30/31

Again, I was distracted by my work and did not have the focused practice I would like (I did not even have time yesterday to write my blog). Nevertheless, I found very useful one of the remarks by Adam Han Gorski (from the tonebase interview) about dropping a finger like hitting a nail with a hammer. His main point was that it is not the strength that is important but the correct motion and precision. And indeed, you do not have to lift your finger very high to stop the string quickly, but you need to hit with the right part of the finger to stop it as soon as possible. I practiced that with the scales and saw an immediate improvement in my articulation.

The vibrato continues to improve, and I can maintain a wide, slow vibrato as long as I like now. When I go faster, it becomes narrower and less regular, and I have difficulty maintaining it. Also, the more complex the piece I play, the worse vibrato becomes. I really need to slow down and play focus on playing each note with a good vibrato (entirely out of the rhythm), but for now, this is the ball I want to catch. Because of that, I was postponing playing my more complicated pieces (like Seitz's concerto and Dankla's Bolero) and playing simple etudes and pieces from Henley's book. But overall, vibrato has improved much and is much more controlled now. It is also very easy to lose it if you do not practice it, so I will keep my focus on it and hopefully come up with a recording soon enough:).