Category Lesson Notes
Sight Reading G Major
Tuesday’s lesson brought a new etude from Wolfhart – there are sixty etudes in this book, and two years in I’m now on number three. They are lovely sets that Teacher uses to practice sight reading and bowing – each etude can be played with many bowing variations. The first two were in C-Major, so […]
A Lesson and Vibrato
I had a lesson yesterday – my first in three weeks. I’ve been playing well enough recently, but I was out of town for a long weekend just prior to the lesson, so I worried about being rusty. Happily, rustiness wasn’t much of a problem. I’ve very nearly memorized the Seitz concerto, the first piece in […]
Mind the Gap
As I move my fingers around the strings, I have a tendency to lift them way up high and then pound them back down. Such behavior has some consequences. For one, simply being way up in the air over the strings with my fingers means that it takes time to get back down to the […]
Joy – Getting to the Point
Teacher continued to hammer musicality yesterday in our lesson – I’m working this Seitz concerto hard, and it’s time to let the relentless pursuit of mechanics go and just feel the music. There’s so much tough stuff going on in this piece that it’s hard for me to do that. I want every note to […]
Learn, Teach
I don’t have a lesson today – Teacher is away at an Irish fiddle camp in one of the Carolinas (I can’t ever keep the Carolinas straight – apologies to the good people who call them home). I was interested in her preparation for the expedition – she has been playing her fiddle for the […]
Nail It or Fail It
I’m working on this concerto movement, the big finale movement of Seitz’s second concerto. It’s coming along well enough considering my skills, but there are things in there that I just cannot do well. Not taking into account some complicated bowing right out of the gate that makes me sound scratchy, there’s a section of […]
The Eighth Note Gets the Beat
This new concerto is in 6/8 time, which I’ve never worked with before. In general, I’ve worked in pieces where the quarter note gets the beat, so in this Seitz piece when the count references the eighth note I feel like I’m holding the quarter notes for too long. There are also many staccato accents […]
My First Concerto
Suzuki picked Friedrich Seitz’s Concerto No. 2 in G Major, the third movement, as the Book Four opener. I have been listening to it like a good Suzuki Kid, and have been looking forward to getting going on it, though feeling a bit intimidated. Book Four has several concerto movements – including Vivaldi and Bach! […]
On Getting to 40
Teacher cancelled last week’s lesson, and when I wrote her back to confirm I mentioned that our next lesson would happen on my 40th birthday, which happens to be today. I said that I couldn’t imagine a better way to start my new decade than with a lesson – beginning the violin was undoubtedly one […]
The Minors
In yesterday’s lesson we made it through to the end of the final piece in Book Three. This Bach Bourree is beautiful, but it will take me a few more weeks to get it up to snuff. Bourree Two (the piece is two back to back Bourrees) is a minor variation on Bourree One – […]
Ryan Libel 