Practice Nov. 6, 2006 November 6, 2006
Posted by 06kahao in Bow & Right Hand, Left Hand, Practice.1 comment so far
Time: 120 min.
I have tried out my bright idea of raising my shoulder, but my shoulder ached for the passed week. Thus, I should try to find a medium in between. Raising my shoulder allows my hand to move up and down the fingerboard without wasting time adjusting my elbow when I go over the break point between thumb and normal position. Today, I also noticed that there’s some joy’s to playing with the bow hair loser. I don’t know what to do about it. When I had my lesson with Mr. Hurst, he adjusted my bow such that it was loser than I’ve kept it for the past few months. On the other hand, Mr. Angell likes the hair tight. I guess it’s up to me. In the orchestra, I feel better with a tighter bow because I can press more, which is bad.–but it feels so good. I should talk to Lee and Hurst about this.
Practice Oct. 19, 2006 October 19, 2006
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Time: 120 min.
I’m not going to even try to recollect the other days that I’ve missed on blogging. But up until now, I’ve changed my routine. I start up with scalar warm-ups that mostly follow Mr. Hurst’s daily routine. I then do etudes and rep in any order. Changing the order spices it up a little from day to day. But I like the new routine, and I think I’m going to stick with it for a while.
My new Findeisen etude book just got in. In the mean time, I’ve managed to learn Nanny/Kreutzer no. 16. This etude also helped me prepare for the Bottesini Concerto no. 2 that I’m starting to work on.
Mainly, I have to keep a sharp eye on my point of contact while playing. I’ve been focusing on being parallel to the bridge too much. After to speaking to Mr. Hurst, it’s appearant that being parallel to the bridge doesn’t mean I’m being perpendicular to the string.
Lesson w/ Lee Sept. 22, 2006 September 22, 2006
Posted by 06kahao in Bow & Right Hand, Left Hand, Private Lesson.3 comments
We started off with scales. He says that my tone is a lot better. So relaxing my arm was a very good thing. He wants me to work on bowing things when I practice Kreutzer and scales.
Lee gave an interesting story about a Chicago Symphony trumpet who openned out his fly in a concert. He was so worried about being embarassed that he nailed Pictures (at an Exhibition). “Sometimes, you just got to take chances.”
Lee also said to shift by moving my hand, not my entire arm–it’s more efficient to do so. If I bring the entire left hand down, I have to eventually turn it after it hits the bass before going into thumb position. So if I let the hand guide the arm, everything works out better.
Lee also curves his pointer finger a lot in thumb position. Ellison and Rabbath promote collapsing the fingers in thumb position, but I remember Hurst telling me that I should aim a little to the side of the string. I need to experiment with this.
Practice Sept. 18, 2006 September 18, 2006
Posted by 06kahao in Bow & Right Hand, Practice.1 comment so far
Time: 105 min.
Today, I focused on my bow hand and preparing things for Thursday’s demonstration. I’m trying out a looser and lighter bow. Since I’m using the laborie endpin, I need to follow Rabbath’s style a little more–it’s designed for the setup. So far, doing so has seemed useful. I’ll keep up with this for the next few days. Also, the looser bow has helped my long notes a little.
So in general, loosen up.
Lesson w/ Lee Sept. 15, 2006 September 17, 2006
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We mainly worked on Dragonettie II and the recitative. The biggest thing that Lee told me is that I need to work on my bow hand. He said that that’s his only gripe with my foundation, which is weird. Gorman liked my bow hand, but I think it changed. Lee said I’m playing the bass like it’s a tradional endpin bass-I’m putting too much weight into the bow. I need to work on this.
Is it bad to move while playing (slowly)? September 15, 2006
Posted by 06kahao in Bow & Right Hand, Q&A.1 comment so far
Miyamura says it’s inefficient. Lee and Ellison say to lean. I see both sides. Being static almost hurts me. So I’m confused.
Do I have to spiccato on the balance point? (When?) September 15, 2006
Posted by 06kahao in Bow & Right Hand, Q&A.1 comment so far
Pretty self-explanatory. I just have an easier time spiccatoing faster closer to the center of the bow.
Practice Sept. 13-15, 2006 September 15, 2006
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I’ve been very busy. So I haven’t kept up with my blog for the passed few days, but I did practice. So I’ll just put the passed three days into one post. First of all, I added jumping into my warm-up routine. Just like I did when I was in karate. This gets my blood pumping.
I’ve made two main observations in these passed days: Moving helps me play smoother when I’m playing slowly, and my spiccato seems a little better at a little point to the left of the balance point. I’m not sure if moving is a good thing. I know it feels good, but Mr. Miyamura says that it’s inefficient. I know I don’t move that much when I’m playing fast, but remaining static while playing slowly hurts me sometimes. Hmmm . . . . Both Lee and Ellison say that we should lean. I’ll consult Hurst. I’m not sure if the balance point moves, depending on where the bow hand is holding the bow. I’ll consult Lee on it.
Practice Sept. 4, 2006 September 4, 2006
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Time: 20 min.
Today was very rushed since I was working on a paper, and I had Symphony rehearsal. So I showed up early to Symphony rehearsal and did Nanny Etudes. I’ve noticed that I haven’t done long tones so much, and I think I should–Mr. Hurst put a big emphasis on them. During rehearsal, I tried focusing on not squeezing my bow hand. I even experimented, showing that squeezing doesn’t increase volume–ha.
Lesson w/ Lee Sept. 1, 2006 September 4, 2006
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Today was my second lesson with Lee, and he’s good. He’s not Mr. Hurst, but . . . he’s still good. I must admit: He’s a great player. We started out by doing scales. Sadly, I forgot about the fingering for the 2-8ve D major scale in the 4th position. After that we worked on Beethoven, Brahms no. 2, and Mozart no. 35.
He also said to imagine a string pulling from the tip of the bow around my body to the hip on my left side in order to put weight into the tip of te bow.
