Finally, the last set of diaries of 2019!
*note: Here in Brazil the end of the calendar year is also the end of the school year, because our summer starts on December. So imagine the stress of the double end every year...
Want to know the TCHAIK PROJECT from the beginning? Click here!
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December 2nd, 2019 - Monday
- Body warm up
- Open strings - 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and then 4, 3, 2 and 1 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Vibrato
- G major scale and arpeggios in 2 octaves
- G major scale and arpeggios in 3 octaves
- Orchestra rep
- Tchaikovsky 2nd mov.
December 9th, 2019 - Monday
Here I am, another Monday trying to re-start the diaries and the Tchaiks… The even bigger wave of things to do and extreme tiredness are already passing and I breathe a little easier, even if I have 2 programs at the same time in the orchestra.
- Body warm up
Random practice of open strings (30’)
- Open strings with 12, 14, 16 and 18 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Staccato (here I didn’t specify which one I practiced, sorry…)
- String crossing at 60 bpm
Random practice of left hand (40’)
- Vibrato
- 1234 on A string
- Schradieck XV 8.
Practice fundamentals! Because cleaning the ears and the hands is necessary…
- Orchestra rep.
- Tricky triplets at the exposition of 1st mov. of Tchaik. (bars 54 to 56)
- Double stops at the Codeta of exposition of 1st mov. of Tchaik (bar 113)
December 17th, 2019 - Tuesday
Until today, the weeks felt endless. After tons of work, burn out, deadlines, urgencies, uncertainties and a birthday party, here I am, trying to emerge to the surface of Tchaik Project, looking forward to practice during my vacations. And I don’t know where to start. Should I continue the analysis of the 1st movement? That was my plan when I woke up. I’ve got 1 hour and 15 minutes. Do I change the plan? Do I practice technique? I think I’ll make some coffee and bet in the continuation of the analysis. I noticed in my diaries that the day I woke up feeling like practicing was the day after I started analyzing the 1st movement.
December 18th, 2019 - Wednesday
- Body warm up
- Open strings with 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 then 4, 3, 2 and 1 beats per bow at 60bpm
- Staccato in the middle of the bow, subdivided in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes per beat at 60bpm
- Vibrato
- Shifting starting with 3rd finger on 3rd position
- A major scales, arpeggios and scale alternating thirds in 3 octaves
Tchaikovsky
Random practice
- 1st mov. bars 107 to 110 (the first 2 rounds only intonation and shifts, the last round with the bow articulation of the passage, playing 3 times each note)
- 1st mov. bars 55 and 56 (the first 2 rounds very slow watching the mobility of fingers and intonation, almost only bar 56. The last time, already with metronome at 100 = eight note, I played a couple of times to see where the tricky things are hidden in this passage. One of them is the sequence of notes, I must have it in my head - which means, to sing and practice mentally - and the other one is the fact that from the 1st to the 2nd beat of bar 56 is the only place that doesn’t have a shift, and my hand tends to shift to keep the pattern of the passage.)
- 1st mov. bars 111 to 118 (it was the first time I practiced such a big chunk of this page, also known as Coda of the Exposition. For 2 rounds I practiced only intonation and shifts, the last one I practiced to play nonstop in a medium tempo without metronome to watch my muscular tension and how my mental and physical organization in a situation a little closer to a performance. The sound was awful, but all the movements were calm, the organization is going well, incredibly better than when I practiced this 10 years ago. I was happy.)
- 3rd mov. bars 148 to 163 (intonation and shifts)
My summer vacation started officially the day before yesterday. (I remind you that I’m in the South hemisphere, and here summer is on December, January and February. How’s that for Santa?)
So I opted to use this first 2 days in a very productive way: to do nothing. Just like in the mini documentary about moments of nothing (or contemplation) in the work of Hayao Myiazaki, I needed a little nothing. No plans, no appointments, no obligations, no productivity.
But just for 2 days. Since in the last months I couldn’t deal with the Tchaik Project as I wanted, I scheduled myself to do that during vacations. Read, practice, record, write.
By the way, it’s interesting to talk about these times I couldn’t practice the Tchaik. I just looked my diaries and I realized I was practicing regularly until the end of October, then I stopped. A month and a half, but the sensation is that it was 3 months at least! I remember reaching a point where I looked at my life and how I was, tired physically and mentally, and realized that if I didn’t slow down, I was going to fall sick (as it happened a few times in the past). So I started to cut off everything I could from my routine and the Tchaik Project suffered that a little… But I also trimmed my desire to do countless things at the same time, the guilt of not doing everything perfectly (yes, I’m one of those…), the idea that I have to put myself 200% at everything I do. Sometimes a thing only needs about 15% of me in order to be fine.
It’s also interesting to notice the difficulty to maintain such a personal project (as I consider this Project) in the middle of my adult life routine. I wake up, I do a bunch of little things apparently non important and quick, and suddenly my time for practicing is so small. I look out the window for one second and more than 30 minutes have passed. What is this urban spell? Besides that there is the understanding that the difficulties of preparing the Tchaik go beyond just loosing the muscles, the relationship to be transformed is not only with the Concerto, but with everything.
December 19th, 2019 - Thursday
I’m back to reading as well. I just read the 8th chapter of The Art of Possibility, Giving Way To Passion. Wonderful as always! A lot of what it is and what is the use of musical analysis for an instrumentalist is right there, but also the body's function of channeling and putting into action all this analysis.
- Body warm up
Right hand technique random practice
- Open string 12 and 14 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Whole bow staccato on the E string
- String crossing on G and D strings
- Open string 16 and 18 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Whole bow staccato on the A string
- String crossing on D and A strings
- Open string 20 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Whole bow staccato on the D string
- String crossing on A and E strings
- Open string 4, 3, 2 and 1 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Whole bow staccato on the G string
(wrote thing by thing so you see how is this random practice in real life)
Left hand technique random practice
- Vibrato
- Half step trills
- 1 octave scales in one string, G major
- Double stops in G major: octaves, thirds and sixths
Tchaikovsky
Random
- 1st mov., Cadenza: that octave shift in sixths F-D (intonation)
- 1st mov., Cadenza: double stops of the last line of 1st page (intonation)
- 3rd mov. bars 180 to 188 (finding out notes and trying out fingerings)
December 20th, 2019 - Friday
- Body warm up
Technique random
- Open strings with 12, 16, 20, 4, 3, 2 and 1 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Vibrato
- Whole step trills
- G major scales and arpeggios in 3 octaves
- Double stops in G major: octaves and thirds
Tchaikovsky
- 1st mov., Cadenza: those octave shifts in sixths F-D and G#-E (intonation)
- a piece of the 3rd mov. (didn’t write which one)
December 22nd, 2019 - Sunday
- Body warm up
Warm up/technique random practice
- Open strings with 12, 14, 16 and 18 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Vibrato
- Whole step trills
- E minor scales, arpeggios and scale alternating thirds in one string
- Double stops, octaves, sixths and thirds
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
Aleatório
- Bars 176, 178, 180 and 182, the slurred double stops (intonation, shifts and left hand articulation)
- Cadenza, 2nd line of 2nd page (intonation)
- Cadenza, 2nd half of last line (left hand articulation)
- Bar 219, fast scale (left hand articulation alla Benedetti)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 214 to 215 (the shift between those bars)
- Bars 238 to 240 (finding out the notes)
- Bars 245 and 246 (finding out the notes and fingerings)
December 23rd, 2019 - Monday
Reading: STRUCTURED VS. FREE PRACTICE: WHY YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN’T JUST BE “WINGING IT” IN THE PRACTICE ROOM
The day before the day before Christmas…
- Body warm up
- 2 octaves major scales (not all, just G, A, B, C#, D, E, F# and G on 7th position)
Left hand technique random practice
- Vibrato
- Half step trills
- Shifting exercise starting with 4th finger
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., recap
(trying to cover everything I didn’t practice so far… realizing that some months have gone by and until now I focused only on those spots I remember fearing, all of them in the exposition. That can also mean that the first time I studied the Tchaikovsky, I barely left the exposition…)
Random
- Bars 247 to 250 (finding out notes and fingerings)
- Bars 261 to 271 (finding out notes and fingerings)
- Bars 274 to 277 (1st round: finding out notes and fingerings; 2nd round: alla Benedetti still without bow to work on finger mobility; 3rd round: singing the rhythmic subdivision)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., recap
Random
- Bars 284 to 287 (recognizing and repeating to get used to the passage. Intonation and fingering)
- Bars 288 to 290 (fingering, intonation)
- Bars 291 to 295 (recognition, fingering)
December 26th, 2019 - Thursday
December 24th and 25th are already gone. A little bit of guilt for not crucifying myself for not even considering practicing those two days. It's crazy how our heads work, isn't it? (but yes, I feel bad for all the days I didn’t practice, promising myself I’ll practice a little on 31/12 and 01/01 to try to compensate.)
But! I feel good because I managed to start 2 translations of articles I mention in the diaries but are still not in Portuguese; I feel good because I started preparing the next diary to post; I feel good because I read a bit more of the Art of Possibility today as well.
- Move Flow exercises (my physiotherapist Heloisa Parise taught me those)
Technique random practice (20’)
- Whole bow staccato
- Vibrato
- Half step trills
- Shifts starting on G string starting with 1st finger
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
Random
- Bars 296 to 299 (intonation/ shifts and trills)
- Bars 300 to 302 (intonation)
- Bars 306 to 310 (fingerings and shifts)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Coda
Random
- Bars 313 to 316 (intonation and mobility of left hand, got to 80bpm = quarter)
- Bars 317 to 321 (intonation and shifts; first round I practiced only intonation of the first notes of each triplet, with the shifts; second round I did the same but adding the second note of each triplet; third round I practiced going from one triplet to the next in the following way: I played the first triplet as written until the first note of the next triplet, repeated that a few times with the bow distribution I want on the fast tempo. Then I repeated the procedure going from the second to the third triplet, and so on till the end of the passage.)
- Bars 333 until the end (intonation and bow, practiced the slurs in staccato)
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov.
Random
- Bars 283 to 313 (discovering and thinking the fingerings; worked on mobility of left hand alla Benedetti without bow)
- Bars 318 to 329 (discovering; just bow)
- Bars 333 to 348 (discovering, thinking the fingerings)
December 27th, 2019 - Friday
Started reading the Galamian book, it warms my soul to re-read his introduction, when he speaks about teaching…
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| Excerpt of Ivan Galamian's introduction to his book "Principles of Violin Playing & Teaching" |
- Body warm up
Bow technique random practice
- Open strings with 12, 16, 20, 4, 3 , 2 and 1 beat per bow at 60bpm
- Whole bow staccato
- Staccato in the middle of the bow subdividing in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes per beat at 60bpm
- E minor 3 octaves scale, arpeggios and scale in alternate thirds
- E minor double stops in random fashion, octaves, thirds and sixths (first round I played both notes, then just the lower one; the second round I played just the upper note - always with the fingers in both notes -; on the third round I played everything and it came out a loooot better)
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov.
Random (50’)
- Bars 333 to 348 (first I did mobility alla Benedetti, then intonation, shifts and left hand articulation with accents in different notes)
- Bars 352 to 367 (fingering, just bow singing the melody, intonation, in the end just played)
- Bars 368 to 375 (discovering the passage, then just bow, then just intonation, then all together very slow. BTW it is a good thing to always practice this passage with a metronome because it really feels like rushing.)
- Bars 376 to 384 (I practiced very slow with harmonics instead of the octaves to train my elbow on the G string and the shape of the hand. Actually what I practiced the most was the shift that leads to bar 376)
- Bars 384 to 392 (discovering, thinking fingerings, mobility of left hand alla Benedetti, then playing with dislocated accents)
- Bars 393 to 400 (discovering. Be careful with the bow! It tends to slip away from the contact point when playing harmonics.)
December 29th, 2019 - Sunday
The day after my 40th birthday. Yeap… who would guess that a person doing masters and using so much material that seems didactic in herself is 40 years old? Yes, I am a professional violinist and I use information that is destined to students and teachers to improve myself (hoping that this improves how I teach as well). This material, that I explain and link in these diaries, helps me a lot! In the absence of a violin teacher guiding every week I should create my own path. I say “path" because I don’t foresee in my life a “state” or “level” that I reach and just stay there. In my experience (and also according to Heraclitus and several other thinkers) everything is moving, everything is movement. To play the violin is a physical activity (as I learned in my body reading “The Inner Game of Tennis”) and as an athlete that always have to exercise , I think that we musicians should exercise always and in several ways: physical exercise, maintenance exercises at the instrument, technical challenges, artistic challenges. And all this reading gives me tools and perspectives for all those exercises and challenges.
Today I continued reading the Galamian book, where I started the part on posture and left hand.
I also read more of the Art of Possibility, and started the 10th chapter.
- Body warm up
- Cycle 1234
Technique random practice
- 1’ Bows
- Vibrato (when practicing I observed that I conditioned the arm vibrato to the head movement and the wrist vibrato to the hip movement!!!)
- Half step trills on G string
- Shifts starting with 2nd finger on G string
To deal with the next diary to post (the number 6) made me think about the 3rd movement of the Concerto, I have to practice to get used to play it, and without being surprised by doing it right. The practice of playing many times in a medium/slow tempo with all the aspects I want in the fast tempo - specially the sensation of the left hand fingers movement! - may be the key to that.
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Middle section
Random practice
- Bars 176 to 179 (intonation, specially on the slurred double stops)
- Bars 180 to 183 (intonation, specially on the slurred double stops)
- Bars 166 and 167 (I found out the tempo I want to play this passage, 72 = quarter note, and I practice only the bow at 60 = eight note.)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Cadenza
Random practice
- The shift at the second bar
- The one octave shifts in double stop at the end of the first page
- The shifts at the last 2 lines of the Cadenza
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Recap.
Random practice
- Bars 238 to 240 (2 first rounds singing and checking the note, on the third round imagining the note and playing to check it)
- Bars 245 to 246 (singing and checking, seeing fingerings, practicing the shifts)
- Bars 259 to 265 (intonation)
TCHAIK PROJECT 10 - Summer vacation and beginning of 2020 >>>
<<< TCHAIK PROJECT 8 - Practicing in the cracks of routine
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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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