First off, thanks to everyone who got in touch with reactions/ thoughts to yesterday’s first post. I really am writing this as a reflective journal for myself first and foremost - so it’s not my finest writing, not edited, not carefully planned - but it was so interesting to hear thoughts, advice, and mostly shared sentiments from a huge range of ages, experiences, and music worlds. Glad to be having this conversation with you all!
Actual practice done today- around 30 mins, much of which was spent re-reading the bowing exercises I looked at in Basics yesterday, going through the first 6/7 exercises in detail. Then some playing Sophie’s Lullaby, thinking of bowing a bit, mostly just enjoying the tune/feel/sound.
Having started with a lot of focussed bow-hold work from the Basics book, I almost feel a bit dizzy, stressed. It’s so hard to feel like I’m ‘getting’ it. I can do the exercise and feel like ‘okay, I think that’s it?’ but find it hard to feel like it’s making a difference. Aware that that’s mad, and it’s day 2 of working from this book. I can also see that you wouldn’t necessarily stay in one section of this book only in the way I am right now, but it feels like the best use of time to take a handful of left hand exercises at once. Ideally, with more time, I’d then be looking at some tone production/ intonation practise in a similar level of detail to get familiar with the exercises, gradually being able to revisit these exercises much more briefly, right now it makes sense to take the time to make sure I’ve really understood what’s being asked. Really doubting what my pinky does/doesn’t do in terms of actual engagement with the bow, but otherwise reassured that actually, a lot of the skills each exercise is working on is stuff that I am doing subconsciously anyway.
On the subject of taking time, I feel so tempted to rush through exercises/ practice with a sort of tick-box mentality. Partly because I’ve left it late today before evening plans, partly because I’m impatient to ‘be better’ - how I’m quantifying that I’m not sure! I think it’s partly feeling like I need to make up for lost time, but I know that letting everything take however long it takes is a better route forward. Must also remember that ‘completing’ fiddle learning/this book/ technique is very much not a thing… It’s hard to tell when practice has been ‘done’, or is enough, and I think the lack of a clear box to tick is partly what my brain finds challenging about getting around to practising. Much easier to bake a banana bread instead, a much more tangible and immediate result!
Having worked on some left hand stuff intensely(ish) on viola, I’m now going to pick up the fiddle and just enjoy playing. My current obsession is Aly Bain’s gorgeous Sophie’s Lullaby. Think I’ll play it without thinking about any of the bowing stuff above for a wee bit, then try to actively observe what my left hand (or more importantly, fingers) are up to for a bit and be a bit more intentional. I said at the start of this practice challenge that I’m doing it to start enjoying my playing a bit more, as well as working specifically on technique and healthy practice, so I’ll be careful to bridge the gap between ‘practice’ and ‘play’!