So... my teacher went on tour in October, she's a professional musician, there haven't been lessons since then. I tried a different teacher, but I never heard back, I guess our schedules didn't mesh. Also, I had some health issues, and I have far less energy than I normally do, and the fiddle playing was one of a few things that went by the wayside, but today I decided to pick it up again and see where I was at.
While playing scales, I found out that on the A string, the bow slips from side to side and it sounds bad. So I am playing in the mirror, notes on only one string at a time, to try to embed in my muscle memory what playing the A string should feel like, to my bowing arm. I guess just at that angle, my arm can't press down the bow hard enough, and I don't have the smooth range of movement yet that my arm should go through.
My teacher had me turn my head, and hold the fiddle, farther to the left than I had initially been playing it, when goofing around by myself. That is to make the violin sit higher on my shoulder bones than it had been before, to help me play better, but it also has the effect of tilting the violin downwards to the right, which I am still getting used to - the strings are in a different position now. My teacher has tweaked a lot of how I stand and hold the violin and bow, so the rest is up to me to use what I know and just make it more automatic.
I've been primarily trying to get the notes accurate, but now I'm trying to spend time getting the tone to sound good as well.
