In-Depth Post #4

Hi all! Over spring break I had just one meeting with my mentor and I’ve been practising my technique.

Progress update

While looking through songs from my mentor’s etude book, I came across various new violin techniques that may be necessary in certain songs moving forward, so I decided to give them a try.

First, I learned how to slur my notes. This basically involves playing two notes of different pitch with the same bow (either an up-bow or a down-bow). It produces a very smooth transition between the notes. The main problem I had was open string sounds while slurring across strings because I wasn’t holding down my finger long enough on the first note. However, after some repetition of the same song, I can usually play clean notes fairly easily.

Second, I learned pizzicato, which is plucking the strings instead of using the bow. I found this technique quite easy, and the hardest part was transitioning quickly between bowing and plucking in the middle of a song. Again, after practising the same song for a while, this becomes easy.

Vibrato has been more difficult than I expected. I have the motion down, but I can only do it with my second and third fingers and I can only do it very slowly. When I try to do it fast, my fingers become too tense and I am unable to vibrate my wrist very well. I will continue to practise, but it may take a while to perfect the technique.

Last blog post I mentioned that I wanted to play Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I have learned the first section, but I would like to perfect the articulation a bit more. Also, the slurs are messing up my rhythm a bit right now. I hope to improve this by the next blog post (two weeks from now). I also will learn the second section, although it may be more difficult because it is faster and there are multiple accidentals (notes outside of the key signature).

 

Questions about my mentor

What has been your most difficult mentoring challenge so far? Why?

One of the biggest challenges for me and my mentor is having clear goals. Since I planned a lot of my project at the beginning without my mentor, I feel like he has been a bit disconnected from some of my goals, especially the goal-setting process. As such, he may be missing some opportunities to help show/teach me some lessons that may be beneficial to my learning. Last year, I was able to learn very effectively because my mentor gave me some resources to look at each week and it gave him input into my learning. However, this year, my mentor’s main input into my learning is only feedback and considurations during meetings, and outside of meetings I mainly use the books that my mentor lent to me.

What is working well? Why?

I have a great relationship with my mentor now. We both trust each other and are comfortable and enjoy working with each other. I feel like meeting in-person has been very beneficial for this, as we are able to talk easier and “connect” with each other more. As such, it has been easy to develop routines for meetings and such, and if we need to reschedule or change anything, we know that the other person will be understanding.

What could be working better? How can you make sure this happens?

I feel like currently I am not pratcising as much as I probably should be practising. This is slowing down my learning a lot. Concepts that I learn during meetings do not become skills until I spend sufficient time practising. One way I can force myself to practise more is to log my practice time and present them to my mentor at the beginning of each meeting. Combined with practice goals, this should help hold me accountable when I am falling behind.

Thanks for reading!

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