Brandon Philips Violin Log

Ornaments, Drones and Arty

2010-05-21T00:00:00-07:00

I didn’t get much practice in the last few weeks with all of the other things going on but I was able to improve my rhythm over Big Arty’s Reel quite a bit.

In class we worked on some of the rough spots of the reel. Mostly the last measure and the transition to the beginning of the second line. Also, we discussed how the rhythm works with the pickup from the second line back to the first: basically stay on rhythm and treat the pickup as the fourth missing beat of that short last measure.

We also worked on a trill ornament which is a bit tricky since the original note should retain its full value so you need to steal some time from the measure before. Plus we practiced droning on the strings a bit.

Practice plan for this week: work through rough spots in first half of the reel, practice the rest of the reel, practice the trill ornament in time and work through the piece droning strings for four counts to practice finger position and tone throughout the bow lengths.

Fun week and fun class.

Big Arty's Ryhthm

2010-05-07T00:00:00-07:00

Today Samantha and I focused on getting the swung rhythm even across the first line of Big Arty’s Reel. Some of the trouble, for me, was that I was running out of bow and some of the string crossing were not staying on beat.

With the metrenome we worked on a lot of those details and played through measure by measure. I think it is better but I have another few hours of working on it slowly.

Trouble spots

Slurred string crossings
Speeding up string crossings
Need to practice making up bow on the first part of a swung note
More bow :)

Practice this week - Big Arty’s Reel (work on getting an even rhythm to 80bpm)

Big Arty's Reel and leadin

2010-04-23T00:00:00-07:00

Samantha and I worked on playing through mistakes in the Greenwood Tree and how to lead another muscisian in if you are playing a duet. Doing a lead in is a bit like a frame shift in dancing to lead into a turn.

We also talked about having an “action plan” and executing on it for dynamics of Greenwood Tree. So I will need to play through it a few times to figure that out. Suggestions inclue playing piano through the F# slur in the middle of the measures.

I sitll need to work on hearing and adjusting my C# and D as I often hit those sharper then I intend. Hearing it as it happens is a bit tricky but I think I can work through that.

On “Big Arty’s Reel” we worked on swung notes. It was a bit tricky for me to multiply the notes into triplets and figure out the timing. So, I will play through it a few times with the triplets all broken out.

Practice this week - Greenwood Tree (dynamics action plan! and getting my C# and D under control) - Big Arty’s Reel (work on triplet and swung notes)

Visualizing the beat

2010-04-02T00:00:00-07:00

Ahh Ha! Something in the lesson today really helped for things to click for me. I have been struggling with using a metronome and generally rhythm in general.

But, today Samantha suggested that I internally hum out the tune that I am working on to the beat of the metronome. And that hit me really quick: it is just like anything else I try and figure out; I must visualize the goal and then do it.

I encounter this need to visualize when I look at a bug report. If I look at the bug and then jump into the code straight away I am doomed. I get lost in the syntax, functions and structs.

Instead I first visualize how it should work and based on that write a hypothesis (on paper!) of what is causing the problem. Then when I dive into the code I am thinking: “I need to find how this happens because it is clearly causing the issue.” That gives direction and a drive to my code reading so that when I encounter something that is a little off beat I notice it quickly and can revise my hypothesis to keep narrowing in on the issue.

And that is the role of humming to the beat: to make that initial visualization so that when you put bow to string you have an expectation how it should sound so when you screw it up you can find the bug. Ahh ha!

Pinky exercises

2010-03-23T00:00:00-07:00

Reaching the fourth finger on E to hit the B is difficult for me. So, Samantha suggested that I do interval exercises with B, A, B, G, B, F from half notes to almost a trill to strengthen my pinky and get it working.

Weight distribution of the bow can be difficult nearer to the frog. Practice getting to getting my wrist to drop out to carry weight evenly. Practice on the open A.

On Cupid’s waltz work on getting a full sound out of the notes, particularly the slurred staccato/hooked bowing. Use more bow! :)

Working on

Practice this week

Greenwood waltz (faster bowing is good but need to pace usage to not run out)
Cupid’s waltz (Section 3, al fine!

Keep it up man

2010-03-05T00:00:00-08:00

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 yelled 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)

Slurring two string and notecards

2010-02-26T00:00:00-08:00

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.

Tonic, Dominant, and Sub-Dominant

2010-02-05T00:00:00-08:00

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)

Playing Backwards and Chords

2010-01-29T00:00:00-08:00

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

Dvořák: Violin Concerto with Chee-Yun

2010-01-25T00:00:00-08:00

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.

On Slowing down

2010-01-22T00:00:00-08:00

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)

Old And In The Way

2010-01-21T00:00:00-08:00

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

Lesson 2010-01-08

2010-01-08T00:00:00-08:00

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