May 2005

May 29, 2005 21:40

I'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.

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More entries: May 2006 • August 2004

May 2005

May 29, 2005 21:40

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