I've got a little problem here and I'm wondering whether anyone could help with it! I'm a young violinist and I've got a performance coming up very soon. One of the pieces I'll be playing is the Grave Adagio and Allegro by Albinoni. It's one of the pieces in the Grade 7 Violin Exam Book. It's absolutely lush I think. The slow movement is lovely, warm and peaceful. The fast movement has to be lively, jumpy and exciting for the audience to hear! Is anyone playing this piece? I think I can play the notes but what is more important is the way you express the music and this is something that I find quite hard with. Slow pieces are alright to do. However when it comes to fast pieces I find that I always panick and rush the pieces and this can make the piece sound not too good. In the Allegro, there's this bit where it has lots of shifting, infact there are two places. They get higher and higher. I've been practising those two parts all the time. I'm getting frustrated about it. This can also make me not express and play the music as I want it? Can anyone give me a bit of advice on practising shifting, expressing music and how you would tackle fast pieces?

The best way to express, is to listen to yourself while you play, a difficult skill to master. The more you practice, the less you have to think about the notes, and the more can you hear your own expression - or lack of it.

Try not to be nervous while playing - if you still end up rushing, it may well be because you're getting carried away.

As a general rule, when you play a piece, finish it and have to stay for 20 seconds to recover, or get emotional while playing, you are definitely expressing some of your emotion into the music, whether you're aware of it or not.

Pretty much, the only way is to practice the part slower, and just calm down. There'll be time for emotional stuff when you master the piece.. it's irritating sometimes.

Scales and etudes really help too.

This may sound stupid, but the best advice is to take the hard parts and make it simple. Turn the hard parts into simple parts, if that makes any sense..

The problem is, that expressing comes after technically mastering the piece, but we usually really want to get to the piece itself... it's frusterating, but later on, I realized it wasn't helping me to try and play hard pieces fast without knowing the notes... It actually takes less time to practice slow, than practicing fast. But I haven't really listened to this piece, so I don't know how hard it is...

It's really good that you can express when you play. So many poeple who play violin these days only play the notes..

I am also practising this piece now coz i'm taking the Gd.7 violin Exam this year. I enjoy the first piece: Grave Adagio & Allegro very much.
I know what you mean about the shifting. I also found it hard at first but it is all about practise. First try to shift to the accurate position and hear if what you play , is it in tune, then practise more & you will get it. Are you also taking Gd. 7 exam this year? Do you play Hungarian Dance? I got lots to ask about it. Pls reply. Jessica

Thanks Jessica!

That advice helps a lot and no, I'm not taking Grade 7 this year.
I have tried to do the Hungarian Dance, it is very challenging and it would be such a fun piece to perform I think. Good luck with the exam!

I did the Grave Adagio and Allegro for my grade 7 aswel and those shifting bits are really hard! try making sure that the first note in each shift is in tune, because if you play the first note in tune then the other ones will follow. make sure you use a lot of vibrato, especially on all the exposed notes. and slow practice always helps, why dont you make it easier for yourself and only play the first note out of each group of four. if you know what i mean? that way youl get the shifts just right. and for the bit on the second page ( i just happen to have the music infront of me!) make sure every shift is really clear so you dont have any notes that shouldnt be there. when i did it it i much prefered the allegro to the grave adagio:) once you can play the piece technically then the espression will come naturally. good luck in your performance and remember, if you make a mistake the audience will never know because they wont know the piece!i hope it goes really well!

Jessica, are you doing any pieces for your exam that arent in the book? i did playera by sarasate last year for my grade 7 and its a beautiful piece!if you havent already picked your B piece id recommend it!
but then, looking in the book i see that hungarian dance is list b. never mind!!!