Category Lesson Notes
Leaving a Minuet Behind
I’ve always loved travel, but there’s always the tug of the stuff you leave behind – like your bed, perhaps your family, and possibly your violin. Wednesday’s lesson brought me the rest of my new minuet, and I am having a great time learning it. It’s challenging, and my three days away beginning in an […]
Relaxation and Grace
In Wednesday’s lesson, we returned to the issue of relaxing my bow hold. Getting this hold right is an iterative process; the nuances are myriad, and as I improve I’m realizing that there’s definitely an art to it. It’s more paintbrush than exact-o-knife. Any unnecessary tension held in the hand and arm are reflected in […]
Moisture and a Minuet
As the Chicago winter has worn on, mercilessly, the air has been dry. Cold air is always dry, but the hygrometer in my new violin case provides some data – when the case arrived, it read about 30% humidity, but within two days it read 0% humidity. It stayed there, and I actually began to […]
Denouement – DENIED!
You set up the dominoes then finally get to knock the first one down. You climb the high dive, stand perched at its edge, then leap. The hero lives happily ever after. You play half a Bach minuet for a week, then get to play 2/3 of it for another week. One of these is […]
Tenuto?
I’m enjoying having music to guide me, and learning what it all means. The Suzuki method does not focus on reading music until book four, but all the songs are laid out in proper staffs – while I’m no expert at looking at scores, to my eye there is an awful lot of musical notation […]
Getting Classical Up In Here
A supremely busy week has me just getting around to noting something wonderful. Twinkle Twinkle notwithstanding, I have begun to play my first classical piece of music – a Bach Minuet. When I started down the violin road, people would ask me, “Are you going to play fiddle or violin.” The answer is violin. I […]
Playing in G Major
The key of my new song – G major – takes one sharp: F#. I’m used to first position, which, on the A string, has, to date, had me playing C# as well. But this week’s song requires me to play C natural on the A string instead, meaning I have to do a low […]
Music Proper
Teacher brought me music. It’s book one of Suzuki for violin, and of course it confirms that that’s exactly what I’ve been learning. I’m interested in the pedagogical notes – especially in the preface to the book, where Suzuki writes four principles for helping children learn the violin (paraphrased): Listen to the recordings Strive for […]
Tuning
My mother told me about an old friend the other day. He’s an orchestra teacher at a suburban school in Kansas, and during his hour-long orchestra classes he spends the first fifteen minutes tuning instruments. I can only imagine how tedious and what an assault on the ears that must be. As I’ve just been […]
Fat Cats and Fourth Finger
Yesterday’s lesson was jam-packed. As I’ve mentioned, I’m getting a new song every week – Suzuki songs are sequenced to be skill-building, and this week’s is not only the longest to date, but it also brings in fourth (my pinkie) finger. I still find it quite strange how little I remember from my three years […]
Ryan Libel 