Click here to see the introduction of the TCHAIK PROJECT and know what it is about. =)
And here is a list with all the links to the practice diaries of this PROJECT.
Maintenance Set
- Whole bow staccato with metronome at 100, 2 notes per beat
- String crossing at 60bpm, subdividing the beat in 2 and 3
- Vibrato without bow
- Half step trills
- Staccato in the middle of the bow at 70 bpm, subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8
- Open strings with 4, 3, 2 and 1 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Schradieck, still the XVI. 4., memorizing with attention to mobility and intonation. I want to play it well, so I’ll do it everyday till it comes out. Today I started at 60 and went up to 75 = quarter note, memorizing and with control
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 234 to 237 (practicing-memorizing as I've been doing for the past few days, starting at 70 = eighth. Articulation of the descending arpeggios of 235 and 237 with accents in different notes, mobility alla Benedetti throughout the passage. In the end I was already playing at 60 = quarter note. There’s still work to do here, but I’m already playing by heart in this tempo.)
- Bars 238 to 240 (I sang the notes to have them inside my head so it would be easier to play and memorize. In the end I managed to play at 60 = eighth by heart.)
- Bars 241 till top of 243 (I continued memorizing, paying attention to the last arpeggio of the passage, to distribute the bow well so there's enough bow for the 2 last notes. Still at 60 = eighth note)
At the end, I played through the 3 passages at 80 = eighth note, putting them together and memorizing. It didn't come out perfect, but the memorization is going well, I played almost everything.
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov.
- Bars 333 to 349 (mobility alla Benedetti without bow, then playing at 60 = quarter note with attention to the ease of left hand and phrasing. I had to re-practice some shifts, for maintenance)
- Bars 367 to 376 (I practiced intonation and memorization. I checked to see in which part of the bow I’ll play this up to tempo, because I was practicing on the frog and I had pain in the muscles between the spine and right scapula as it happened before in passages in the frog. In this passage I’ll want to stay a few centimeters away from the frog)
- Bars 565 to 584 (I practiced memorized! I practiced intonation and loosening of the hand, especially during position shifts. In the end I played at 60 and 80 = quarter note and it came out! I was happy.)
- Bars 618 to 637 (I continued practicing with focus on memorization and lightness of the left hand. In the end I played at 80 = quarter note and almost everything came out by heart.)
And kudos for me, I didn't feel like practicing, but I did!
September 23rd, 2020 - Wednesday
Yesterday was Tuesday, Papo com Café day (Chat with Coffee), the series of lives I'm doing on Instagram of Papo de Violinista. Yesterday's conversation was with Liu Man Ying and I recommend to ALL MUSICIANS to watch and listen to Liu's stories (it's in Portuguese). It was exciting and illuminating.
Classic Set 2
- Open strings with 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 beats per bow at 60bpm
- G major scales, arpeggios and alternate scales in one string
- G major double stops
- Schradieck, still the XVI. 4. Today I started at 60 and went till 90 = quarter note, memorized and with control.
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 234 till top of 241 (slowly, putting together these two passages I practiced separately last practice session. First I practiced very slowly, watching the intonation, then I put it on the metronome, 80 = eighth. I still trip a little at the end of 239, but it’s getting better. )
- Bars 241 the head of 243 (still memorizing and watching for intonation. I reached 80 = eighth!)
- Bars 245 and 256 (shifts. I practiced their intonation and fluidity using that way of playing each note 4 times and only shifting it the last one, so the shift will be proportionally faster afterwards)
- Bars 288 to 291 (memorization and intonation. I still trip in memory, but it comes back quickly, it's getting better.)
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov.
Wow, I lost track of time while practicing... last time it happened was YEARS ago! It means the practice was good.
- Bars 333 to 349 (intonation and memorization, at 60 = quarter note)
- Bars 368 to 376 (intonation and memorization)
- Bars 565 to 584 (intonation, memorization and loosening the shifts. Today I felt the passage needs a rest, a few days without practicing it, letting it ferment - but not too many days!)
- Bars 618 to the end (intonation and memorization, this part is very tricky to memorize!)
It’s impressive the effect that “Memorize as you go” that Renee-Paule Gauthier preaches is having on me. Memorizing is a practice tool, it's not just playing without looking the score. When practicing the passages by heart, my ears are more attentive to the sound and my perception of hidden micro tensions is more acute, and especially that issue I mentioned before, that I can't play fast because my mind is not fast, I feel that practicing memorized makes my mind and hands speed up together.
September 25th, 2020 - Friday
Classic mixed Set
- Open strings with 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 beats per bow at 60bpm
- Open strings with 4, 3, 2, 1 and 1/2 beats per bow at 60bpm
- Vibrato
- C major 3 octaves scale and arpeggios, each one of those first listening to the next note, tuning note by note, then at 60bpm, 1 and 2 notes per beat, always 2 notes per bow
I was going to start practicing a little bit of Tchaikovsky, but a message came on Instagram asking for a video explaining and demonstrating what is this “memorize as you go”. I spent a long time doing this, the video was not good, I posted it and soon after I deleted it. And I didn't practice Tchaikovsky... Takeaways of the story:
1 - Practice with the phone in airplane mode.
2 - Think a little before recording a video.
3 - Don’t record without first playing what you want to record.
4 - Practice with the phone in airplane mode.
September 26th, 2020 - Saturday
*put the cellphone in airplane mode*
Maintenance Set
- Whole bow staccato with metronome at 100, 2 notes per beat
- String crossing at 60bpm, subdividing in 2 and 3
- Vibrato
- Whole step trills
- Staccato in the middle fo the bow at 75 bpm (yes, I increased the tempo! It was about time, right?), subdividing the beat in 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8
- Schradieck XVI. 4. I’m still on this one, in a mission to play it ok! I started on 75bpm and went up to 90 again. I was only 3 days (or 1 practice session) without practicing it and it already receded a little.
- Open strings with 4, 3, 2, 1 and 1/2 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Shifts on E string, starting with 2nd finger
Tchaikovsky 1st mov. - 2ª part of middle section
- Bars 176 to 179 (focus on slurred double stops: first just the intonation of these double stops, then practicing with a dotted rhythm to make the change from one to the next more precise, finally playing the passage slowly, with the staccato bow on the slurs)
- 2nd half of bar 181 (intonation of the double stops, first listening well to the glissando on the shifts, then stopping the bow during the glissando so as not to hear the shift and trust the distance my hand/arm has traveled.)
- Bars 180 to 182 (same thing I did from 176 to 179)
- Bars 183 the head of 186 (memorizing and tuning)
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov.
- upbeat of bar 111 to 116 (I practiced intonation and shifts; in the end I played the entire passage a few times, slowly and without a metronome.)
- Bars 136 to 145 (the initial idea was to practice only from 140 to 145, because of the ending, but it was coming out so easy that I memorized it, going further and further back, until I started from comp. 136. I played it at 60 = quarter note, then at 80.)
- upbeat of bar 188 to 196 (I was always getting confused when I tried to play this passage, I noticed that something happened in my expectation of the melody: what I wanted to hear was not what’s written. It means I have to learn what is written and for that purpose I sang the passage several times, clapping and dancing in the strong beats. My confusion was coming from the fact that there are many leading-tones in strong beats resolving in the following eighth note, and my ear tends to want those leading-tones in upbeats and resolutions in strong beats, that is, a confusion in the ear. Singing is good for learning the sequence of notes, clapping in strong beat is good for getting used to the place where the notes really are. After doing this several times, I played the notes with the first finger - without the upper note of the octave - accentuating with the bow on the strong beats. Finally, I played everything with harmonics, still slow, still accentuating.)
September 27th, 2020 - Sunday
Fast technique warm up
- Whole bow staccato with 2 notes per beat, now at 120 bpm
- Vibrato
- 2 octaves scales in fixed position, but instead of going up each half step, I played everything with notes of the D major key, from 1st to 7th position.
- My student rep
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 231 till top of 243 (playing everything still slow, getting used to playing all the passage by heart, putting together the smaller passages I practiced in the previous days. I still trip in some points, but I don't need to look at the score to remember.)
- Bars 243 to 246 (intonation and memorization, I played at 60, in the end at 80 = eighth)
- Bars 183 to 188 (memorizing and tuning)
September 29th, 2020 - Tuesday
Why didn't I practice yesterday? Because I felt like crap with cramps.
But not today, I even WANT to practice, I even have an almost irrepressible desire to practice a lot of scales… When I had a year ahead of me to prepare Tchaikovsky I was not so excited, quite the contrary, I was stressed-busy-dead-tired-and-without-much-spirits. Now that I have reached the deadline and gave myself 3 months to make it happen I feel excited about the challenge of accomplishing the impossible. Go figure me… (ok, ok, I admit that the conversation with Renee-Paule played a fundamental role in this shift…)
- Vibrato
And succumbing to the desire of practicing lots of scales, I made A major scales in the following ways:
- 2, 3 and 4 octaves
- Arpeggios in 2 and 3 octaves
- 4 octave alternate thirds scale
- Double stops, 3rds, 6ths, 8ves and 10ths, but not just 1 octave in just one pair of strings as I had been doing before, I made 2 octaves covering all the strings (3rds was 3 octaves)
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
- Bars 231 till top of 243 (I practiced this passage sometimes subdividing into more parts, slowly, seeing intonation, a little mobility alla Benedetti, dynamics and tone. I can already play the 60 = eighth note by heart without tripping)
- Bars 243 to 246 (I practiced the left hand articulation using accents in different notes and then playing with rhythms. There is still a lot to do in 245 and 246 to be clear and beautiful.)
Tchaikovsky 3rd mov.
Random practice
- Bars 333 to 349 (memorizing, taking care of the sound quality in each note, practicing at 100 = eighth)
- Bars 367 to 376 (memorizing and tuning)
- Bars 618 until the end (memorizing… oh boy, this passage is tricky! There are still shifts to tune better, but I can already play at 100 = eighth note)
September 30th, 2020 - Wednesday
- Open strings with 4, 3, 2 and 1 beats per bow at 60 bpm
- Vibrato
- B flat major scales
Tchaikovsky 1st mov.
Random practice (on Instagram live)
- Bars 183 to 188 (intonation and memorization. Guys, I got shy/nervous to practice the Tchaik live! Damn it, I was a little lost, not knowing what to do… do I really need to do more of that?)
- Bars 231 till top of 243 (memorizing, playing at 80 = eighth, trying to make the inner ear go before the hands, but who said I could do it with the live rolling??? And that's because there were only 2 people watching!)
- Bars 243 to 246 (what I really practiced was 245 and 246, focusing on intonation. I only added the previous 2 bars at the end, when I was already with a metronome, playing at 80 = eighth several times.)
Wow… how enlightening was to practice the Tchaik live… I thought it would be better, I mean, that I would show more and better, but no… My phone was low on battery, and I only practiced live until the middle of the second “round” of the random. After I turned the live off, everything was more fluid, less fearful, I was able to think of many more ways to practice and things to focus on. It was a practice performance and I felt many of the symptoms of performance anxiety.
TCHAIK PROJECT 24 - October of 2020 >>>
<<< TCHAIK PROJECT 22 - Inconsistency, conversations and little stars
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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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