October 30, 2004 at 1:06 AM

I'm getting to one of those pinnacles in my career as a violinist. I'm playing Danse Macabre for a Halloween classroom presentation.

I remember the first time I heard this piece, and actually it was a soloist with piano accompaniment, not orchestra. I was with my dad in the truck in high school, listening to the radio station. From the first notes, I was mesmerized, and I knew that someday I wanted to play that piece. I tracked down the sheet music and dabbled with it for a bit before putting it away, realising I wasn't ready for it. It wasn't until this year that I actually thought perhaps I could pull it off.

Well, I've got it mostly. Something happens when I get in front of people, and I just sieze up. Sometimes, it's just from trying to get the emotion out. I practiced the arpeggios alone at least a half hour a day to perfect them, but every time I get to that part at the end, I am so compelled to take the accelerando and just go mad, and I mean, perhaps I should have a little restraint, but not at that point. I could maintain speed and shoot for accuracy, but then the meaning would be lost. So, I hope I will get to dance for the students, not just perform, and let the notes fly, and say to heck with accuracy. Once you've logged in the hours of slow practice and drills, it's time to throw caution to the wind when you're on the stage. Hope it works.

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on October 4, 2005 at 8:18 PM

I've never seen the arpeggios. What is the fingering like? Is there a pattern with the string crossings you can hold in your mind's eye? Can you play it very slowly with a metronome with no problem?

If it was me I'd record the piano part on something the way I wanted it to go, and practice the violin with that, through speakers or bleeding through headphones. When I play with a metronome there's nothing expressive at all. I have to think too much about staying with it. But after a few days, and I'm not using it, whatever I was working on is more or less steady, and then some expression re-enters the picture. With a recorded piano might be like that at first.

I've read all the blog entries now. Nice.

From Emily Grossman
Posted on October 28, 2005 at 5:02 AM

If I had it to do over again, I would have used a different fingering to avoid string crossings. It was the string crossings. I spent this week just on spiccato and cleaned up the notes. It's much better now.

I don't even think about metronomes anymore when I use them, they've become such a part of the routine. I preach them to my students like doctrine.

Can't believe you read the whole thing.

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on October 28, 2005 at 9:42 PM

Yep, I did. There was nothing else to read ;)

I'm learning my first ever classical guitar piece. Hard to believe or explain, but yes. I don't have a classical guitar and I don't hold it like a classical player, and I'm not going to start. It's for fun. It's something by Paganini for guitar I found the sheet music for on the web. I don't know what it is, but I think maybe it's from a book of progressive studies. All my problems with classical music came roaring back at me. I realized that in the stuff I play, I've never once had to think about phrasing, dynamics, and a host of other things that go into classical. In that music there aren't many requirements and it just takes care of itself naturally there. So I'm using a metronome a lot to keep the beats even and for tempo. I can play it accurately, but it still sounds bad, and the thing is, I'm not too interested in fixing it, assuming I could figure out how :) I don't think it's difficult as classical guitar goes. Next I might find something that's supposed to be extremely difficult and learn that, as long as the difficulty doesn't come from stretches - I don't want to have to work on that. Speed and coordination I can probably handle.

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on October 28, 2005 at 10:17 PM

How to fix it might be an interesting discussion, but I mean in practical terms I'm not interested in fixing it.

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October 30, 2004 at 1:06 AM

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