Since downloading the Book One CD last week, primarily so I can have a good, speedy-enough-but-inclusive-of-all-the-repeats accompaniment track for Gavotte by Gossec, my little showpiece, I’ve been working on all my old Book One songs with renewed interest.  I find that having accompaniment renders the simpler songs less boring.  And listening to the way they were played on the CD has me realizing that I had the overall feel wrong on a couple of the pieces.  It’s subtle, but it’s generally a matter of emphasis on the first note in a measure, or a subtle difference in rhythm, that makes the difference.

In particular, the tune called Minuet 2, by Bach, is a lovely piece that I’ve really been making new strides with.  Similarly, one of the D major Suzuki tunes sounds quite different than I’d been playing it, so I’m having a lot of fun revising my rendition.

And it’s been humbling too – there’s one song that’s recorded at an impossibly fast tempo for me at present.  It’s Etude, a Suzuki tune that is played once through and then again with doubling up on each note and halving its duration. The “double time” speed of the recording is completely beyond me right now – I mean the concept is easy enough, I’ve been playing it “double time” since the beginning – that’s one of the points of the song (along with hearing the G major scale).  But I just can’t change directions with the bow that fast yet.

I think I’ll probably go on to the next song in Book Two in today’s lesson, but there’s also the possibility that Teacher will instead give me some exercises to work on.  I do think that with my current and the next couple of songs that I’ve arrived at another level-up kind of moment.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan