Day 23

It turned out that Yesterday's practice was a big success. I identified only one problem (extra pressure in my left thumb), but when I began to work on it, I quickly realized that it was not only an obstacle to improving my vibrato but to many other problems too! I am not sure when I developed this problem (I was working on the relaxation of my left hand from the beginning of my violin journey), but I guess when I was working on the last pieces in Suzuki book 3. A faster tempo, many strings crossings, and increased complexity resulted in tension. And because many pieces were in the baroque style, I used little vibrato (and did not practice it). All that resulted in creating a bad habit that I missed until Yesterday.

Fortunately, I know how to deal with this issue, and today (finally!) I was able to use some vibrato in the Bolero by Dancla. And it was not just vibrato, my fingers became much more relaxed, and it was much easier for me to use the low second finger. And it was much better when I tried to play fast passages from Suzuki 3, where I had some problems!

Unfortunately, I was not able to capitalize on that. In the middle of my practice, I checked my email (who doesn't :)) ), and it turns out I will have an audition on Sunday! I need to prepare one scale and one piece. The audition is for the DePaul University community String Orchestra (which currently has only four violins in the violin section), and these guys are good (for non-professionals)!

So, I changed my plans and began to work on G major scale (in three octaves) and on Rieding Concerto in B minor (I play it in three positions and obviously had to impress with my phenomenal skills to have a chance to get to the orchestra:)) ). And I was rusty. I used to play the Rieding concerto by memory, but it was almost six months ago. And I did not practice the second position at all (I use it there). I do have only two days left before the audition, Arrrrghhh!