April 16th, 2020 - Thursday
Today it’s one month since I started doing the 1 minute bows every practice session, that is, I've been in social distancing at home for 1 month, also known as quarantine because, as far as I know, there is no way of knowing whether I didn’t get the coronavirus or I’m an asymptomatic. I haven't seen or hugged my mother and siblings for a month, talking to them only over the internet. I'm still fine, considering the fear of the virus and fear of speeches that minimize the world situation or claim nonsense conspiracies. I rest what my mind allows, and practice.
I made 1 minute bows for a month and I want to switch goals. Now I’m going to do Staccati in the middle of the bow every day.
Technique Random practice
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 65bpm com subdividing the beat in 2, 4, 6 and 8
- Vibrato
- Whole step trills
- Shifts starting with 4th finger on A string
- 2 and 3 octaves scales, 3 octaves arpeggios and alternate scale in D minor
- Double stops in D minor, 3rds, 6ths, 8ves
- My students repertoire
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 274 to 277 (mobility alla Benedetti and sequence alla Sebastian)
April 18th, 2020 - Saturday
Yesterday was another day I fell... I fell into that indulgent inaction that borders a catatonic state. I prepared all the practice gear and stayed in bed playing a game on my cell phone, wondering what will become of us musicians, since most part of our profession is realized with human contact (not to mention those who still take instrument and chamber music lessons). Only the practice of the instrument is done individually. Rehearsals and performances NEED more human beings. What will become of me? My colleagues, my profession, the places where I work, the audience... What will happen to the audience in relation to us? Are we going to be the last thing in their minds or the greatest comfort during these perverse times? Will we be superfluous or essential? Does it depend on us or on others?
These questions bring me down and together comes the question I want to hide from myself: will this project be of any use in the future? Why do I keep practicing the Tchaikovsky?
I practice first because practicing has always been, now more than ever, the guiding thread that keeps me within sanity and with a sense of purpose for personal development. I don't know how to exist without that. And I need a direction, what to practice, and that's why the Tchaikovsky. So I continue to work on this project for my own mental health. But as other people may have the same questions as me, the texts in these practice diaries contain information that may help the quality of quarantined violinists' practice, to help in the perception of themselves. It may also be that the profession will flourish again at some point in the future, and everything that is written in these diaries may be useful for other people to see that they were not the only ones to have crisis and doubts, it may be useful for violinists, students and teachers to apply some of the tools mentioned here to improve self-awareness and repertoire preparation.
Technique Random practice
- Staccato in the middle fo the bow at 65bpm, subdividing each beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato
- Half step trills (and I recorded how I practice trills in general)
April 22nd, 2020 - Wednesday
- 2 octave 1 string minor scales (in the morning)
- Mind over Finger experience (An event Renée-Paule Gauthier launched on the Mind Over Finger Tribe, her group on Facebook)
Day 1 - visualization exercise for clarity on your current situation.
At first I couldn't remember any performance, which is weird already. Then I flicked through my orchestra calendar to see what we did this year. I found Mahler 3. I'm originally from the second violins, but this one I was playing in the back of the first violins section. I enjoyed being first, playing melodies, I enjoy Mahler's music. I felt not prepared enough, and that makes me not enjoy enough and play a bit insecure. I don't remember my thoughts, but there are a few patterns: when I overthink what I'm doing; when my thoughts refuse to stay where I am; when they almost disappear and my attention is in the present moment. I guess I was the first way in the first concert, and second way in second concert. My preparation was as little as it could be, I was totally overwhelmed with gazillion big projects at the same time, not enough sleep and definitely not enough time to practice any to of them.
My current practice is for the Tchaik Project, which is for my Masters Degree research project. Since I'm in quarantine at home, I'm only working on this right now. It's very clearly divided in chunks. Basic technique, scales and Tchaikovsky practiced in 1 or 2 chunks of 30 minutes or so, each of them with 3 or 4 spots from the 1st movement worked in interleaved fashion. It feels productive, since the main goal is to observe, then act. Because all my work is about attention, I'm pretty darn focused almost all the time, so I can't practice that long, my limit now is 4 hours (but right now I practice like 2 - 3 full hours a day), after that my brain and body shut off. It is pleasant to know I'm progressing and usually I'm happy with the work, but I don't get to actually play the Tchaikovsky yet, which is the true fun. For now, I have the impression that all I'm doing is working, BUT, I wish it was a faster process, but again, in this pandemic situation and still very tired from my routine before we stop everything, I stay between "take it easy with myself" and "I need to be more productive if I want to play the Tchaik!"
Day 2 - suggestions and instructions to practice a difficult passage.
So, I picked a passage, first theme of Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, 1st mov. I gave myself 5 minutes. I played it once with the metronome at a lower tempo and already observed myself: the memory of a tense playing, always afraid of playing out of tune and therefore not hitting one note in tune. I realized already that I need to work on 2 things that will come together: an easiness of movement that is independent of what I'm hearing of intonation (meaning that even if I don't like what I play, I play it in an easy physical way) and working my relation ears/left hand to play in tune, note by note deciding what I want to hear, gently teaching my hand to get there (the self-compassion part!)
1. What is great about this problem is that it encompasses the main jewel of violin playing: beautiful melodies! And solving it will take a big trauma out of me ;-)
2. The intonation is not perfect and left hand bears a lot of unnecessary tension, and I still have to work on the phrasing too.
3. I will work on things with one focus at a time: first the feel of the movement of the left hand, than the intonation, than the bow distribution for phrasing (singing out loud and with metronome)
4. I will not settle for less that pure joy! haha that too, but I will not use more effort than I need to.
5. This 5 minutes already gave me a diagnosis of the passage and a plan of action, that alone made me a little happy already. I guess that every little baby step I improve in this passage will be great... and every time I play this passage and it is a little better, more conscious and with more "headspace" in me while I play it, it will be the joy of playing it and the joy of advancing in the challenge I put myself through...
What else?... Oh my, it seems to have happened already so much in just 5 minutes! I completely forgot to ask myself "what else"!
Technique Random practice
- Staccato in the middle fo the bow at 65bpm, subdividing each beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato
- Whole step trills
- Shifts starting with 1st finger on D string
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Coda
- 3 last bars (intonation, already with bow practice in the chords)
In the end of this practice block I played the whole last page (from bar 313 to the end), without metronome, practically up to tempo, to train performance. I was very happy to see that, even though it’s still bad, I can already play badly! And I didn’t loose track of myself! This is what I am practicing for! I really wanna see when it gets good, hehehe.
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Recap
- Bars 304 to 310 (I focused on the shifts, I practiced still slowly with a whole bow for each note, making the shifts as fluid, fast and hidden as possible. I stopped to practice the shift in the beginning of bar 309, the only one that was not working. I noticed that my left arm has the tendency of not going around the body of the violin, as if it was going to the 4th of 5th position, so I basically practiced this movement of going around the violin to easily reach the 6th position.)
- Bars 288 to 289 (intonation, a bit of bow practice and played a few times to familiarize with the sequence of notes.)
In the end of this practice block I played from 284 to 312 and, again, I was happy to be able to play badly! But I played without locking the body, without loosing focus, without anxious thoughts, and that’s a victory!
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Recap
- Bars 253 to 265 (I sang to see the phrasing, then played with open strings while singing, when I decided to play it was very out of tune so I practiced only intonation imagining the next note, singing and checking - specially bar 265 - and in the end I played with metronome at 58 = quarter note and was very happy with what came out!)
- Bars 278 to 279 (intonation, bow and I practiced the shift from the first part to the second note of bar 278, which is a big jump. I put together the following thought: first, to be conscious that it is a big jump and it takes its time; second, practice this movement to be as fluid and easy as possible, practicing slowly with a discreet and fluid shift. In a few minutes it already worked, but it’s something I need to practice many more times so I really have it in the body.)
April 23rd, 2020 - Thursday
Mind over Finger is the project, or method, or website, or blog, by the Canadian violinist who lives in Chicago Renée-Paule Gaultier. In the last 3 days, from April 20th to 22nd, I followed the Performance Makeover Masterclass that took place at the Facebook group Mind Over Finger Tribe. The 3 lives addressed aspects of our mind when playing, the organization of studies, the preparation of a piece and a performance, subjects that interest me a lot and have everything to do with the Tchaik Project. I really liked the masterclass, I found the covered subjects very important and Renee spoke about them clearly and efficiently, always very sweet, both with those present - through the comments section - as with the subject she was talking about.
At the last day of the masterclass Renée-Paule announced her online program that will take place in the upcoming months and the opportunity to talk to her for half an hour, a private conversation to find out more about this program, to find out if the program is for you and so on. Immediately after the end of the masterclass I scheduled my conversation for today at 1:45 pm.
 |
| Renée-Paule Gauthier, by Monica Ninker Photography |
With that, Renée helped me remember the first thing of practicing, that I ended up forgetting: how do you want it to be?
And she suggested to me to visualize everything from before going on stage until the end of the performance. From this visualization, this formulation of desire, I should think, reflect: what practice led me to this place? which path made me achieve this result? (and immediately “finish the score analysis!” came to mind…) Having in mind what I want the Tchaikovsky's performance to be, I already have a greater incentive both to practice and to think the practice, how it’s going to be so I "recite" the Tchaikovsky for you guys. Dora said her father said: the violin must speak and cry.
Analysis of the second theme of the recap, 1st mov., comparing to the second theme of the exposition.
Technique Random practice
- Staccato in the middle fo the bow at 70 bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato without bow
- Half step trills
First I played each time the second theme appears without looking at the music, to see if the mapping of the score I made would help me memorize, and it did! I even recorded! Even though I made a mistake here and there (specially bowings) and being insecure in a spot or another, I knew where I was in the music and this is why I could keep playing. I was happy.
Second themes mapped and played, I decided to practice the one in the recap, because I didn’t practice this one as much and because my ear still doesn’t know how the notes on bar 258 are supposed to sound like. There is still doubt about pitches on bar 265 and the whole passage from 266 to 272, which gets out of track kind of easily, making it not that rare for me to finish the passage half step higher or lower. So I decided to sing, the best way for me to learn pitches. I split the theme in parts and sang at least 3 times each, repeating something if I felt was necessary and always checking with the violin (playing it like a guitar):
- Bars 253 to 259
- Bars 259 to 266
- Bars 266 to 273
April 25th, 2020 - Saturday
Quarantine life: being at home like never before in my entire life, not even in poor student times. Explosions of productivity, where I feel like reading, writing, listening, watching, studying, practicing, investigating, all at the same time, alternating with lazy and tired plateaus where I don't want to do anything, I don't want to hear any more news about covid or politics, I want to disconnect myself even more from the world and just sleep and watch cartoons.
But anyway, as I said in the video I posted on Instagram: making progress on something important to me every day is good in this period, it gives me a sense of purpose and direction.
I only have under two hours to practice. 10 minutes of pre-study ritual (Body warm-up and Centering), 40 minutes of technique random practice (Staccato in the middle of the bow and 3 or 4 more things) and the time that's left is for Tchaikovsky. I've been working a lot on the end of the 1st movement, maybe it's time to practice the central portion of the recap a little more.
Technique Random practice
- Staccato in the middle fo the bow at 70 bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato
- 2 octave scales in one string
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., recap
- Bars 235 to 237 (first I practiced only the last sixtuplets of bars 235 and 237 for left hand articulation associated to the looseness on the rest of the body, using accents in different notes. Then I did mobility alla Benedetti. Then I played still slowly but already distributing the bow according to the dynamic written in the part, keeping the attention in the looseness of the whole body during the passage)
- Bars 238 to 240 (I sang the notes, checking at the violin after singing each note. I played stopping between the notes to imagine the next note. I need to work better the mobility on this part, the fingers were not very loose, specially in the higher positions.)
- Bars 247 to 250 (I didn’t know what to work on this passage, so I played a few times to listen and feel what had to be done, as suggested by Renée-Paule Gauthier in the online masterclass. I felt I needed to memorize the passage, see if my ear know what it wants to hear. Playing by memory I found a few places my fingers want to do something different from what my ears want to hear. I could identify the reason for those divergences, for example the last beat of bar 249, where my head thought I would shift to 5th position with 1st finger, when in reality the 1st finger should go to 6th position on a D - that was precisely the note that was out of tune and after diagnosing this confusion, I could play in tune. So when I played without looking at the music my connection to what I’m doing got more direct and therefore, easier to identify what has to improve.)
I took the last few minutes of this session to sing the rhythm of bars 251 and 252, because I noticed that this rhythm is not clear in my mind. I sang a few times, at first slower beating the eighth notes, then a little faster conducting in quarter notes. That really helps. Singing - always musically! - puts the rhythm in my body and makes playing soooo much easier.
April 26th, 2020 - Sunday
Today, before I started practicing, I made a little analysis comparing the transitions between first and second themes of exposition and re-cap of the 1st mov. of the Concert. I observed the number of measures, rhythmic and accompaniment patterns, melodic patterns. The two appearances are very similar: the number of measures is the same, the same rhythmic and accompaniment structure with small changes in the number of instruments playing a given passage, very similar melodic patterns with few small exceptions which at first seem to derive from the difference in key adapted to the violin range.
Technique Random practice
- Staccato in the middle fo the bow at 70 bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato
- 2 and 3 octave scales, arpeggios and alternate scale in E minor
- Shifts starting with 2nd finger on D string
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., transition of recap (colar aqui embaixo a página 9 inteira)
- Bars 234 to 237 (first I worked on left hand articulation alla Benedetti, then I focused on bow distribution with metronome, and lastly I worked on the intonation of the notes on the slur between bars 234 and 235)
- Bars 241 and 242 (left hand articulation alla Benedetti, then I played stopping to hear the next note, then I played slowly already starting to see bow distribution)
- Bars 238 to 240 (mobility alla Benedetti , then playing with rests to hear the next note, then I played with metronome at 80 = eighth and saw that it is a lot more conscious but still vey dirty in the shifts, the bow is a bit lost and there are some notes out of tune)
- Bars 245 and 246 (first I practiced only the shifts, then I played with a whole bow for each note. I tried to play slowly in the end, but the hand is still lost about where the notes are. This is the part I think is most far away from being ready. I need to practice a lot the consciousness of the ear - singing and hearing the next note - and of the hand - practicing the shifts a lot more.)
- Bars 247 to 250 (the sound of the passage is already in my head, but the left hand is insecure about some spots. I still don’t know exactly how to practice this. I also need to see how to use the bow to make the articulation in the beginning of bars 247 and 248, for this I can research in videos online.)
April 27th, 2020 - Monday
Dear diary, that is, dear readers: I’m writing today to tell you something I just read and that made a lot of sense to me. I’m now reading the book “What every violinists needs to know about the body” by Jennifer Johnson on Body Mapping for violinists. I’m still at the beginning, reading a part called “The Field of Somatics” (The Field of Somatics, p. 12). In this excerpt she tells how Somatics, the study of how the body operates in movement, is a new field of study in the Western world since the pioneers started their explorations just over 100 years ago. We had the discoveries of F. M. Alexander, Moshe Feldenkrais, Rudolph Laban, Irmgard Bartinieff, Joseph Pilates, Alexander Lowen and Mabel Todd (those mentioned in the book).
As far as I know none of them was a musician or worked with musicians, their respective works were incorporated into the musical world after they were created. For example, F. M. Alexander was an actor, R. Laban was a dancer, M. Feldenkrais was a physicist and practiced martial arts. In the last paragraph of this part fo the book, Jennifer says that Body Mapping was created by William and Barbara Conable, “discovered and developed specifically while dealing with the movement issues of performing musicians.”
Reading this was a great A-ha! moment. So far, of all the side activities I tried, including Alexander Technique, a little bit of Laban, a little bit of Feldenkrais and a few others, Body Mapping was the activity that made the most sense to me, both for practicing violin and teaching. Understanding the mechanics of movement inside my body - the little bit that I already had access to - has done a lot for me and there are tools and knowledge that I can carry with me wherever I go, without the need to have a health professional with me all the time. Knowing that the technique I like the most so far was created WITH musicians and FOR musicians makes me happy, as if my body was pointing me in the right direction.
April 29th, 2020 - Wednesday
Yes, I haven't touched the violin for 2 days. As a woman I learned, I’m not sure how, that one should never mention the menstrual cycle and the reason why we feel unwell is actually "whim". Well, I also learned recently, through the works of Erika Irusta and Dr. Stacy Sims, that this is not quite true.
How can I talk about respecting, understanding and listening to the violinist’s body and ignore what the woman's body says? In the past two days I felt indisposed to do anything, especially practicing the violin. The body just wanted to rest. I heard, understood and respected it not as if it were an indulgence to a whim, but as the serious need of a healthy body. I rested. Not completely, I must confess. In an effort to make the most out of the quarantine and be productive, I changed the strings of the violin and read a little more of Jennifer Johnson's book and discovered that the mental map I have (had) of my spine corresponds to 50% of the anatomical reality. Maybe even less. This was the first body mapping exercise and today when I did the body warm-up exercises, knowing the shape of the vertebrae in the extremities and the function of the front of the spine (the part facing the inside of the body) has already made a difference in how I felt my body, a little more compact, with the use of the muscles more distributed.
Technique Random practice, right arm
- Open strings with 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70 bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- String crossing at 60 bpm
- Whole bow staccato
Technique Random practice, left arm
- Vibrato
- Half step trills
- Schradieck XVI 1.
April 30th, 2020 - Thursday
Technique Random practice
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70 bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato
- Whole step trills
- Intonation, worked this way: in each of the strings I tuned fingers 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the key of the string (ex.: on G string I tuned the notes of the G major scale) starting in first position, then second e so on until 11th position.
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 247 and 248 (I was researching possibilities of how to use the bow to make the articulation in the first half of both bars. I saw several videos on Youtube of renowned soloists of all times. The only one thing in common is the fact that the prolonged note, I mean, with more bow than the others, is the third 16th. That was new to me, I thought it was the first one in each bar because of the orchestra rhythm, but when I tried to play stressing the third note it made more physical and musical sense, besides being easier to play. Apart from that, the bow region where each soloist play that passage is different, but most of them go to the upper half of the bow after this third prolonged note and stays there till the 32nds sequence.)
TCHAIK PROJECT 16 - Fine tuned observation: needle in the haystack of
<<< TCHAIK PROJECT 14 - Having time, not having time
___________________________
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).
No comments:
Post a Comment