Brandon Philips - http://ifup.org

In practice this week I concentrated on listening and reading notes instead of watching my fingers. It was one of those plateau moments like when you move from hunt and peck to touch typing: you get worse before you get better for a bit. A week of practice and now I can avoid looking at every finger movement.

I also got the slur from two strings down. Fun!

To increase my sight reading speed I found some flash cards that have been quite useful. Since they are fold in half style I can stand them up and play through them in random order which is good practice.

Todays practice focused on intonation of notes particularly in the “Cupid’s Waltz” which has a few notes that I don’t have dialed in all the way. Samantha reminded me that notes have a tendency to go flat if the string isn’t completely engaged so I am working on that.

Turns out I am also tightening my bow too much. Enough tension is required so that pressure doesn’t cause the bow to touch the hair but no further.

Need to work with metronome this week since my rhythm was a little wonky in places.

While walking back from class today a guy on a bike yeld at me:

• Guy: “Violin?”
• Me: “Yep”
• Guy: “Nice, keep it up man”

I chuckled and said thanks as he kept riding past. Thanks guy on bike.

Practice this week

• Greenwood Waltz (increase speed, ensure long notes are held)
• Cupid’s Waltz (intonation and long notes and full play through)

The waltz I am working on introduces a two string slur which is a first for me. Samantha had me practicing this pattern by first double stopping the strings then alternating them. I will practice with a metronome. Also, need to exercise switching strings upbow, upstring, downstring, downbow, upstring, downstring, etc.

Another exercise is hearing flats/sharps by ear. Need to work on that one. but it is hard to practice without an instructor. But, I do need to work on my sight reading. I plan on making some notecards to practice playing notes without knowing the “song” by mixing them up and to increase my sight reading speed.

As always, more bow.

I learned some new vocabulary today about Chords. I is the tonic, V is the dominant and IV is the sub-dominant. In theory the IV pulls you towards the V and the I makes things feel concluded. So, I need to go through the Greenwood Tree and try to listen for those effects and write down the chords.

Another new piece of vocab is the way notes are counted. e.g. C -> C# is a half, C -> D is a full and C -> E is a third. That always confused me a bit but now it makes sense.

The Metronome is a difficult thing for me to use but Samantha suggested a few ways I can use it to work on Greenwood Tree including setting it to around 100bpm and playing every 1/8th inside of every note. This help get my rhythm more regular across the piece.

Something that we noticed when trying to do this is that I was having trouble figuring out what notes to play. I need to read the notes, play with the metronome and get the rhythm all at the same time. Music is hard… ;)

Songs I am working on:

• Greenwood Tree (work on rhythm, try to find chords)
• Go Tell Aunty Rhody (string crossings)

Samantha introduced some music theory into the lesson today. This included how chrods work using the example of the A major scale in Go Tell Aunt Rhody. I don’t grasp the entire concept but the guitar + violin on Go Tell Aunt Rhody sounded nice.

I will work out the chords she wrote down (Virtual piano makes this easy and fun) in the music and post the engraving. It will be a good experiment in using lilypond.

If someone has recommendations for an intro music theory book let me know.

We worked on the Greenwood tree quite a bit more today and I have all of the measures down indivdually pretty well. Still need to work on the second to last measure that has F#3 G E. It is very hard for me to keep the time in my head. Also I keep dropping part of the 6th measure which throws my bow and timing off. Work in progress.

The big trick in working on Greenwood was playing backwards. Start with the two notes giving you trouble, then move back a note, then back a measure, the back and forward a measure until things smooth out. Do not play through. Stop, correct the mistake then continue. I spent a lot of time unlearning things this week because I just played through without stopping.

Songs I am working on:

• Greenwood Tree
• Go Tell Aunty Rhody

Nisha got tickets to the Oregon Symphonies Dvořák Violin Concerto and the performance was moving. The soloist was Chee-Yun who gave a powerful and flawless performance while maintaining the stage presence of a rock star. It was fun to watch.

Another rockstar was first violin Jun Iwasaki. He was nearly jumping out of his seat while playing through some movements of Thunderbolt P-47 and responses in the Concerto.

The complete lineup of the night:

• Martinu: Thunderbolt P-47
• Dvořák: Violin Concerto
• Respighi: La boutique fantasque, ballet after Rossini

I realized at the end of the concert how poor my music vocabulary is. I will need to pick up a music theory book and fix that. It is frustrating to experience something and not be able to communicate it beyond cliches or analogies.

I am feeling well inspired to continue pursuing the fiddle at the very least.

Samantha, my instructor, made an observation during class today: “I play something, then you end up playing it back a little faster, then you play it again even faster.” Fantastic observation and its cause, I suppose, is that most everything I do during the day is better if it is done faster: fixing bugs, writing code, running, translating Hindi, etc.

A couple of practice suggestions:

• More bow!
• Accent the downbeat of each measure to help internalize rhythm of music
• Play through concentrating on dynamics in different areas

I feel my rhythm was worse this week since I used the metrenome much less (not at all). Need to make sure I bust it out and least once per song.

Songs I am working on:

• Greenwood Tree (completely new, F, F# and G are new notes)
• Song of the Wind (work on improving seperation of last F# and E on first measure)
• Go Tell Aunt Rhody (dynamics)

Samantha encouraged me to try a new song this week: “Song of the Wind”. The challenge with this song is holding position on the E string while moving to third position to get a D on the A string. It is a bit of a trick to touch A then E.

I have gotten much better at playing Go Tell Aunt Rhody working on dynamics to make sure I can differentiate the metzo-forte from the piano.

It is a joy to be able to pick up the instrument and just raddle off a couple of short songs while walking around. There is some tension that I might forget what I am doing but I find I actually play better when I am not paying close attention on those pieces that I have played dozens of time.

To get inspiration for moving onto Fiddle music I have started listening to The High Lonesome Sound by Old And In The Way. This is my first introduction to this band and it is a nice change of pace from techno and metal for work music.

Songs I am working on

• Old And In The Way
• Go Tell Aunt Rhody
• Song of the Wind

This weeks songs:

• Suzuki v1 Twinkle A, B
• Struggling with Twinkle C, D
• Gently row

Personal Advice * More bow! I have a problem not using enough bow

Practice tips

• Go through the entire song practicing meter only on an open string
• Practice with a metronome to iternalize divisions: 160bpm 1/16 notes, 80bpm 1/8 notes, 40 1/4 notes

Songs I am working on:

• Aunty
• Twinkle C, D
• Warm-ups: Suzuki Twinkle A, B