June 2006

Great session tonight !

June 27, 2006 20:40

Had a great session tonight with the fiddle group. We've been going over tunes that we're going to be playing for the railroad "gig" next weekend. There was an older woman who was there just to listen..she's a violin teacher and a music director for some local school. I was busy playing away having a good time with everyone and I was very encouraged to overhear her complimenting my playing to one of the other ladies there. I had noticed out of the corner of my eye that she had been watching me as I played. There were about 12 of us there tonight so I thought it cool that I was so noticed.

I'm quite sure that it's the violin more than it is me...lol..it really has a beautiful sound....I've been blessed to have fallen into such a nice old instrument....players like me need all the help we can get ! :-D

Anyway, a very encouraging and just plain fun evening all in all !

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Yeah ! Lots of time to practice !

June 26, 2006 17:00

Yahoo ! School is out and I can practice and play for hours if I want !! :D I'll probably drive my kids nuts, but hey....they drive me nuts sometimes so fair's fair !

My fiddle group is playing for a local train historical thing going on next weekend. It should be fun, but I'll probably have trouble keeping up with some of the tunes. For some odd reason..I can play those tunes just fine by myself, but totally loose it when I have the pressure of keeping up with what everyone else is doing. They always play faster when we're doing a public thing..lol.

I think I prefer playing the classical stuff to fiddle tunes. There's alot more finess involved in playing classical. It's more of a challenge and it matters more that you play "well". Sometimes you get going so fast with some of those fiddle tunes that you end up washing over alot of the notes but you're going so fast no one seems to notice. Ah well, it's fun and an opportunity to get together with others who share a love for this instrument. I have heard some really good fiddlers and I'd LOVE to be able to play like that someday....but.....lol.....that's a LONG way off for me ! :D

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Left hand woes.....right hand Goes !

June 10, 2006 18:16

After almost 4 years at this.....I'm still working on my "hold" if you call it that. I have to say that about 50-60% of my attention while I'm playing...is on how my left hand is holding or resting that neck. I'm always "fiddling" around trying to find a more comfortable/usable hold that will allow me to move my fingers along the strings freely and properly...AND....enable me to "vibrato"...(dang..still can't get that right !)Maybe if I had a decent shoulder rest it might help (grumble) I can't help but think how far I can go once I get to a place where I don't have to think about that anymore.

Needless to say, having so much attention spent on that one thing, sure takes away from the rest of my playing. I don't seem to have as much trouble with my bowing though...that's EASY !....so that's a plus!

I must say though...that all of this effort has given me the muscle back in my arms that I had about 20 years ago ! Lol....I was stretching the other day and noticed a knot in my arms...it was my biscepts !! I also have a killer grip with my left hand. SWEET ! :-D

Anyway.....I can't wait to get that technical stuff down so that I can concentrate more on the music, intonation and accents and the like. I want to just close my eyes and let the music flow through me and out the violin....and Lord willing, I'll GET there !!

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More entries: July 2006 • May 2006

June 2006

Great session tonight !

Yeah ! Lots of time to practice !

Left hand woes.....right hand Goes !

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