Category Practice Notes
Dreaming Up Movement
I’ve been busy. Very busy. But though I’ve been away from the blog for almost ten days (perhaps a sad record), I’ve definitely been playing my new Gavotte and trying to work up vibrato. The Becker Gavotte is coming along much better than the vibrato – I’m not making very rapid progress at all there. […]
The Right Stuff: Gratitude and Peg Drops
I’ve been complaining about my A string – the peg has been problematic, loosening often, failing to stay in tune; it “pops” out from time to time, releasing all the tension of the wound up string. The same thing happens on the G string too, but to a lesser degree and less often. Well, I […]
Cheating E Flat Major
Ever since posting a memorial to my friend that included the song “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables I have been stuck with it coursing through my head. It’s a beautiful song, so yesterday I decided to see if I could play it. I looked up music online and l found some potential vendors, […]
Growing into Hunter’s Chorus
As a rule, I don’t play all my old songs anymore. Nowadays all I’ve kept in the rotation from Book One are the Bach minuets for warming up G Major (one of the three is a Leopold minuet but The Suzuki School has never noticed). From Book Two, I’ve held on to the final two […]
Vibrato Report
I’m working on vibrato. It’s challenging, and I’ve developed some questions that I need to consult with Teacher on, which is to be expected whenever I try new things on the violin. One of my main questions is when I should turn it on and off. Eventually it will be on all the time, on […]
“She Played a Scale.”
My wonderfully musical sister sent me to a blog post on Saturday called Why I’d Spend a Lot More Time Practicing Scales If I Could Do It All Over Again. In it, music performance psychologist Noa Kageyama discusses scales as the quintessential practice tool. To sum up his thoughts, scales provide a structure within which […]
Humoresque Halves and Arm Becoming Bow
It’s not often that I skip two lessons in a row – in fact I’m not sure it’s happened before; we tend to reschedule for another day. But Teacher was sick the week before last, and I had to cancel this past week due to some work commitments. I have been playing nonetheless, and am […]
Two Arms Working Together
When teaching brand new students trying their first karate class we always work on formal basic blocking. It’s hard. To make a downward block with the left arm, the right arm punches down to cover the groin, while the fist of the left arm rises up to the right temple. The center line of the […]
One More Day
I’ve definitely been playing. I wrote about my horrible Saturday session a few days ago, but I did play, so counting that day I think today will be my 11th or 12th day in a row playing – a record, perhaps. Generally I skip Friday or Saturday, and it’s not uncommon for me to skip […]
I Heard the A, but Then…
Wherein Ryan goes on a roller coaster ride to a soaring high and a death-defying low (did it defy death? Keep reading!). Wherein Ryan blames the weather. It started when I opened my case last night to find my A string unwound and loosened. This has happened a couple of times before, so when I […]
Ryan Libel 