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I 'm Calm Now

June 27, 2006 at 12:31 AM

I've calmed down since my last blog, thinks to a fellow violinist. Now, unfortunately, I've injured both of my hands and boy, do they hurt. I did it at Hy-Vee yesterday chipping away at ice in the freezer. So now both of my hands hurt, mostly the pinkies and even typing is somewhat difficult at the moment. When I play though, it's more of a dull ache, it only hurts when I have to squeeze my hands together to open a bottle or even tighten by bow.

I've decided that Symphony isn't the most important thing in life. I would love to go to Vienna but I guess if I don't make it into Symphony I will have more time for my solo rep and an extra $5,000.00 to help me purchase a new violin in 2 years. I'll try my best but right now it just doesn't seem possible. I have 2 months left to practice but I have a lot of work left to do with them because practice with them has become sporadic at it's best. Which has made me rethink my practicing. I'm putting it on a schedule. I'm going to keep track of everything I'm working on and attempt to right down everything I accomplished with it on that particular day. I'm also going to keep track of my time better so I don't practice one thing too much and something else not at all. So this is my goal, to become a much more efficient practicer and to make my already good concentration excellent and stronger.

I would like to ask you all for your forgiveness for my recent "woe is me" behavior. I hope that in the future I will be more positive.

Andrew, good luck with the practicing! I found writing things down really helpful. I was able to remember what I had practiced and how long I had spent on it. I found that spending more time on technique that was utilized in my pieces tended to enhance and make my practice time spent with pieces much more effective and speedy.

Sorry about the hand injuries! Make sure you are icing them and taking care of them. The last thing you want to do is strain them and make them worse.

Glad to hear you're feeling better about your violin. I have just as much love for playing as you do, but I'm even less likely to get anywhere near your abilities ...whatever they are I'm sure it's way past anything I might be able to accomplish.

I started playing at the age of 39..only about 4 years ago. I can't believe how much I love playing..and it gets so frustrating because I want to be so much better than I am...I can't even do vibrato ! (YET!...but I WILL goshdarnit!)

Keep up with it Andrew...you may someday suprise yourself...and your teacher ! :D