Day 9

I had a small lesson in the morning about how to pay “Bolero” by Dancla from op. 126 (6 Petites fantaisies faciles). I did not practice it yet just played through it and liked it. And I had a lot of questions too. Incredibly, today you can find a professional violinist who can help you with your “Petites fantaisie” right away:))—another project for the future (and so many are on the way already).

Now back to my fundamentals. I was practicing keeping my whole body relaxed while doing vibrato. Found tension all over my body, especially in my left shoulder. But when I practice sitting, I begin to tense my legs! Also was practicing wider vibrato with the smallest possible motion. I must keep my fingers flat on the string (not on the tip). It works best for me because of the shape of my fingers. I can do it slowly with very little motion, but motion immediately becomes much more extensive when I try to speed up. But if you can do it slowly, you can do it fast, right:)?

Another important thing is not to hold my breath while vibrating, and you could not vibrate for a long in this way. Also, I get the best result when my arm is perpendicular to the fingerboard (unfortunately, this will not work in high positions:) ).

Key points to remember for the future for a better vibrato:

Breath
No tension (especially in the shoulders).
Flat, light, and relaxed fingers.
Begin and vibrato precisely on the pitch.
Thumb is touching the violin’s neck in the lightest possible way.
Do not slow down your bowing!

After the vibrato practice tried to play Etude No.3 from Dancla op. 86 (36 etudes). Beautiful melodic Etude, but no candy for me. My vibrato immediately gets uneven. But I realized it was not the main problem when I shot a video. My tone becomes uneven as well. I spend the rest of my practice trying to improve the tone, and after I establish the tone, I add just a little bit of vibrato. And it worked! Vibrato did not get better, but the tone was. It is better to get at least one thing right than many things wrong:)).