I’ve always loved traditional music. When I was a kid and kids my age were supposed to be favoring the “black shirt bands” – at least that’s what I called them – I just could never see what everyone saw in the music; I definitely couldn’t hear anything lovely either. While over the years I’ve […]
I was talking to Michael last night about expectations. Suzuki learners are supposed to listen a lot, so I do. A CD comes with the books, and when I’ve purchased a new one I’ve listened to them quite a bit, to the point that the tunes are familiar and I can hum along with them. […]
My new song – the Book Three Becker Gavotte – is quite challenging. I’m getting close to the point where I can play it through, but I’m not there yet. I am not close at all on the memorization. There are some complicated bowing indications, and being in tune is a constant challenge – there’s […]
I generally ignore Google Doodles, but when presented with a caricature of Beethoven with keyboard first thing this morning as I opened up my laptop I couldn’t help myself – apparently it’s the classical master’s 245th birthday; he was born in December of 1770, but the precise day has been lost. Google’s Beethoven birthday celebration […]
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 gavottes just keep piling up – Wednesday I began working with my third gavotte, and that’s only counting the gavottes in Suzuki Book Three! There was one in Book One and several more in Book Two. This new one is by J. Becker, whom Wikipedia reports is Jean Becker, a German violinist living from […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
I’m a day late with this decidedly non-musical Thanksgiving post – I wrote it yesterday morning but it ended up feeling a little curmudgeonly for T-Day proper. Perhaps it’s even more relevant on Black Friday, consumerism’s own Grand Hajj. Michael and I had a lovely Thanksgiving, and I hope you did too! Over the past few years, the […]
Ryan Libel 