Breaking the Speed Barrier

March 17, 2008 at 3:34 AM

I got a good dose of practice in this weekend on the Hummel. There were two areas that I was "assigned" to focus on: some rhythm issues in the 3rd movement (yes Buri, I was assigned some specific metronome work), and the beginning of the last movement (16th notes, played at mm 108++ per group of 6-16th notes).

So first, my "metronome" assignment. The 3rd movement is in 3/4 with 1/4 notes, a triplet of sorts. Sometimes the quarter notes are tied. I was holding them just a bit to long. I was assigned to play them sub-divided at first (with metronome), then without sub-divisions (still with metronome), then without a metronome (subdivided), then again without a metronome (without sub-divisions). This really helped with getting the rhythm internalized.

Then onto the "lightening speed" section. During lessons last week, Joel showed me that if you took the bowings out of the picture, part of this movement was simply chords, played arpeggiated, VERY fast. Once that "light bulb" got turned on, and I moved to the upper third of my bow, I too was playing this section very fast with little effort. That is, until I got to the section that was not an arpeggiated chord :(

I'll save that part for my lext lesson.

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