September 9, 2003 at 5:24 PM

Pain:

My back still acts up every once in a while but for the most part the pain is gone and I am free to practice as much as I used to. The pain really slowed my practicing but now Im back on track. Thank you God! I suppose if you dont have good health, what do you have?

Progress:

The Bach d min Sarabande is sounding good and in tune, when I play it I don't have to think and I never have memory lapses at all. Playing this has now become comfortable and totally second nature. I never thought I would be playing Bach at all within one year, well I did tell my old teacher that if i could play a 3 octave g major scale that I should be able to play Bach and now Im really doing it. The rewards of producing those tones are incredible, I love violin so much when I practice it is not like work even those days when Im out of tune and cant to do anything. Everything comes from my love for the music and that is the fuel that keeps me going.

I have been playing through the b min sarabande the last month or so and that is finally starting to sound good. B minor is a very difficult key to play in correctly and with raw effore and correcting myself Im finally getting the feel of the chords, some of them areterribly difficult. It seems to help if I play each note of a chord one at a time. I can play through the whole thing but only have about half memorized so far, more time and effort will change that. Soon I will be able to play the d min and b min sarabandes both back to back. I think that is remarkable progress for someone who only started taking lessons less than a year ago. Of course, I read much Bach on classical guitar proir to studying violin so that skill has definately helped alot.

I can also play the second movement of spring but havent gotten to winter yet, I guess I wanted to focus on finishing the b minor first, and partially because I get lazy about reading music and just like to play what I have memorized most of the time. This allows me to focus on technique though it seems I play best when I dont think about it at all.

My legato is coming along, I have many exercises I invented and I still play part of paganinis 5th caprice really slowly. This caprice has really helped me to shift into higher positions when I play other tunes. I had alot of trouble with legato string crossings and I can already har progress in my sound but still a long long way to go.

Last week I went out and bought a decent bow, it came in the mail and i tok it out and left it on the couch. Later I caught my moms dog chewing on it but it still works good, teeth marks and all. Before I was using a Glasser and wow I cant believe the difference! All the bowing problems that I had but couldnt figure out what I was doing wrong totally went away and the tone is so much better, Im shocked at the difference. I still use my glasser when I practice with a mute and need to be quiet but every sunday I have been going to my friend's store and I play everything I know like a recital. He works at a billiards store where they sell pool tables but its really slow on sundays and the few people that come in seem to enjoy the music. Hey if anyone is interested in a pool table, head over to bbilliards.com and talk to my friend tom crooks, he can get you a deal.

Listening:

I heard the new Mullova CD, the Beethoven I didnt like that much, but the cadneza was a different one than I was used to and that made it interesting (I forget who wrote it offhand). The Mendelssohn was good and interesting but Ive heard better, I still liked it alot, she has a very unique sound.

That is about all I really listened to, I saw some new dvds coming out in asia Im getting excited about from Grumiaux with Gitlis, a new Szeryng DVD, more Oistrakh, and more Menuhin, who knows what else will come out? I cant wait!

Until next time keep on fiddlin everyone!
:)

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September 9, 2003 at 5:24 PM

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