September 2004

September 6, 2004 08:52

Damn Paganini has knackered in my left hand. So ive taken some time out to visit this very good website which i discovered recently. These weblog things are weird- like a diary that everyone can see. Well i used to keep a practise diary of how many hours i had done but ive given that up now. Id rather concentrate on quality over quantity which i think in the past may have been not the case. Well ive been working on La campanella today, for around 3 hours with only a 15 minuite break. The constant position changes have made my fingertips sore, and the stretches have made my tendons/wrist feel all funny. But i cant stop playing the piece, I like it so much. I learnt it while still at uni (id only been playing for 2 years then though, haha) so you can imagine that i couldnt play it great back then. But ive gone back to it now that i can play much better. I took it up again a few days ago and its all coming together now, the slow practise has definately paid off. I just need to practise the section in thirds more, its quite tough to play up to speed. But the rest (apart from the last trio bit) is sounding delightful, cant wait to play this piece in public. Well i guess if anyone is reading this youre probably wondering whos this new guy. Well im from sunny England, in the North, im 22, I teach for 3 days a week, do the odd bit of promotions work here and there to earn a bit more brass(thats money), and I play (solo) concerts whenever I get the chance. I have been playing for 5 years, but played electric guitar up to grade 8 standard before i switched over to violin. Why did i switch you may be asking- well I was at college doing music A-levels and we had to study Beethovens violin concerto. I fell in love with that piece. So much that i learnt the whole first movement on guitar - no mean feat! and then i got to the third and i thought, hmm this aint gonna work, i need a violin goddamit. Everyone at college was telling me, you'll never learn that, its too hard, forget it etc. So being the stubborn sod that i am i got a violin to prove everyone wrong. I got my grade 8 in 3 years and never looked back since! So thats a brief history of my obsession with violin. None of my friends understand it. They just think im mad! Well my hand feels like its back to normal now, so im gonna get back to my good friend Paganini, I WILL get that thirds section up to speed!!! Anyway. Thats all for now. Tune in next time for another update, same bat-time, same bat-channel, adios

Archive link

More entries: February 2005 •

September 2004

September 6, 2004 08:52

Laurie's Books

Subscribe