Hey guys!

Well, I'm fed up! Last week my D-string broke owing to dodgy peg and I had to get that fixed before I could practise again. Today, I tried to tune her up myself and the A-peg slipped so badly that I had to call the shop and arrange to take her in. Whilst trying to get the A-peg to stay, the bridge collapsed and I feel really frustrated. Every time I try to tune her up, a peg goes bonkers and I really need to be able to tune my own instrument, right?

Also, the mute makes precious little difference to the level of noise and, as I live in a 10 storey block of flats, I'm scared stiff of upsetting the neighbours by my yowling, beginner noises. I've decided to do a max of 30 mins prac fairly early on in the working day (say 9-9:30) and a little later at weekends in the hope that that isn't pushing it, but I still feel really uncomfy.

Am I just doing stupid beginnerish things in the extreme? Or does it sound like I have a 'Friday afternoon' instrument? She looks a bit like one as she's not really well finished (I can see bits of varnish etc around the joins) and I would have thought pegs ought to be better behaved that that! OK, she's only a Schroetter 060, so I suppose I can't expect wonders, like that she might actually play OK for a couple of months.

I feel really fed up! I'm not thinking of giving up, but I could use some encouragement, if there's any going spare?? My viola's being fixed today and I collect her later on this afti.

We all have days when everything isn't going our way. Collect Vicki and put her in her case. Pick her up again tomorrow and start on a clean slate! Don't worry! You're not the only one here with a bad day! I had a terrible time tuning Sophia today. It was 42degs out so her pegs started slipping. I tuned the A then E. Then quickly tuned D and G. Started playing and found that A had gone out of tune again! Took her off my shoulder and twisted the pegs. As soon as I tuned D, E would go out! This went on for quite some time before she gave in and I tuned her. Quickly sight read the 2nd Movement of Mozart's K301 then stopped because my aunt and uncle needed to sleep. Sigh.

Cheer up elisabeth! Everything will be better tomorrow!

Yes, everyone has bad days and bad weeks. In fact, last week was a very bad week for me; my piece went wrong, my study was just too hard, the bow was irritating me, the noise gave me a headache and I just couldn't do what I wanted to do!! Anyway, I went to my lesson, got frustrated, played rubbish- and then felt a whole lot better as I had played my absolute worst in front of my teacher and she was still encouraging and didn't tell me what I secretly thought- that I was deplorably bad.

The point is that everyone has bad days. Perhaps when the weather is a bit more stable it will be easier to tune Vicki? Recently, the G string has become G flat every time I get Lucia out to play her and even if I tune it up to G sharp she still thinks it's funny to make it go back to G flat every five minutes.

Don't despair!! With the practice thing, I'm sure you're quieter than you think you are. If the neighbours are that affected they would say something surely?

What sort of mute do you have? If it is a 'normal' mute used in playing (sordino), as opposed to a practice mute then it won't make much difference as they change the tonal qualities rather than the volume. A practice mute should make a significant difference.

I rather like this one though...the 'mousetro'

That mute is adorable!!

It is! My hubby was just next to me when I saw the pic and he said that the bridge even looks like a piece of cheese! What a fab mute. I want on!

OK, mine. It's a horrid, black practice mute which sits on the bridge and doesn't make much impact on the sound really. Some, but not much. It's not an orchestral mute (I heard those in use at a concert last Friday and wondered, do they make the notes higher? Seemed really high and squeaky with them on) it's what I wanted, but doesn't seem to help. I will wait for the neighbours to complain before I take any desperate action, but I still worry... Felt a bit better for sharing my fears though.

Vicki's always had problematic pegs, but I've had her 'seen to' today and intend to ask my teacher for help and advice on tuning her up sneakily at the end of my lesson on Thursday afternoon. LilLady, your last lessons sounds precisely like mine last week! I had to play on my teacher's viola as Vicki's D-string had just hit the circular filing cabinet and her A-string, well, you could have filed bars with it, it was so rough! In fact her strings seemed all to be rough. Is that normal with more expensive strings or is it just that they needed replacing (she doesn't play her va much)?

Well I just wanted an excuse to post the picture really.

Do you push the mute right down over the bridge? You can vary the 'muteness' of these by how far down you push it, but be careful pulling it off again.

(I actually saw Yuri Bashmet use one of these in a performance on his viola but not pushed down very far, goodness only knows why!! He must have lost his tourte mute)

There are the heavy metal ones too, which might mute it more, but I don't think I'd want to use one for fear of dropping it on the instrument.

elizabeth, don't take this too much to heart. The tuning thing is really hard. I hate tuning my bowed string instruments - they always seem to slip side about, and if I mess up and snap a cello string, it costs a FORTUNE. It just takes time, and noone finds it easy.

On the subject of the mute, don't worry so much.

You don't perceive the difference a great deal because the instrument's too near your ear. I had exactly this worry when I started the violin last year.

I made my poor, long-suffering husband listen in different places in the house and garden to find out how much he could hear with or without the mute, as I wasn't sure it was working. He came back and reported that he could "just" hear the fiddle downstairs without the mute, not at all with it, and not at all in the garden with or without it.

And he confirmed that when he was in the same room, but at the far side of it, there was a noticeable difference with and without the mute.

I've heard professionals practising with a practice mute and they only make a very small sound.

Not sure what you mean by your teacher's strings being rough. Perhaps her bridge is higher than yours?

Liz

I use a heavy practice mute (on my cello) and I think it does make a difference to how far the sound travels and thus to what the neighbours can hear. I think it affects the resonance rather than the volume directly, so it still sounds quite loud to me but the sound stops very quickly and doesn't reverberate around the room.

Want!

I have one of these



Forget where I bought it though, this was just the only picture I could find!

Admittedly it's a big beggar, but it does the job.

Thanks for all the encouragement guys! I did better in this week's lesson than last, even though I feel like death warmed up and have had a rotten week owing to being daft enough to tackle someone un-cooperative about making me feel angry and humiliated in front of others. Never expect someone like this to do better next time - it's just not realistic! Music is much better for the soul!!!



Dunno about the bridge, it may well be higher. The strings themselves are not as smooth as mine and the A-string was really rough. Much rougher and you could have filed bars with it!! Are different strings a differing level of smoothness??

Assuming the strings are the wire wound type then I have only known new strings to be smooth and shiny, but then I haven't experience of a particularly wide range of string makes. I have seen strings which are rough due to a huge build up of old rosin, or rough under the fingers due (I guess) to being very old and corroded from never having been cleaned, or even because the windings are separating a bit. None of these are great signs.

I suspect your teacher could do with some new strings, but its not really your place to say such a thing.

Agreed, ep! To be fair, she did say early on that she needed new strings and she doesn't use her va much. She's a professional violinst and vn teacher and I'm her first ever va pupil. I'm just glad that I have such a local teacher who offered lessons at a very reasonable price (only fair as she hasn't taught vs before), so I promise not to make comments about her strings!! It's mine that matter to me anyway, right? I just had to use hers last week as my D-string bit the dust in initial tune-up.

Glad to see you are feeling better about things now Elizabeth.
I have the 'odd bad day' when every bow stroke I make sounds horrible and I can't get my tuning right, yet the next day almost without a fail I would sound almost perfect! don't ask me why I still haven't found the answer.

"Bad instrument days" happen sometimes, just like "Bad hair days" do! I just accept it as a fact of life, heh.

Glad to hear you're feeling a bit better now

Mmmm, spoke too soon!

Well, I did OK at my last lesson last Thurs, but haven't played since. Have had other big hassles on my mind and also haven't been very well generally, so poor Vicki has been seriously neglected! Will make up for it soon. Have even postponed my next lesson so that I can get some practice in first - no point in paying to learn more when I'm not ready for it, huh?

Anyway, hope to have something more positive to report back soon.

Elisabeth, hope your week has gone better now since your last post.

I had a couple rough weeks when my son was sick & then hubby came down the same thing two days after, so I didn't even had time to practice or try to because the Sickies need their rest. But I went ahead and gone to the lesson just to break away from all the depressing coughs & sniffs, and actually felt better for having my mind focus on playing & learning music instead on worrying. Sometimes going to lessons helped motivating me to practices -- I don't want the teacher thinks this Mommy's playing sux worse than the kid's

But I didn't sit around idle when I wasn't practicing -- I now finally have a name for my viola and the new violin. So my instrucments didn't feel too neglected.

Come on then, spill the beans... what are their names?

Well, hubby had slight issues about me giving DannyBoy's body some TLC after some serious playing ... not sure he's objecting to viola's name or the TLC part? so I seriously had to rethink the name to the viola and I ran into bi-lingual problem -- what sounds poetic in chinese, I can't come up with english translation that express the sentiment, or vice versa. That's why it only took me forever to name them... JimBob is too country-bumkin, Edward's too uptight, Steeler's too NFL...

So finally I settled on... <drum roll please...>
-"Ying" the chinese charactor for "Shadow" -- this is for my 15" viola, after the "Shadow" character in Disney's kid show "Bear in the Big Blue House" who tells stories/folklores in a sing-song sort of way; not because I have any dark-side or anything

-"Annette" is the 4/4 violin -- the chinese charactors for the name expresses love & serenity.

Think I spend waaayyyy too much times on them?!

Hehe. That was a lot of thought, but I think they're lovely and very apt names.

My string things are The String Thing (my harp - because it has almost 3 dozen of the blessed things...), Tigger (my fiddle, because... well you just need to see the flaming on its back and you would understand!) and Ken or Vasile (my viola - the name still hasn't been settled between the person whose money paid for it after leaving some money to our family in his will, or the chap who oversaw the making of it... sometimes he's Vasile, sometimes he's Kenneth..........)

uuuuuuuu, I LOVE 'ying' as a name!

LOL... well, this is the advice I used to choose a name for our son once we found out that we were having a boy:
Stand at the bottom of the stairs and shout on top of your lungs upward the names of your choosing 500 times (real-life simulation of what is like to have your teenage kids ignore you, i guess); if you still like it after that, it's a good choice!

although, i don't know if your viola will answer you back when it's at the upstair tho... My dogs did come running...



How neat! does your Tigger a happy bouncer too?

I don't think my violin does running, that's for sure - it's far too elegant.


Only when my bowing is a bit off

Yeah, Ying's a good name for a viola. Don't be put off by the 'dark' connection. Viola is meant to be a 'dark, melancholy and passionate' instrument. I think it suits me beautifully!! 'Victoria' is a better name for a viola than 'Vicki', but you can't call such a cheap instrument as I play at the mo such a classy name!! My Gliga will be Victoria.

For how I'm getting on with my viola lessons etc, plesae see latest post on the 'Starting Violin' thread. Things are going OK, but there are some sticking points which I need to sort with my teacher....

Absolutely!

... THE Dark Side .... <Darth Vader's breathing in the background...>

Well I seem to make my family's mood dark and melancholy when I play and they're usually passionate about me stopping.

I'm afraid my neighbours may come to the same conclusion about my playing, Boo! Wonder when one of us will make it in to positive grades, with you between -3 and -2 and me not saring to imagine being over -23!!!

I can simpathise with that, I can't wait to get to a higher grade with my violin so that people stop pulling funny faces when I play and actually start really enjoying listening to me and asking me NOT to stop.
But when will that happen? above grade 5?

It will happen when you can play pieces expressively, rhythmically, in tune, with a good tone and without making so many mistakes that it distracts the listener. It is not even necessary to give a faultless performance, it just needs to sound good. It is not related to grade. It it possible to pass higher grades by playing accurately but without much feeling and with poor tone. Passing higher grades just shows that you can play technically more difficult pieces. People taking higher grades will generally be more aware of how to give a musical performance though. A listener isn't usually bothered about how difficult a piece is.

It is perfectly possible to play very simple pieces expressively so that people want to hear you play. It helps if the listener already knows the piece so traditional tunes can be a good place to start.

That all makes sense to me. Some of the loveliest pieces going re slow and simple!! (bit like me!!)

We can only hope. I wonder when the AB will introduce exams for negative grades.

I think my prospects are improving - I felt I was doing much better at my lesson today!!

I doubt either of us is that bad, but I can't expect miracles (of myself) after only 2 months and 7 lessons!!

sooo many things to remember all at the same time... I can't multi-tasked that many things all at once... so does this mean no hope for me?

<negelecting Ying and Annette again...>

I am having a bad violin week.

I know it’s not really that bad- I have improved a lot recently, and my playing is really confident, but all the squeaks and scrapes are really getting to me. Even if I play confidently, the scrapings just sound magnified. Where is my smoothness? How do I even get smoothness? I’ve tried playing slowly and then speeding up, but it doesn’t work; the Squeaks inevitably creep up on me and invade everything. I just want to grab them by their tails, poke their beady little eyes out and swing them round my head and out the door, but I can’t! I can’t even grab them, they always run away.

Can anyone reassure me on how long it takes to remove squeaks and how I should be practising effectively to remove them? My teacher says it’s normal, but I don’t want to be normal, I want to sound nice!

Don't worry about the squeaks - they will go away eventually. If they're not there when you are playing slowly and only creep in when you speed up, then it's likely to be a tension problem in your bow arm. Check your bowing shoulder and elbow to make sure you're not tensing them up. This can happen if you speed up too quickly.

When I'm working on something, say a fast reel or jig, I start slowly then I increase the speed one notch per day on the metronome until I reach 260 crotchets per minute. I've been playing around four years and am considering taking grade 7 (shhhh, public announcement) this winter. Most of the time I make a good sound, but every now and then something doesn't work and I squeak. I think this happens to everyone at any level - there is, every now and then, something that doesn't sound how you want it and you have to figure it out. Perhaps the difference is that once you're making a good sound most of the time, you know what to look for to make the occasional problem vanish, whereas at the early stages you don't.

Keep it up! If you've only got the occasional squeak when you're going fast, you're doing just fine!

The violin teachers on the site will be able to give you more advice.



Allan

Having a very bad viola week!

How can a piece that was just beginning to take shape and sound respectable last week, sound so unbelievably 'asap' this week?

W

Things I got from my teacher:

Scratching - too much tension in right wrist (bowing arm)
Squealing - not enough bow pressure
Generalised yowling - playing too near the bridge.

Might help a bit.

Yup, Willobie, I know what you mean. Sometimes a piece feels quite good and just needs 'tidying up' a bit and other times it sound like we're actually trying to make it sound rubbish!! Even pros get bad days.

How long have you been playing and what are you working on now?

It was a bad viola week last week and a better one this week. Working for grade 4, Trinity, and have 3 lovely pieces, Melodie, Arthur Rubenstein,; The first study from Technique takes off , Mary Cohen and a piece by Pergolesi. Minuet. Lots of scales, which are in a very elementary state at the moment.
But there was an improvement this week especially in the Melodie, where there is cadenza type bit in the middle. There's not much indication about speed here, so at leaste I can fit the notes in without having apoplexy!
I hope that your next week is a good viola week,a nd that you have as much fun as i do. Good luck

I did that book on the violin - much more fun than most studies

I think I suffer from all of those...



I've been playing about 18 months - but I did play violin MANY years ago... At the moment I am tackling pieces of around Grade 5/6 level (but not always with much success) - and I don't have a teacher. I am meant to be learning a piece for the Forums concert on Tuesday but today it sounded REALLY bad - and I don't get to play it with the piano part until the day...

W

Good, then you know what to do about them now! Perhaps having a few lessons would help you???

My progress report for this week
*my intonation is MUCH BETTER!
*I have a wierd left hand and pointy fingers that just won't shape to any playing position comfortablely
*I need to practice more because my son is catching up to me ( for him, for me)

Ying's pegs were stuck because all the humidity and rain, and I forgot to strighten his bridge after I lubricated the pegs. I went to the lesson and was discussing about strings won't tuned and if need to change them when our teacher took a quick glance and fixed that in no time -- Note to self: always check bridge alignment after restrung the instrument
I was having some trouble tuning Annette, and she's wild child when I was practicing, instead of calm, serene and sweet like she normal is.

The dogs are not sympathetic, as always...