Fiddlevideo

I am working my way through Rhythmizing the Bow, little by little, and I am also looking at all the free videos on Fiddlevideo.com which focuses on Fiddle and Scottish Fiddle. When I finish getting what I want from the free videos, I will probably subscribe for a month or two or more to access more of the content.

So far I have focused on bowing, so I've worked with Hanneke's Scottish Groove videos for the Jig and the Reel, and also with Casey's Advanced Bow Techniques. I am hoping that I will be able to integrate these techniques into playing the tunes.

As for playing on the off-beats, I am going back to fundamentals and working with the metronome. Funny how that seems to work....

Playing Off-Beats

Playing off-beats should be simple, right? Should be, but they aren't. I think I am pretty good at clapping the off beats, but playing them in orchestra is another matter. Today I almost skipped over a section of music I was practicing for orchestra. Just off-beats, I thought.

Then I decided to play with the metronome, and I found that even at a relatively relaxed tempo, I would be good for about 3-4 measures, and then, wham! The notes would change, and I would get off just a little. And when you get off just a little, you are completely off when it comes to off-beats.

Since I have a year to play around and work slowly on things, this will be one of my goals. To develop that inner metronome (by using the outer one) and internalize the groove. As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that I have a video called Rhythmizing the Bow that I brought with me. It was always one of those "someday I will go through that video", and I think that someday has arrived.

Fiddling in Switzerland

This blog has taken a hiatus with our move to Zürich, Switzerland three weeks ago. Now that we are here, and the violin I ordered has come in,  it's time to really think about my goals for music this year. 

I find it harder to have goals sitting in my own little flat, but I have created some opportunities for myself. On Monday I am going to an Old-Time Music Jam at an Irish Pub, and I just got the set list for the tunes. I am going to try to familiarize myself with the tunes before I go, so I can at least act as though I know what is going on.

I also want to work on my chopping, and I have pulled out this video I bought from Homespun and my goal is to practice chopping at least 5 minutes / day. Little by little I hope to get better at this. 

I also want to keep working on the tunes I learned at Sierra Fiddle Camp in June. Not just the tunes, but the accompaniments. Either learning or creating them.

In a few weeks the string orchestra that I have contacted will start rehearsing. That will give me some specific goals for classical playing.

Now, if I could just figure out what my composition goals are for this year.....

Elna Claire Valine

A thousand years ago when I was in 4th grade, I started playing the violin in the school program. My teacher was Elna Claire Valine, and I just found out that she passed on last week after a long career in music. She taught in the Wichita Public Schools for 33 years and was the principal second violinist for the Wichita Symphony. She probably never knew that I grew up to be a string teacher in the public schools.

Fiddle Jam Online

On Facebook I found a link to a series of lessons on fiddling, and the first lesson on Bile 'Em Cabbage Down is free. You can find it here. Like Orff, it uses a simple song and then adds variation upon variation with some room for improvisation and creation. Like Fiddle Camp, it teaches the song by ear. Well, that's like Suzuki, too. It also throws in some chord theory.

I have my first summer private students today, and I plan to use this lesson with everyone for whatever level they are playing.

Catching Up and Fiddle Camp

I have been remiss in posting. I have not been remiss in making music integral to my life. The end of the school year brought the usual concerts - the fruition of our work. Vista Orchestra and Recorders performed, the EIMP of CUSD performed, and my private studio students were in a recital. The Women's Choir at church sang in the big music service.

However, right now on the forefront of my mind is the amazing, transformative week I spent at Sierra Fiddle Camp. My mind is swimming with tunes. Scottish tunes, Swedish tunes, Old Time USA tunes, and a few from other places.  Tunes on my fiddle, tunes in my voice.

I learned how to learn tunes by ear on the fiddle. This is big for me. I know that it has created new synapses in my brain, and I think I may spend a good deal of time on our upcoming sabbatical in working on fiddling. I wondered how I would continue learning by ear. In camp it's set out for you. The teacher plays a tune in full, then breaks it down into chunks and we repeat small chunks and add them to others until we have a whole A or B section, then we end up knowing the whole tune.

(Interesting fact. Although I felt as though I knew the tunes really, really well, when I played them by myself at home, I needed to relisten to the recordings I made to clear up some fuzzy places. It's very helpful to be playing in a group (which is one reason I love teaching string classes).)

So, someone suggested that I make my own recordings of tunes to learn. I can play the small chunks for the looping. I will have to try that. I also have some recordings from Peter Cooper's book with work on ornamentation, so that will come with me on sabbatical.

Alexander Technique

I have been meaning to write about the Alexander Technique lessons that I have been taking since April. I think I keep putting it off because there is so much to say. I had taken a workshop several years ago and noticed immediate benefits. I hadn't really realized that one takes a weekly lesson with a teacher for ease of overall body movement, but when my friend, Lynn, started taking lessons, she convinced me to start.

It has been an amazing journey. I have learned so many things from my lessons, and, after orchestra rehearsal last night, I realized that my back no longer really hurts on my right (bowing) side after playing through three movements of a symphony. I am also more fluid in the fast passages, although I am still working on playing faster.

One of the interesting things I've had a hard time allowing myself to do is to practice where I am not at all concerned about the quality of the sound, but about how my body movements feel. I have worked on making my left hand fingers go fast up and down the fingerboard (sloppy), or moving my bow quickly while fingers are relatively still. Then I put them together, and think about the arc of the music, or the direction. Of course, I still have to practice playing correct notes and rhythms, and I do that slowly and gradually increase my tempo. I figure that both approaches will meet in the middle.

It's been what seems like a long time getting to this point, and now I have a greater appreciation for my students who are learning to hold their instrument and play it for the first time. It is something that takes hours and hours of practice, and little by little, it comes along.

Busking

So, the school year is off and galloping, and music runs much of my life, so maybe I should get back to blogging about it.

Last night our Celtic Group, Drowsy Maggie, had a busking gig in the Claremont Village. I have put up a little video and some pics from the evening on the Drowsy Maggie Facebook page.

Drowsy Maggie on St. Paddy's Eve

Drowsy Maggie, our Celtic duo, had a last-minute gig at Dale Brothers Brewery last night. We were invited by the Sons of Claremont to join them in playing Irish music for Shameless Saturday which was also a fund-raiser for the Claremont Folk Music Festival which will be June 15. 

I've never played in a brewery before, but with our pay being free Pomona Queen beer and food from Hillbilly Tacos, I would consider doing it again. After all, our audience could only get happier the more we played and the more beer they drank.

I rarely smile when I play, even when I'm having fun....

Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Celtic

Lynn and I have been playing Celtic music for violin and cello for about 4 1/2 years now. We love listening to and trying to emulate Natalie Haas and Alasdair Fraser. After the Bluegrass concert last week, Lynn and I are thinking about expanding our repertoire to include Bluegrass and Old-Time music and perhaps see if we can add some vocals, too.

This has got me working on an arrangement for us of The Storms Are On the Ocean, an old Carter Family tune, performed in this youtube video with Raymond McLain.

Student Recital

I have not held a recital for my private students in several years.  I think I only had about 3 private students last spring, and my partners in crime (other string teachers) had no students for various reasons.  This year my studio has 1 viola and 4 violin students, and with two more students (a violin and a cello), we had a critical mass for a recital.

Despite the fact that many people do not plan anything for Memorial Day weekend because they think everyone will be out of town, every one of our students could make it this Memorial weekend afternoon, and we had a lovely recital.  At the end the three teachers played a trio of Scott Joplin's rag, The Entertainer.  What a great excuse to get together to play some fun music.

Passacaglia

I have always known that the college students play in recitals, but I have never been to one until Tuesday night.  I found out that our first chair viola (a freshman) was playing the Passacaglia on a theme by Handel by Johan Halvorsen.  I know that he is a good player, but his performance proved to me that he is a great player, and it was a joy to hear this piece played so well.  I didn't tape it, but you can hear it in this youtube video with Pinchas Zuckerman and Itzhak Perlman.