The A String

April 21, 2012 at 7:02 PM

And this week that challenge is…? Remarkably, Sevcik went well this week. It is not the most inspiring thing to play but certainly the various patterns are helping me with intonation, intervals, even bowing. Advice from what I read—both in books and on violinist.com—suggests that you try to make music every time you pick up the violin. So, even when I do my Sevcik I work at making it sound better than last time, more in tune, smoother, more rhythmic, whatever strikes me.

Last week I struggled with the Brahms Waltz from Suzuki 2. In particular I had trouble getting the E to sound in tune and not too course or raspy. It also seemed that whenever I moved the bow from string to string it would bounce. I tried more pressure but to my beginner’s touch that messed up my dynamics. It seemed I had to trade off between hoping to play smoothly and hoping to play with some dynamics. So my teacher says to use more bow! I can’t say problem solved but it helped quite a bit. I was using more bow as the melody crescendoed but whatever she showed me helped with my problems.

This week we are continuing with Kayser #3, but all staccato and accenting the first and third beats of each measure. I pause as I write this to think if the piece is written in 4/4. I think it is. Note to self: Pay more attention to the structure of the music before playing. Well, as the discussion boards here show, getting a clean staccato is a challenge. Stopping the bow is the hardest part for me. It tends to squeak as I trail off. I plan to spend several minute (five?) each day just doing staccato on open strings so I can concentrate on that and not get confused about fingering. This is a really fun piece to play. The accidentals are getting more familiar and more accurate. I have been told to raise my elbow more to get the double stops at the end. Ironic how hard it is to play double stops when you want to, but easy when you don’t.

I also started Schumann Two Grenadiers. Another relatively simple piece that I hope will allow me to play more musically and dynamically. The same goes for the Handel Bourree, which is quite beautiful and not too hard. For the Handel, after playing it with what I thought were reasonable dynamics, I was instructed to “play with dynamics this time.” Perhaps recording myself will help me hear what is really coming out of those little f-holes. Oh, so many things to work on tomorrow. Can’t wait!

From Dave Bazell
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 1:18 AM

Full disclosure. I checked the Kayser piece and it is in 2/4 which should have been obvious since it goes eighth-sixteenth-sixteenth eight-sixteenth-sixteenth. But is does serve as a lesson to at least understand the key signature and time signature before starting a piece! Nevertheless, playing it all staccato is difficult, even after reading all the tips in blogs and discussion area.

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The A String

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