Monthly Archives: July 2015
Pain
Well I haven’t played since last Thursday, a whole week. The reason is I’m nursing a seriously messed up back. I have been alternating between flat on my back and walking pitifully since Friday. I did get some pain meds from the doctor, but the healing has been slow going. Yesterday I went back to […]
Musical Weekend
I had a musical weekend, of my own making at home. I played for two and a half hours each day on Sunday and Monday, and I watched a couple of videos I want to share. The first is Ray Chen playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, a fun, worthy performance. He’s extremely engaged with the audience […]
Five Notes
I’m still plugging away at this Bach minuet plus minuet – in yesterday’s lesson after Teacher checked my etudes we went to start in on the piece, but I stopped us to confess that I’ve been having a lot of trouble with the G melodic minor scale. I’m working with this scales book, but for […]
Goodbyes
Last night my friends popped into the dojo to say goodbye – this is my ten year old friend who introduced me to Teacher, and her parents. They are moving to Ohio because Mom is an academic and took a new gig there. Dad is a musician, a flutist, who has encouraged me to look […]
Hilary Hahn: A Portrait of a Portrait
When Hilary Hahn was 25 years old, back in 2005, she was already a big enough deal to warrant a biographical sketch on film – in Hilary Hahn: A Portrait, the tireless performer pulls back the curtain on her whirlwind lifestyle. Hahn never stops – one fact the prodigious violinist shares in the film is […]
When in Rome
I read recently that we humans do not acquire a taste for new music much after our younger years – the type of music we love and appreciate as we grow up with our peer group is likely to be the type of music we spend the rest of our lives enjoying. That analysis honestly […]
Shifting and G Minor
My new minuet is quite challenging – as I’ve mentioned, it’s a variation on an “old” Bach minuet (in G major, that minuet is itself a part of this piece too), but the challenging part is the new one. The new one modulates from G major – the third key Suzuki introduces, one with which […]
I Play the Violin
I wrote about that friendly little encounter I had with a random stranger in the elevator a few days ago, and I realized after I wrote that post that I had actually said “I play the violin” to someone – just like that, no hedging, just, “I play the violin.” I think it was the […]
Ryan Libel 