practise, practise, practise!

April 20, 2008 at 3:56 AM

Bad intonation
Tasteless phrasing
Poor bowing
Expressionless
Slips here and there

I am doomed in 4 months time!

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 11:58 AM

Practice, practice, practice. :)

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 12:18 PM

That's American English vs British English. No matter how you spell it, the message is the same.

From William Yap
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 1:57 PM

I thought the different spelling was meant to differentiate verb and noun. But then, English was only my 4th language... I'm still confused sometimes :-)

From Bart Meijer
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 6:42 PM

Hi William,

Don't despair!
In a radio interview, he great violinist Philippe Hirshhorn said about amateur players: "If I go to hear amateurs play music, and I hear one living note, I wasn't there in vain."
In your video, there were many more than one.
Somewhere on violinist.com -- I haven't been able to find it -- there is a link to a radio interview with Leila Josefowicz. She talks about the de Falla pieces you play: they have been adapted from songs, and one of the songs is about a boy asking a girl on a date; after a little hesitation, the girl agrees. Isn't that sweet?

Good luck with your exam!

Bart

From William Yap
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 9:27 PM

Hi Bart,

Thank you for your words of encouragement.

I always let the nervousness takes the better of me, and therefore never play the best I could in exams.

I have the Spanish words to the Falla's Spanish Folksongs. However, I don't understand Spanish so I have no clue what the songs are about (except Nana, which is a lullaby).

From Yixi Zhang
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 9:36 PM

Hi William, I second Bart. Keep practicing and you’ll be surprised how much you’ll improve in 4 months.

For what I can tell, your repertoire is ambitious so not to be too hard on yourself if you don’t get everything perfectly right because, chances are, it won’t:-( From what little I know, I think you can work a bit more on musicality, as I don’t get a sense from the video that you are ‘singing’ with your music. If you put down the violin and sing each piece as expressive as you can, you’ll probably see what I’m talking about. For instance, the Bach Solo Sarabanda, the notes are not difficult (just a bunch of chords and arpeggios right?), so the efforts should be on what the piece as a whole supposed to sound, and play with the voices, phrasing and the tone to make it more interesting. Listen to Milstein or Szeryng (or anyone you like) again and again to see form some idea what it should sound in your head. Take a deep breath before starting, and play it as though you are telling your loved one something tender, lingering and achingly beautiful. With Giga, I don’t hear a clear dancing rhythm yet. When I practice it, I actually danced around to get the feeling. Also, I find it helps to close my eyes when playing and to allow myself be emotional as though I’m acting along with the music I’m making. Keep breathing. Am I making any sense?

As for the English in your title, either verb or noun is correct for the right context. If I ask your friend, “What does William’s schedule look like these days?” The answer will be “practice, practice, practice!” But if I ask, “How does William prepare for his upcoming exam?” The correct answer is “practises, practises, practises!”

English is my 3rd language so I know what you mean by confusion. I’m constantly frustrated when grammatical rules in many cases either don’t apply or most native speakers I talk to don’t understand themselves. I nevertheless always defer to native speakers when in doubt, but recently I had a chat with a department chair in English and ESL teaching who told me never to accept someone’s correction unless he/she has at least an MA in linguistics because what feels natural to a native speaker is not always grammatically correct. Most interesting!

Anyway, good luck and look forward to your next video.

From Yixi Zhang
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 10:51 PM

oops, I meant to say keep practiSing!

From Anne Horvath
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 11:01 PM

For what it is worth, "The American Heritage Dictionary" (4th edition) has these spellings:

practice
practiced
practicing
practices
practicer

Also, keep up the good work. Keep your chin up. And listen to good singers too.

From Yixi Zhang
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 1:49 AM

If the chin is up, won't the violin drop?:) Seriously, I agree with Anne. Look at this boy Chad in the recent competition how he presented himself. You can be naturally confident but you will also gain confidence or come across as being confident by acting as though you are fearless.

From William Yap
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 3:39 AM

Thanks YiXi. I sencond your comment about making the Giga more dance-like. At the moment, all I do is play the notes.

It's hard to shape the phrasing for Saranbanda, and I've already listen to 4 different versions (they tend to do different things). So I'll have to borrow bits here and there then make my own version of it.

Although we have 4 lists of pieces to pick for the exam (1 from each 4 lists), those I've picked are already the less challenging ones (compared to Mozart, Mendelssohn concertos). It doesn't get easier than what I'm playing unfortunately. Hence, amature students tend to make it a big deal when it comes to the words "Grade 8" here in Australia and the UK.

Thanks Anne for the English lesson :-) Now, who can help me with the Spanish lyrics in Falla's Folksongs?

I'll post the full versions when I feel I'm ready. Then perhaps I can get better advices for the pieces as a whole. Confidence has always been the thing that I lack when playing violin.

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 5:17 AM

Greetings,
William, I can`t get sound on computers at work (or anywhere else for tht matter) but I think you look like you ave acocmplishes a greta deal. I did enjoy just watchign you play;)
From a purely visula perspective I felt the following. The scroll of your violin is consistently held too low for my taste. I wonder if coming up would result in you being more `up` and more confident with your obvious abilities. I think there is a slight sens eof immobility in the way yuou hold the violin which is refelcted in the vibrato. The otehr thing is especially in the Bach I thought your fingers are way too active. You seme to be allowing them to operate independently ratehr than thinking and placing pianistically. You could save a lot of energy if you worke don this.
I also thought that your bow hair wa stilted most of the time. You might get more sound with flatter hair.
Stay with it,
Cheer,s
Buri

From William Yap
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 6:42 AM

Thanks Buri. It's amazing how much you can tell without hearing the actual sound.

Yes, when I watch myself on the video, the way I hold the violin is lower that I've imagined. This is an issue with my back. If I stand up straight, the violin level would improve.

The bow tilting is also quite significant. It almost look like I was playing with half hair and half wood! This is a problem with my knuckles. I need to remind myself to make my knuckles flatter. My bow hold looks more like an 'L' shape rather than a rounded shape.

With Bach, I really admire Milstein's fingers, how we can play the whole piece without much changes in his hand shape and fingers. Very economic. Unfortunately my violin is slightly longer than a standard one. So I have to keep adjusting my hand shape or stretch the fingers or tilt my wrist in to get the note. Such a pity because I really like the violin. Perhaps I can ask if they sell bigger hands at the violin shop??

And when will you get a pair speakers for your computer?

From Jon O'Brien
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 1:52 PM

Hi William, how is St Kilda these days? I was driving through there last September, on my way into the city from Brighton. Looked really nice.

You probably know yourself what I would suggest, just from looking at the video, but I'd say just keep working at maybe bigger, longer bows. Use more of the bow if you can. Especially in the Bach Sarabanda and the Beethoven. That will free you up more, and make your sound more open, expansive. Or perhaps I'm wrong. Just a suggestion. All the best with the big 8!

From Jon O'Brien
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 2:05 PM

P.S. I forgot to say I think you'll do fine.

From William Yap
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 12:04 AM

Hi Jon,

St Kilda is a very busy place. Luckily I live in the more quiet area of St. Kilda. The one making noises around here is me :-)

Did you notice I tend to unconsciencely avoid the lower part of the bow? Upper arm problem. My teacher said it's a pitty because so much expression could be drawn from that part of the bow.

I did grade 7 exam 1.5 years ago. Despite some slips, I managed to get an A. I was so nervous during the exam I had to hold my heart with my hand to stop it beating too fast! Everytime the examiner put his head up and looked at me (instead of writing comments) my mind would wonder what he was looking at, making me feel so self-conscience. When he was writing, I'd wonder what he was commenting! It's hard to put yourself up for JUDGEMENT!

But, once you've done it, got the result and passed, it's all worth it :-) Good luck to you too with your exam!

P/S: My teacher took her AMus 3 months after her Grade 8 and still managed to get an A for AMus. She's my idol! LOL

From Jon O'Brien
Posted on April 25, 2008 at 12:58 AM

Thanks William for your best wishes for my next exam! I must admit you have helped motivate me to prepare for it. I tend to be a bit lazy and relaxed about thinking about the next one, and put it off (I'm not heading for any uni course, being outside the age limit). It is really helpful to me to see another fellow AMEB candidate preparing for an exam. Keep up the great work, and I hope you keep posting your interesting adventures in violin.

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