move my graphic/website design business to a hot new location downtown. This move was made one week before we left for the holidays. My husbands son is getting married at our house in San Jose Del Cabo Mexico. So no time or energy to practice.
From what seemed liked fragmented practice sessions “it” all came together at show time for an audience of about 75 people. Interesting to participate with others who have performed many times before. Dress rehearsal at noon wasn’t quite what I thought it would be, I of course came dressed up while the seasoned players came in sweats knowing they had an hour break to actually dress for the performance. I guess “Dress Rehearsal” means something else. Of the 12 songs we played I could play only the simple 6 carols, Silent Night, Away in the Manger, Oh Christmas Tree, etc. My instructor and others suggested faking it for the other songs. Somehow that seemed a little dishonest but I tried to at least match bow movements to fit in. I did sit out a few songs, holding the violin and bow in my lap in acceptance that I simply could not play that tune. I also moved myself further to the back of the group just incase someone in the audience knew enough about the music and could tell I wasn’t really playing. All in all it was a wonderful experience. Playing with a group is really fun. We had a party following the performance and exchanged experiences with the other musicians. It’s kind of “musician speak”. A whole new world for me, I just love it.
Our conductor gave a little speech thanking all for coming and encouraging anyone, any age, any level of expertise to join the Wood River Orchestra. He mention me as an example of a newcomer participating only after playing for a month. I laughingly corrected him that it’s actually been 6 months. None the less if I can inspire someone to “go for it” so be it. It’s been great for me.
Our little town has so many talented residents. We may be known for our skiers but there are many artists and musicians living and visiting here. Our Wood River Orchestra is a group of amatures of all ages who play together and occasionally perform. I got a call from one of the members to join in and when my teacher gave his approval I went for it. Needless to say my degree of participation is really limited but what a welcoming group. “Sitting In” is really fun and what a new experience. They’re practicing for a Christmas show and while Jingle Bells is on the list it’s not the Jingle Bells I know. Many of the Carols are relatively easy to play but I’m playing harmony so I can’t rely on the melody. I asked Ron to play and record the Carols for me to practice with so I can at least hear what they’re SUPPOSED to sound like. Will I join in on the actual performance, not sure yet. I’d hate to bring them down though I could play with an unrosened bow that makes no sound. But that would be cheating, I’ll keep practicing as if I’ll play though.
My teacher has an uncanny ability to choose to play pieces I haven’t practiced all week. But this duet went pretty well. This does force me to rise the occasion and focus. We played quit a few songs together and worked on left hand finger placement. I have a hard time keeping “helper” fingers down to guide the placement of the next note which in turn keeps me in tune. We also worked on bowing, using the whole or just upper or lower bow. Having the bow in the right place is important for a lot of reasons but today it was for holding three or four counts. You can hear him coaching me to use “whole bow”. It’s ridiculously complicated and on top of that you have to remember to breath and oh yeah stay relaxed.
If you decide to learn how to play an instrument be sure your teacher can play. Mine plays really well, here he is playing Orange Blossom Special at class this morning.
My violin teacher gave me a music pin today because I practice a lot. So excited you’d think I’d won a grammy… You like me, you really like me!
With the instruction of a great Idaho teacher, Mr. Ron Wade and inspiration from Barrage and others on YouTube I think I’m progressing. And oh yes my old friend Norm who suggested I practice every day. He should know, he’s been playing music a long time.
Getting the right teacher is really important. My first one really wasn’t experienced enough to teach an adult and it took me about 2 months to realize that. I’ll never forget my first lesson with Ron. OMG, pretty much threw out everything I had picked up from the previous teacher. The first thing to go was the white finger board tape. I have to agree relying on taped markers was a crutch that would be hard to let go of later. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone on stage with white tape on their violin. Ron has his violin or guitar out for the whole lesson and we often play together even if it’s only scales. This is good training for later playing with others. Make sure your teacher can really play, that’s a plus. My teacher has played his whole life and plays both classical and bluegrass fiddle. And he’s really good at it.
He’s tough, sometimes I feel really drained after class but he’s also very patient and supportive. Can you imagine the patience you’d have to have to teach violin? I can hardly tolerate hearing my own screechy out of tune notes. A good instructor comes prepared to teach and each class will include a combination of playing technique, learning to read music, site reading and playing by ear. We spent quite a bit of time actually getting the violin to fit comfortably so it was nice to have a teacher knowledgeable about the instrument.
I recommend interviewing several teachers and when you find one that clicks stick with him or her. In this case I have to drive over an hour one way to get the quality instruction I’m looking for and I go once a week. Ron is $40 an hour. I’ll post a video of him playing next week.
Don’t know why but watching this guy play added to the epiphany I had the other day with Barrage. It finally hit me with the angle his fingers touch the strings. I tried it and felt a more natural and relaxed position for my hand. Pretty sure my teacher has been trying to get me to do this but it never clicked. Between this little video and Barrage I just cut loose and got my mind out of the way and just played. Got a little teary eyed with the achievement. I try too hard sometimes and think I’m never going to be any good at this then all of the sudden I take a leap forward.
I like the simple shuffle bowing example too. It didn’t hurt that I’ve been trying to play Old Joe Clark. A tune way out of my league but I didn’t know any better when I started out. My teacher tries to keep me focused on the easier stuff and he’s right those can be fun too but I like the challenge. I’ll post my version of Old Joe Clark soon.
Thanks Joe Ebel for posting that video on youtube.
If I knew the song I could pretty much tell if I was in key or not. But when it came to practicing scales it was a different matter. I had no idea what G was supposed to sound like. Being a true geek at heart I figured there must be an “App” for that and sure enough there is. Cleartune Chromatic Tuner for my iPhone. It’s fabulous… now I know what G is supposed to sound like and the tuner will even indicate if your in tune while playing. Love that! But be careful not to rely on it too much and make sure your trusting and developing your ear.
Here’s a link to learn more.
Watching this musician changed how I play. I picked up the violin after watching several of their performances and must have channeled a morsel their talent. Tears came my eyes in relief that maybe I could actually pull this adventure off. I guess I got out of my head and just played.
