Day 6
Today, I concluded that practicing for 5 minutes and recording your observations/analysis is much more efficient than doing it half an hour later. In only 30 minutes, and I already do not remember half of what I was thinking during the practice! Nevertheless, with open strings, I still have to focus consciously on re-engaging the string after the bow change. Have to do that until my muscle memory takes over and I can add more balls to juggle. Nevertheless, I tried to do a slow down bow, sound point two, and quick up bow on sound point four (Seitz concerto has this bowing pattern). The trick is to keep a consistent tone and make the change of the sound point as silent as possible. The physical motion becomes easier after repetitions, but sound quality needs to be improved.
After open strings, I turned to the vibrato practice. Yesterday's failure to incorporate vibrato in a simple study (but with a much faster bow speed) exposed a weakness I need to address ( we all learn from our failures, not so much from our victories:) ). The vibrato gets better, at least on the Intonia graph. Good amplitude right frequency. The only problem is that it does not sound right to my ear:)). The main problem is that the tone has suffered. Left-hand takes attention away from the right hand, and the bow begins to wander. Combining good tone with good vibrato will be my main priority for the near future.
The last thing for today's practice session is exercises for playing G major in three octaves. I do not worry about the first position, so I begin with the third. I need to find the third position first. Fortunately, I remember a trick that helps me to do that. I know the exact part of my wrist which will touch the violin when I hit D on the second string. After that, I need to drop my finger and (after a couple of tries:)) ) it hits on the target. I still need to become versatile in the third position, so I need to narrow my whole steps. And I need to step on my fingers to get the half-step to stay in tune. Finally, the fifth position. The key point for me to remember.
Thumb is directly at the bottom of the violin's neck.
The hand goes around the violin's body
Pinky is curved and ready for the extension
While focusing on all that (and the intonation, of course!) I completely missed that I only use the bottom half of the bow. I had to restart the whole thing but now focusing on my right arm.
Point to remember for the future: keep the hand still when extending the fourth finger, and do not lose the hand position. That concludes my first practice.
For my second part, I thought I would go to the first "fun" part of the Setz concerto (measures 30 to 34 in Suzuki 4.2), but I decided first to check the beginning of the concerto. And got stuck there with multiple problems. First had to get my intonation right in measure 23 (problem from C on the third finger to F on the first). Next, I realized why my vibrato does not work. I was too tense and was overpressing with my fingers. The solution is to separate all my issues and practice them separately, keeping my body and hands relaxed. Slower tempo. When each element becomes easier to do, I combine them. The hardest one is still a vibrato. Relaxation and slow tempo helped to keep it more even (but with a slow bow speed). And I still can not do even vibrato after the accent, but it is getting better, I am sure of it:)).