We started in on the Progressive Scales book yesterday – a book by Linda Rose that’s all about teaching Music Proper. I had already started reading it – the book opens with a description of all of the scales, majors, minors, relatives, melodic, harmonic, natural (apparently some are considered enharmonic) – it’s all a bit […]
The postural changes I worked on in the lesson last Wednesday have done a number on my ability to be in tune. Keeping the shoulder rest at the new angle brings the violin forward a bit for me, impacting the angle at which my hand approaches the strings. So I have to figure that out […]
When I was a child learning how to play the violin, I sat. I don’t remember any discussions of it at all – to sit or stand? Obviously orchestras sit down, so playing the violin while seated is fine. But Suzuki, in Book One, makes a point of a standing posture. He describes it, with […]
Wohlfahrt’s Opus 45 is a book of etudes – pieces composed for the technical skills they build in their players. So I assumed that’s why Teacher wanted me to get it – as a tool to help me improve my technical skills. But in yesterday’s lesson she told me that she has another quite concrete […]
Teacher gave me a shopping list last week. In addition to Suzuki Book Three (which I’ve already got and am listening to like a good Suzuki Kid), she recommended three supplements to the Suzuki series for this stage of my playing. They are books of exercises; they should arrive tomorrow. Based on the reviews online, […]
Tom Stoppard, in his eccentrically witty and brilliant play Travesties, juxtaposes choice historical figures as they might have been had they all gathered together in a library in 1917 Zurich. Stoppard can be forgiven for allowing caricature to reign in the work, since that’s the point; as _______ as any one of us frail humans […]
We made it through to the end of the Boccherini Minuet in Wednesday’s lesson, and with it the end of Suzuki Book Two. I love this minuet – it’s extremely fun to play, and, while challenging, the technical details are not such that I feel I won’t be able to make the piece sound OK […]
I’ve not mentioned Hilary Hahn before except once in passing, but as far as violinists go she is one of the greats – everybody thinks so. I have thought that she makes the violin sound like it has buttons. There’s a phenomenal YouTube recording of her playing Mozart’s 3rd Violin Concerto for Pope Benedict’s birthday […]
On Monday the ubiquitous wedding march Canon in D, by Johann Pachelbel, popped into my head. I’m not really sure why – I do enjoy the tune, but it’s quite well-represented by others in the universe. I’ve never considered it to be one of my favorites, personally speaking. But it did occur to me that […]
Now that I’ve landed on the final piece of Book Two I don’t know what’s next. Happily, Book Three came yesterday, so I immediately opened the CD and loaded it into my iTunes and started listening. Suzuki’s big plan included lots of listening to the music in the repertoire – learn what it’s supposed to […]
Ryan Libel 