April 2004

April 27, 2004 08:09

So my husband has told the church we've been attending that I play the violin and have been looking at music to play at church. Now there's a way to get me to practice. We're becoming members and e just thought our pastor should be told. I have stage fright. My whole life I thought I'd overcome it and go on to public performances. I'm fine with ensembles ad orchestras, just not solo. So I'm going to have to switch gears and work a little more on the more sacred music I've found and maybe a little less on Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I have a nice arrangement of Handel's For Unto Us a Child is Born and plenty of music by Bach that would be church acceptable, so I'm not worried about finding the music, just playing some in front of two services. Another person in our new members class is a violin teacher! I haven't met very many string players since I've moved out to Minnesota. One of the pathologists I worked with was one and a coworker played viola, but only in the "oh ya, I played viola in high school" sort of way.

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April 21, 2004 18:48

I've been practicing pretty well these past few days. I can get all the way through Vivaldi's Spring now and hit all the notes! This is a major accomplishment for me. There was a time I was afraid I had forgotten everything I learned. It's all coming back to me now!
My next step is really working on the intonation of the piece. My fingers are short and 4 sharps is a bit of a stretch! I also need to work on making the double stops sound smooth. Right now I hit all the notes, they are in tune, but I leave quite a break between notes!
Practicing has been a bit rough. I have a toddler and she does not like mommy playing the violin. She has a habit of knocking my violin stand over to watch all the sheet music fall to the floor! So, the point of this is that I only really practice while she's napping or after she's gone to bed.

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April 19, 2004 12:39

I've never done a blog before, so here I go... I started the violin 18 years ago in school. I was 9 at the time. I picked the violin as my instrument because it didn't involve any spit. I didn't really take the violin seriously until I was 14, and then maybe I started to take it too seriously... an obsession, maybe? My violin collected a lot of dust while I was in college. I was busy getting my biology degree. I took one music class in college where we did a concert on recorders and viol de gamba's, and we sang a few songs in an all female choir.
I have in the past year or so started working on my violin playing again. I practice a couple hours a day now. I'm working on Vivaldi's Four Seasons because I love the music. I just figured out how to play the double-stops in Spring, thanks to my friends at soloviolin.com. I can play them and hit the right notes, but it doesn't sound pretty... actually it sounds kind of ugly, but I'm hoping with enough practice I'll be able to play it smoothly.

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More entries: May 2004 •

April 2004

April 27, 2004 08:09

April 21, 2004 18:48

April 19, 2004 12:39

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