Sunday, February 27, 2011

Next 2 Weeks

Though I'm anxious to begin playing a song, I prefer to spend the next couple of weeks correcting some handling issues I've seen. I'm also learning left hand positioning and there's a lot of minor but very important details I need to work on. ...My left hand has a mind of its own... I swear it's primitive. So I'll spend the next couple of weeks working to liberate my left hand from the right and training it. Libre mi mano!

Tune in next week for my first intonation video!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

First Bow Strokes

A bit overdue... but here's a vid of my "first bow strokes". The clips are from Feb 7th to Feb 20th.


There was great amount of improvement over 2 weeks - much more than I would have anticipated. I practice about 30 minutes/day and it's actually paying off - it's nice to now see my bow hand relaxed and extension with my elbow [instead of moving my upper arm]. At times, I'd rest my left arm against my body for support, but I stopped doing that very early from what I just watched... My posture was also off a bit initially - I'd tilt my head instead of turning my neck to hold the violin. So yeah, there's been a lot of improvement and much more to come!

I've learned to bow at the frog and tip, so I'll work on whole bow strokes this week. Hopefully I'll have enough time to get to left-hand placement over the weekend.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Ah, Posture

This is my second week of actually bowing the violin and I must say I've learned loads... some by accident and some with reading n such.

My tone seems to have improved and I've gained more control of the bow, thus there's not nearly as much "bouncing" and "scrapping" when I practice. Of course there's still A LOT - just not as bad. A few major things that I've been trying to focus on this week: better control while bowing at the tip, unintentionally touching other strings, and posture... good ole posture.

While browsing the net for info on muscles involved in playing the violin I came across a book on posture: How Muscles Learn: Teaching Violin With The Body In Mind by Susan Kempter. It's a brief read (96 pgs) and it seemed pretty informative, from the few pages that I've read. I tried to change a few things in my stance and the angle of my neck - boy did that help! ...My current chinrest isn't as uncomfortable as I thought... it was me the whole time. : )

Friday, February 11, 2011

Bridge Update (late)

My bridge arrived Monday (2/07) and it was a bit of a breeze setting it up, until I realized that I was unsure how much tension to apply to the strings... I didn't know what it felt like.

Somewhere in the process I decided that tuning was a fruitless effort because I probably didn't have the strings tense enough to begin with - not tuned, but just near the correct amount of tension. Fortunately one of my local music stores "tuned" and adjusted the strings for me (2 of the strings were coiled backwards).

The first person at the music store did restring G and E, but she attempted to tune all four strings against a piano... and seemed to not pay attention at times. The second person (whom I did not watch or hear) also attempted to tune the instrument, but I assumed it'd probably still be out of tune. So mechanically, the music store associates did set the violin up, but I was left to tune it at home. Here's the corrected coiling direction:


Afterwards, I tuned with an electronic tuner and it wasn't so bad - it took about 30 minutes or so the first time (well actually the second time, lol). Today is Saturday (2/12) and it takes less than 5 minutes to make sure the strings are tuned.

This week's lessons:
1) When getting someone to help you, it's always great to have a little background knowledge in the subject.
2) Bowing the strings while tuning gives better results than plucking the strings.
3) Tuning in 5ths [and checking with an electronic tuner] is much more accurate. (<-- my choice as of yesterday)

I will post a video with my first bow strokes soon...

Tuning in Fifths

I attempted to tune in fifths today...


It took a while, but I was successful. The largest setback was holding the violin [in position] during the process... I don't quite have the skill to do that yet. Ultimately it seems much easier for me to just tune in fifths and use an electronic tuner to double check, rather than solely relying on an e-tuner... much more accurate as well. Woo hoo!

Friday, February 4, 2011

I Got Striiings On It!

First the title - have you heard of Luniz? Probably not, but anyway there's a song called "I Got 5 On It". (Parental advisory notice if you listen to it.) lmbo

Back to blog related news: yes my strings arrived yesterday. I put them on and I'm very excited!


Bridge, bridge where art thou? It hasn't arrived likely due to the choppy winter weather, but I'll definitely have it next week. (Hence the loose strings.) Until then, I'll continue to do random violin related things - always practice bow handling skills and music theory. Bow handling may sound overrated, but my forearm muscles aren't accustomed to this type of use, so I need to work them daily. Similar to athletic training, I'll be able to increase muscle tone which will gradually create smoother bowing with more control and less 'bouncing' on the strings. So, imo it's well worth it.

Below is a clip of violin handling for the first time. The chin rest was quite uncomfortable and I thought I might need another style, but I lowered my shoulder rest height completely and found that it's actually perfect!



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Just a Bow

What a dull week... You know when you start something new and anticipate the time you'll experience what's great about it. Like reading a well polished book or starting an exciting new class? Well, that's where I'm at and where I'll be for several months.

I've greatly improved my ability to ID written notes just by using the Violin Fingering Drill on eMusic Theory (check my resources page) and gradually working on my timing using a metronome. On the other end, bow handling progress was a little uncomfortable initially

Naturally, I don't regularly exert the muscles needed to bow soooo it seemed as though I couldn't "make them work" when I wanted too - particularly muscles of the little finger. Ha, I don't even type with my little fingers... they're like "accessory fingers" to me. Anyway, I've posted a short clip below that shows bow handling progression through-out the week (Mon, Wed, & Fri).