Decided and Scales

December 19, 2006 at 2:02 AM

After nearly a week of umming and ahhing over what I wanted to do next year, I've finally decided.

It has been a tough week. I'd make up my mind, and then talk to someone else, and they'd inadvertently change my mind, so I was then decided on something else, then I'd talk to my parents and start feeling so very Emo that I was half a step from putting the black nailpolish on, before talking to someone else and feeling a bit better.

However, like most great thoughts and decisions, my mind has been set while I was having my shower this morning.

I have decided to do the Bachelor of Music, majoring in Music Studies. I eventually want to go into orchestral work, however I know that I need to build my technique up a bit, before I can head forward. By deciding to do the Music Studies major, I can take a step back and spend some dedicated time on technique.

In the Music Studies degree, I get an option of an elective, or "Practical Studies" which is basically lessons on your instrument, at a lower level than "Principal Study" which the Performance majors do. I've decided that if I choose the elective option, and not do any performance classes, I can gain some skills that will help me earn some money when I get out of uni - skills such as Music Criticism or conducting. At the same time, I can pay for some private lessons with a teacher of my choice, and really work on building my technique, without the pressure of exams or recitals.

This way, I can afford to take a step back to cover the ground that I skipped during the ADPA course because it was all centered around the recital and exams. This way, I don't need to learn this piece or that piece in order to play this piece in my recital. I can just sit back and work at what I need to work on.

At the same time, I'm still involved at Uni, involved in the ensembles and the social scene that I would miss if I took a year off. At the same time, I will learn skills that I wouldn't learn had I gotten into the performance stream, being focussed entirely on my next recital a year and a half away. This way, I will have a real possibility of earning money when I leave uni, and not have to face a couple of years of working in an unrelated job until I was ready to start auditioning.

When I look at it this way, I think "Why on earth didn't I think of this earlier? I could've saved myself a whole heap of emotional strain" but I'm here now. I've made a decision, and I'm happy with it.

Now, I'm off to do some practice. A bit of a warm-up then some scales. I had a bit of a look through the archives searching for Scale Practice techniques, as it's something that I've never really had. I found Buri's old column "Scales from a dead fish" and had a read through that. Having never done any scale work before, when he suggested working through Hrimaly before heading onto Flesch or Galamian, I thought "Well I've never done any scale work, so I'll start with Hrimaly" It just so happened that I had a copy of Hrimaly on my computer, which is handy, where as I don't have a copy of Flesch or Galamian. So, I had a look through that and found that it would suit my needs perfectly in all but one area - thirds.

It has been recommended to me that thirds are a vital part of scale practice, improving intonation, finger shape, and bow contact. So a quick scan through some other technique books I had, and ended up taking a few pages of Schradiek to add to the end to give me some octaves and thirds.

So this will be my bread and butter over the next few weeks, maybe months. But hopefully through some well thought through practice sessions, and working hard on these, my technique will improve significantly, and I will be happier :)

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on December 19, 2006 at 2:45 AM

Greetings,
Ben, ther eare a number of useful ways of practicing thirds. Flesch stresses the importnace of breaking them down into the various areas of difficulty and praciticng them sepsrately. Get yourself volume one of his Art of Violin Playing and bone up if you so wish. In Dounis Artist Technique book he writes out veyr systematic exercises which cover shifting and string crossing and are very thorough.
Howveer, i think the most efifcinet way to practice thirds is advoctaed by Ricci in his book on left hand technique.
Pick your key. then play a one octave scale or whatever on two strings (no string crossing) using fingers 1 and 3. Use tyhe traditional practice method of sevcik if necessary IE play lower, then upper then together. After you have mastered 1and trhee do the same with two and four. only after you have mastere dthese play the scale 13/24 up the two strings. The preceding work will hae clarified the changing spacing beteen the fingers which is the cause of lack of clarity and poor intonation in thirds. After a great dela of this work the scale sthat include string crossing found in books like Hrimaly and Flesch will be much easier. I foyu wnat to build your technique fast then I suggets you work a a greta dela on thirds using this approach,
Cheer,s
Buri

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on December 19, 2006 at 6:47 AM

I'm glad you made your decision. I hope it works out well for you.

From Terez Mertes
Posted on December 21, 2006 at 3:01 PM

Congrats on a decision well thought out and made.

>When I look at it this way, I think "Why on earth didn't I think of this earlier? I could've saved myself a whole heap of emotional strain" but I'm here now. I've made a decision, and I'm happy with it.

Yup. Been there, done that. I think most adults have - it's part of the initiation process. Hats off to you for passing.

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Decided and Scales

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