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What A Year!

May 12, 2012 at 4:36 AM

When I first came to music school, I realized that I was quite behind violin-wise. Although I certainly wasn't a "bad" violinist, I was lacking a lot of technical skills. I had never played a 3 octave scale. I had never worked on etudes or solo Bach. I had very little experience with "real" orchestra music (although I loved listening to it, the orchestras I was in were never good enough to play any of it)...I was so used to playing arrangements. It was really frusterating to realize how unprepared I was and how much I had to do to catch up.

I spent the first semester working on a lot of technique. I worked on Mazas and Trott etudes, most of my scales and Presto from Bach Sonata No. 1. In addition, I was exposed to some great orchestral pieces. We played Symphonie Fantastique for our first concert of the year! I left first semester with a pretty good idea of what I needed to do to succeed the second semester.

When I came back from break, I knew I was going to be doing my level, so I worked really hard to prepare all my pieces, etudes and scales perfectly. And, in the end, I think all my hard work really payed off. Even though I didn't pass my Kreutzer etude, when I look at all the stuff I DID pass my hard work really shows. I passed my scales, even though just a few months earlier I was learning them for the first time. I passed a double stop etude, I had never seen anything like it before coming to college. And I passed both a Bach and Vivaldi piece.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that, even though I am still upset about not completely passing my level, I can now realize and appreciate that 4 out of 5 isn't too bad. And I plan to work just as hard this summer and come back to pass Kreutzer like nobody's business. I guess, for now, all I can say is...What A Year!

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