new skill!!

So I've figured out a new skill. My teacher showed it to me a couple lessons ago, but I couldn't get a hang of it until now.

It turns out that the bow hold is very important on the violin. Consider that until your bow moves across the strings, the violin makes no sound (unless you pluck the strings.) Furthermore, how loud or soft the violin sounds depends on your bowing. And technical sounds, like staccato or legato, also depend on the bow. Therefore, bow = important.

To develop finger muscles which can help with all the aforementioned critical tasks of the bow, my teacher suggested that I walk my right hand up and down the bow. Easier said than done. I think I've finally gotten down a good enough bow hold plus strong enough fingers to actually make it work. I practiced walking up and down the bow a few times today. Hopefully, it'll pay off in the long run!

A Slow Day

Today was just a slow day in general. So violin practice was pretty slow as well.

I practiced in front of the bathroom mirror so that I could monitor the bow. It turns out that it needed some supervision because this frog was fiddlin' all over the highway!

Plus, I practiced playing with a slow version of the accompaniment. That definitely gave me a chance to pay more attention to technique.

That's all for now!

Dropping the Violin Mid-Fiddle?

I had a craving for some yummy dessert today, so I started making these ginger-lemon bars. Mmmm. While they're baking and then cooling, I figured I might as well clock in some violin practicing time. :)

So I said yesterday that my left hand was afraid of dropping the violin? Well, it turns out that its inkling had some semblance of truth because the violin slipped mid-practice a couple of times. I turned to the handy internet for some advice and discovered some useful diagrams and hints on holding the violin. One reasonable suggestion was to practice holding the violin while walking around. That sounded like a good idea, so I'm incorporating that into my practice time.

That's all for today, folks!

Thoughts from Practicing Today

I've had two violin lessons so far, and already I'm realizing how much more there is to know. I think I've mastered the basic bow hold. At least, I'm not dropping the bow in the middle of the song. But I still haven't gotten the left hand position correct, or anywhere near correct. My main problem is that my hand is convinced that if it doesn't hold onto the violin for dear life, the violin will fall to the ground. So I can con the hand into thinking that it doesn't need to grab the violin, but then it has some weirdly ethereal hold that doesn't work too well either.

I've already played piano for a long time, so one would think that I know most of the basic musical techniques. Apparently, there's a pretty basic one that I don't know at all -- being accompanied! I started using the accompaniment tracks that I found online and discovered that it's really difficult to follow an accompaniment. If someone else is playing what I'm supposed to be playing, I can definitely follow that. But what if they're playing something else? Now I have to listen for the rhythm and hear to see if what I'm playing is in tune with what they're playing. That's really tricky. But it does force me to listen to intonation and not just rely on those handy tapes on my violin.

Moral: As Froggie goes a fiddlin', she learns important musical techniques along the way, some specific and some general.