Paul McCrone

Paul McCrone is from Bellevue, Nebraska.

Biography

Archive:
June 2007
March 2007

What is your quest?

My name is Paul McCrone, my quest is to seek the ... best violin I can get to upgrade from my student violin (who needs a holy grail?). Oh, and my favorite color is blue.

It has been quite a while since I posted! Sorry about that!

I have been busy. I continue to make progress. I am still in the second Suzuki book, but now I'm on the 11th piece, the Minuet in G by Beethoven. I think I am just about there. We'll see tomorrow, when I have my next lesson.

I have already begun listening to the next Suzuki CD for the 3rd book, and I am excited to start on that! Such wonderful pieces!

Steve, my teacher, has been drilling me with vibrato excercises. One particular excercise has me playing two octaves of the G major scale (all 4 strings in the first position only) and play in such a way as to have only the one finger of the left hand touching the violin - no support from the thumb at all - to develop my finger strength and abaility to play, I guess. I have noticed an improvement in my vibrato since doing this exercise. It's hard though!!! still it's worth it.

As mentioned before, I am currently on a quest to find an upgrade to my student violin. I was recently in Chicago, and I visted two places: Semans Violins and Fritz Reuters shop, near/in the Lincolnwood/Skokie area. Both shops were dazzling to me, being a newbie, and both offered tremendous learning opportunities. Both places were worthwhile to visit. I bought a bow at Semans, and I am very pleased with it. At Semans, they let me try several of their violins. I was impressed. I noted that I can tell the difference in some of the violins - some seemed bright, others more dark, some mellow, some a little noisy, some clear. Wide varieties in abundance. I took pictures, and I will post more on these visits later.

I also visited Midwest Violins in Omaha Nebraska. Owned by Glen Hadsell, this business is operated out of his home. Despite the informal environment, I found Glen to be extremely knowledgeable, and a great player in his own right (he's a former member of the Omaha Symphony). I felt like I should have payed him for a violin lesson after we got done. He was very helpful and friendly. He has a great selection of very sonorous violins from various places. Czech, German, Italian, American, Chinese. Mostly from the later 1800's. Nice collection.

All three places allowed my to try out their violins and were very willing to help.

I am still on my quest and I intend to take my sweet time and not choose impulsively. There are two other places that I want to visit.

Well, that's all for now. I will write more later.

Best Regards,
Paul McCrone

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The update for March 29, 2007

Hi everone,

Well, last night I had my latest practice, and it went ok, as far as I'm concerned. I was working on Mignon, which I can play, but have not totally mastered. However, Steve, my teacher, told me to add number 10, the Gavotte by Lully , from the 2nd Suzuki book, and I am also tackling that one also. The great quest for violin excellence continues.....

Steve has been drilling me on the Wohlfart exercise book, and I must say that the bowing variations that he makes me perform are a challenge for me, but I think that I'm getting it. I am making progress through the music, so I feel pretty good about it.

For anyone out there that can comment, I'd like to hear from you if you can recommend a reputable violin store in Chicago Ill. My wife and I will be going there in a little over a week, and I'd like to look at violins. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Paul

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Summary of last nights lesson and other things

I was really pleased to hear from so many people! It was very encouraging! Thanks to all for replying.

Last night I had a lesson with Steve, my teacher from Papillion, Nebraska. I am working on Suzuki volume 2, number 9, The Gavotte from "Mignon", by A. Thomas. I only recently mastered the #8 piece, the Paganini piece, the Theme from the "Witches' Dance". I struggled with that one for a while & I have also been struggling with "Mignon". I can play the whole piece through, but some of the parts really tend to throw me a bit, like when you move into measures 43 through 47,48. If I treat each section as a kind of etude, hey, no problem, and I can play it at slow speed, but when I try to play at anything near the speed on the CD, I tend to stumble. Of course, I had a similar issue with Witches Dance, and I practiced that one into submission. Now I can play that one reasonably well (at least, Steve was satisfied enough to tell me to move on). I may try to record that and let you guys judge for me, if I remember to do it. Anyway, I think that Mignon will be similar. I will overcome - someday - and move on.

I had my first experience trying to play in a band of some sort of group a couple weeks ago (I have played in groups through my teacher, but obviously, that was a more controlled learning environment, where we had ample opportunity to practice the pieces that we were going to be playing). My church is trying to get some violin players together for the church ensemble. I went to one practice. I was the only violinist to show up for that practice, though they do have 3-4 players in the group normally. They only use the violins for special songs, situations, etc. The experience was somewhat frustrating. I figured that I would play some kind of second violin accompaniment, which was their intention, but the music that they arranged for the violin part was not obvious to play without practice, and they expected me to sight-read the music & play it in perfect time. Well, with a week of practice, I'm confident that I could have done it, but we really only had 3 days, and that was a busy week for me. There was no way. I felt like I was a marathon runner that had completed 22 of the 26 miles ... I'm getting there, but still a few miles behind everybody else. I admit, I was bit nervous, although everyone was encouraging. However, the whole thing just seemed to be so .... fast. I just couldn't keep up. I think I need more time to hone my skills/technique. I don't feel like I'm that far off - I just need more time to practice and develop as a performer.

I generally find that when I start to play a new piece, that I tend to play it horribly, then I get better and better with each attempt. I guess that's life, isn't it? (Yes, I am a Galactic Master of the Remarkably Obvious [a "GMRO"].)

In addition to the Suzuki books, Steve has started me on exercises in the wohfhart books. I guess these are standard violin exercises.

More later - I suddenly got really busy..... Later on then!

Comments (6) | Archive link

Every Blog has a first entry...............

Hello all,

I have not - in the past - participated in blogs. Mainly, this has been due to a feeling of reticence. I often feel like I am not qualified to speak out on topics - that I am not knowledgeable enough, or that I'll embarass myself by saying something stupid. Or worse yet, I'll speak on something that I DO know something about and start a major controversy. To a lesser extent, I fear being ignored, but I fear this much less than the previous issues.

In my normal profession, I am a meteorologist, working for the US Air Force, as a civilian employee (I was active duty, but got out about 10 years ago). I actually have a B.S. degree in Physics and an M.S. in Meteorology, so presumably I could feel confident in weather blogs in commenting. On occaision, I do make comments on meteorology blogs, but I am often overshadowed by Ph.Ds with philosphical / political 'axes to grind', etc. It has become really unpleasant for me.

OBTW,for the sake of the curious, I have reached the conclusion that global warming is a serious problem that man is either causing directly or contributing to significantly by pumping too much CO2 (+ other greenhouse gases) into the atmosphere. We are poisoning our own planet, however, I am not convinced that we can directly attribute stronger hurricanes to AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming or 'man-made' Global Warming). I do plan to start a web page in the future that will address the facts as I have researched them. (WHEW! I actually said it all! I wonder if anyone on violinist.com will try to nail me for saying these potentially caustic remarks! Am I safe?)

I feel like the violin has become a delightful escape for me, away from the pressures of govt funding/policy issues, and contentious weather professionals. I have adopted the saying that "....my worst day of violin practice is still MUCH better that my best day at work".

I am starting this blog because:

1. The violin is a tremendous musical instrument, and I really enjoy listening to it and trying to play it.

2. I am NOT an expert in the violin. I have only been a violin student for 1 and 1/2 years, and can easily claim some reasonable degree of innocent ignorance.

3. I feel like this blog presents a nuturing atmosphere and I will not likely be totally scalded for saying something that others do not necessarily agree with.... If I do not agree with you, well, it seems like - for the most part - that's a matter of opinion. My disagremeent does not threaten to render your entire life work and research null and void. You and I can go on with life playing a different tune.

4. I want to advance in my knowledge on the violin, and I feel like participating in this blog will contribute to my understanding. Hopefully, I can meet some fo you on my future travels and continue the learning process.

5. At work, I feel like I'm more of a robot at times, parroting the latest party line, that I do not necessarily agree with, and pretending to support it by saying nothing and doing what I'm told. Here, I can have my own little French Revolution......Ne c'est pas?
I think that artists will appreciate a soul searching to express itself freely. While I do not really classify myself as a true artist, I do appreciate art, especially musical art. I have always felt that Grieg must have been in a particularly expressive state when he wrote "Morning Mood" for Peer Gynt. There are many other wonderful examples of course, but that one came to mind first.

Well.... I feel like I've really accomplished something here- especially when I hit "post entry". I hope some of you respond. I hope to hear from you.

-deep breath-

Best Regards,
Paul

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