Cool. I should go home at some point

I really need to practise tonight

Do I detect guilt??

I did about an hour and a half yesterday with pre-lesson prep/prac, then my lesson, and then another 15-20 mins whilst Sir was stuck on an international Skype 'call' and I was waiting for him!! I got my old 'Tune a Day' book 1 out and had a go at using it for sight-reading prac and fingering stuff. I wonder how similar it is to the newer version.

Anyway, I've promised myself not to lose several hours blethering on forum today, so am disappearing now.

I think that it is most important that you all know I have my Grade 1 viola exam this month I am waiting for the date, so I can't be specific.

I thought that perhaps I could join the amateur orchestra once I get to about Grade 3 standard. This is my goal!

I think that everyone should also know that I have lost my flute somewhere in the house If anyone knows where it is I would be most grateful if you could tell me as I've searched everywhere (and it's not a large house). I don't really like my flute, but that's not the point.....it's mine and I should know where it is at all times

Which pieces are you doing, echelon?

Hope you find your flute soon. I know what you mean about how annoying it is. All I can suggest is back-tracing from when you last definitely had it.

I am doing Cotillon, Evening Hymn and March by Baklanova - they are quite nice pieces, but the run of quavers in Cotillon is doing my head in at the moment! Never mind, they sound okay. Dreading doing the Aurals as I'm so out of practise at stuff like that.

My pieces are hard

Good! If you'd found them easy, I'd have been WELL cheesed off! I had a look at 'Tune a Day' in Scheerers the other day and it moves through technical stuff much faster than ESM does, but doesn't cover some of the other stuff I've done (although that will be easier for you with a more musical background).

I should do some prac. I haven't since Thursday and I ought to, but I seem to have some sort of odd heaviness and tiredness, (probably post-viral fatigue) at the mo and don't feel much up to it.

Like what, for example? I've never looked at ESM and I'm intrigued Don't worry about not practising if you're not up to it. I hardly played flute last week

Sort of general musicality stuff, more on rhythms, note values etc. Actually, I realised when looking at ESM4, that it doesn't really use note names until then. The activities pages/viola explorer sections have a lot of stuff you can play on any sting by just using the number of the finger to put down.

I'd really need both books in front of me to give a better crit than that.

Ah right I have to confess that my note reading of alto clef isn't great. I know where the notes are on the strings, but I usualy want to give them treble clef names

Mmm, I have to adjust before switching from one to the other. I bet, when you did your G4 theory (if you took the exam), you never thought you'd need alto clef for anything other than getting the cert!!

Well, just finished my job application for another on campus post I'm interested in. Let's see what happens now. Actually, what's about to happen is that I'm going to turn off my laptop and do some viola prac.

==================

This is what happens to me! I also can't name the notes in the different positions on the strings for some strange reason. So, if my teacher tells me to play an F sharp or whatever, I have to figure out where that particular note is even though I'm playing it often enough and reading the music with no problems. I seem to have some kind of mental block and it's really embarrassing

I remember when I started learning first time around - i seemed to miss out the 'that note on the page is a B and a B is first finger on the A string' stage and went straight to the 'that note is this finger' stage, which was fine for a while but once I needed to play flats and sharps I pretty much lost the plot!

Seem to be getting the hang of naming the notes this time round, but do get confused if i help my daughter with her violin and then try play viola (or vice versa)

I'm almost enjoying playing the viola now, but have been inspired to return to the piano as well, which I can actually play real music on so I tend to spend longer on that!

I've never had these problems, even though I've always use treble clef for singing. I seem to be able to switch OK. However, a big test will be switching from one to the other in the same piece! That's years away yet tho, esp. as I am finding my first (and supposedly easiest) grade 1 exam piece HARD!

Is that the Bach? Don't worry too much, there's plenty of time til your exam

Do you switch from one to the other in viola music!!!

I suppose you must or the ledger lines for the A string would be stratospheric!

I hadn't thought of that - more stuff to scramble my brain

Treble clef may turn up in Grade 6 sight reading, so I guess it's mostly more advanced pieces that use treble clef... It'll be interesting

Yup, it's the Bach. It's a real pain that I just CANNOT get it to sound vaguely decent. I've tried pizz-ing the tune and bowing the right length of note on each string (without left hand intervention), as build ups to it and I can only hope that today's effort is better than yesterdays. It's just plain hard! It starts on D string G then goes straight to A string C natural, but my fingers not only have trouble getting there in time, but they go straight for high 2nd finger position - C#! Ooof!

I daresay that treble clef will appear before Grade 6. As far as I can remember it's in the scales book for Grade 5, but I'm too idle to go and check!!! Anyway, it'll be aeons before I'm at the dizzying heights of intermediate study, so I'm not fretting about it just yet.

Sounds a bit like my pieces then

I don't know at what point treble clef will appear in pieces, probably sooner, for sight reading it's just from G6 onwards

I remember that from the syllabus too, for sight-reading.

OK, I've just checked the scales book etc and treble clef is in the Grade 5 3-octave C major and minor scales (not surprisingly) and also appears at the beginning of 2 of the set pieces for the Grade 4 exam - I have the Chester Book 2. So, it seems to be thoroughly on the intermediate syllabus.

Something to look forward to

I see from what you aew saying about the Bach that I'm not the only one struggling to get my fingers in the right places. Especially that C on the A string

Mmmm, I strugge with the piece you're doing as well. Sigh! I ought to be able to do this by now.

OK, off I go. Lots to do today. I haven't finished last week's marking yet and it's class tomorrow! I normally get the stuff back to the kids same day or a couple of days later, but I haven't even touched it since last Weds, never mind all this Bach business!!

I have my 3rd lesson tomorrow - and was looking forward to it until i tried to practise today - and it all fell apart! (So did my piano playing later in the day, it must have been one of those days)

I really need to try and sort out my left hand - I still can't work out what is providing the counter-pressure to my fingers pushing down on the strings, so hopefully my teacher can explain this in ways i can understand tomorrow!

On a different topic, my daughter needs a 1/4 size violin, having grown out of her 1/8 overnight. She dropped her violin on Sunday so i took it into the violin shop to get a new string and make sure I had eased the bridge back into the right place. I mentioned that she needs a new violin and they have a really nice stentor messina second hand - which was the one her violin teacher wanted us to buy but we can't really afford a new one. Hopefully i can pick it up tomorrow ready for her lesson in the evening - mind you, she has worked so hard on her pieces this week for him, which will go rather to pot on a larger violin, so that is a bit of a shame. On the plus side, it is half-term next week so she will be able to practise during the day, rather than afer school (although it aslo means i will be able to practise much less)

Wish me luck for tomorrow!

edited to change right to left hand - made the same mistake on two posts in a row - no wonder i am struggling!

I taught myself Ode To Joy on the violin last night before I broke one of my strings...it was pretty cool...

What was cool, the broken string or 'Ode to Joy'?? Hope you broke the E string anyway - I loathe the things!!

What's this problem with holding strings down? I must have missed that one..... How's your left hand posture? Holding it in the wrong place would probably make it harder to keep the strings down.

It was the D string, actually.

The cool part was learning Ode to Joy with no book or anything...just finding the notes and playing it...well, plucking it, really. Still working on the bowing.

When the string broke, it scared me to death! I heard a pop and had no idea what it was initially.

Shucks! Violin D strings are quite bearable, so it seems a waste!!

My D string went on my first viola, but it wasn't my fault. My old teacher 'broke' it whilst tuning up one lesson. Other than that, I've never lost a string.

Have you got a teacher sorted yet? If not, I'd really take care how much time I was putting in just now. Reason being that it's oh so easy to pick up bad habits that are hard to get rid of later on by not having expert guidance in the early stages.

Not yet. I'm saving hte teacher for the viola days.

I'm basically just playing aroudn with it (picking instead of bowing) tryign to learn a few notes here and there. Ok, I bow on occassion, but it's irritating on the violin, so plucking seems better until I can get my fingering down.

horax, can I ask why, if you hate the violin so much, why you got one in the first place?

Not meaning to sound... whatever, but I'm just a bit confused. Why not just get a viola straight off?

Fair question. I don't HATE the violin...I just love the viola!

I got a violin because my boss is a professional violist, and she had a violin she bought for a student who never used it. She saw me shopping for violas online, and offered to give me the violin for free.

So I didn't put out any money for it, and I"m playing around with it until I get my viola. If I could learn how to play the violin, I'd probably enjoy it more. I'm a noob, though, so it will take awhile.

I could get lessons...but I want lessons with teh viola and can't really afford both of them, so for now, I'm just learning the notes and a few songs and whatnot.

Ideally, it would be great if in a few years I could actually play both of them.
I'd probably like it a little more if it were nicer, too. It's one of those cheap student outfits that's painted black where the ebony should be, but the sound isn't that bad. It needs a new bow desperately, too.

I went and bought a new D string tonight...not a bad little $8 investment!

hx

Ah, ok then, I'll stop being pseudo offended by the "horrible violin" esque comments

I think my biggest issue is that my fingers are having difficulty staying on only one string since I have big hands. I need to work on that...and when I play pizzicato, there's no resonance when I am using my fingers on the fingerboard...is this normal?

Yup, there's a completely different timbre (sound quality) between a fingered note and an open string. It's evident in both bowed and pizz notes. That's why 4th finger (which is often equal to the note of the next open string up - unless it's your E string (Violin) or A string (viola) when there is no higher string) is often chosen over the open string - to keep the sound quality consistent.

If your future teacher is anything like mine (and Claudia's), you'll be working on bowing technique before you get really into fingered notes. It's quite a lot more important than you would think before you start to learn. I remember being quite surprised!

Haven't done any pract today as it's been college day and I don't suppose I'll get to it until tomorrow. My lesson was unavoidably cancelled owing to death in my teacher's family (not a close rely though), so I don't have one now for another 2 weeks. I have chance to get to grips with that Bach! (The smiley will tell you how much hope I hold out for that!)

For the record, I don't hate violin either. In fact, in the lower reaches, it's tone is lovely. What I don't like is high notes, esp on a violin E string. Low-mid notes are my thing.

I played my pieces very badly in my lesson yesterday, so I've gone back to Ode to Joy on the first page

My whole hand kept moving when I tried to use 4th finger which was not good. My teacher did say that I might be one of those people who just has to "cheat", i.e. use 2nd position when meant to be playing a 4th finger note in 1st position. I have a tiny little finger, you see

We'll see how it goes

This last comment, complete with doubtful smiley, sums up how I'm feeling about all my studies at the mo, both musical and textiles. We'll see.....

It's generally how I fell about my flute playing, my viola playing, my PhD and my life

babybird 2 you will get used to 4th finger eventually. When you get fast runs in more complex pieces you won't be able to shift up so will have to know how to use the pinky effectively!

I played violin for about 2 years beofre I could use 4th finger properly. I think it is just getting used to stretching it. Should be fairly easy if you do not clamp your wrist around the neck of the violin.

elisabeth, the E string on my first violin was decidedly vile. I hated it with a passion, and Teach's daughter would start screaming, it was that bad ( I kid you not) - that was the notoriously yukky Dominant E though.

I've got Helicores on my new fiddle, and it's a much nicer sound.The open E is the one I still try to avoid playing if possible just because it is still quite shrill, but it's not quite child scream inducing I understand what you mean though, and E strings are a tricky business from what I can tell.


Dunno quite what my point was, I think it was "I agree".

Ah yes, open strings! When I played classical I used to avoid them like the plague, but once I started playing traditional stuff, I had to get used to them (I remember a workshop I was at once with Alasdair Fraser, an oustanding Scots fiddler - who spent most of the morning trying to teach the classical players to get a good tone from an open e string - it took some doing, because we just weren't used to playing that string and hadn't had much practise on how to make it sound. We got there, though!)

As for fourth finger, as violin hero says, you'll get used to it!

I didn't practise yesterday and I'm away for the weekend

Sttill debating about phoning up teachers, I'm trying to convince myself that I should wait a bit. I mean, I will ahve a teacher for a few months yet, I think

My 4th finger ability comes and goes. I don't worry about it though, I know it'll smoothen out fully in time and with sufficient practise, (which I don't feel like at the mo as I seem to have pulled something in both of my arms! Nothing serious - I can't be sure how it happened, but clearly doesn't want straining.).

It's not open strings that make me wince, it's just high notes. I simply don't like them, so most things on a violin's A and E strings just don't work for me. The brilliance of the violin adds to it for me as I can more easily listen to higher viola notes (more mellow tone), but that's where my antipathy to the E string comes from. It wouldn't matter which brand it was, I'd prefer it to be a double bass E string!!

My 4th finger ability will never be great, my finger is not even 5cm long

Oh well, it won't matter so much in higher positions.

Mine will probably never be great as I'm unlikely to practice enough! My enthusiasm waxes and wains. I daresay it's not connected to the cycles of the moon though.

Well, it is a hobby albeit a very frustrating one Enthusiasm is bound to change....

Have a look at Todd Ehle's videos on Youtube - for those with short fingers, he recommends putting the thumb further under the neck of the instrument rather than letting it stick up - this allows you to reach the fourth finger notes easily. Might be useful!

Had another shot at the Bach and it's getting a tiny bit better. Of course, it could all be pear-shaped again tomorrow, but I'm inclined to think there may be the faintest glimmer of hope.

Had a go at a piece that used to be on the G1 syllabus and I could virutally sight-read that one - unfair!

Hi all!
I'm practising viola a little this week, because of so many school tasks and tests , but at last, it's saturday!
Gonna practise piano and viola also doing music theory as much as i can today and tomorrow

m_b_s

I know what you mean about homework etc getting in the way of viola playing.

Still, I intend to do several lots of 10-15 mins over the next couple of days at least as a break from incessant college work. I WILL master that Bach!

Lots pf practise over the next few days

Didn't do anything over the weekend and I'm a bit tipsy now so I think I'll leave it til tomorrow