Thursday, August 6, 2009

Beethoven Success!

I am disappointed to report that practice time for the fiddle these two weeks was Very sparse. Unfortunately, I had a lot of sick cats, and various other house issues which took most of my time away. Then there was an attempt at having a life... However, I was able to get the first two lines of the 4 line assignment memorized and at least sounding Sort of right. So I called that a nice success.

At today's lesson, we progressed to that third line. I was disappointed in myself that I had not practiced to a point of even trying that third line out before my lesson, but it didn't take long for me to pick it up. And the fourth line is the same as the first, so I already had that one down. By the end of the 30 minute lesson, I had the whole thing nearly memorized and I accidentally taught myself how to "slur."

This doesn't exactly mean I sound Good. My tone is apparently ok, but we made some adjustments in how I was holding the violin neck so I could reach the notes, and I received tape markers for a few of the finger positions because I was placing them just a little off naturally. Apparently that's why I didn't like how I sounded at home. Plus apparently my instrument was a little out of tune. It'll be nice when I get to a point where I can recognize what is in and out and do that tuning thing on my own.

As usual, I am absolutely my own worst critic, so I got told to "lighten up!" I have to keep reminding myself that I am just learning and doing well for someone who has only had about 4 lessons. I'm even learning something I'm not supposed to learn because I accidentally taught myself!

So no new songs this week. We just worked on getting Ode to Joy right and readjusting my fingers. I do have a nice new warm-up to replace the horrible made-up scale I was playing, though. And next time I get to bring my Own song in! So I'm looking for sheet music to something celtic. I guess I need to go through my CDs and find something traditional that I like and might be able to get the music easily.

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