Today marks another Wednesday with no lesson.  It’s been a few weeks – the longest stretch without a lesson since I began playing just over a year ago.  Though I’ve been off of work and traveling, I’m definitely getting some good practice in.  I especially feel I’m improving on my new Gavotte. The minor section still slows me down – it’s tricky, but I’m getting to the point where it’s basically in tune.  I also have it memorized, so my biggest challenge now is playing the piece smoothly.

I’ve also been working on my old Gavotte.  I seem to have knocked myself off of a plateau; for some reason I was continuing to play the song but making no real progress.  Over the past couple of weeks my fingers are loosening up and playing it is feeling more natural.  I’ve been at this song for a while now, and of course the longer I have to work on any song the more natural it feels.   Both gavottes include quite a bit of staccato; in my last lesson we worked on staccato technique, so I’ve been trying to incorporate some improvement into the pieces along those lines.   It’s coming along.

Overall, I’m becoming bolder with my bowstrokes.  Confident bowing is definitely required to do much with the violin, and I’m starting to come out of my beginner shell a bit, I think.  I remember in an early Book One piece teacher told me to bow forcefully, which she demonstrated, but I’ve never really been able to understand what she means.  Yesterday it kind of clicked – it’s not a particular technique, it’s just confident, bold bowing of the type I should always be practicing.  I’ll keep at it, and I look forward to seeing Teacher next week for our first lesson of the new year.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan