I ended up rescheduling my Wednesday no-go lesson for yesterday, so instead of the minor week I had planned I’m having a big one.  I started in on my first Beethoven, a minuet; Teacher wrote across the top of the music, “bow distribution.”  It gets complicated, with slurs of many notes constantly – I told her that it’s going to make me look like a pro – anytime I see them playing I’m always taken with the ease with which the bow produces many sounds in a single stroke.  That’s part of the lesson of this minuet.  Obviously I’ve been slurring away since basically the beginning, but this really takes it to new levels.

The good news is it’s in G Major, which should mean I have a good handle on where to plop my fingers to produce the notes, but another lesson the song teaches, and this only in the first two lines, is my first shift in position – it’s only half a position, and I only use two fingers, but I’m still counting it as a bona fide position shift!  I feel I’ve now landed further in my violin development than I ever did as a child – during those years, which I barely remember, I do know that I never shifted beyond first position. Technically speaking, I’m not sure this shift qualifies as “beyond” first position, since it’s actually a half step down.  Nonetheless, a shift it is!

It’s a beautiful piece and I’m very excited to be on my way with it.  I’m not sure who my favorite composer is these days, but for most of my life up until a few years ago I would have said Beethoven.  And now I get to play him.  Book 2 sources this one to Beethoven’s, “Six Minuets for Piano,” so it was not music the great composer created originally for the violin.  It’s still quite lovely.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan