January 2004

January 24, 2004 14:59

The Bach g minor sonata is going well and I love playing it, no real technical hurdles yet. It's fun learning new Bach and then going back to play the old stuff I already learned. Also, a friend of mine from this forum offered to compare notes on playing solo bach, that should be educational. Its nice to go back after you learned something and make sure you are playing it correctly, especially when youre basically self-taught.

Im a little out of the loop can someone tell me who Jessica Simpson is? Did Homer Simpson have another child? Perhaps I need to play violin less and watch tv more...

Also wondering why when you go to pet a dog (mom has 5 because she runs a halfway house for orphan dogs) they turn their head so that your hand touches their sloppy snotty wet nose? I just want to pet their fur and not get wet junk all over my hand! I mean can't they wipe their own nose and just let me pet the back of their head?

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January 19, 2004 11:05

I think I will take a break from the Bach d min and start on the G minor today. Im really excited about it too.
:)

I saw the documentary film "Bach In Auschwitz", it was such an incredible story full of real stories about musicians who survived the most evil events imagineable. Their story of courage is an inspiration, bless their hearts!

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January 15, 2004 08:01

Listening to the Mintz recording of the Bach d min sarabande, I like how he sustains the notes on the d string during the first descending chord sequence. I dont think I ever heard anyone play it like that and it adds so much color. Its amazing how different recordings can change your perception of how a piece can be played and its always refreshing to hear people with new ideas. I knew there was a reason why I have gobs of recordings of the same piece and keep buying more anyways. It is an expensive hobby (habbit more like) but is something I enjoy immensely more than anything else. Also just got the new Podger / Vivaldi double cd from the library and I love it, somehow I knew it would be good.

Im also debating whether or not to drive down to Cincinnati to see Hilary Hahn play the Bruch Concerto. I doubt I will be able to resist going and Im hoping she encores some bach for us. Im excited and am thinking it will be likely I will be able to see her after the show so she can autograph my Brahms CD that I have cherished for a long time.

One thing Im NOT debating on is eating deep fried cow brain sandwiches anytime soon.

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January 11, 2004 22:22

I've been playing the Largo from Sonata 3 in C maj lately. (Well its in c major even though the b's are flat, go figure)

Its a really pretty piece and not that difficult so I would recommend it to beginners looking for some Bach to start out on.

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January 9, 2004 09:32

Enjoying the Alma Rose' book. Apparently she was the niece of Gustav Mahler, her father was concertmaster of the Vienna PO (he performed with Brahms himself), and was married to Vasa Prihoda!

Her story of courage and bravery and how she saved so many lives is inspiring.

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January 7, 2004 01:27

Yesterday on my way home from work from my day job I stopped by the library and picked up a copy of the violin concerto by Benjamin Britten with Mark Lubotsky paired with the piano concerto played by Richter, for some reason I found the violin concerto only moderately interesting and it didn't really hold my attention. Given there was a recognizable melody but I just didn't find it that appealing, I did however find the piano concerto alot more appealing. I had to hear this disk to satisfy my curiosity.

After that I headed off to my second job at the pizza shop. It turns out I wasn't scheduled to work. See Friday we were really busy (people freak out here when the Buckeyes play) and everyone was working hard except for one person and of course I told him what to do. Granted he is a manager but that doesn’t excuse his lazyness, all the other managers work hard! So he’s like "I don't have to answer you" then smiles this huge grin and walks away. On top of that it was my birthday and I would not take that on my special day especially when I really didn’t even need that job, it was just something to keep me busy when I didn’t have a girl in my life to occupy my attention. That was it, I would not take it, it’s the principle of the matter and I told the head boss I never want to work with him or see him ever again and that I could work somewhere else when he was working there to fill out the hours if I decided I needed the money. I have no respect for lazy people and if someone doesn’t do what I tell them when they aren’t doing anything and everyone else is working then I have to do something about it no matter what. So sure he doesn’t have to answer to me but then I also don’t ever have to work with him or seem in ever again, there’s your respect you lazy jerk. I’m so sick of lazy people looking for a free ride in life and leaching off of everyone else. So I requested a schedule change but I didn’t think it would go into effect right away and as it turns out, the synchronicity of the whole thing couldn’t have been better because I wanted to talk to Holly. I called her last night and it turns out she was out shopping and I missed her twice but it was so nice having time off to call her last night. She was home tonight though much to my (and her) delight and we had a great conversation about our past, future, and we set a date to be together this Friday, another day I would have been working if I did not request a schedule change. So everything worked out really well and all at the exactly right time. I really feel the chemistry between us and that we have something strong going here.

After I talked to Holly, I went to sleep around 8pm because I was really tired. I woke up at midnight and started to think…

How about a midnight practice session at the office?
Did I really want to play and at any volume I desired?
Did I need to copy rare OOP cds for my friends?
Did I want to be warm without jacking up the gas bill at home?
And more importantly did I get enough sleep?

Sure enough, I loaded up car with my violin, guitar, sheet music, rare cd’s, and some beer, hey it’s not like I’m not drinking on job right? It’s after hours and no one would be there and knew I would be sober in the morning.

So driving to the office I passed the old school I used to go to, the windows of the computer lab invoked memories of endless hours of frustration, humiliation, and pulling my hair out. Then I decided to stop at the last Rax roast beef restaurant known to man because I worked at one for over five years and I wanted to recall the memory of the degrading position I used to work and relish in the fact that I now have a position of respect and a decent level of income and the feeling that I have found my way in life.

When I got to the office ate my roast beef sandwich with this delicious chinese mustard I have been saving for some special occation and began doing some internet stuff before my midnight practice session. Yesterday a friend of mine from Steve Redrobe’s violin forum sent me an MP3 of Schlomo Mintz playing a caprice by Kreisler with incredible tone and feel so I thought I’d return the favor and began preparing some mp3s of Mintz’s Paganini Caprices, Dvorak Concerto, Sibelius Concerto, and the 54 recording of Milstein performing Paganiniana from the Italian Sonatas CD. I have been a Mintz fan ever since I first heard his recording of the caprices (did you know he had the same tacher in Isreal as Zukerman?) and with all this fascination with Mintz and tnowing the Kreisler CD is so good I checked Amazon and they had the Kreisler for 25 bux, I wasn’t going to pay that but I decided to order his recording of Vieuxtemps 5 and the Lalo for like 9 dollars, not bad. I would like to get his Kreisler and Brahms Concerto eventually and suddenly I remembered the Bexley library has a copy of the Mintz Krieisler cd, I think I will be paying them a visit soon. I then started to copy some rare OOP cds for another friend, Georger Bolet’s recording of Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a theme of Chopin and Alexis Weissenberg’s recording of the two Rachmaninoff Sonatas, probably my two favorite non-Chopin pieces ever written.

I then read some stuff from zen slut’s blog about capricorn rising and talked to an old friend I have not spoken to in a long time from maestronet about the death of Connie Sunday.

After that I decided to clean my office some and finish up some programming because there is this section of code I just had to get working because it would have bothered me and distracted my practice if I did not finish it. The intention of my boss has backfired, instead of her watning me to work less and provide me a means to get in the morning so I don’t have to wait for people to show up, I do alot more programming. It seems the office has become my home away from home much the same way the computer lab was in college, only more so because I can smoke and drink and control the level of the heat and play music and listen to cds as loud as I want.

Then it was time to play with all distractions removed, I played Vivaldi along to cd and of course as ussual tons of solo Bach, inserting all kinds of legato scale patterns and modulating arpeggios. The legato is really starting to sound better. I also played some of the Bach lute suites on guitar, man I could play Bach and Vivaldi all day and I’m always eager to learn myself more. I also played along to this tune I love my new age artist Liz Story called “My Heart Your Heart”, what gorgeous and meotional music.

A few other random thoughts:

1)I wonder if Brittney Spears will ever marry me and get an annulment the next day?
2)I am considering changing my last name to Heifetz and starting a summer music camp for aspiring violinists.
3)I would like to sign up for the all string marching band, please let me know how and where to inquire please.

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January 6, 2004 05:08

I went to bed early last night after returning from my labor at the pizza shop and as a result I woke up at 4 am unfatigued so I decided to go to work early to practice violin and I learned a few things. From this morning's practice session, it was quite evident to me that:

1)If you dont play everyday you loose your muscle memory from previous practice sessions, hence the need to practice everyday to keep muscle memory fresh.
2)It doesnt sound good and it doesnt "start to happen" until at least 40 minuts of continuous playing.
3)Dont think, let it happen and do what comes natural.
4)Support of the bow grip and angle of the bow is largely controlled by the finger next to the pinky.
5)The pressure I apply to the bow mostly seems to come from the second knuckle and the majority of scratchyness comes from too much weight applied to the second knuckle.

After that I was admiring the first 3d image and first color image from the surface of mars.

Cool!

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January 5, 2004 10:16

Wow so much has happended since my last entry.

Lately I have started inserting all kinds of 4 string legato and staccato scale patterns in combonation with the fourth chord of the chaconne and improvising using d min scale shapes. Im also beginning to work through the Szigetti book "Szigetti on the Violin" some, he has some great advice to offer if you havent read it. Also, mom says she can get Simon Fischer's Basics from the publisher and Im eager to get my hands on that.

I recently invited an amazon friend of mine to join a piano thread at Maestronet.com, he is a skilled pianist with many well informed opinions.

It seems this year has really been getting off to a good start as I predicted.

Friday was my birthday and I saw the new Lord Of the Rings movie, wow its unbelieveably good! I also got some new books from mom, Alma Rose` and Stern's book My First 79 years. I bought a cd of faure nocturnes and a requiem and also mendelssohn and bruch concertos for 2 pianos with katia and marielle labeque. I also ordered the Ehnes Bach cd from the publisher because you cant get it here. I am a huge fan of jazz/fusion and especially the innovations of Allan Holdsworth. After talking to Gary Husband (who is probably the greatest drummer in the world), I found out about and ordered a live Allan Holdsworth CD and I also had to get my own t shirt, I just couldnt resist supporting that great man, Allan is by far the greatest electric fusion artist I have ever heard.

Then of course the buckeyes played and won, as did iowa and minnesota. No one thinks when big ten beats big ten by the score of 13 to 16 that when they play someone else who scores more points like florida or miami they are playing people who played people in the past with no defense and a less physical game, then those people down south play the big ten and get crushed because we play a lot more physical game. Football has only been football for 2 years now and people are beginning to understand how tough we really are up here. Other than that I want to see those people in the south win in the snow!

I was so happy to meet Jerry and his niece at New Years and I managed to ask her he name, it seems the mystery woman is names Holly. Jerry and Holly showed up Saturday also so I told her "I like talking to you, do you think I could call you sometime?" Apparently it worked and got her number but I didnt call last night, that would be a sign of desperation so Ill call tonight instead.

Went to the library yesterday and got gobs of new cds to listen to, mostly chamber music of poulenc and brahms piano trios. I cant wait to hear them!

Also I have been admiring photos from mars:

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/images.html

http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/MOC/

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit001.html

http://www.space.com/images/h_spirit_panorama-mars_02.jpg

Yes, life has been good to me so far this year.

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More entries: February 2004 • December 2003