Strike a Chord

April 2, 2010 at 3:38 AM

I've been recording myself practice as I prepare for my solo performance at church in a few weeks. The piece starts off nice enough, good intonation, tone, color, etc.. even high up on the fingerboard. I'm happy with those choices of fingerings.

But then about 2 minutes into the piece, comes a few measures of triple stops. The difference is glaring and hard on the ears. They are too loud, too broken, sound strained, and out of tune. It is enough to shake things for a measures beyond that point before settling back into the nice tone. Granted, I've only been working on this piece for a few days, but I had hoped for better.

I'm reminded of what I learned of chord execution while working on Bach. Take them slower than you think you should and don't arpegiate them, instead play them broken 1/2 or 2/2, use lots of bow, and stay relaxed. Seems easy enough, at least on the surface.

From Vernon Kirby
Posted on April 4, 2010 at 5:07 PM

I have that same problem when I record myself playing Bach. I think the equipment is too sensitive. I have to have someone else in the room telling me it's not as bad in person as the recording leads me to believe.

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