April 2009

5 years, 5 teachers

April 12, 2009 19:01

It is always difficult moving out of state (or country). You have the packing and moving to contend with, finding a new place to live, dealing with changes of addresses, etc. For we amature musicians, we have the additional tasks of finding a new teacher, new community orchestra, new luthier, etc.

I just had the second lesson with my new teacher. Last week I played the Bloch, this week the Bruch with more expressive fingerings. Outside of some phrasing advice, my new teacher suggested that we start with something new since those two pieces seem just fine for the most part. So, next week we continue with my Bach by 40 goal. I'm down to the 4th and 6th Suites - the two my teacher never studied much. To give him time to prepare, we will be starting with the 2nd Prelude - one I haven't played in many years, before I learned how to shift out of 1st position. In a manner of speaking, it will be fresh and new all over again.

One thing about having had 5 teachers in as many years, I know what to expect in the development of the student/teacher relationship. We are still getting to know one another. It will take several weeks, if not months, to build that special bond where a single word carries pages of meaning . I am learning his teaching style, and he is discovering how I learn and what my skills and deficiencies are. So far, he's been easy on me - no grueling exercises assigned, no 3 octave scales at speeds where my fingers feel like falling off. I wonder how long this will last. I actually enjoyed the torture. Maybe I should tell him.... or not.

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Day ..... Time to stop counting

April 2, 2009 20:17

It seems the right time to stop counting the days to some milestone event or another. The big ones have already happened. How quickly they seem to be a distant memory. It is time to simply get back "into the groove".

This last week I started with the Houston Civic Symphony. I had expected an audition, but that never happened. I was simply given a chair near the back (of a 10 viola section!!!) with a stand partner who I think is from Germany. This was the orchestra's 2nd rehearsal for Beethoven's 9th. The musicianship surpassed any other orchestra I've played in before. Quite amazing.

During break, I received a very warm welcome from the section. I felt at "home" the moment I sat in my chair. My stand partner offered to e-mail me the PDF's with the bowings, another violist was very concerned on me finding a church to attend (welcome to the deep south!!!), and I was loaned a pencil from another when I realized that I left mine at home.

I start lessons with my new teacher this Sunday. So lesson blogs will start happening once again. I'm feeling quite guilty that I haven't practiced much in the past few weeks, even though I have a perfectly valid excuse (moving halfway across country). I already started with a desperate plea for help in tackling 10 measures in the first movement of the 9th Symphony that start with fast runs of notes with accidentals on each one followed by a run of 32nd notes.

There MUST be a method to the madness that I'm not seeing right now.

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