I should have had a lot of time at home to practice for all the projects I was involved with in the months of this present chunk of diaries, but the same projects took me out of the house for almost all of my awake time.
So here you have what I managed to do to keep making progress in this Project! Looking back, I feel a mix of "I should have done more" with "I am proud I didn't give up and practiced something."
So here you have what I managed to do to keep making progress in this Project! Looking back, I feel a mix of "I should have done more" with "I am proud I didn't give up and practiced something."
Oh well, who said that relearning one of the most difficult violin concertos in the midst of a professional life would be a piece of cake?
If you don't know what the Tchaik Project is about, click here!
If you don't know what the Tchaik Project is about, click here!
October 28th, 2019 - Monday
- Body warm up
Technique Random Practice (30’)
- Staccato/Spiccato in the middle of the bow at 65 bpm, subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 e 8
- Vibrato
- Shifts on E string starting from 1st finger on 3rd position
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
Random
- Orchestra rep.
- Bars 111 to 118 (just bow, still slow without metronome, observing what is the minimum movement I need for the string crossing)
- Cadenza, 2nd line of the 2nd page (a little bit just the bow, find out what fingering I want, practice intonation only when the strings are stabilized…)
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov.
Random
Random
- Bars 53 to 80 (first alla Benedetti without bow, then slowly with bow, then with metronome at 60 and 65 = half note. Later on I have to give special attention to bar 76 because I’m not getting it, I think there is a disparity between what I see in the music and what my fingers want to do.)
- Bars 148 to 163 (fingerings, intonation, shifts)
- Bars 81 to 100 (same work I did in bars 53 to 80)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
Random
Random
- Middle section, bars 166 to 169 (first just bow watching for bow distribution, slowly, then still slow but with the notes.)
- Cadenza, A major arpeggios (mobility alla Bendetti, then counting the subdivisions)
- Coda, bars 304 to 310 (finding out the notes, fingerings and shifts)
I have to be aware so I don’t forget to practice THE BODY, and not just the notes… it’s impressive how easily I fall into this trap.
October 29th, 2019 - Tuesday
- Body warm up
- Exercise 1234 for intonation interleaved with Staccato/Spiccato in the middle of the bow at 60 bpm (45’)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
Random
- Bars 55 and 56 (first imagining the next note before playing it, thus practicing and learning for real the sequence of notes and its intonation. Then I practiced it backwards, starting from the last sextuplet, then from the one before the last and so on, with separate bows, generous sound and the lightest mobility of left hand I could do.)
- Bars 63 and 66 (practiced it slowly with bow distribution stopping between notes and left hand alla Benedetti. Then I fooled around and just played it. The third round I put myself together and only practiced left hand alla Benedetti.)
- Bars 101 and 102 (intonation and shifts)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
Random
- Bars 63 to 66 (I practiced decently now, the first round Benedetti only left hand, the second round I played at 60 bpm one note por beat, then 2 notes per beat with bow distribution)
- Bar 71 (shifts)
- Bars 107 to 110 (intonation and shifts super slow)
- Bar 126 (stopping between each slur to feel the body and search for an easy place - I did it because at the end of all this craziness of the exposition, it is likely that I arrive at this bar with lots of tension in my body, and I think it’s useful to practice the energy flowing between the slurs so it doesn’t turn into muscles a lot more tense than what I need.)
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov.
Random
- Bar 76 (slow, memorizing the notes, then singing and checking)
- Bars 107 to 116 (fingering, intonation, shifts - all very slow)
- Bars 148 until Tempo I (intonation and shifts. I need to see the bows of this passage, too)
October 31st, 2019 - Thursday
I’m here not to describe what I practiced today because I didn’t and I am not going to practice. I will post on the blog because I am super late with this, but, re-reading what I wrote, I noticed something A - MA - ZING. The day I woke up super wanting to practice was the day after I sat down to analyze the first movement. Does it relate??? It seems so. Is it that analyzing made me want to practice? Most likely. Very interesting to find out what are my triggers in this process…
November 4th, 2019 - Monday
- Body warm up
Technique random (20’)
- Whole bow staccato
- Double open strings at 60 bpm with 6 and 4 beats per bow
- Vibrato
- Trills
- Orchestra rep.
November 16th, 2019 - Saturday
Yeap, I took some vacation from practicing. Not voluntarily… But I’m back, with 2 hours to practice and a beautiful sun outside. So let’s practice, starting with technique!
- Body warm up
Technique (not random!)
- Open strings with 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Vibrato without bow
- Half tone Trills
- Shifts on the E string starting with 2nd finger on 3rd position
Now I have to necessarily practice something for the intonation, because this period I wasn’t practicing, I was working! When I only work for a while, things start to happen: my body complaints with some pains and soreness, intonation and tone quality get worse, as well as the control of bow articulation.
- 2 octaves major scales
Random (40’)
- Tchaik. 1st mov. bars 54 to 59 (singing and checking note and intonation)
- Orchestra rep.
- Tchaik. 1st mov. bars 112 and 113 (intonation)
- Contemporary music
November 19th, 2019 - Tuesday
- Body warm up
Technique (not random!)
- Open strings with 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Vibrato
- Trills
- 2 octaves minor scales
- Orchestra rep.
- Contemporary music
Tired, only feel like sleeping.
November 25th, 2019 - Monday
I know, I know… I skipped many days of diary… because I skipped many days of practice. End of the year, all crowded, physical and mental burnout. It doesn’t fit! All these wonderful things I chose to do don’t fit my life at the same time!
- Body warm up
- Open string with 12, 14 and 16 beat per bow at 60bpm
- String crossing
- A flat major scale with correspondent arpeggio in 2 octaves.
- A flat major scale with all the arpeggios in 3 octaves.
- Orchestra rep.
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The Tchaik Project is part of the Master’s Degree Research of Helena Piccazio, enrolled in the Master’s Program in Music at the School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP).
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