u/lunarmoth_

I had some feedback that I was missing expression, dynamics, phrasing, etc. and it was making me sound robotic. I tried to pay more attention to those things this time around, let me know if I succeeded a little bit!

Someone on my last post gave me the suggestion, so here l am trying it out.

I'm trying to learn the tunes they play in my city's sessions so I can eventually join in. Is it sacrilegious or does it even make sense to bring sheet music to those things? I have a terrible memory for songs.

This tune is called The Road to Lisdoonvarna. I'm new to fiddling, so l hope you like it!

And it’s pink!

I can’t believe I’ve been using shelves and stacking other objects to balance my sheet music on this whole time. This music stand makes my life so much easier and I’m so much less strained from looking too high or low.

My ex boyfriend said he was going to buy me one as a gift so not to grab one; that never happened lmao.

For reference, my teacher wants me practicing this song. We have a ways to go on it, but I feel lucky to get to practice Seitz only a year into playing.

Thanks for celebrating with me guys!

All ornamentation is my own addition; I’m trying to learn how to add effective ornamentation to Irish style songs (I think this one is Scottish actually.)

I just found out there are other movements to Rieding’s Op 35 and I’m so stoked. Here is my second day of practicing Op 34. This is as far as I’ve gotten but I’m just so thrilled that I want to share. Give me some time and I’ll be playing the full song for you guys!

Hey guys! With your feedback and some help from my teacher, I already hear a difference in my sound. I edited the two videos together here, with the first video being the most recent. The second is the one from three days ago.

He also started me on vibrato which is why you'll see me use it in the video.

Next week we start Wolfart Book 2 for some shifting into third position exercises. I'm stoked to eventually play songs with the third position. Sarabande by Bohm is my goal.

Thanks again and I'll keep practicing hard! 💪🤝💕

I feel as though my sound is weak and stringy. How do I fix this?

For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s Rieding’s Concerto in B Minor. It’s far from great especially at tempo, but I am finally satisfied with my progression so far and wanted to share. :)

Just a note hahaha. We are doing a Wohlfart etude every week, on top of some shifting practice, bowing exercises including open bowing and scales, and now Schradieck page 1. I get to do a song for fun. I go too sharp at the end here but I don’t feel absolutely horrible at the rest of it so I play up that point and that’s it. I have tried to minimize or stop my vibrato.

Thank you so much for everyone’s comments on my last video and for the encouraging words. I also expressed frustration to my teacher and he was kind enough to say I’m in the top 10% of fast learners that he teaches, that I grasp things quickly and that I’m an efficient practicer. So he told me not to worry so much, and just to do my exercises and enjoy the process. He also told me violin is a 10 year journey and I’m not even at the first year mark yet, so that I can’t push myself as hard as I have been or I’ll burn out quickly.

Hey guys, meeee again. I am very frustrated with my bowing arm and intonation. I’ve been trying so hard to work on my bowing arm and when I watched this video I see how inflexible my wrist is and how high my elbow is. Realistically though I know it’s been a recent thing I’ve been practicing and unfortunately I had to take almost two weeks off of regular practice due to work and some health issues. So I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up too much. I just wonder how long I’ll be stuck like this. I am realizing how difficult progressing on the violin can be and regressing comes so quickly on this instrument if you’re not diligent.

I was so inspired by Solos for Young Violinists Vol. 2 and wanted to get there as quickly as possible but I know I have a long way to go now. I know I need to fix my bowing arm before I progress any more. I am finally seeing my teacher again this week and I’ll get more exercises from him and just make that the bulk of my practice time so I can break through this.

This is a song from Solos for Young Violinists Vol. 1. Maybe it’s too hard for me if my wrist isn’t flexible. I can keep it flexible with easier songs and play them well, but anytime I play something with more difficulty it reverts. I just don’t know how long I’m gonna have to play the easy stuff, it feels like I should be trying to practice keeping a flexible wrist with the harder stuff too. My teacher told me that doing well on exercises doesn’t automatically mean I’ll be able to apply it on songs, and that I have to practice keeping it in the forefront of my mind during songs.

One thing to note is I’ve successfully been able to turn my weird diagonal/sideways-ish vibrato into more of a back and forth one. It’s still really tight but I’ll be getting more instruction on that soon.

I guess I’m expecting progress too quickly, like obviously I post too much haha so really how much progress will I expect between them? I post frequently because I feel like I need a community for this. If anyone knows any good Facebook communities for the violin please let me know. :)

My bridge broke so I brought it into the luthier to fix. They also replaced my strings that I messed up while trying to change them myself, and said if there’s anything else they find they will do.

The associate there also assessed how I hold my violin and suggested a centre-mounted chin rest for me. It’s unbelievable how much more comfortable it is. I took the advice of everyone and decided not to buy a shoulder rest at the same time, and it looks like I won’t need a new one!

I played for a few minutes in the hotel without a mute since the violin shop forgot to put the one I bought in my bag. The hotel management said I was allowed to between certain hours and that there is nobody in the rooms adjacent to me and I’m at the end of the hall. There’s also major construction work happening so there’s the sound of loud, horrible drilling for most hours of the day unfortunately.

But honestly with the adjustments it seems MUCH louder so I decided to just put it away. I can’t make it back to the violin shop so I ordered one on Amazon. It is here Monday and I can start practicing regularly again. :)

Edit: lmao I have no idea what happened to the video part way through. Also still trying not to do vibrato, I played through this unconsciously really just to record the sound. So yes I know my wrist sucks too.