bunnyhillsv.com Blog

I almost quit playing this spring, you may have wondered what happened to me it’s been a while since my last post. But I’d like to thank Anne for her support and encouragement. I’d especially like to thank her for turning me on to this incredible song. I just love it, it got me playing again. I want to learn to play this really well I told my instructor a few weeks ago. She said okay… pretend you’re a violinist and play it with feeling. Easier said than done. While this is no where near the justice I plan to give to this song it is a start, a tune to mark my progress. For I’ll be practicing this one til I can play it as well as it was played as the sound track to Ken Burns’ The Civil War series on PBS. The version by Evan Stover, Jay Ungar, Matt Glaser, Molly Mason & Russ Barenberg is beautiful. My next post of this tune will be played along with the song. I plan on getting a better microphone to record the sound as I play along with it. I tried it for this post but the feedback was so bad I decided to stay with Photo Booth. So, for all us adult beginners out there when you think you’ve taken the learning curve as far as you can or you get discouraged and want to quit get a great song that stirs you passion to stick with it.

Many hours are spent alone practicing and a great way to experience playing with another violinist, especially a patient violinist, is to play with a play-along cd. There are so many to choose from. My first lesson book, Essential Elements 2000 came with a cd. While slightly horrified the first time I tried to keep up with the cd I found it really improved my playing. They are wonderful tools for improving your tempo, playing by ear and generally just to keep the tune going even if you make a few mistakes along the way. All lessons we need to learn if we’re ever going to play with other musicians. Here’s an example of me playing along one of the tunes from Mel Bay’s Easy Fiddle Solos cds, a little painful to watch but you get the idea. You can find this book and others at http://www.melbay.com/

When I decided to learn to play the fiddle/violin it never occurred to me that I may be “too old”. I’ll just go down to the local music store, rent a violin, hook up with a teacher, take lessons and should be on stage in no time. Ha! Well 4 out 5 moves aren’t bad. I’m not going to make it on stage at Carnegie Hall, but Carnegie Blog, I’m there. And now I want you to join me on stage. If you have a video of yourself playing and are ready to share it on a world stage let me know I’d love to post it here.

You can post your video on youtube, easy to set up a free account, send me the link and a paragraph of what inspired you and I’ll invite you to play here “on stage” at Carnegie Blog… so much fun!!!

Contact bunnyhillsv@mac.com

I didn’t select my first violin. When I went to our local music store I took the one they had on hand for a student violinist. It was new and certainly all I really needed in the beginning. As I got deeper into playing more difficult finger patterns I also got discouraged with the strings. They seemed just to hard to play. Dropping that pinky down and stretching it to reach the note was so difficult. I almost didn’t even want to pick the violin up to practice, I had reached a low point with this adventure. Almost a year has gone by and it was time for an upgrade.

So I traveled to the “big” music store to try out a new setup. I tried five different violins and bows. Playing the same song on each. Interesting, never did that before. It was as they say “love at first sight”. I had asked others about choosing a violin and often they would say you just know when it’s right. This one is right. The sound, the fit, the way it balances on my shoulder and rests in my hand felt like it was made for me. It came with Dominant strings, much easier to play. I can play for hours without discomfort, amazing. It’s an AmatiStill not sure about the bow, may have to go back but this set up is a major improvement. Do I sound different? Maybe a little.

Good news? My teacher got married, yes I’m really happy for him. Bad news? He’s moving to Phoenix. This came at a time when I had missed several months of lessons due to moving my business and vacationing in Mexico. I had several lessons with Ron before he left and will miss him. He was strict and but I learned a lot from him.

New teacher, one of my orchestra mates, Pat Robinson. Very talented lady, dancer, artist and picture framer. I’ve know her for years but had no idea she played music. The first lesson went well, getting acquainted with each others style and my level of skill. Had to laugh though. She said, well as an adult beginner we can scratch off the goal of thinking we’re headed to Carnegie Hall. What? Are you kidding? Darn there goes my dream.

Second lesson with Pat went well too, her advise… play like a violinist, with confidence like you know what you’re doing. A kind of “fake it til ya make it” thing. Okay I like that.

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.

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.

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.

I have to drive an hour + to my lesson once a week. One time I had a little too much coffee on an empty stomach. Not a good idea. My lesson was a disaster. Shaking in all the wrong ways and hurried through it all as well. So my advise, eat before you play.