April 2009

shoulder rest, cloth, none or both?

April 12, 2009 21:58

When I started working on the third position, I though that it would be a good idea to get a shoulder rest to help me improve at shifting. It was okay until I started to feel weird when I played. So I stopped using shoulder rest, and discovered that I could shift perfectly without the shoulder rest. A few weeks later I felt like I need more stability while I played, I tried using a cloth but I felt uncomfortable so again I started to use the shoulder rest. Everything was okay until I started playing accolay and the unnatural feeling returned so I gave the cloth a second chance and it worked a few weeks, when I started working on vibrato and the lack of stability came back. I stopped using the cloth, I didn't know what to do, even though I could play without a shoulder rest or a cloth I felt that I needed a little bit more of stability, then I remembered hilary hahn and found the answer, combine them. It has worked a few days now and I dont think it will stop working

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My teacher

April 6, 2009 21:17

I study violin at an institute called centro cultural Danushe Hlavenka Icaza, this is where my journey with the violin started. The owner of the institute is my teacher her name is Danushe Hlavenka, some people may find it weird but her main instrument is the cello and she is also very good at piano. She studied college in prague she specialized in cello but she also studied how to teach violin. I really like the way she teaches me, she is very patient answers all of my questions and is very open to listen my opinion. I 'm really glad to have her as my teacher but that will change for a while. She is moving for a while because her husband got a new job and she doesn't want her children to be away from their father. I will keep studying on the same institute but with another teacher, the director of the symphony orchestra higly recommended her. She is a violin student that will graduate this year she plays in an orchestra, so I will be learning a lot from her but I will miss my teacher but she told me tha she will come very often and that if we need something we can call her, so we will keep in touch. You know... the weird thing is that i was going to write a blog about my personal experience and opinion about shoulder rests..... Well i guess it will have to wait.

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No hope for a new violin

April 1, 2009 12:04

So, last january I was rehearsing Vivaldi in A minor with my teachers mother was playing the piano acconpainment, so after a few times my teacher told me that I should work more on the part that gave me trouble but she thought that everything else was perfect. I was very glad to hear that, but the next thing she said I was happier to listen. She told me it was time for me to buy a new violin. I still didn´t have a year playing the violin so it really made me happy to hear that i had a really god excuse to ask my mom for a new violin( besides the fact that mine sounds horrible) so my teacher talked to my mother and she said that she would buy it. So we had the money and we had the person who would bring me the instrument, we ordered it through the internet and everything was ok, until they told us they had trouble contacting the bank, so after a series of e-mails an trips to the bank, I didn´t get my violin and everything because the bank said that they didn´t have theat kind of service and that they couldn´t call the store. So here I am stuck with my not very good violin that can´t produce the sound I would like, and all because of a a bank that even said that they didn´t speak english, what kind of bank does not have at least one employee that speaks english. So I wrote this because I needed to vent all the things that happened.

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More entries: March 2009

April 2009

shoulder rest, cloth, none or both?

My teacher

No hope for a new violin

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