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 the obvious but hidden news about scalesJuly 10, 2009 at 1:34 PM i'm officially into my second full month of lessons. the first month was great, simple, but gave me enough confidence to want to continue forward. according to my teacher, she's happy that my sight reading of music is up to par and she can see that i'm able to pick up songs quickly (we are currently using suzuki book 1 along with exercises she has added in herself), so going forward she's going to get very picky about my sound and technique. this is excellent, as i want to continuously improve, but it's proving to be a tough change for me to have so much to focus on at once (yes i have heard and known that violin requires multi-focusing as such, but to actually put it into practice 100% is a bit different)...i'm a perfectionist by nature, so to know that i DO have a lot to work on in terms of actually sounding good and having a nice technique is something i've had to embrace and not consider a failure/shortcoming on my behalf. my practicing has taken on a whole new feeling because i don't fly through each practice with ease, it's become frustrating at times. typically at this point in learning something new, i would just quit to avoid failure. but last night i decided violin is too important to just quit because i'm frustrated (not that i'm even close to considering quitting, BUT i know how i am and i don't want the frustration to reach that point)...so i sort of had an entirely different frame of mind when i sat down to practice. i even moved my chair and music stand w/in my room so that i have no visual or spatial distractions. i really slowed down my pace when working on my a major and d major scales, and did them with my eyes closed (my biggest thing is to get away from staring at the neck of the violin, my teacher really doesn't want me to look @ my fingertapes anymore and i have a feeling she's going to have me get rid of them soon anyway now that i'm almost through all the notes in first position)...i thought the results would be horrendous. instead, i found myself 100% more focused than ever, and doing scales with my eyes shut honestly did help. after running through scales a few times in this manner, i went back to the two newest songs i learned ("may song" and "long, long ago" from suzuki book 1) and i swear this time the scales helped. really helped. before i ran through them quickly, simply as a warmup required by my teacher, not even connecting how they'd help with the actual music. this time, i was able to really HIT the notes when i played the songs i just learned on monday. yes this is a beginner's epiphany (= wow, scales do really help!) but i suppose worth documenting since i'm sitting here blogging about it!From Anne-Marie Proulx
Posted on July 10, 2009 at 11:03 PM Hi, I think you have the good approch. What you said is interesting. I am a twin and my sister is always frustrated on everything. (it is her personnality). I am the only musician home but she tried for a very short period to take up clarinet. She was so frustrated after her things, she screamed in the bedroom, never found the correct piece of wood to put behind the beak (I don't know how you call them...) played with her metronome like a maniac and could almost throw it on the ground in an anger crises... She bought herself a super Buffet clarinet (one of the best professional brands in the world), put big money etc and quitted very very soon after. She definitivly is not a good person to be a musician. She never accepted to submit herself to the music. She wanted to dominate it. But music never lets itself dominate totally ; not even by the soloists ; ) Music takes patience and humility and it is generally not one of these things you can have immidiate success... Especially strings and piano... Just an anecdote because I find this sad for my sister (now she hates music ennough to never never never take an instrument again) but I know the world has to have many personnalities to make it interesting! I am in no way saying you are like her. I just wanted to tell how a very incompatible person can act with music. Just follow what you want and I'll tell you a secret: the worst, most painful, humiliating and frightening part of a musical journey is the beginning (about 4-5 first years) and especially for late starters who realize everything. Generally, after, even if it gets very hard, it is more enjoyable and you do no longer sound like a tin can (or a lot lot lot less) so it gets more fun even if it can be frustrating. The terrible vibrato learning, intonation, note reading, stage first experiences when you want to die, are the toughest part. When you start, you think you will never be able to do anything etc but after 4-5 years, when you listen to beginners youtube videos (BTW who I admire because they are so courageous to post on the net) you realize that you have done progress! Just do not watch the prodigies videos because it will make the inverse effect (Joke, no sense being jealous IMHO) So good luck! Anne-Marie
From Donna Clegg
Posted on July 11, 2009 at 1:05 AM grats on your light bulb moment. :) From Steven Albert
Posted on July 12, 2009 at 8:26 PM Jessica, -- Seems you and I are at the same place. I love the advice about closing your eyes and focusing. It does really work. I always start out my practice sessions first with long bows on open strings to get my bow arm moving. Then GM and Am scales to get my fingers moving. Then I do what my teacher calls "goldbricking" (there's a story that goes with the term, but I'll save that for later), which is just drawing long notes on the third finger first position on each string, and checking them against the lower string until you get the correct pitch fixed in your head, then I start on the exercises and pieces assignments. I think I'm only few pages past you in Suzuki Book 1. Ann-Marie -- "She screamed in the bedroom, never found the correct piece of wood to put behind the beak (I don't know how you call them...)" The "beak" is called the Head, and the "piece of wood" is call the Reed. I will tell you as a former professional woodwind player ... you NEVER find the right reed. They always need messing with. It also seems that the very best reeds are the ones that are just about to split down the middle LOL. Music takes patience, hard work and determination. Especially at the beginning stages. Getting that patience is even harder if you've achieved a high degree of proficiency on another unrelated instrument, and then have to start all over at the beginning with the Twinkle Twinkle you left behind what seems like a thousand years ago. It sounds to me like your sister was more into playing becase YOU did, then any actual desire to play for herself. Thank you both for your interesting and informative posts. Steve- From Jessica Paesel
thanks to everyone who responded to this! it's good to see that some of the frustrations i have are common, and helpful to hear stories from other people regarding the beginning stages of perfecting violin technique.
anne marie and steven, i too actually started off playing clarinet when i was younger, and i will say that while violin is much more precise and difficult to master, for me thus far it has been far more enjoyable for me to play. not only that, but i feel very rewarded at the end of each practice and at the end of each of my lessons when i know i have learned something new or when certain things "click."
violin is beautiful because you really have to work together with the instrument to create a beautiful sound...takes more effort than other instruments but is far more worth it in my opinion :o)
Posted on July 13, 2009 at 11:28 AM From Jessica Paesel
also, steven, i'd be very interested to hear about what "goldbricking" is :o)
Posted on July 13, 2009 at 11:34 AM This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments. |
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