Violin - Region Class

8/22/2024 - Creativity

Every year, the Texas Music Educators Association hosts a music competition of which many students participate in. Due to being such a large event, many students practice for months following up to the competition. For this purpose, my violin teacher hosts a class where students get to mock perform the competition pieces every weekend for two months leading up to region. Many of these students, like I, have practiced under a somewhat isolated environment, and thus develop our own creative styles. When we come together to class, we get to share our ideas through our playing, and those who listen carefully have the opportunity to learn a lot from our peers. It's important to note  both stylistic choices that you enjoy as well as the habits that you disliked hearing from others. I must pick and choose what things I like and don't. After practicing at class, we then go home to review what we've learned about our own playing (from playing under pressure) as well as from others' (from listening and watching carefully). Usually, our parents sit at the side, occasionally recording the students so that their children can watch the videos to review. Thus, it's possible to gain a lot from this experience of having region class.

LO1: A key way from how one can benefit from region class is to simply pay attention-- both to yourself and to others. When I'm playing, I'm keeping track of my mood, excitement levels, the thoughts in my head, and the movements I make. Sometimes, I'm nervous, and I realize that I should practice that section more. Others, perhaps my finger slips and originally, I'd panic, but I've practiced my stage performance enough to simply keep on playing.

L04: When I'm practicing violin, whether it be simply revising and editing my performance or a session of reflection after region class, I always strive to improve. Even if it's simply grinding down on the notes over and over again, I'm gaining consistency on accuracy. Despite being in my senior year, so that region doesn't matter as much anymore, I still practice because it decides our orchestral standing, and well-- it's a matter of pride. Thus, I continue to persevere and practice.