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Christina WilkePre-Summer, 2006Published: May. 24, 2006 at 4:28 AMWell, another blog entry. About a year apart from my last one- which is about two years after my first entry. I guess that anyone who reads this can discern my relative laxadaisacal attitude when it comes to blogs and any sort of journals. I've decided to try to be better- I won't have internet when I'm away at festival this summer, but it's a good place to keep track of my progress and my ideas. Anyhow, I'm getting ready to get the gear together and head to Breckenridge, CO for my second year at the National Repertory Orchestra. For those that have not been there, it's an 8-week, all orchestral festival that takes place in the tiny town of Breckenridge at about 10,000 feet altitude. Once you get used to the lack of oxygen, it's amazing. It's the most beautiful place on earth and the musicians are wonderful. It's 5 hours of orchestra a day and about 25 concerts a summer, but it's a blast. Especially the hot tubs. The thing that makes me a little uneasy about it this year is that Andres Cardenes is going to be coming to give a 2-day series of master classes on the biggest violin excerpts out there- Don Juan, Schumann Scherzo, Mendelssohn Scherzo, Prokofiev Classical Symphony, and Mozart 39. All of these are excerpts that I have worked on before, but I'm still a little nervous about it. I'm only 20 and I don't spend much time on excerpts- I'm still trying to solidify my technique, so it's mostly etudes, concertos, sonatas, etc. I'm not planning on concentrating on excerpts until graduate school, as most people do. Most of the violinists that will be there this summer are older and far more experienced, so it's going to be extremely intimidating to get up in front of these very accomplished violinists to play for the concertmaster of Pittsburgh Symphony. This is a good reason for me to really start practicing hard again. I got home from my junior year on Mother's Day and I have since been very lazy. It's been a nice break but it's time to get going.
May. 30, 2005 at 4:40 AMI've always come to look forward to "getting into the groove of things". I'm always trying to setlle into a routine- especially now that I have long breaks with no teaching due to college (winter and parts of the summer). Of course, these grooves are not necessarily always desirable. I recently took out my violin, tuned and did some stretches, held it to my chin, and didn't know what to do next. Do I play a scale? Do I do some slow, long bows for loosening up my bow arm? Do I do one of my Sevcik or Schradiek excersises for technique? It was the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me. I mean, I had done my warm up routine (with some variation) for a year. It worked very well for me. It just made sense!This was something very new for me. I've always been interested in the art of learning, so I've always tried to keep things fresh and new. I know not to let things sink in too much. The basics are always the same- it's not as if I decide to hold my violin on my right side, upside down, and with the scroll facing me. I had to ask myself- what happened? The answer came slowly over a series of days. I kept doing warmups- varying it as I always had, but it was starting to dawn on me. The purpose behind it all had disappeared. Yes, by playing my scales and correcting them, I was fixing my hand positions and intonation. Yes, by playing long bows I was warming up my arm and loosening my shoulder and elbow. But it was so subconcious, it almost ceased to interest me. It's like driving to work and then realizing, as you get out of the car, that you didn't really remember the drive. Things had become so routine, even with the variations, that I had forgotten about it. What to do then? Obviously, I couldn't play something else first- my concerto or my Bach partita wouldn't be so good without warming up. The warmup is the single most essential portion of practicing. I realized I had to step out of the box. Reading some new exercises would only temporarily relieve it. I did the only thing I thought. I took the music off the stand. And I played! I started by playing the first couple lines of Schradiek, exercise number 1. Then, I went from there. I improvised everything. When I felt my arm was a bit tense in the lower arm, I did some very light bows on just a few notes near the tip to loosen it. My pinky was feeling a bit tense in my left hand, so I let it rest while I did some fun string crossings with just my first three fingers being used. I started to realize how much I could fix and concentrate on, rather than just letting my body do it. There's so much we can learn from our warm ups. We can learn more technique there than we sometimes learn in our pieces. Towards the very end of my warmup/improv, I noticed that the kinds of things I was needing to do in my concerto (Scottish Fantasy) such as double stops in 16th notes, melodic thirds, and chords, were finding their way into my improv. I hope that this blog will serve as evidence to me that the routines that I look forward to can be fruitless. I had fun while warming up, achieved my goal, and learned a lot. I still play my basic warmups every day- but spicing it up can add just a little bit of variety.
Aug. 11, 2004 at 2:45 AMWell, another school year is starting. As excited as I am about going into my second year of college, I'm beginning to realize- I'm close to really being on my own.It's amazing what you'll learn when you take care of everything for yourself. Not just about your own personality, but about the way the world works. My parents decided long ago that I would have to pay for my own education. Naturally, being the broke, jobless student I am, student loans were the only way to go. The frightening thing is- as one slowly gets further and further into this deep world of music, the more money one has to fish out. At first, of course, you have to get into a school. Then, you have to fill out these nice forms called CSS Profile and FAFSA so the government can tell you how much your family should pay a year. Then- private loans. I must say that Sallie Mae has been quite good to us. I go to CIM and the tuition this year decided to take a 10% jump up. Most schools have had to do this with our flagging economy, so it wasn't that much of a surprise. That of course meant the amount of money that I have to take out in loans is more than I can even process. My loans are in the vicinity already of 80,000 and rising! There's that nasty little thing called interest on loans- unfortunately my parents have never really had money and all loans charge pretty decent amounts. Then comes the instrument. I'm currently looking for a new instrument (my first full-sized instrument, I play right now on a 7/8 size). That's even more money to add to my pile of debt that is certainly looking rather tall right now. I am optimistic about what will happen in the future. I think I'll get a good job in the music industry, hopefully in an orchestra, and that I'll be able to pay it off. Well, I kind of don't have the choice. It's just amazing how much money it costs to do anything in the industry anymore. Equipment, not just including the violin but strings, bows, music, cases, education costs, costs for competitions and travel--- there's no way to get through it without making a financial plan. I've realized it's possible for anyone to do it that wants to- and sometimes people or groups like Sallie Mae have to help, but it's possible. I guess it's just one more step in growing up, eh?
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