Day 4

Perfect practice makes perfect, and bad practice makes terrible :). The basis of good practice for me is a “constant feedback loop.” Play, analyze, identify problems, and find solutions to correct them.

Today I began (as usual) with open strings, but the challenge is to keep the maximum amplitude while using the whole bow. The problem with the bow change, when the string stops vibrating for a split second, is still present, but my solution works. You need to release the bow from the string (keeping it “light”) and immediately reengage it at the bow change. But now I have noticed another new problem, touching other strings. My bow dips at the bow change, but as I look deeper into why that happens, the reasons are different at the tip and at the frog. At the tip, I “jerk” the bow. I must keep my wrist and fingers still when changing at the tip and not “jerk” my arm. At the frog, it is more complicated. After the bow passes its center of mass, I need to balance its weight with my pinky. Otherwise, it will dip down. So, I practiced looking in the mirror so that my bow would go in a straight line without any jerking motion.

Next, I go back to the melodic A minor, but I want to play it in two octaves (again, one note per bow from tip to the frog). Fischer’s fingering (shifting to the third position from 4 to 1 finger) is too much for me, so I play everything in the first position. Immediately I identify two problems. On the way down, my extension from F to E (on the A string) and half step from F# to G. I have “biggish” fingers, so I need to step on my third finger slightly to keep half step right. Checking my intonation in “Intonia,” I notice a third problem, the E after F on the way down is not straight and slightly wavy. I begin to troubleshoot the last issue. My first guess is that it is the instability of the fourth finger. But when I started to analyze it more carefully, I realized this was a different problem - a string crossing at the frog. The bow trembles slightly because the change is too abrupt. I need to be closer to the A string to make string crossing smoother. I experiment a little bit more with the string crossing at the frog and realize that once I am almost at the double stop, all I need to do for smooth string crossing at the frog is to relax my pinky slightly. These steps (being closer to the A string and relaxing pinky to make string crossing).

It is almost an hour of practice time (together with typing my blog), but I do not yet feel tired and want to do Prat’s study. The problem is with my vibrato. Yesterday I noticed that my bow speed reduced immediately when I began to vibrate. I need to figure out how to maintain the bow speed and vibrato at the same time. This is a coordination problem and my prior habit of doing vibrato with a slow bow. I am not sure I will be able to fix it right away.

I begin to vibrate on my best (third :) ) finger in the way I used to practice vibrato. I listen to the sound and look for a nice smooth wave pattern in “Intonia.” Next, I try to speed up my bow. The wavy line becomes uneven, and I notice that I tense my body. I have to relax first. I focus on making all unnecessary tension disappear for the next few minutes. Relaxing the body is a meditative process. You calm your breath first, ensuring it is even and “sleepy-like.” Next, check out your muscles. Find where you are tense and relax those muscles. Now, I listen to the vibrato sound, and finally, I check the graph in “Intonia.” It worked! The line has a nice smooth wavy pattern. It does not stop to amuse me how 90% of technical issues can be solved if you focus on relaxing your body. I repeat this process on all fingers and get something resembling a vibrato, even with the pinky! But now I have to take a break. I feel tired, and the rest of the practice will become counterproductive.

It is Christmas Eve, but I manage to squeeze in some time for a second practice session. I do measure 19 to 28 (Suzuki book 4, no 2.) No vibrato today, I want to use more bow, and I need to practice my vibrato at a higher bow speed (no vibrato is better than a bad vibrato:) ). Golden rule No.1 of practice is to simplify what you are doing until you can do it well. Otherwise, you will only learn bad habits, and fixing them will take much more effort. The focus is on tone and bow distribution right now. I need to save the bow in measures 22 and 24, but fortunately, dynamics helps with that.

Finally, a video (rediscovering the wheel, most likely) on smooth string crossing at the frog. https://youtu.be/RFg0pW9lc10