I had to tape this today for my second audition video for an amateur orchestra so I thought I’d put this together. First video is me playing the opening of Vivaldi A minor today and the last video is from me months ago when I was still using tapes even!
When I was younger and learned fiddle, I was taught to use the very tips of my fingers. Now my adult classical teacher who is super qualified has taught me to use the pads of my fingers instead and it makes a big difference. The sound is a lot warmer, and my intonation has improved because he says I've always been slightly low (so the pad presses down more on the proper position; he said my hand frame position was fine and it was mainly this issue.)
What were you taught and how do you play?
Here is my progress from 3.5 months to 9 months. The video opens with me playing Oscar Rieding No.2 Op.35 at the 9 month mark, and the video ends with me playing the same song at the 3.5 month mark.
I hope you can see my improvement in this song and I hope this is inspiring for some beginners out there! I really like to make these and share them because I found it very encouraging when I first started to watch others.
Thanks for watching!
I bought a bunch of stickers of realistic moth species and I’m going to embellish the cover with them! Super stoked for those to come in. I’m a big fan of pink so this pink case was too cute for me not to get.
My friend is a tailor so she’s making me a violin blanket with the silk fabric in the second image. I think it’ll go together perfectly!
If I had an expert decaler paint a very fine ornate trim on my violin, would this impact it’s sound quality? I know it’s generally frowned upon to paint violins, but considering this would be a small ornamentation and not a full paint job I wonder if it’s doable.
Hey! Normally I wouldn't post so soon after but my new teacher gave me some instruction that worked for me quite quickly. This is after only a week of practice from my last video. You can check it out in my post history to compare, I am playing the same song.
He is teaching me to play closer to the bridge so I find I sound scratchier right now, but I'm sure with more practice I'll find the sweet spot.
One thing he is trying to teach me is to stop lifting my bow at the end of strokes, so that each note flows into each other rather than feeling disjointed. To do this he has taught me to exert an even amount of pressure on the bow from tip to end, and especially at the end of notes (to match the pressure at the end of a note to the pressure at the beginning of the next note).
To stop my bow from skating around he also taught me to scoop my hand/arm inward more, and to think about pointing the end of my bow tip to the right. He also is teaching me to keep my shoulder and hand relaxed, and to lift or lower my elbow depending on which string I'm on.
All of this was relayed to me over one single lesson, and I've been putting it into practice over the last week. I'm excited to show him what I've accomplished tomorrow!
Thanks for watching!
I'm wearing:
Nars pot concealer in Vanilla for my undereyes
Nars Orgasm blush
Nars Laguna Bronzer for my face and eyes
Rare Beauty highlighter in Exhilarate
Pat Mcgrath Labs lip pencil in Mademoiselle
Kiss fake eyelashes Demi Wispies
Kosas eyebrow gel in Auburn
I'm really liking this look and it's super fast for everyday!
Hi! So my teacher gave me two exercises for my bowing that have helped immensely in a matter of days. I wish I knew these sooner, my other teacher never gave them to me.
One is doing bow push-ups or pencil push-ups. You focus on keeping your knuckles a flat surface as well when you're holding your bow (so think about collapsing them a tiny bit). Then using your pinky finger, you exert pressure up and down to lift your full bow or pencil. Do this without playing by the way, and do it until your muscle fatigues. You can check this out on YouTube for a demonstration.
The second is while your bow is on your violin strings, don't play anything but while in the upper-middle half of your bow pronate your wrist back and forth. Really exaggerate the motion. Your elbow will follow your wrist, going up and down. Do this as well until your wrist fatigues, it will train the flexibility in your wrist.
I'm FINALLY able to keep my pinky curved on the bow and also keep the weight in my pinky. Before I was keeping the weight in my pointer finger because I didn't know what it felt like to have a load on the pinky.
I hope this helps someone else as much as it helped me!
Since I started with my new teacher whose very big on proper form and angles I find that my muscles get tense, tired and sore from playing violin. Is this normal and what do you guys do to remedy it?
So I have two exciting pieces of news to share! One is that I'm starting with a new violin teacher who is the associate concertmaster for the Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra! He is super qualified and I'm looking forward to seeing where my violin playing goes under his instruction.
The second one is that I got accepted for an amateur orchestra starting in September. I had to send in an audition video. I am really surprised they are taking me considering they're playing Beethoven's Sixth Symphony this summer. I realize that's out of my level so maybe this is premature of me... I think I will at least attempt joining because it's a great opportunity. Hopefully my new teacher will help me get up to speed quickly, and help me through September's repertoire.
I spontaneously stripped all the black from my hair and I'm surprised how different I look. That said I still have no idea what my season is, haha. I will be going a brighter ginger soon though.
Not sure if anyone remembers me but I was here a week or two ago asking about how to improve my makeup and the recommendations slayed.
Now I've spontaneously gone ginger and will be going even lighter and I'm not sure if I need to adjust my makeup?
I also threw on a fake tan for fun. Here I'm wearing:
IT cosmetics Light Medium cc cream
NARS Vanilla concealer pot
Laguna bronzer
MAC Blushbaby
Kosas Auburn eyebrow gel
And some cheap fake lashes from Amazon.
I used the bronzer to bronze, contour and do eyeshadow with.
What would elevate the everyday look? Any specific shades or products I should know about now that my hair isn't black?
I'm going to go an even lighter copper color, but I'm giving my hair a little break first. I'm not sure if I'll eventually go blonde or stay as a ginger!
I returned to book 2 only a month ago or so, and my bow has already progressed! I trialed going back to a Suzuki book 3 song (first song in the book) to see if it would transfer a bit to a harder piece and it has. I'm super stoked to see this, you guys were so right! Now I'm going to even hit up book 1 and get through all that repertoire to work on intonation as well.
I still have to work on getting closer to the frog but I feel like I'm more consistently in the middle. My bow seems to skate around a lot though, how do I fix that?
I know I said I wouldn't post for 6 months to see bigger gains but I was excited with this small milestone. I can't wait to see where I'm at in another year. :)
Also book 2 turned me into a ginger, would you believe it? Haha.