bow angles

So I had a look at my teacher's website, and according to her tour schedule, she won't be back in town until next spring. So I got out the technical requirements book and I'm going to plow ahead with a few more scales. I'm trying to pay attention to using my elbow and wrist to bend, not my shoulder, when I move the bow.

I am having terrible trouble, when playing the D string. During a tune, I tend to hit the G string while playing the D string.

I've been dabbling a bit in meditation. I've been trying to use it to stay a bit more focused to make the best use of my practice time, trying to make use of the mind-body connection to overcome the disadvantage of learning as an adult.

So I've started playing a bit with my eyes closed, trying to envision where in space my bow hand should be as I draw the bow through its range of motion, trying to embed it in my kinetic memory instead of relying on my vision.

That seems to have worked almost right away, which is awesome - the D string sounds better already. Playing the D string, the bow should be almost level with the horizon, playing the E string, it seems to be about a 45 degree angle, and the A string, about at 22.5 degrees - this helps me visualize and become more aware of where the bow is while I play.

I've looked ahead again at more scales to learn - first I am going to polish off A melodic minor and G melodic minor.

Connachtman's Rambles

My teacher has gone on tour. I had issues finding a teacher who could accomodate my work schedule, so I wait for her to come back to start lessons again. Generally she's gone for a month or two.

I've been looking for tunes like Cock o' the North - rhythmic, not lyrical. I found another jig, Connachtman's Rambles, and it's a bit harder but still much easier than the other tunes I was picking. I found Swallowtail Jig as well, that and Connachtman's Rambles seem to be tunes that appear on Youtube as the go-to tunes for someone demonstrating something on the fiddle. I also got music for Swallowtail Reel, not sure why. Though on Youtube or thesession.org I saw people commenting that they play this or that tune as a set of 3 tunes, so I figured it made sense to learn 3 tunes that sound good played one after the other. I don't think I got that far, but Swallowtail Reel was one that was mentioned in these discussions.

I'm moving ahead in my book of technical requirements, and I've learned the Bb scale.

Easier tunes

My teacher has started me learning Cock o' the North. I found it much easier than the waltzes and airs - it has a steady stream of eighth notes, and so the bowing is in a pattern - down-up-down up-down-up over and over.

In comparison, Si Beag Si Mor is pretty lyrical, so the bowing was not in a predictable pattern. Going from one string to the other, making the transition, I worked hard at it but if I didn't play it for a week, I had lost my facility with it.

I've been having problems with the A string - turns out I don't play with the bow at a 90 degree angle to it. I looked in the mirror to straighten the bow out, and then I tried to memorize how it actually looks from where I am when playing the fiddle, the angle that the bow meets the string at. So now I can find the sweet spot again without looking in the mirror.

Si Beag Si Mor, Rakes of Mallow

So we worked on Whiskey Before Breakfast. It was great to finally hack away at this piece in a productive way, it had been stuck in my head since before I got the fiddle. It's not easy - there are a lot of notes in it.

Then I put together music for Si Beag Si Mor. I figured it was slow tempo, like Westphalia Waltz, and so it would be easier than Whiskey Before Breakfast.

Rakes of Mallow was a tune photocopied from my dad's pennywhistle book that looked easy, but I have trouble with the quarter notes in it for some reason. But it's a bouncy little tune and I like playing it.

more tunes

I think my teacher is tired of hearing the Westphalia Waltz. She asked me if there was anything else I wanted to learn, and I immediately thought of Whiskey Before Breakfast, which I had roughly plowed through while trying to learn by myself, and I still like the tune and would like to be able to play it properly.

I had been 2 minds about this - I had heard one version on one website, and then when I searched Youtube, I found another version, each video seemed to show this same 2nd version, but I have not yet seen the original one I had heard first. So, which one to learn? Do I re-learn something that is fairly close, and get mixed up, or learn the original one and never meet anyone else who knows the same version? (except the guy who put it up on his website) Finally I settled on the first one. When the teacher asked, I asked about Whiskey, and we had no sheet music so I was showing her by ear. She said "well you know it already" but I knew my bowing was crappy. So given that I knew the notes, I figured I'd stick with it, I found sheet music and sent it to her and at my next lesson she had made bow marks for me to follow.

She looked over my music, and saw The Merry Blacksmith or something easy like that, and commented on it. I am looking for something else that is just as easy - I am starting to see the merits of a slow waltz like Westphalia. I am thinking about Si Beag Si Mor, and Planxty Hewlett, but when I printed out the sheet music, they were more complicated than I remembered them. So I'm still thinking over which easier tune to try next, it might be The Merry Blacksmith.

reading sheet music

I am back taking lessons again, since March.

My teacher and I made a discovery: I didn't know the names of the notes I was playing. I was playing a G scale - I knew that I was starting on the open G, and playing a scale, but I couldn't tell you any of the other notes I was playing within the scale.

I had been learning scales by myself, and so I was going on muscle memory from that. To begin with, I had already learned major and minor scales on a guitar, so I was drawing from that as well.

When I was playing the violin from sheet music, if I could play scale of the key I was playing in, I could figure out the notes by gauging from the intervals. My fingers & ear knew where all the degrees of the scale were, so I paid no attention to the note names on the fingerboard. I can read sheet music from taking piano lessons for many years.

So this was fine as long as I was playing something predictable like a scale or a folky tune. We started doing bowing exercises, and she pointed out that I had missed an accidental, and we realized I had been playing mostly by ear, ie not processing any of the note names at all. She said "I want to be able to put any sheet music in front of you" and have me play from notes. This wasn't my priority, I just wanted to be able to play folky music, but I totally saw her point, as a piano person who can only read one note at a time :(

I went home and drew little fingerboard diagrams, trying to memorize where each note was. I also dug out my grade 2 piano books, and tried to play through them with the violin, paying attention to the note names. The tunes were easy, so I started playing backwards through the pieces, to force my brain to work harder. I figured out where the Cs were.

I went back for another lesson and told her what I'd been doing. She said I should do arpeggios and say the note names as I played... which was hard! I guess that's the point. I started to envision the sheet music notes as I played, instead of the note names, and figured that I was being more productive. I also started practicing a C scale, to give me reference as to where all the sharps and flats are.

My teacher also pointed out how rough I was playing, from what she said, I figured that I have to ease the bow into each note, so that it sounds more pleasant. I find that if I am in a zone while playing, I make way fewer mistakes and the tone sounds sweeter. So if I could cultivate that "zone" all the time, I could save myself a lot of time by not practicing my mistakes. I also had fairly low expectations coming in, I didn't want to sound beautiful, I wanted to be able to bash through jigs and reels. But again I am glad that my teacher is holding me to high standards.