March 5, 2004 at 9:59 PM

First Lesson with New Teacher...

I had my first lesson with my new violin teacher and it went very well. I am looking forward to working with him. I brought over all the stuff that I have been working on and here is a rundown on what he said. First of all he saw the Suzuki book 4 and said "Suzuki is practacilly worthless after Book 3, and Seitz Pieces in Book 4 are awful. They seem like they are written for students by a student composer." Which is fine by me, cause I hated working on most of the Suzuki pieces. He did say that the Bach Concerto was an excellent piece though. He also told me that I was concentrating too much on Etudes (Wolfhart and Dont) and that I should only work on the parts of the etudes that I am having trouble with, instead of wasting time playing the whole piece. He told me that is how I have to practice. Learn how not to "waste time". We worked on a Vivaldi Concerto and overall he said it sounded good. A couple points for improvement he suggested were 1. A stronger vibrato on all the notes except the sixteenths. 2. My second finger was a little high and I need to concentrate on playing a C natural instead of between a C natural and C sharp. (He said it sounded like I didn't know what I wanted to play, a sharp or a natural). Once these things are mastered the piece will be strong he said.

He also said that the Schradiek studies were good, but to concentrate on the exercises that would develop the reach of my 4th finger, and definately don't worry about going through every exercise in the book.

Scales, He told me to continue working on the 3 octave scales, and also to really work on Arpegios, which he feels is very important.

And finally, he told me that I should get as many recordings that I can of other violinists such as Pearlman, Heifitz, Joshua Bell, Anne Sophie Mutter, etc, and to really listen to how they play. He said I am at a point where I need to develop my own style, so that people know that it is me, when they hear me playing.

Also, he said that some students will play etudes and exercises flawlessly, but when it comes to playing a piece of music, they cant do it.

Thats it for now. I will be working on the things he suggested and our next lesson is next Saturday.

March 5, 2004 at 9:59 PM

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