September 23, 2005 at 4:26 AM

I had an awesome violin lesson today, one of my best yet. I haven't really practiced violin since monday and so this morning I woke up and practiced about 2 hours before my lesson. At my lesson we started with Kruetzer no. 3 and it went really well. She said the intonation was right on for the most part, but it could have been better. So for the next 20 minutes or so we worked on open string resonance and she said that I will only have to work on the first 3 bars of it and one part in the middle but otherwise I'm basically done, I just have to practice it using the open string resonance. She then allowed me to go onto Kruetzer no. 4 and 5. On no. 4, because I could already produce an already decent up bow stacatto she gave me the andvance bowing, which changes some things around so I have to do up and down bow stacatto.

The de Beriot went really well today as well. I played the first page plus the cadenza like section and when I was done she said everything was coming along nicely and said that we just had to work on some small details, and best of all, most of it wasn't problems with pitch or rythm. So we worked on that and in the end I felt pretty good because she told to look at the entire concerto if I could in the next week. I am so excited about lessons, I hope to have this concerto completely learned and mastered within 2 months, and if it's going this well after only 2 lessons on it, I don't see why I couldn't do it in two months. Today after my lesson I asked her about starting a Bach sonata, I am going to do the entire first sonata, I have already learned the first movement and we will start witht the presto, then do the siciliano and then do the incredible difficult fuga. I will revive the adagio on my own. All I can say is that I am excited, everytime I play a Bach piece my technique and playing ability just absolutely skyrockets and now playing an entire sonata will make me work that much harder and efficiently and I will improve so much. I hope we will add some Kreisler in the mix too, I haven't done anything by him since Praludium and Allegro over a year ago. I want to do either Tambourin Chinois or Caprice Viennos.

I am on a violin high right now. I have played my violin for about 7 hours total today, 4.5 hours of practice and 2.5 hours of lesson and orchestra rehearsal. My goal for this school year is to learn 3 concertos, the de Bariot followed my Bruch and then Mendelssohn. Hopefully this summer then I will do Wienawski's 2nd Concerto and then when I get back take a little break and do some thing like Mozart V, or mabye I will that over the summer and do Weinawski when I get back. Perhaps I will do Barber and then Weinawski. I also hope to fit some other fun pieces in there like Kreisler and some Sarasate. After Wienawski I will hopefully do Vieutemps 4 or 5. Then perhaps something like St. Saens No. 3. Then I will hopefully do Paganini Concerto 1, and then finally do the Beethoven Concerto and Brahms. I hope to do all of this in 4 years. Of course I hope to cover all of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas while I am here, and hopefully Jr. or Sr. year do the Chaconne. I will also hopefully do Paganini Caprices. I know this is a lot, but I'm willing to work and I am going to tell my teacher my outline and see what she thinks. These are my goals and I hope to reach them by my senior year, and with lots of hard work and practice I will. I also need to be ready to audition at CIM, CCM, and other grad schools for my masters performance degree.

I doubt I will be switching to viola, I love the violin too much, but I do enjoy playing the viola and will continue to do so, perhaps in a chamber ensemble on campus and perhaps I will be able to convince them to allow me to do both instrument, but if I can't do it during school I will just have to study of the summer and to the best I can with the viola over the school year with minimal teaching, I will just have to maintain it with some chamber ensemble and careful, aware practice.

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September 23, 2005 at 4:26 AM

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