World weary

Violin: Here is my record of the last two days.

Wednesday:
10:50-11:50: Mozart Concerto
12:15-1:15: Mendelssohn Scherzo
1:45-2:45: Mozart 39 mvt. 2
6-7: Mendelssohn Scherzo

Thursday:
10:45-11:45: Mozart Concerto
5:45-6:45: Mendelssohn Scherzo
8-9: Brahms 4 and Mozart 39 mvt. 4
9:40-10:40: Hindemith and Prokofiev Classical mvt. 1

You may notice lots of mendelssohn in the last couple days...that is because it sucked ass and so hopefully it does not suck so much anymore.

Life: Wednesday I had a band rehearsal which took out my night. Today I had my first meeting with this woman who is going to test me to see if I'm ADD or have some other neurological problem. Going up to Evanston in the middle of the day for 2 hours took up a good chunk of time. Can I do 6 tomorrow?

Practice Time: Wednesday - 4 hours, Thursday - 4 hours

If I didn't ever have anything to do...

..I could practice all day.

Violin: Yesterday went well mostly because I have the motivation caused by the upcoming audition as well as monetary compensation and the fact that I didn't have anything else to do.

11-12: Mozart Concerto
12:45-1:45: Mendelssohn Scherzo
2:30-3:30: Hindemith and Mozart 39 mvt. 4
4:30-5:30: Mendelssohn Scherzo
7:10-8:10: Schumann Scherzo
11:10-12:10: Don Juan

Life: Watched the second half of "Bush's War." Wasn't as riveting as the first half, since, well, the story isn't over yet. There could yet be some major chapters yet to be written in this tale of woe. And lo and behold, I picked up the newspaper today to see that shiite violence in Basra threatens to collapse the flimsy hold our troops have on the country. The suspense is killing me!

Practice Time: 6 hours

Violin: Again I must record the progress of several unplogged days.

Sunday: 1 hour (Brahms 4th symphony, 4th mvt.)

Monday:
12-1: Don Juan
1:30-2:30: Don Juan
3:10-4:10: Don Juan
4:20-5:20: Mendelssohn Scherzo

Had a lesson on Sunday.

Life: Well, Easter, a lesson, and a movie at night with my sister resulted in only one hour of practice on Sunday. On Monday I was supposed to have a rehearsal with the band but it ended up being a 3 hour hangout session with Vinnie. Then at night I watched Frontline's "Bush's War." That was fascinating and informative and worth the loss of practice time.

Practice Time: Sunday - 1 hour, Monday - 4 hours

Looking for new excuses

Violin: A summary of the last three days:

Thursday: 2 hours

Friday:
6:15-7:15: Mozart Concerto
8:30-9:30: Mendelssohn Scherzo
10-11: Mendelssohn Scherzo

Saturday:
4:30-5:30: Prokofiev Classical 1st mvt.
5:50-6:50: Prokofiev Classical 1st mvt.
8-9: Hindemith crap
9-9:30: Mozart 39 4th mvt.
10-11: Don Juan
11-11:30: Schumann Scherzo

Life: The show on Wednesday night meant that I got home late and woke up late. That, combined with dinner and going to see No Country for Old Men at night resulted in lackluster performance. Friday I spent most of at Seman Violins trying preamps and amps and pedals. My sisters also came and went, so 3 hours that day wasn't so bad. Yesterday I managed well despite a haircut in the morning and band practice in the afternoon. Today I have a lesson...we'll see if all this being responsible crap actually pays off....I have my doubts.

Practice Time: Thursday - 2 hours, Friday - 3 hours, Saturday - 5 hours

See, was that so hard?

Violin: Wednesday was a quite productive day and made me feel like I deserve a break today...but such is the m.o. of a lazy procrastinator.

9:30-10:30: Schumann scherzo
11-12: Copland Symphony No. 3
12:45-1:45: Don Juan
2:30-3:30: Mozart Concerto
4:15-5:15: Mozart 39

Thought about right hand relaxation.

Life: My stimulus to practice was that I had the show last night, and had to leave for it by 5:30. It ended up going pretty well, and the reports from the audience were positive. I'll have to wait and listen to the recording of it to see what I think and whether I came through at all. The unexpected spending on electronics may be forced to continue.

Practice Time: 5 hours

Catchup time

Violin: Having not posted since last Thursday, I'll give a summary of my practicing since then (which will make clear why I didn't feel like posting earlier.)

Thursday: 3 hours
Friday: 1 hour
Saturday: None
Sunday: None
Monday: 3 hours

So yeah, the weekend wasn't so productive...but then again there was company and all. And I've been having regular band practices nearly every day that have taken up valuable time. Here is today's breakdown:

1:30-2:30: Brahms 4, mvt. 4
3-4: Hindemith
4:45-5:45: Mendelssohn Scherzo
6-6:30: Prokofiev Classical Symphony, mvt. 1
8:15-9:15: Ditto
10:45-11:15: Mozart Symphony 39, mvts. 2 and 4

Clearly I feel more motivated to post my practicing results if they are at all significant. Today I focused on my weaknesses as a leftie: lack of sensitivity in my right hand and left arm.

Life: Tomorrow is my first show with Ghostrunner Assembly...I am actually slightly nervous now that the balance has been worked out so that I'm audible. Before I could do whatever I wanted and it didn't matter...but it is a lot more rewarding to be contributing something. Let's hope I don't fuck it up tomorrow.

Practice Time: 5 hours

Life is so easy!

Violin: What a sad tale:

11-12: Scales, etudes
2-3: Mozart concerto

Yep, that's it.

Life: Yesterday I had several things to blame for my failure to practice at all. I spent way too long filling out my taxes, then had an hour and a half drive to Valporaiso for a lesson on material that I hadn't worked on. After that I had to drive to Merrillville for a rehearsal that didn't get me home until 11. On the way home my car started talking to me so I had to take the time to bring it in this morning. A concert tonight will leave me again with little time to work. Do things just get harder the harder you try? I mean, really.

Practice Time: 2 hours

Plan B

This week I am beginning a new program involving monetary incentive for practicing, since last week was clearly mostly a failure. Let us see how this week goes.

Violin: My practicing for yesterday went as follows:

2-3: Scales, etudes
Realized I focus too much on small individual movements and problems, and need to remember to think about the larger picture of playing being a full-body experience.

4:30-5:30: Mozart concerto introduction
Worked on tone production and tried to sound like a opera singer...without being a pain in the ass.

10-11: Mozart concerto exposition
Bow division and clarity are really important, as I tried to repeat sections after working on them to help cement what I had done.

Life: A drive to Seman Violins to return the chinrest and get my bow fixed as well as dinner with my dad's friends reduced my available practice time yesterday, so maybe I should rename this section "Anti-violin" instead of "Life."

Practice Time: 3 hours

I'm blaming DST

Violin: This entry unfortunately includes the work (or lack thereof) of the past three days. On Friday I did three hours, working on etudes, Mozart, and Beethoven. I don't remember many details. On Saturday I only did two hours, one of Kreutzer and scales, and one of the Schumann Scherzo. Today I accomplished a measly one, on Mozart Symphony no. 39, mvt. 1. It was a good productive hour if that makes it any better...

Life: So you maybe wondering what the hell was I doing instead of practicing? Well, I wasn't sitting on my ass at least. On Friday I had a follow up appointment at Seman violins where I spent a while trying a few pickups and eventually buying an L.R. Baggs Radius pickup. I also got a new chinrest, which turned out to be too tall for my neck, as well as some earplugs. On Saturday I had arranged to have dinner with a friend and her husband and go to a concert with them. Aside from that taking up half of my Saturday it extended itself into the early afternoon today when I decided to stay at their place for the night. So I got back home at around 2, and soon had to leave again to go to a rehearsal with the band so that I could see whether the pickup was going to work or not. As it turned out, it seemed quite adequate and capable of making me performance ready. But I got home at 7:30, ate dinner, and only had time for, as I said, one measly hour of practice. What a waste of life I am!

Practice Time: 5 hours over 3 days

Getting ahead of yourself

Violin: Yesterday less was accomplished due to a number of factors. A lengthy nap as well as a trip to a violin shop resulted in only a couple hours of work. The first hour was again etudes and exercises and I ended up spending a considerable amount of time trying to listen to the partials and how my vibrato could bring them out. The second hour I spent again on Mozart but worked on the second page where on-the-string stokes mix with off-the-string and where everything needs to be decided upon for the music to actually sound like Mozart. Clearly I had planned on doing more, but other things came up...

Life: After my first hour of practicing I was overtaken by the need to take a nap. When I woke up I did the second hour. At that point, I decided to go this violin shop to look at pickups, thinking that I could practice more when I got home. Unfortunately that trip turned into a trip to see the other band members and talk about pickups and hang out and thus more practicing was never accomplished. Hopefully I can use Ravel's musical lifeforce as inspiration for today's work.

Practice Time: 2 hours

Round 2

After more than a year I am attempting to begin recording my progress as a violinist again. This renewed effort is part of a larger attempt to develop more motivation and a better work ethic as I struggle to find a place in the dreaded RL. Well you might say being a classical violinist isn't being part of the "real" world at all...but I can't worry about that right now. For now I will stick to my practicing and my life and be done with it.

Future posts will hopefully occur on the day they are discussing. Yesterday I practiced basically four different things...the first hour consisted of a shifting, vibrato, and sound exercise and a Kreutzer etude that was all about thirds. That etude made me realize that my left hand position during thirds was all wacky and that tension in my left hand led to tension in my right arm. So I worked on eliminating those problems, as well as finding a comfortable plane for my right arm while playing two strings at once. The next hour I worked on Mozart Concerto, focusing on sound, intonation, precision, and was reminded yet again what a bitch Mozart is. The third hour I worked on half a page of Beethoven concerto, with the same things in mind. With the Beethoven I realized that the profusion of notes led me to allow many of them to go by without much thought. I tried to maintain enough concentration to think about every sixteenth and triplet eighth as it went by. The last hour I worked on the Mendelssohn scherzo, in which I tried to relax my upper right arm and eliminate the feeling of my arm getting "stuck." This happens when I tighten it up in an attempt to maintain control over the spiccato...but ironically that has the opposite effect. So keeping the arm moving and feeling the bow was part of my arm helped to move in a positive direction.

I had another rehearsal with this band I'm playing in called "Ghostrunner Assembly." Yeah, I know, who knows. Anyway, we worked on the string parts a lot and I felt very involved which was a good change. Now I have to get a pickup and work through the rest of the parts if I want to be able to play in their show two weeks from now. We'll see what happens.

Practice Time: 4 hours