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Hi All
Just a bit of a problem that I've been experiencing for the last couple of weeks. I feel that I have hit a wall and have stopped progressing, if not even regressing a little.
Both bowing and intonation seem to have 'gone off ' a little.
Any thoughs on this would be appreciated
Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of ..... What was I saying????
Regulars
Regulars
cdennyb said
I Cleaned the strings on all 3 violins with alcohol and the 5 bows that I use...then applied a new fresh light rosin to each one, cause it's the middle of a hot summer here, and then on Monday started all over. It was like night .
What do you use to clean your bows? Mine must be due for a clean
I've decided to spend a week reviewing bowing technique and all. It could be that I'm developing bad habits along with the comments made by FM and Kevin M.
'never give up, never surrender'
Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of ..... What was I saying????
Regulars
Members
As others already mentioned, that sounds pretty normal and it will usually pass, Ferret.
But if you are impatient or it seems to last too long, try picking a totally different genre of music than you usually play and hit the beginner lessons for it. It doesn't even have to be a type of music you like or would usually even listen to, since you are just using it as a "rut-buster" and to maybe pick up a few new tricks.
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
King
Almost all my progress (?) has followed periods during which I got worse.
I simply stop if I have a piece that sounds the same every day. Diminishing returns.
I let the music lay for a week, maybe two and it often improves significantly simply by doing nothing. Maybe I forget why it was difficult in the first place
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Pro advisor
Regulars
as the great and wise P Abdula once pronounce 2 steps forward 1 step back! I love your comment on diminishing returns. Its actually a scientific principle of economics. (all the stuff I knowledge and nothing to do with it!) I have set the 'lin down for a weekend only to come back to it monday and have progressed through a complicated passage with no practice. Its called practicing and not focused practicing! Lemme tell you, your brain can call it quits long before you realize it! Funny huh?!
And while all the above offer great advice, nothing beats focused practice. Short practice sessions, multiple in a day but each one focusing on an area of improvement. the final session is working on the tune. I get on average 3 (20 min) practices throughout the day. The first is intonation and bowing- back to the basics sort of thing. The second is the key notes and tricky phrases of whatever I am working on and the third is the actual piece being played.
The second session I am working on etudes and studies that deal with the issue with the piece. for instance I am having difficulties with arpeggio scales in a song that skips over strings up and down the scale, so jump from d to e for instance, down to a then back to g. So I practice scales like this with different fingerings to get the bowing motion down. Then when I go back to the song, theoretically its supposed to be easier! So far, I am getting better.
IMHO- pfish Fiddle on!
"Please play some wrong notes, so that we know that you are human" - said to Jascha Heifetz.
King
PF
Because your practice strategy is very similar to mine, I have to figure that you are making above average progress. I particularly like your attention to identify the real problems and address them "off-line".
I fear that many practice without really being aware of the problem. I call that "practicing to practice" but it seems you have control of that pitfall.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Oliver... my instructor had a talk with me on this last lesson. We had a lesson on how to practice. When to stop and do it over...not to play through mistakes.
I too feel at times I am regressing. But usually it is a stagnancy that I have that I can tell is wrong but I don't know how to fix the issue.
I should post videos of those parts when I get them there and get feed back.
Good topic.... lots of us seem to encounter similar scenarios in regard to regressing.
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
King
Regulars
Regulars
Thanks for all the good advise
What I'e done so far is to revisit the beginning of learning the violin and have done a lot of revision.
One thing that I did notice about my bowing problem (bowing 2 when not wanted) is that I was only having it on my new violin. I am lucky enough to have 3 violins and my first really cheapy one I can bow fairly well. The only thing that I could see that could be causing this was the bridge. I swapped the bridges over and things immediately improved on the new violin
This was a bit of a surprise as the bridge from the old violin was cut somewhat flatter than the one it replaced. I would have thought that the flatter cut would have made the problem worse rather than better
Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of ..... What was I saying????
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