Violin Week 2 - Lesson 1

Oops I forgot to post yesterday.  Anyway...

Whoa!! Despite the fact that (in my opinion) Jennings still often sounds like a group of tiny mice being tortured by Sauron's hordes in MORDOR WHERE THE SHADOWS ARE.... my teacher claims I am still doing well.  I have now moved on to the next challenge:  Lightly Row and ... uh... I forgot the name of the other piece.   "TRIFLES" you might say to me when I tell you these are my current nemesis, but I beg to differ.  Unlike Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Lightly Row requires several different string crossings and finger changes ALL AT ONCE.  And the other one ... May Song? ... is even worse!  At the end of my lesson, I felt as though I might start drooling over Jennings' F-holes and go cross-eyed.  

Maybe I will make a video of myself playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star just to make myself feel better.  And also so that you might observe my successes before I subject you to Jennings screeches of pain.

Violin Week 1 - Last Post

I can now play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  4 year olds, be jealous.

Violin Week 1 - Names and Pictures

Well since none have come forward with good names for my trusty violin, I have decided to name him Jennings.  It is a middle name long passed down to the males in my family and makes me think of butlers.  So!!  Since my old Giovan paolo Maggini (1642) is quite an old chap and, while much worn and abused in his life, still makes quite a smooth sound and faithfully does whatever I tell him to (whether I want that or not), I think it is fitting.  Yes no?

Here is a picture of Jennings and I in our usual pose.

Note that, despite his age, he trustily rests upon my fancy shoulder rest that I masterfully crafted while I look for an affordable KUN replacement.  You might also note my complete look of intimidation and fear when I gaze at the fingerboard I am expected to use to make discernible sounds, AKA notes.  The violinists will also note my atrocious hold on the bow.  So sorry, Jennings.

Let me try again.

There see?  Quite lovely.  In fact I am pretty sure that this face is entirely accurate to how I look when concentrating on the bow hold.  I am surprised my teacher has not even once snickered at my most determined expressions.

Alright there you are.  That big black blob in the background is my Kawai piano that I love very much. She is my only hope in tuning Jennings at the moment, though she, herself, is a bit out of tune due to all the weather changes going on.  Suppose I shall just have to dig in my wallet and fix that pretty soon... or try to use the tuner on one of my metronomes... Where's an oboist when I need one?

Violin Week 1 - Lesson 2

WHEW!  Well my shoulder recovered this morning and then I put it through another hour long lesson.

Ow.

My teacher also told me today that if I keep going at the rate I am going already I could probably go for a local (for fun sort of) orchestra in a year or so.  I basically stared at her in blatant disbelief.

I am still using only the A and the E string and only fingers 1, 2 and 3 on the left hand.  I am not sure my progress will be as quick when I start having to move my hand around on the fingerboard and wrangle the stupid bow all the same time.

Still trying to throttle (as-of-yet unnamed violin).  My thumb was turning purple and might have progressed to other colors if the pieces I were playing were any longer than about 30 seconds.

Next goal:  Figure out how to make my right wrist and fingers do some sort of bizarre wriggly move when I try to play legato so it doesn't sound like I'm killing tiny, noisy insects between each note.

This goal seems a bit more unattainable than the last.

Violin Week 1 - .. Again...

Unexpected side effect of first violin lesson:  Seriously sore left shoulder muscle.  Guess I better start stretching before practicing and definitely before an hour long lesson x_x

I watched myself in the mirror.  My teacher is right.  My left wrist DOES like to do funky things when I'm not paying attention to it.  Curses!

Goal for lesson tomorrow:  Be able to play piece without having to search for that stupid D on the A string.  Also not have to stop every few notes to check my bow hold.  I have been diligently practicing with a pencil at stoplights.

Violin Week 1

Wow it has been a long time... I would be surprised if anyone is still reading this at all!  But I am going to start it back again because I have started a new venture:  I am learning to play the violin.  As someone who teaches adults in my own studio, I know what a challenge it is, and I think it will be interesting to write from this side of the lesson, as a student.

Of course there are a few differences:

1)  I already know how to read music.  Many of my students come to me with no experience in music at all so that is an advantage I already have.  However, I know it is going to be a tough thing to reprogram my brain to respond to the notes on the violin and not on the piano.  I have to form a few new neurons to get that working.

2)  My Dad, as someone who almost went to college for violin performance, has already given me a few pointers.  So that also, is a big plus!

Now that being said, we will dig into the hard part.  Holding the blasted thing correctly!  I had my first lesson today as part of an Applied Music course at Richland College.  My teacher, April Kondrat, is endlessly patient, I can tell.  And she told me quite a few times what a great job I was doing and how she was so excited that I already know some about it.  However, I still felt like I was trying to hold a brick in between my chin and my shoulder and controlling the bow is ridiculously hard to maintain!  I would start out just great and then halfway through the exercise, I would be caught with my hands in the most bizarre positions.  I apparently need to practice in front of a mirror since I had no idea I could even bend my fingers like that.  Also, I am surprised I did not get gangrene in my left thumb with how I was trying to throttle the violin's fingerboard.

I should probably name my poor beat up violin... It is going to go through a lot of abuse before I can make him sound good.  I hate to be mean when I don't even have a name to say "I'm sorry" to when all is over.

Open for suggestions.

Pesto Pasta Salad

For my own records and for someone who has already asked me for the recipe, I thought I would go ahead and record what I did for that salad last night.

INGREDIENTS:

16 oz brown rice pasta (Used shells but think I will use rotini next time.)
20-30 leaves of basil
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
ground sea salt
4-5 cloves garlic
1 coarse chopped yellow bell pepper
1 coarse chopped orange bell pepper
2 coarse chopped roma tomatoes
5-6 sliced crimini mushrooms
1/4 vidalia onion (Did not have this when I made it but thinking of adding it or the same amount of a purple onion next time)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cook pasta according to package instructions. The package I had said 14-16 minutes over med/hot... I think next time I will go for something a little more al dente so 12-13 minutes. While boiling that, pick all the leaves off the basil stems and throw them in whatever pesto-maker you have along with garlic cloves, olive oil and salt. I would tell you how much of that but I am an eye-ball cooker so I have no idea. I used the Magic Bullet that we got as a wedding present (THANKS PETIE and MICHAEL!) and it came out fabulous!! I also chopped and sliced all the veggies and things while the pasta was cooking. Once pasta is cooked, drain thoroughly and dump into whatever bowl you plan to serve the salad in. Mix in enough olive oil to keep the pasta from sticking to itself and then dump in the pesto mixture and vinegar (To taste or however you eyeball things) Cover the bowl and put in the fridge to cool. Store the chopped/sliced veggies in a separate container. Because I started way before I needed to, my pasta stayed in the fridge for 3 and a half hours and I think that allowed all the pesto to really soak into all the pasta. I took everything out about an hour before serving and mixed in all the veggies along with summore vinegar because it tasted a bit too salty. Then put everything back in the fridge so the veggies can soak in everything too. When you're ready, take everything out of the fridge and serve!

TRIUMPH