Practice Journal Sep 2015

I've been playing out a lot, but I haven't practiced in a while. 

Lately, the time I’ve spent performing has been enough for me to maintain a comfortable range of access on the viola. It’s all about access for me now, I keep thinking of music this way. Can I get to the notes I want? Am I able to express the musical ideas I have, or am I chasing after ideas that are out of my range? Am I spending too much time trying to play things that I can’t play yet, and what are the fundamentals of improvising? Because they're not the same as for Classical music! What can I do now with my current skills and what would strengthen the music?

But all that aside. It’s time to get fit! Ok here I go...

30 minutes of practicing and I notice distinctly now that I have not practiced for at least a week, ha! My left arm is spagetti-fied and my right arm needs some long bowing exercises. I started by playing Back Home in Indiana- running through a standard usually helps me to get back into a groove quickly when I come back to practicing. What also doesn’t hurt is just enjoying the fact I can play, getting creative with the rhythm making, just overall pretending I'm a bassist!

Day 2

Spent 30 minutes practicing a B-flat major scale. 20 minutes diatonics in B-flat major with slurred bowing. I got caught practicing for longer than intended, maybe because I haven’t practiced for a while?

10 minutes on the changes for the 1st half of Indiana, especially working on a change from B-flat to F-diminished. Would love to have all the diminished cords under my belt, readily accessible from anywhere.

Thoughts on my mind… it seems like if you are not receiving recognition as an artist, the only solution is to continue creating work. Because it’s the only way you can improve your craft and grow your body of completed work. Process oriented!

Day 3

And then life took over, so haven’t been able to practice since- rehearsal, performance, editing music. Life. Luckily I had some time!

Bach preparation, daily grind

Hi! Oh my goodness I've been having such fun playing viola!

I'm playing the Bach 1st cello suite for my cousin's wedding, so I've been troubleshooting and muscle training. There have been several invaluable lessons from this process:

• I found a discussion boards on violinist.com that's changed my brain! Here's the board. A user recommended letting the curvature of bridge guide the amount you raise/lower your right arm, pointing out that often we overestimate the degree to which the right arm should travel. INVALUABLE!!
• I re-read the jury notes from an end-of-semester performance and rediscovered a tip- have double stops peak on the beat and begin during the preceding note.
• While getting some of the passages up to tempo, I remembered this advice : focus on the note you're about to play. In your mind, let it occupy a position of greater importance than the note you're presently on.
• As a continuation of this thought, the follow through is delightful. That's helping me out a lot with some muddled end of measures in the Prelude- not emphasizing the end of the measure but just using the bow up into the last note.
• Finally, I was having trouble with the 2nd half of the Courante, the 13th measure. I'm still working it, but find that if I just kind of "activate" or am conscious of my right hand middle and ring finger, the bow challenges diminish. To be continued... 

I need to take a video of myself playing the whole thing. I've been scouring YouTube for videos of the piece- what luck to have this as a resource! Also writing journals- practice logs, observations from listening or watching performances, and just thoughts on the sound and experience. Journaling is a wonderfully reinforcing tool for contemplation- nothing makes your thoughts seem more real than putting them on paper.

That's all for now. ;)

Practice Log : Road trips

Practice practice practice, travel travel travel.

Lots of Shradieck, Bach Cello Suite 1, improvisation drills. Such as taking the 2-string Shradieck exercise through all 12 keys, remaining on G and D string, naming the modes as I go. Just SO MUCH FUN if you're a music geek.

I got to play outside! For Easter, I was out in central Illinois. I set up a chair and played by a fallow corn field. I played on the front porch while the kids played catch. I played by a plot of pine trees admist birds conversing.

I met with my cousin to discuss wedding music, and played the Bach for her on my Grandparent's back porch. Porch music!

AND RECORD STORE DAY!!! I scored some Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, the Fat Boys, lots of Stevie Wonder. Must pillage more classical vinyl- my favorite record right now is The Budapest String Quartet playing Ravel and Debussy. Here's the 1st movement of the Ravel Quartet in F Major- link.

Ok, desert island classical music confession... someday I'll find the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante on vinyl. I will hug it. And then I will buy it! The Perlman and Zuckerman performance- I had it on cassette when I was a youth, with the two of them looking so dapper on the cover... it's makes me feel like a mini, curly-haired angel. Diapers and all.

practice log

Something that I love in life is slowly, methodically, working it out.

Working on bow, on keeping the right shoulder down. Seems like the normal "next step" in refining bowing technique- after spending a month focusing on upper arm and on using as much bow as humanly possible.

I think about my friend Susan who I've been giving lessons to. Think about how many times I've started over with the viola- come back to it. When I start over, I usually focus on the left hand for a while but then the bow becomes an obsession. It's like the left hand goes where you tell it if you just put it in the right place. The bow isn't as static, more movement than twiddling fingers (lol!).

I practiced technique, took a break, practiced improvisation, took a break. Practiced Bach. Sometimes for a "break" I just reviewed songs I hadn't played in a while- like "Twisted", which is a Wardell Gray solo that Annie Ross put lyrics to.  Or running through the Bach.

CSO 2014-2015: For Viola Students

Recently I was asked what Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts I would recommend to a viola student. So, I put together a list for the 2014-15 season, and here it is! Each of the dates link to the event page on cso.org, and in the description are links to excerpts from YouTube. I don't know if you can tell, but had a blast putting this together ;)

Would you recommend any others?

November 19- Anne-Sophie Mutter. She’s a master violinist; watching her technique will be invaluable. The Mendelssohn Octet has 2 violas (here’s a good example); Vivaldi 4 seasons is standard viola repertoire.

November 20/21/22/23/25- Brandenburg Concerto. I played these for years! Starting in high school through college. They remind me of Christmas, fall and winter especially... the viola has a great line that jumps down and up. Such fun to play! 

December 11/12/13/16- Honeck conducts Beethoven 7. Don Juan by Strauss is on all the auditions for Violists, the Beethoven is beautiful, and a young violist will play much Haydn.

March 1- Gil Shaham: Bach Project. Bach’s suites for Violin and Cello are vital to violists- they’re well known to audiences and challenging for the performer. Here’s Mr. Shaham playing the incomparable Ciaccona and here, NPR recorded him playing Bach’s 3^rd partita.

March 5/6/7- Beethoven Tripple Concerto. Virtuosos of Violin, Cello, and Piano, plus Ricardo Mutti and Beethoven. Here’s Yo-yo Ma, Perlman, and Barenboim.

March 6- Silk Road Ensemble. I recommend seeing groups that explore non-traditional music and feature strings. With our smaller repertoire, the viola is uniquely positioned to advocate for new music. And, like with Mutter, any string student is going to benefit by seeing Yo-yo Ma! Excerpt on the CSO site.

March 19/20/21- Charles Dutoit and Yo-yo Ma. Any core repertoire for Violin or Cello will help the young violists- the Lalo Cello Concerto is one such pillar.

March 27/29- Beyond the Score: Brahms 3^rd Symphony. Brahms wrote 2 Sonatas for Clarinet (the F minor and E flat major) that are Viola standards, they’re beautiful. At first glance his symphonies appear “classical” sounding, but he floats familiar tonality over unconventional time signatures. The 1^st half of this concert is an educational/theatrical presentation of his music and life, the 2^nd half is his 3^rd Symphony (heard here).

April 12- Hillary Hahn- This is part of our chamber music series, we don’t yet know what the music performed will be. Hillary Hahn is an outstanding Violinist!

May 17- Yo-yo Ma with CSO Musicians. Again from our chamber music series, and again the music is undetermined. Chamber concerts feature the Viola prominently.

May 28/30- Clyne and Beethoven. Premier of new Violin Concerto! New works for strings tend to demand creative liberties from the soloist, something you don’t see with traditional concertos.

Practice Journal - Tech, Improv, Bach

I usually begin with technique (nerdywoo!!) This time I made up my own sequence and took it through all keys.

With the metronome at 70bpm, play a major descending arpeggio in Quarter notes (8-5-3-0, or C2-G1-E1-C1). Next jump back to the octave above tonic and play a descending major scale in 8th notes. Finally play the same descending scale but this time with Quarter notes instead of 8th notes.

I liked this drill because the 1st part has some speed, and in the 2nd I can take a moment to really concentrate on note names. That was key- it's hard to concentrate over all 12 keys and I need a little speed for muscle building. I am also obsessing on my bow right now, which is fun because I'm correcting some crookedness. I watched the bow like a hawk, keeping it over the f holes, as well as focusing on my shoulder and right forearm.

After a while I started trying out new things- scales in different directions, different descending/ascending patterns... noticed I'm not concentrating ;) . NEXT!

So next up, practice improvisation by going from Major to relative Minor in all keys. I start with arpeggios mimicking walking bass lines. Threw some scales in there. The goal was creativity, memorizing arpeggio note names, and making the transition from Major to the Minor as lyrical as possible.

Ended technique by going over Scrhadieck Book I exercise 3 which BTW is ONLINE 4 FREE,- great for strengthening left hand fingers. Also went over the chord changes for Satin Doll. I'm getting F#9 and C6 under my belt.

After that worked on Bach Cello Suite 1 Allemand (this guy knows what I'm talking about). Bow arm, bow, arm, bow arm... relaxing string crossings, metronome. Had to stop, reviewed the Ciaconna intro, felt like a bad ass (someday I'll play like this).

I love how much more flexible and strong my arms are after practicing. I love how I can tell they've improved after only 2 hours. Aaa...

March 31- Practicing Journal

It's 7am. Too early to practice (roommates). Yesterday I played a little Campagnoli, Bach 1st cello suite, and Schradieck patterns transposed across different keys. Nice and athletic! I have this idea to record a quick mash up of whatever I practice- record a short new ideas and publish soon thereafter.

Working on editing another recording, mixing and adding audio effects.

Thanks for reading. What are you working on in music?