And it wears me out

Violin: I'm not sure where to start. Today I worked on a whole bunch of things, trying to make it all happen at once. Keeping my fingers relaxed remained a top priority, as I found new little muscle groups to pay attention to. I started to see whether I could add the ring finger to the first and second, but I think that added too many muscles for me to deal with. Integrating arm weight into everything was second on the list, followed by direction and a good vibrato. When I had all of these pieces going together, I really liked what I sounded like, and I could use my ear to make decisions about phrasing and articulation and sound and all that kind of wonderful musical stuff. But of course, if I got to carried away, I would very easily fall back into old habits, especially while rehearsing with my pianist. Sometimes I noticed that if I tried to feel like the bow was part of my arm, like if you tied a string to your fingers and waved it around, that it would help me articulate fast notes, and help in finding that relaxed finger feeling I was so desperate to establish. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to do that and use arm weight at the same time. In any case, I had the first sensation ever that I might be coming close to outplaying my violin. I could be totally wrong, but something made me feel like that today. If it's true, it is both bad and good. I better start saving though, that's for sure.

Life: Read a lot more about Prokofiev. Found my old teachers new textbook on Sonata Theory in the music library, and it was amazing to see all the things he used to teach us in print in a big new shiny book. I was inspired to look for it after the teacher of my history class identified a section of Haydn's symphony no. 104 as part of the secondary zone when I felt almost sure it was part of the closing zone. This was just one analytical decision in a long list of many that she has presented that I have problems with. Of course, analyzing music is always open to interpretation, but if I am ever right, I feel sorry for the rest of the class who are learning the wrong things. Oh well.

Practice Time: 5 hours + 1 hour rehearsal (5+ hrs. streak Day 5)