August 24, 2005 at 10:42 PM

I've been moved in for a few days and have appropriately wasted some time settling in, shopping, and driving aimlessly around town. I have a new school ID and am looking forward to a fresh start--even practiced some piano, a Clementi Sonata, to be ready for my secondary piano testing tomorrow. Keyboard Skills was mandatory for all freshmen at Northwestern, so I hope I can get out of essentially repeating that and save myself some valuable time. I haven't studied piano regularly since I was 12, and my technique never really got that far off the ground. I find it frustrating when my sixteenth notes are slightly uneven because I don't have complete control, and that my left hand is considerably weaker than my right. But enough of that--this blog is where I complain about my primary instrument!

As I've said, there are four or five fundamentals I need to go back to in my playing. I think the first thing I would like to do is change my bow hold just slightly. It is too pronated and too dependent on the first finger, which generally contacts the bow at my second knuckle. I would like to contact it closer to the first knuckle instead and be much more curved and wrapped around with my other three fingers, and develop more pinky strength at the frog (which is even more crucial with a viola bow). So today I started with the practice of setting an alarm to go off every five minutes or so, and when it goes off I'm supposed to stop, check my bow hold to see where it's gotten to, and readjust. The problem with this new practice is that the alarm startles me into putting down my bow and instrument right away instead of freezing so I can see what's actually going on. But I'm sure I'll get used to it.

I've begun work on the Brahms Concerto again. I think in general it is incredibly difficult to find the right balance of power and sheer beauty of tone. For example with the chords, which are traditionally all down bows, it's so tricky to find the right combination of weight and a slow bow while still hearing the right ring, and without crunching. There are orchestral seating auditions next week and I think I will probably have to play the first couple pages or something, so I'm trying to just focus on that. I have no idea what excerpts will be involved on this audition and that makes me kind of apprehensive. The good news, though, is I have a new string player sight-reading "play-in" to look forward to on Friday.

Feeling ready to make this school year as positive and worthwhile an experience as I can.

August 24, 2005 at 10:42 PM

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