The A String

May 24, 2012 at 9:26 PM

I had a great lesson yesterday. I finished up the Sevcik exercises on the A string, the first part that is. I have not done the sixteenth note exercises. My teacher had me move on to Sevcik 5. This is still the A string but there are triplets using all four fingers. First I do one triplet per bow, then two, then four triplets per bow, always keeping the bow moving at a constant rate and evenly dividing the bow. This is a nice change from Exercise 1. She also has me continuing with exercise 11, bowing alternately on two strings. Moved the metronome up to 108, which is a challenge. Short bows, single note per bow, quick (and accurate) string crossings. Sounds almost like Bach. I am also trying two notes per bow and four per bow. That is challenging to keep even. I have to slow it down quite a bit, but hopefully I will be more confident by next week.

Also I am continuing with Kayser 4. The stretches are difficult so I have to practice them over and over to get the intonation correct, or at least close. A-C on the E string and D-F# on the A string. The little arpeggio G#-B-E-F#-G# is pretty cool to, especially when executed at a higher speed, say MM104. Not really fast, but fast enough to feel satisfying when it works. I have only been practicing the first two lines but now am moving on to the first four. I think my teacher wants me to master the basic patterns that recur throughout the piece and try to get them up to speed before moving on too far.

From the Suzuki 2 book I left behind the Schumann and am now working on Paganini’s “Witches’ Dance” and Thomas’s “Gavotte from Mignion.” The Paganini is OK, but I have never been big on flash. The main challenges are the dotted rhythm and getting the arpeggios clear and precise. The Gavotte is actually pretty interesting. The staccato will be the death of me. I am still struggling to stop the bow and not squeak and scratch and the Gavotte has lots of sixteenth note staccato runs. I figure I will practice them detache and just try to move the bow less and less. In the limit, short detache becomes staccato. Overall, it is seems like a substantive piece, more than just melody. It has interesting variation, at least to me, and technically there is a lot to learn.

My vibrato is slowly improving. This week’s assignment is to play the G major scale with vibrato on each note. Play slowly, one bow per note, and keep vibrato going for the full bow. Getting it go be slow but even is hard, I guess I can try using the metronome. I think I am getting a feeling for the necessary relaxation in my fingers. It is very interesting that there seems to be this contradiction, hold the note but relax and roll your finger. Relax, always relax when playing. I know it but I don’t always do it.

Since my teacher does not assign sight reading, I have been trying to do a little each day. It’s fun to play the melody from some Bach Inventions for Piano (keyboard, I guess.) I have a couple of books with simple pieces, so those should serve me well. When my daughter took piano lessons a number of years ago, she had ‘a line a day’ that was for sight reading. She was supposed to play the line three times and rate herself, as I recall. The go on to a new line the next day. Seems like a good method. Play a phrase or two, then repeat it to two or three times to improve it a little.

Time to go have some fun.

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

The A String

Subscribe

Laurie's Books