Category Lesson Notes
A D String and a Minuet
My D String was revealing some wear near the bridge – metal string cores are wound with another layer of metal thread, and the outer layer was starting to fray. I asked Teacher last week if I should pre-emptively replace it and she gave an emphatic “Yes.” Apparently they can break and snap up toward […]
A Trio of Lovely
The Beethoven Minuet has four sections, each of which repeat, then half of it repeats again. Many minuets, Teacher says, have a trio section – this Beethoven does, the third and fourth of the four sections, but my first three Bach minuets, for example, did not. The trio section definitely involves a shift in the […]
Tone Angles
Technical feedback is one of the biggest things teachers have to offer that students need, of course, and like any good teacher mine metes it out in measured doses. But in the past two lessons there’s no getting around I’ve gotten lots of it – last week it was the bow hold – bend the […]
Bend the Thumb
I’m back to working on my bow hold: Bend the thumb. Bend the thumb. Bend the thumb. Touch the hair with your knuckle. Touch the hair with your knuckle. Touch the hair with your knuckle. Playing while obsessing about bending my thumb is causing me to struggle a bit. In the last lesson Teacher really […]
Beethoven Time
I ended up rescheduling my Wednesday no-go lesson for yesterday, so instead of the minor week I had planned I’m having a big one. I started in on my first Beethoven, a minuet; Teacher wrote across the top of the music, “bow distribution.” It gets complicated, with slurs of many notes constantly – I told […]
Turning Notes into Music
In yesterday’s lesson we worked on the finer bits of playing that increase musicality. What I’m talking about is a version of the “bow boldly” theme that’s becoming prominent for me, but it goes further than that. Yesterday we focused on playing sections of the music that naturally flow together as a unit – a […]
“It’s a Harmonic Minor Scale, Right?”
One way to learn about something is to do it. I’ve written on my confusion about this harmonic minor scale concept and my novice perception, due to the key signature, that the Lully Gavotte is in C major, while it’s really in A minor. I’m still not really getting that, but I am getting closer […]
Bow Boldly
Boldly bowing became a point of discussion in yesterday’s lesson – I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, but I think it’s the first time Teacher and I have really discussed it in a lesson. She’s trying to get me to pay more attention to rhythm and the accented beats in the music, which, […]
A Lesson at Last
Another lesson, another gavotte – I told Teacher yesterday that I’m trying to get into the gavotte groove rhythmically – feel the gavotte. The French dance form is now represented in three pieces I’m playing – Gavotte by Gossec, Gavotte from Mignon, by Thomas, and the new Gavotte by Lully. All three are indeed French, […]
Polishing with Staccato
As my tone production is evening out somewhat, I’m able to work on some of the finer points. My current Gavotte from Mignon contrasts a main theme, reproduced throughout the piece, with two other sections. The main theme is to be played staccato, and in yesterday’s lesson Teacher was helping me with it. It’s not […]
Ryan Libel 