Click here to see the introduction of the TCHAIK PROJECT and know what it is about. =)
And here are the links to all the practice diaries of this PROJECT.
April 1st, 2020 - Wednesday
It's still not the easiest task in the world to practice in the midst of a pandemic. One thing is to have available time, or rather, time at home; another quite different thing is to have the willingness to practice 8 hours a day when the body says "If you're at home, rest.”
There is an urge on the internet for us to be productive during the coronavirus quarantine. Online classes made available, events, conversations, workshops, lives on all platforms, with all subjects and for all tastes and ages. Me, personally, in the beginning of this period I thought I'd be very productive and would make a lot of progress on many things. Today, a little more than two weeks after I began my isolation at home, I must confess that I don’t feel like being sooo productive. I want to rest my body and mind by doing LESS things, more slowly, with more attention and, for the first time in many years, without an alarm clock.
I feel that the extra time I have now isn't the chronological time we measure with a clock, but the internal time. Of those few things I choose to do in one day, I do them with no pressure to finish soon, even no pressure to finish at all. I'm not practicing many hours a day. My body, still tired of the frantic pace to which I submitted it the last months, doesn't allow me. I'm happy with any practice I manage to do that day, and I grant myself not to feel sad or guilty for not being as productive as a student at the height of her studies.
We are in a period of transition between one reality and another, a difficult and profound transformation of what we understand about all of our relationships, both private and general, and we don't know how long this transition will last. Thus, I do two things that are important to me: rest and make progress on something meaningful to me, in this case, the Tchaikovsky Concerto.
- A minor scales in 2, 3 and 4 octaves. Arpeggios and alternate scale in 3 octaves
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 245 and 246 (shifts, basically. The first round I practiced the shifts veeery slowly, 5 times each. The second round just 3 times. On the third round I played the passage slowly.)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 243 and 244 (I researched fingerings in other editions of the Solo Violin part and found out I have 3 more editions at home: Carl Fischer, edited by L. Auer; G. Schirmer, Inc., revision and fingerings by Philipp Mittell; C. F. Peters, edited by David Oistrakh. I started practicing another fingering, but realized I don’t have the notes sequence in my ear, so I sang, practiced mobility alla Benedetti and left hand articulation with accent in different notes.)
- Bars 246 to 248 (this transition is still insecure, I tested some different fingerings and picked one, then I played through a few times still on a slow tempo, to see if this fingering works. It seems to work, so from next practice session I start working on it.)
April 5th, 2020 - Sunday
Technique Random practice
- Vibrato
- Staccato in the middle of the bow
- Trills
- Major arpeggios in 3 octaves
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 235 to 237 (intonation and mobility alla Benedetti)
- Bar 242 (intonation and shifts - it’s much better!)
- Bars 243 and 244 (singing and checking the next note, mobility alla Benedetti, played a few times slowly)
- Bars 247 to 250 (slowly practicing the shifts and playing each note in staccato to see bow distribution and string crossings)
- Bar 265 (still only singing, it’s already a lot more fluid)
I had 10 minutes left, which I used to practice the following shifts:
- From bar 247 to 248
April 7th, 2020 - Tuesday
This morning I watched the live that Carmelo de los Santos did with Betina Stegmann, a super rich conversation between those two violinists. It was inspiring. Things like this make me wanna practice!
Technique Random
- Vibrato without bow
- Minor arpeggios in 3 octaves
- Half step trills
- Schradieck XV 17. (I decided to practice not only alla Benedetti, but also with rhythms, and I could play at 100 = quarter note, I was happy and feel I can move forward. But I keep this exercise for when I need to practice extensions.)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Coda
- Bar before the last (intonation between the 3rd and 4th beats of the bar, the hard of the tenth is not the F#, but the D)
- Bars 307 to 310 (intonation and shifts using different fingers as guide, practiced backwards.)
- Bars 314 to 316 (articulation of left hand using accents in different notes and rhythms)
- Bar 312 (intonation of the octaves)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bar 317 (since every time I try to play I trip between the intervals B-D and C#-E in the 3rd beat of the bar, I decided to practice only the “between”, the movement of the fingers of the left hand an well as the bow, that stays only on the D string on the last note of the triplet B-D. I noticed I have a tendency to start the shifts early in the whole bar so I started practicing paying a lot of attention in the last note before each shift.)
- Bars 293 to 295 (mobility alla Benedetti on the arpeggios and the shifts right after each one)
- Bar 302 (intonation with attention to the transition between each arpeggio/finger grouping)
I decided to try what Betina said on the live: put a cloth on the violin under the strings, covering the two "f" of the violin to muffle the sound. I did this because I noticed that when practicing double stops my bow goes to the fingerboard and the sound loses its sharpness and power. When I put the bow closer to the bridge, the sound is very strong and a bit too strident to my ear, so I thought that this unintentional change in the contact point is a reaction of my body trying to protect the ear. I put the cloth on and the sound was muffled, with a lot less harmonics, in a way that the pitch doesn't change. It was much better to practice the double stops this way and I managed to keep the bow close to the bridge!
April 9th, 2020 - Thursday
- 1 minute bows (Just saw that I started with this goal of practicing the 1 minute bows everyday on March 16th. I’m thinking of changing goal when I get to April 16th.)
Technique Random
- Vibrato
- Whole bow staccato
- Whole step trills
- B flat minor scales with 2, 3 and 4 octaves. B flat minor 3 octaves alternate scale.
- B flat minor double stops (3rds, 6ths and 8ves)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 313 to 316 (left hand mobility alla Benedetti and then with metronome at 80 = eighth using little bow with lots of weight and left hand as light as possible)
- Bars 305 to 310 (intonation and shifts. I gotta practice the bow separately, because I recorded myself and I think I’m using too much bow in an disorganised way.)
- Bars 291 to 295 (just the arpeggios: intonation of shifts and mobility of fingers using accents in different notes)
- Bar 284 (with metronome at 80 I played this bar in a loop, subdividing each note - one beat - in 3, so I get used to the bow articulation and the notes.)
April 10th, 2020 - Friday
- My students repertoire
April 11th, 2020 - Saturday
Technique Random
- Vibrato
- Half step trills
- Shifts, starting with 3rd finger on A string
- My students repertoire
April 12th, 2020 - Sunday
- B minor scales in 2, 3 and 4 octaves. B minor arpeggio in 2, 3 and 4 octaves. B minor double stops, 1 octave scales in 3rds, 6ths and 8ves.
Tchaikovsky I mov.
- Bars 317 and 319 (I practiced the overall mechanics of the passage, using very little bow very close to the bridge, feeling the friction of the bow hair, and subdividing the last note of each triplet in 3 to “push” the shift to the end of the note.)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 284 to 287 (intonation, and I could play at 60 = quarter note)
- Bars 288 to 290 (mechanics, I practiced slowly watching the overall movements, of both hands and arms, I began with the end and was starting every time a little before. I did that because I tend to get more worried along the passage, tensioning the muscles as well as my thoughts - seriously, it happens! - so I begin in the end to familiarize with it.)
- Bars 291 to 295 (left hand articulation of the arpeggios and shifts right after each arpeggio)
April 14th, 2020 - Tuesday
- Whole bow staccato
- Vibrato
- Whole step trills interleaved with beginning of 1st mov. Coda, playing slowly to check the memorization only.
April 15th, 2020 - Wednesday
There’s a stone crusher happening here since a few days ago, I mean, weeks, very close to my windows and of course, right at the time I like to practice. A hell! Or a good test for concentration…
Technique Random
- Vibrato
- Half step trills
- Whole bow staccato
- C minor 2 and 3 octaves scales, 3 octaves arpeggios and alternate scale
- Double stops in C minor, 3rds, 6ths, 8ves
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bar 303 (I practiced with constructive rests between each slur and left hand articulation alla Benedetti and with rhythms. In the end once more with constructive rests.)
- Bar 302 (practiced the changes in left hand shape)
- Bars 296 to 299 (shifts)
- Bars 284 to 287 (practiced with metronome at 120, one beat per note with bow playing each one in triplet, paying attention to the firmness and lightness of left hand and bow articulation)
TCHAIK PROJECT 15 - Thoughts, fears, doubts and
the Mind Over Finger discoveries >>>
<<< TCHAIK PROJECT 13 - The beginning of the pandemic
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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