We have thousands of human-written stories, discussions, interviews and reviews from today through the past 20+ years. Find them here:
Printer-friendly version
Natasha Marsalli

July 9, 2005 at 11:53 AM

It's so frustrating when you go back to review and you can't play some of the pieces. Several very important/good pieces in Book Five, I never polished due to the fact that my teacher didn't push me at all, and I was in a state of violin hatred in my youth (which only subsided about three years ago). So now, I'm polishing Book Five. It's both embaressing and humiliating to have to skip down from Book Seven/Eight to relearn pieces. I can play the Bach A minor better than the Vivaldi Concerto in G minor. Looking back at my book, I can't believe some of the fingerings my previous teacher had me do; no wonder I had so much trouble with it! I remember that being the only piece other than the Bach Double to ever truly utterly frustrate me for longer than a half an hour. And now I must redo.

So for all those teachers out there...PLEASE never breeze through a Book, regardless if the student has changed violin sizes. S/he will later curse your memory.

Stupid hurricane's moving in too. The cone they show on TV makes it look like nothing will happen to Florida, but one has only to look at the satellite pictures to see the truth; pretty much half of the nasty swirly thing of terror is expected to hit the gulfside---which is right where I live of course.

Okay. I'm done venting my frustration on all you innocent victims of my writage. Have a nice day!

From Carley Anderson
Posted on July 9, 2005 at 12:39 PM
I agree...don't you hate it when teachers force you to use certain fingerings? I prefer suggestions rather than "USE THE FOURTH FINGER HERE!" Everyone has a different hand, so why not let them at least try it, and maybe they will discover that they need your help and will ASK for it!

Hope you don't get hit too hard by the hurricane.

From Sydney Menees
Posted on July 9, 2005 at 5:10 PM
Natti---Please don't die in the hurricanes. And about your review problem, my teacher has a system that seems to work pretty well. It's called "DeCapo Club." It is a chart Mon. Tues. Wed. ect. that has all the Suzuki books 1-8 on it. For example: Sunday is Twinkle Variation A, Monday is Variation B ect. and it goes all the way to the Veracini Sonata at the end of Book 8. I don't know if I descibed in a way that is easy to understand, but you can always e-mail me!
From Natasha Marsalli
Posted on July 9, 2005 at 10:12 PM
Yes, Sydney, I have done a similar review system. I also used to do a rep/review class once a week...and fervently hated it! Most of my difficulty comes from not being taught very well when I was younger. I'm SO glad that now I have a superb teacher!

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Facebook YouTube Instagram RSS feed Email

Violinist.com is made possible by...

Shar Music
Shar Music

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic

Violinist.com Shopping Guide
Violinist.com Shopping Guide

Larsen Strings
Larsen Strings

Peter Infeld Strings
Peter Infeld Strings

JR Judd Violins
JR Judd Violins

Dimitri Musafia, Master Maker of Violin and Viola Cases
Dimitri Musafia, Master Maker of Violin and Viola Cases

Pirastro Strings
Pirastro Strings

Bobelock Cases

Violin Lab

Barenreiter

Bay Fine Strings Violin Shop

FiddlerShop

Fiddlerman.com

Johnson String Instrument/Carriage House Violins

Southwest Strings

Metzler Violin Shop

Los Angeles Violin Shop

Violin-strings.com

Nazareth Gevorkian Violins

Subscribe

Laurie's Books

Discover the best of Violinist.com in these collections of editor Laurie Niles' exclusive interviews.

Violinist.com Interviews Volume 1
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 1, with introduction by Hilary Hahn

Violinist.com Interviews Volume 2
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 2, with introduction by Rachel Barton Pine