Monthly Archives: January 2016
Memory and The Suzuki Way
Memory and learning are horribly unfair beasts. Very little is understood about the way humans store information, but what we do know is that most learning is associative – that is, we attach bits of information, or associate them, with other bits of information we already know. A corollary to that idea is the fact […]
Fur Elise
Beethoven died in 1827. Forty years later, Fur Elise was published, resurrected from an 1810 manuscript by Ludwig Nohl, a noted 19th century music scholar. The manuscript from which Nohl worked has been lost, and the provenance of the piece is in dispute, but Wikipedia does not entertain that Beethoven might not have been the […]
Fun Little Pieces
A friend recently gave me two books of violin music; he has stopped playing the violin to focus on the viola. One of the books is scored for piano as well. I’ve started playing a little bit out of the solos book that does not have accompaniment – I have to choose the songs wisely; […]
Living Room Duet
I wrote before about getting the book that provides second parts for some Book One and Two songs and working up Minuet One from Book One. I’ve not said much to Teacher about it (in fact until Monday I hadn’t played it in a couple of months), but I had worked it up previously to […]
Working the Canon
I’ve let Canon in D – the ubiquitous Pacabel wedding tune – languish. I got frustrated a few months back with the variation of the theme that is the most interesting and forms the bulk of the arrangement I’m working with, an arrangement I bought and downloaded last spring. I haven’t touched it in a […]
Stepping through a Gavotte
As I wrote yesterday just before my lesson, I was happy for the opportunity to work through my new Gavotte with Teacher in our first lesson in three weeks. We worked on the piece the whole time, going slowly and noting some rhythmic and bowing patterns that I need to work on. But as with […]
Lesson, Practice, Vibrato, Gavotte
It’s been three weeks since my last lesson; with the new year comes a new lesson day too – I’m changing from Wednesday to Tuesday mornings. The day will work out better for my schedule and it doesn’t seem to matter to Teacher. In fact she often has something late on Tuesday nights, so it […]
Picking Favorites
Of all the songs in my repertoire, the one I play best is the Suzuki Book Two Bouree by Handel. I’m not sure why it comes out better than the rest. While it’s true that I now play it a lot because I like playing pieces that I play well, I’m not sure how it […]
New Year’s 400
Happy New Year! This first post of 2016 is my 400th on Musical Me. The blog continues to do its job, reinforcing the musical learning I’m doing as I pursue my instrument. There’s no denying I’ve come a long way on the violin – a richness of detail now informs every practice session – short term goals, such […]
Ryan Libel 