January 3, 2006 at 12:19 AM

I have lessons Wednesday, and I am more than ready for them, except for two things: All-State excerpt No. 2 and Kreutzer No. 7.

The string crossings that skip a string or two in kreutzer 7 are not clean when I play at the tip. What ends up happening is when I cross from the e string to g string, I haven't stopped my bow all the way, and I get sound from the a and d strings.

So, when I play this exercise at a slow to moderate tempo, everything is fine, but when I go to play it "allegro assai," well, things don't work out well. I should practice speeding up the tempo instead of jumping from moderato to allegro. I don't know what is wrong with me. The good new is that my other etude, Schradieck No. IV, has very little work still needed to be done with it.

I'll "start" Haydn Concerto No. 1 when I go to lessons Wednesday. The editor's fingerings and bowings don't make sense at times, so hopefully my teacher will give me new ones.

I feel strange playing stuff like Mozart 3, and Haydn 1, after I've played Bruch and Lalo (with my old teacher). I'm sure it is for a good reason. I just don't know the reason. I am beginning to like classical concertos, almost as much as romantic concertos.

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