Teacher brought back the bow tool for yesterday’s lesson – as I did last week, I worked with it for about half the time, then we removed it and tried to maintain the improvements to my hold.  I noticed after using it during last week’s lesson that I did maintain more of a focus on my bow hold as I practiced this past week.  Since a good bow hold is key to a nice, full sound, it makes for a good point of focus for me.  As I wrote in my last post, it’s also a welcome diversion from the technical accuracy of the notes of the Vivaldi Concerto, which has been my focus for a long time now.

The Wohlfahrt etudes are also a nice diversion from the Vivaldi.  After two consecutive E flat major pieces in that book, the one I moved onto yesterday is in G major, an old friend of a key.  This one promises to be exciting, with a couple of chords and interesting bowing.  It alternates half notes with series of sixteenth notes, making it a fun vibrato exercise too.  So far, I’ve just played the first couple of lines – I always enjoy working up a new etude on my own.  Often, Teacher doesn’t play them for me first, so I get to figure out what they’re supposed to sound like on my own.

Finally, I need to buy some rosin – a few days ago I dropped the cake I’ve had since basically the beginning, nearly five years, and it broke.  Miraculously, the loose pieces are still staying in their cake form, but it will not be long before using it becomes impossible – in addition to being messy and difficult to use, I fear the new sharp edges will cut through horse hair and my fingers quite easily!

And it’s still cold.  Here it is April 4 and we got a little snow overnight after a cold and rainy yesterday.  Spring springs slowly in Chicago, I often say.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan