May 1st, 2020 - Friday
Labour Day. First day I have activities of the Municipal Symphony Orchestra since we stopped. It will be remote activities that we have to invent ourselves. Video projects for the Theater's social midias. I'm still dealing with ideas and talking to my orchestra colleagues. How atypical are the things of this time! And how important are these actions so we understand in the future what was this pandemic!
Technique Random
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato
- Half step trills
- 2, 3 and 4 octaves scales in G major, arpeggios and alternate scale in 3 octaves
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
I decided to practice the same passage (second half of the transition between first and second themes) on the exposition and recap, mainly to practice the bow. In the exposition it’s on bars 61 to 66. In the recap it from 245 to 250. I applied the same process to both passages:
With metronome at 60 = sixteenth I played several times just the bow in open string in the beginning of 63/247 and 64/248, with focus on bow distribution. Then I played the whole passage in the same speed, but with notes, still focusing on bow distribution. After that I started considering the beat at 60 = eighth note and played adding dynamics and phrasing. Even in this slow tempo I feel it's a lot easier to play, I felt this is the way. To understand the bow in the beginning of 63/247 and 64/248 is one of the most important keys to play the whole passage, but I should pay attention because even though the bow distribution is the same, since in the recap is on a higher pitch, shortening considerably the length of the string, it’s sensibility changes, so weight and contact point change a little, too.
In the end of the practice session I tried to play everything at 60 = quarter note. The exposition transition I could play in this tempo, the recap one, I couldn’t. I should keep practicing the second passage at 60 = sixteenth and the shifts on bars 245 and 246.
May 3rd, 2020 - Sunday
We've decided that Saturday would be our day off, my quarantine partner (my boyfriend) and me. That's why I didn't practice yesterday. But, besides that, it’s not every day I feel like practicing, on the contrary. After a month and a half of social isolation at home, I still feel I have a lot to rest. At home but not disconnected. In pause but not in silence.
I still feel tired and just as I practice not to lose myself, I ask myself "practice for what?" It’s true that last week I had a boost after I got in touch with Renèe-Paule Gauthier and her wonderful advices (described on Tchaik 15 post). The atmosphere during practice became fresher and more alive, the dynamic of practice changed a little with the tools of playing the passage before studying to hear and feel what needs to be done, practicing by heart and practicing by pairing exposition with recap. It's better!
But we’re still in quarantine, and for a very serious reason: Brazil is beating China's death toll. And under my window some people honk from their cars screaming for the end of the quarantine. Why am I practicing?
The advanced vacations we were given (the Theater and most workplaces gave their workers vacation now, trying to bureaucratically compensate the time spent home) will come to and end and we have to return to a different reality of work, our stage now is on social networks and it demands from us skills that we never had to have before: video editing, photography, content creation, making chamber music with an app, interviews. The applause is clapped through likes and comments. To justify our work through the internet. I don't know how to edit a video. I make homemade simple videos with my phone only as support material for the Tchaik Project, one thing or another to stimulate exposing me, my blog and my content. What should I practice, really?
Practicing violin, that refined piece of wood with strings attached. Study my body, study my relationship with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and what was my life as a violin student. Study and practice because that's what I do with my life.
Technique Random
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato
- Whole bow Staccato
- Whole step trills
Left hand Random practice
- Shifts starting with 3rd finger on D string
- Double stops in G major, 3rds, 6ths and 8ves
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
I played the first and second themes to see the difference in atmosphere between them. Basically what I see is a first theme that is more open and happy (cuter, so to speak) and a second theme that is more dramatic and anguished. I still need to analyze comparing both themes to bring more musical diferences to surface, because both are slow melodies and all the fast and furious passages are transitions and codas. But I already have an ideia of the sound colors I want to use in each one.
May 4th, 2020 - Monday
Technique Random
- Whole bow Staccato
- Vibrato
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Half step trills
Technique Random
- Shifts starting with 4th finger on D string
- 2, 3 and 4 octaves A major scales, 3 octaves arpeggios and alternate scale
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., recap
- Bars 245 and 246 (I played with one whole bow per note, slow, playing the shifts very close to the end of the note, still in an easy fluid manner. But the shift in the end of 245 from C# to G on 8th position was still not good, each time missing it in a different side. I repeated several times to see if I could fix the correct distance, and then to see if I found the reason why I didn’t fix it. My arm was going to the 8th position with the 3rd finger - the finger of the previous note - on the A in tune, but when I took it off so the second finger would make the G, it was out of tune, usually lower. It means I was going up with some flaw on the shape of my hand as a whole: I was doing a shape of left hand with the 3rd finger in extension - and it’s not an extension… - , consequently running a slightly shorter distance with my arm than I should. I corrected the shapes and distances and could play the shift in tune and with assurance. Now I need to repeat a lot in the way that works to engrave the movement in my body - because on top of it all, the real tempo is fast.)
- Bars 247 and 248 (I practiced the bow of the first half of each bar, very slowly, with the notes but without vibrato)
- Bars 243 and 244 (I played once stopping to imagine the next note, then I worked on left hand articulation: I played around 4 times alla Benedetti with bow, with accents in different notes, with rhythms, with metronome at 70 = eighth a few times)
At the end of this practice session, I went back to bars 247 and 248, I played the whole bars, still very slow, and kept playing till bar 250. The shift in the 3rd half of 249, from A 3rd finger to E 1st finger is still not good. The 1st finger almost always falls between the E and the F. When I repeated the passage several times, playing by heart to see if I understood what was happening, I realized that, just before the shift, I see in my mind the image of the G# that comes right after this E, like the anticipation my mind makes for me to keep playing. But then I end up getting confused because it seems like I go from G# to go to E, when in fact I go from A to E. Finding needles in the haystacks of my mind.
May 5th, 2020 - Tuesday
I spent more time on the phone and computer dealing with things for the Theatre than actually practicing the violin…
- Body warm up (just half)
- 2 octaves major scales in fixed position. But I didn’t do them following the chromatic order. I did A, Bb, C, D, E, F, A, Bb, reaching the 9th position, always starting with 1st finger.
Since I had only 15 minutes, I played the 1st movement of Tchaik from the top and by heart, to check what I’ve already memorized. Exposition and recap have something like 80% of the notes memorized, I’m still missing some passages on the transitions, some dynamics, articulations and tempo markings. All the middle section I still cannot play by heart, I have the map of all the section in my mind, but I still don’t have it in my fingers, because I haven’t practiced it enough, nor have I practiced with the goal to memorize.
May 6th, 2020 - Wednesday
Technique Random
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- 1234 on A string till the 8th position
- Double stops on A major
I need to be careful when I pick what technique to practice, it’s taking so long! Today it took more than an hour!
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 247, first half (bow distribution very slowly)
- Bars 243 and 244 (played slowly, with metronome at 70 = eighth, already with dynamic and bow distribution to create familiarity with the passage)
- Bars 234 till top of 243 (played slowly, with metronome at 70 = eighth, already with dynamic and bow distribution to create familiarity with the passage)
After that I played it all together, from 234 to 248 with metronome at 70 = eighth and then 70 = quarter note. The worst are bars 241 and 242, I need to practice them a lot more. It’s this kind of passage that I still don’t have memorized, through all the movement.
May 11th, 2020 - Monday
For 4 days I didn't practice. It started with a sore back, the whole back, from top to bottom. I understood that quarantined life without further care can be harmful to the body. The lack of movement, especially walking, and the postures in which I stay at home - always sitting or lying down - mean that most of the time I am “stretching” the muscles of my back because I’m almost always bent forward. At the same time, I’m not “using” those muscles for any real physical activity. I was already doing a few exercises a few times a week, but as I see (actually, “as I hurt”) it wasn’t enough.
I tried a yoga video for beginners, short video of 12 minutes with really basic and easy postures. My left shoulder hurt very, very much, to the point that I couldn’t even reach one of the postures. I was worried, obviously. I stopped with the violin for those 4 days and started a slightly more intense exercise program:
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I warm up with the Qigong video and do the physiotherapy exercises to strengthen the core muscles indicated by Heloisa Parise, my physiotherapist.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, I warm up with the Qigong video (below) and the Move Flow exercises, also indicated by Heloisa Parise, but these have the purpose of working and releasing the fascia.
5 times a week is already much more than 2 times a week. Today was the first day of that schedule.
Technique Random
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato without bow
- Whole step trills
- 1234 on D string (this one took me one hour to complete. It took so long in part because there's a long time I don’t practice it, but much more because I made many pauses so I didn’t overload the body, cause it’s hurting. Between 4th and 5th position I lay down on the floor for 5 minutes in the Constructive Rest position of Alexander Technique. I think I may have to use this technique a lot more often that I predicted in the beginning of this Project.)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., middle section
- Bars 160 and 161 (I observed the use of the bow I had a doubt: isn’t there a tempo change here? I looke up in all the scores I have at home and in some of them there is a Molto sostenuto il tempo, Moderatissimo only at bar 162. Why then do I have in my ear the solo violin coming in a bit slower than the orchestra? I visualized how I want to play and played a few times at 60 = quarter note.)
- Bars 162 to 165 (intonation and bow separately. The bow I practiced in open strings and metronome at 60 = eighth.)
- Bars 168 and 169 (mobility alla Benedetti and intonation)
- Bars 166 and 167 (intonation and bow separately. The bow I practiced in open strings and metronome at 80 = eighth.)
In the end I played from 160 to 169 at 60 = quarter note. Little by little it gets better =)
Now that I sit down to write what I just practiced, maybe it’s a good time to hear some recordings and try to solve that doubt on bar 160.
Itzhak Perlman: comes in slower
Julia Fischer: a little slower on 160 and a lot slower on 161
Janine Jansen: comes in slower
Sayaka Shoji: comes in slower
Alena Baeve: comes in slower
Lisa Batiashvili: comes in slower
David Oistrakh: not only comes in slower, but the orchestra slows down before his entrance
Sergej Krylov: comes in slower
Now I see why I thought bar 160 was slower: because that's how everyone plays it! It’s a tradition. It makes musical sense, since these two measures (160 and 161) serve both as a closure for what came before and as an introduction to what comes after. To use them to slow down the pace, which in 162 is already Molto sostenuto il tempo, Moderatissimo seems to be a good idea.
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Middle section and Cadenza
- Bars 176 to 188 (just bow at 100 = sixteenth. Very good to do that…)
- Bartok violin duo n. 31, for one orchestra online project I submitted (reading)
May 12th, 2020 - Tuesday
Half hour of Tchaik first movement: beginning of recap, first theme with metronome at 60 = eighth, going up 10 by 10 points in the metronome till I reached 100 = eighth.
May 13th, 2020 - Wednesday
- Open strings with 4, 6, 8, 20 and 12 beats per bow at 60bpm
Technique Random
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- Vibrato
- Half step trills
- 1234 on E string till 9th position
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov. (after a looong time, I’m back to practicing it.)
- Bars 53 to 100 (just played at 70 = quarter note a few times, always with phrasing. Sped up little by little and got to 140 = quarter note. Felt a lot of unnecessary tension of the left hand, which I was able to reduce by paying attention on the thumb. On the octaves passage I saw that I was putting tension on the 4th finger, so I practiced centering the action on the 1st finger, which helped a lot! I also realized that the difficulty of the bow articulation is not on the sixteenths, but on the eighths. The sixteenths came out great!)
- Bars 111 to 116 (notes, shifts and intonation: I practiced slowly and with attention not to tension more than necessary on high positions on bars 115 and 116.)
- Bars 148 to 171 (intonation and phrasing with metronome at 60 = quarter note)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Middle Section
- Bars 176 to 188 (only bow at 100 = sixteenth)
- Bars 162 to 165 (intonation note per note and a little bit of bow on open strings)
In the end I played this whole part of the middle section (bars 160 to 188) with metronome at 100 = eighth and it came out a lot better than I expected. Keep working this part this way.
I was happy that today I managed to start practicing much earlier than the last few days (like every day in this quarantine…). I started around 1:30 pm and went until 4:40 pm or so. Then at night I practiced from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. I was led to understand that I cannot just practice as if I was a young student, mainly for physical reasons: I’m not so young anymore, and I’m feeling this pain in my left arm that’s been there since last year, but that has now worsened due to the lack of movement in the quarantine and lack of physiotherapy sessions. I must take a lot of breaks and perform physical relaxation practices during such breaks, such as the Constructive Rest of the Alexander Technique, body meditations from the Headspace app, body warm-up exercises again. Sometimes just stop and don't have the violin in my hands. The practice takes time and there’s no way to condense it into a super productive mega practice of just one hour. If what I want is a transformation of the physical relationship into one of the most difficult parts of the violin repertoire, this will demand time not only in quality, but in quantity as well.
May 14th, 2020 - Thursday
It’s still difficult to start, the gray day asks me to lie down, watch cartoons and eat crap all day. On the other hand, my body asks me to move it during the whole day otherwise it’s gonna hurt. I’m managing to do the things I scheduled yesterday before sleep, but everything is taking twice the time…
And here I am, almost 2pm (which is already a victory). Almost 2 hours after the time I planned to start (which is not that much of a victory…)
Technique Random
- Open strings 4, 3, 2 and 1 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70bpm subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes
- 2 octaves major scales in fixed position
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov.
Played through to see what is worst. The places with double stops are the furthest away of being ready. This is where I start today's practice.
- Bars 314 to 329 (just bow at 80 = eighth, then at 100 = eighth)
- Bars 445 to 459 (played with metronome at 80 and then at 100 = eighth playing each bar full of sixteenths twice to train the hand muscles to this extensions)
- Bars 565 to 584 (just bow at 80 = eighth, then at 100 = eighth)
- Bars 633 to 636 (intonation and shifts, specially on bar 636)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov., Middle Section (practically repeated yesterday’s practice)
- Bars 176 to 188 (just bow at 100 = sixteenth)
- Bars 162 to 165 (intonation note per note and a little bit of bow on open strings)
- Bars 166 and 167 (just bow at 100 = sixteenth)
It’s impressive how after the bow work on open strings it’s easier to play the passage with the left hand.
TCHAIK PROJECT 17 - Quarantine pains and musician home office >>>
<<< TCHAIK PROJECT 15 - Thoughts, fears, doubts and the Mind Over Finger Discoveries
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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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