Day 13

Today is day 13, and I decided it will be my rest day, king off:)). In the morning, I have a lesson on LessonFace. I recently discovered this site and was slightly intimidated by the number of violin instructors there (over 300). So, I posted an announcement that I am looking for the best instructor there:)). The first who replied was Jason D. When I saw his credentials, I jumped in and immediately booked a lesson. He graduated from Curtis institute of music with teachers such as Joseph Silverstein, Isaac Stern, and Aaron Rosand. He also plays the first violin in the Philadelphia Symphony orchestra. With these credentials (and 30 years of teaching experience), the price of the lesson looked like a charity to me. And the lesson ended up being 90 minutes long (instead of 30 min).

After that, I decided I was not up to serious practice today and continued sight-reading Hanley William's “Modern Violin School.” I begin really like it. It builds your technique in a very natural way. At the same time, all (mostly one-line) studies are musical and enjoyable to play. I am surprised that this book is not more popular (considering it is also free on IMSLP:)) ). To my surprise, it also uses many modern learning strategies (here is a good overview of learning strategies that makes learning more efficient: https://www.mathacademy.com/pedagogy, this site is about learning math, but strategies are mostly domain independent:) ). And “Modern Violin School was published long before these methods were developed!

I sightread about half of the book one before getting tired. Even though this book is completely elementary, it was still quite useful to me. The bow distribution (slow-fast), syncopation, string crossing, etc., are best to be practiced on simple examples first. If you practice something difficult, you automatically will tense your body, creating all kinds of problems. From this point of view, for the adult learner, nothing is worst than Suzuki's books, with their uneven pace. And without a good teacher, it is impossible to figure out which exercises and studies you need to add up. I wish I had discovered Hanley’s book earlier (but you still need a good teacher to explain the many subtleties hidden there if you are a beginner:) ). I still was sightreading with the “constant feedback loop” by recording in Intonia and listening to check for any systematic errors in intonation and sound production.