lesson 13

grade 1 to concert

Lesson always starts with this question..
of practice?
Stating clearly it was disappointing, a week where i did not practice much.

So as the instrument and books were unpacked from the case, the lesson begins..
Maestro takes the Technical Workbook from me, places it onto the music stand and asks to hear the Position Shift exercise in G Major.

I embarrassedly confess the non practice as this Grade 2 exercise was just too overwhelming, and after the ‘ee-aw’ incident last week, was simply put off! There was no practice from the Technical Workbook this week!
So i begged for Maestro to demonstrate this for me again – he laughs and says he doesn’t want to perform for me.

It’s an exciting week however, as it will be the first time we look pieces in the Grade 1 book.

Maestro takes this book and starts to flick through its pages.
I assume he does this because he has come to know that the pieces i try usually have notes in pencil denoting bow direction to facilitate string crossings and other reminders to myself scrawled on the page, this time i purposefully did not mark any of the pieces i tried.. and this week i tried them all!

He asks if i had looked at any of the pieces..
My reply to him was, “What do you think?”
He replies with a punctuated Yes as he continues to flick through the pages.
Then he asks, “Have you tried many?”
I delight in the repartee, “What do you think?”
He secretly knows the answer to this also and concludes saying, “You have tried all of them and you said you didn’t practice?” (insert big grin)

I did try most of the pieces and have an idea how they go.
So i played the beginning bars of a few (to spare him the agony) just to make sure i had the right idea and had him help with bowing in some. There was much demonstrating- he calls it performing, and even joined in with me while i played List A No 3 The Bee by Stephen Chin, which was cool!

I had a terrible week on some fronts, but today made up for it, by the end of class I was feeling ok.

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Maestro was also holding a Dinner/Concert beginning at 7.30pm the evening of the same day as lessons. The young lady with the purple violin happened to have a spare ticket, so asked if i would like to come along.

I delighted in joining her and we both had a wonderful night last night, providing a great opportunity to watch Maestro really performing and the ladies with the coloured violins getting to know each other a little more.

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Thank you Lisa!
I had a wonderful night, delighting in your stories. In particular hearing about your own class antics with Maestro! I laughed like crazy on hearing that you bash him with your music book and pat his purple velvet jacket!
Your kindness and generosity will always be remembered.
donna con il violino blu

donna con il violino blu © 2010 patricia vannucci