Day 2

Writing down my thoughts during practice is a powerful teaching tool, and it forces me to analyze my practice in much more detail than I usually would. And I remember my thoughts the next day, so they are not lost:)!

Today I again began with the open strings, but now I was incorporating my discovery yesterday - I need more speed! The tricky point is to maintain the string vibration during the bow changes, and it seems that the trick to prevent the string from “freezing” after the bow change is to keep the bow light and to make the transition soft.


Next, I started again with the I, IV,V,VIII tones in the A minor (I liked how it settled my left-hand shape), but making two notes per bow. But I quickly realize that when I hit the second note, I have the same problem as with the bow change. The string gets “stuck” and does not vibrate at full amplitude. I probably would not notice this problem if I were not looking at the string, but because of my previous exercise, I continued to monitor the string amplitude. And it was quite audible as well. I began troubleshooting this problem and concluded that several factors were the key:

  1. I was not lifting and dropping my 4th finger quickly enough.

  2. I slowed down my bow before hitting the string with the fourth finger (especially during the string crossing).


After that, I spend couple more minutes playing A,D,E,G with two notes per bow and focusing on the following:


  1. All notes are “ringing.”

  2. I use the full bow and keep it perpendicular to the strings.

  3. I lift and drop my fingers quickly enough.

  4. I keep a constant bow speed.


And, wow, this is already one hour of practice time (together with typing this blog). Times flies fast when you are focused!

From my second practice yesterday, I decided to practice “tranquillo e dolce” part of Seitz No. 5 (measures 60 to 78), and I knew that I had difficulties with my right hand. So I decided on the “bow part” only first, without the left hand to settle my bowing. I planned to spend only a few minutes on it, but I was wrong! I end up my entire practice session doing just that! I wanted to use the whole bow (and was new to this), but on the other hand, I tried to save the bow in measures where I have three quarters on the down bow and a quarter note on the up bow. Add to this clean string crossing, and it becomes a formidable challenge.

Moreover, in the end, I decided to add dynamics, and it screwed my bow distribution completely, so I had to rethink it again. So, after almost an hour of practice with open strings, I had to stop, not satisfied with the final result. Hopefully, I will have more time for Seitz today.

Also, yesterday I discovered great studies by Pratt and want to try the first one today if I have time:). My goal will be to do a vibrato on half notes and do it musically ( study by itself is simple enough). Here is the link to the study on youtube: Robert Pracht - Neue Violin Etüden Op. 15 (Heft 1) - Nr. 1.