TCHAIK PROJECT

Technique Random

- Whole bow staccato

- Open strings with 4, 3, 2 and 1 beat per bow at 60bpm

- Trills

Tchaikovsky 1st mov.

- Bars 101 to 104

- Bars 111 to top of 114 (intonation and shifts)

- Bars 235 to 240 (intonation)

March 13th, 2020 - Friday

- Staccato in the middle of the bow

- C minor scales and double stops

- Micro practice of the 2 first things I practiced from Tchaik yesterday (bars 101 to 104 and bars 111 to top of 114)

** This practice session occurred before I go to the orchestra rehearsal. We were preparing the opera Aida, when the Theatre Management gathered everyone in the building in the main stage. The Theatre Director gave us the news about the spread of the Coronavirus in Brazil and the subsequent suspension of our activities from that moment on.

March 16th, 2020 - Monday

The world is being struck by Coronavirus. After 2 days of lots of anxiety (not that it’s lowered much…), reading articles about the vírus, watching videos and contacting dear people in Europe to check if they’re fine, I slowly come back to practice.

The activities in the places I work (city theatre and state music school) have been suspended until second order. The contemporary music project I was involved was suspended too, such as the classes at USP, university where I go to do the master’s degree, what this Tchaik Project is about.

I’m home and I only go out to the drug store or supermarket.

Right now I only think of Bach, the Largo of the C major sonata, something I studied in Italy and was so good to my soul. So I played it, then I practiced a little bit.

- 1 minute bows

March 17th, 2020 - Tuesday

- 1 minute bows (on the longer ones, the average time was 75 seconds, not 60!)

Technique Random

- D minor scale and arpeggios

- Half step trills

- D minor double stops

March 19th, 2020 - Thursday

Keep practicing during such calamity times is harder than I thought. Hours and minutes slip by my fingers like sand. A simple chore like going to the supermarket takes a great dose of concern, attention, fear and lots of time sanitizing with alcohol or dish soap each one of the products I bought. Lots of time is spent reading about the coronavirus and its many consequences on the many layers and spheres of private and public life. There is also the time for answering messages of relatives, friends and close people. Everything is done online and it seems that, as fast as it might be, it takes a lot longer than doing things in person. Incredibly, I feel I have less time than before.

But since I practically don’t get out of the house - going out only for groceries, actually doing what I posted: #stayhome -, maybe this is a matter of planning and a little discipline.

Today, after the saga it was to take groceries to my mom’s house (leaving the bags at the door and saying high from a distance), then buying things for my own house and bringing it back with all the sanitation protocol, I’m physically and mentally tired, but with 2 hours to practice, from which I will end up using about an hour and a half.

- 1 minute bows

Technique Random

- Whole step trills

- Schradieck

Tchaikovsky III mov.

- Bars 111 to116 (intonation and shifts)

- Bars 189 to 196 (I practiced the octaves using harmonics - following the advice of Enrique Diemecke in this interview -, so the hand gets used to the passage in a lighter way. I practiced slowly, just watching for intonation)

- Bars 208 to 234 (I started with intonation, then I realized I don't have a fingering for this passage. I played to see what colors I want, specially between bars 223 and 230 and I found a doubt on bar 229. Since those 8 bars seem like a shadow of that rhythm that appears so many times on the 1st movement - see orchestra parts on bars 63 and 64, 1st mov. - this crescendo feels out of place. It seems like the dynamics should follow the same pattern during the 8 bars, like so many times Tchaikovsky followed the pattern of writing the same thing twice and change only on the third time. I found another version on the full score, where the crescendo is on bar 228, but the decrescendo maintains on bar 230. I left the practice session with doubts, which is good. Tomorrow I check more sources.)

Yes, it is really hard to focus on practice with all the fears of these times. I’ll try my best.

March 20th, 2020 - Friday

It’s been a week since the activities stopped at my theater. The sensation is that it was a longer time ago…

- 1 minute bows

Technique Random

- Staccato in the middle fo the bow at 65 bpm with 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes per beat (next week: go to 70bpm)

- Half step trills

- Shifts, starting with 4th finger on G string

- E flat major 2 and 3 octaves scales, arpeggios and double stops (3rds, 6ths, 8ves)

Tchaikovsky I mov.

- Introduction (intonation)

- Bars 41 and 42 (focusing on the movement of 1st finger between 3rd and 4th beat of bar 42)

- Bars 57 and 58 (mobility alla Benedetti, without bow and then with slow bow)

I started playing through the 1st movement to see how it is. I need to practice a LOT and balance the whole movement. The more I advance, the less prepared it is. At the same time I noticed that what I played (beginning to bar 235) is already a lot less tense! I noticed muscular tiredness, but not tension. Then I need, besides balancing the whole movement practice, practice muscular endurance in a way that playing the whole Concerto is not that tiring.

March 23rd, 24th and 25th: I did practice a little, but only technique and contemporary repertoire. I kept doing the 1 minute bows everyday.

March 26th, 2020 - Thursday

- 1 minute bows

Technique Random

- Schradieck XV 17. (this exercise is a lot longer and more difficult than the others on part XV. It works a lot the extensions. I got to 70 = quarter note.)

- Contemporary repertoire

Tchaikovsky I mov., today I practiced only the Coda, this is why I put an image of the whole thing here.

- Last 3 bars of the movement (intonation, I still have to practice a lot this tenth of the bar before the last one…)

- Bars 333 to 336 (practiced the staccato bow strokes and intonation)

- Bars 325 to 332 (chord on bars 328 e 332, staccato bow strokes)

- Bars 317 to 320 (I practiced intonation only of the first note of each triplet and the shifts between them, first guiding from the lower note, then the upper one. Then I practiced the middle note of each triplet, repeating each one a few times and I realized that I might have to play them a bit higher so they sound in tune.)

- Bars 321 to left hand articulation: alla Benedetti, with accents in different notes, with rhythms)

- Bars 314 and 315 (I started by practicing the shifts, specially the one between the two bars, compressing the time there is between one note and the other [video]. Then I practiced left hand articulation alla Benedetti, with accents in different notes and with rhythms.)

- Bars 311 and 312 (intonation of the octaves, listening the gliss on the shift)

- Bars 307 to 310 (intonation and shifts. Then practiced backwards, starting of the 4th beat of 309 till end of 310, taking care not to tense up on the double stops on the frog, very slow, twice. Then I got from 4th of 308 till second note of 310 the same way. Then 4th beat of 307 till second note of 309 and to finish, from 3rd beat of 306 till second note of 308. In the end I played the whole passage very slow.)

- Bars 303 to 306 (intonation, shifts and left hand articulation)

It was good to practice the Coda today, I could find out what’s the minimum tempo I want to play it: 94 = quarter note. I also mapped the parts that most need practice: bars 304 to 312, bars 317 to 320 and the bar before the last one.

March 28th, 2020 - Saturday

- 1 minute bows

Technique Random

- Schradieck XV 17. (Same as yesterday. Got to 80 = quarter note)

- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70 bpm subdividing each beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8

Tchaikovsky 1st mov.

Slowly practiced the most complicated spots of the Coda, pointed out yesterday, mainly watching for intonation.

March 30th, 2020 - Monday

- 1 minute bows

Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Coda

- Bar 313 (intonation very slowly, note by note)

- Bars 303 to 310 (intonation very slowly, note by note, practicing well the shifts)

- Bars 311 and 312 (intonation of the octaves very slowly, listening for the gliss between both notes of each octave, then I practiced using the harmonics with fingering 1-4 replacing the octaves)

- Bars 317 to 320 (intonation very slowly, playing the second note of each duble stop triplet a little high in intonation on purpose)

- Bar 338, the penultimate one in the movement (I practiced the intonation of the third quarter note to the fourth, very slowly, listening the gliss between one chord and the next one, to train the intonation and aperture of the fingers on the tenth.)

Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Recap

- Bars 300 to 302 (intonation and fingering. Still didn’t figure out the fingering on bar 302, going from the second to the third beat is very uncomfortable. At least I know that using fingers 2-4-3 on the third beat is not for my hand…)

- Bars 291 to 295 (intonation and shifts. I also settled on fingering for the arpeggios)

- Bars 288 to 290 (intonation note by note)

- Bars 296 to 299 (trills and shifts)

Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Recap

- Bars 247 to 250 (mobility of the fingers of the left hand: alla Benedetti and with accents in different notes. Later I need to practice better the shifts, specially the ones I signed in red, and to play a lot this passage even in slow tempo without the original slurs, so I get used to the sequence of notes.)

- Bars 274 to 277 (intonation of the triplets and played with metronome a few times at 60 = eighth to I get used to the passage, with exaggerated bow distribution and weight, and very light left hand)

- Bars 265 (since I never know the sound of the notes on the second half of this bar, I played a few times an octave lower so my ear starts getting used to it, then I sang it several times, checking to see if I sang right. I’ll still do that more times, cause the ear didn’t memorize the pitches yet.)

- Bars 245 and 246 (intonation and shifts. To the next times: practice the transition from bar 246 to 247.)

March 31st, 2020 - Tuesday

- 1 minute bows

Technique Random practice