I didn’t have a lesson the week of Christmas, but this week’s made up for it.  In addition to Michael being home and finally getting to meet my teacher, it was my first lesson playing with my new violin.  Teacher also tested it again, and it’s sounding great; I couldn’t be happier.  As I mentioned before, I’m not putting the finger tapes on this one to mark off first position, so now I’m getting occasional guidance on being in tune.  Sometime in the past couple of weeks I’ve also picked up a habit of letting my left pinkie slouch and drop down below the fingerboard, so now I’m working on that too.

I’ve been trying to decide about a shoulder rest for my violin – I’ve been using a sponge – and Teacher brought some for me to try.  One I rejected immediately, but I’m trying out two for the week and am having a bit of trouble deciding.  I think either one would probably work.  Teacher says I can take as long to decide as I want but I’d just as soon get one and stick with it, so I want to decide by my next lesson.  Teacher says it’s different for everybody and there are no wrong answers, so that’s good to know, and being able to try them out like this is a great gift.

Finally, after finishing Suzuki’s book and review the other day, during this week’s lesson I was charmed when Teacher introduced me to my new song – by Dr. Suzuki!  I was unaware that he had written music.  He clearly chose the music of his method to be a skill-building sequence, and his own composition is a sprightly tune with skips and string hops, highlighting the highs of the instrument via a strong bowing technique.  The song is called Allegro, so I’m sure I need to be playing it faster!

I do think the method is building my memory capacity for hearing music in the way it was intended to.  I find it easier to remember the increasingly long sequences from these beginner songs every week – in quieter moments I often hum them to myself.  I’m turning into such a Suzuki kid.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan