Category Archives: Practicing

Practicing

Free Replacement Strings

A few weeks ago I tried to change my strings (violin strings, for you non-musicians.  We have to do this every once in awhile…be that a couple times a year or every other month).  I had a set of Vision Solos on hand and wanted to put them on a couple of days before my concerts in September.  I tried and tried, but I couldn’t get the strings to wind around the pegs properly without slipping out.  This was very unusual—I can’t recall EVER having had that problem.  I had Chris try as well, and he couldn’t do it either.  (This whole episode actually ended with me sobbing about how nothing in my life ever worked properly.  Drama queen.)

Anyway, I couldn’t remember where I had gotten the strings, so I went straight to the source.  I emailed Thomastik directly, and a few days later they responded, asked for my address AND…today I got replacement strings PLUS a free set of the PI strings!!

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Thomastik, thank you for your excellent customer service!  I am so excited for the replacement strings and even more excited for the free strings!  I know the solos work really well on my fiddle, so I’m hesitant to switch up styles, but it’s a win-win situation as they were free.

Practicing, Random thoughts

Quickie Friday Post

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I snoozed a few too many times this morning so let’s see if I can write a post in 5 minutes!  (Can’t wait to read it, eh?)

Today:  workout with Mike, ocarina rehearsal (was hoping to squeeze lunch with Melissa in there but her darned job made her stay in Carbondale longer), teaching, and dinner with Maddie.  (See, Melissa, if YOU had a twitter account or a blog, I’d link you too.  Think about it.  FAMOUS.)

Tomorrow:  City in a Jar’s Slow Food in the Park (make a dish for $5, check it out!  I’m going to make great use of the More-for-Less Cookbook that I rarely use), wedding, SLSO concert (RITE OF SPRING BABY!) and out with friends after.

Sunday:  Run.  Rest.  Recuperate.  Run.  Seriously, did I mention run?

OH and right now I am feeling weird and naked because my engagement ring is at the jewelry store being resized.  I’ve lost a little weight since February plus I think it was big to begin with and the darned thing was turning ALL the time and driving me crazy.  I miss it and I swear there is a little tan line on my finger, even though Chris didn’t agree.  I don’t get that back until Saturday either.

That’s it in a nutshell!  And the fun fun fun thing happening Monday is that…I am going to pick up the invitations.  For the wedding.  I am ridiculously excited about the invitations.  They are going to be AWESOME.

Last thought:  Here’s a flowchart that helps to explain why musicians are neurotic.  Because we should be practicing.

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What are you doing this weekend?  (Hahaha, I know I complained about this question.  But answer in the comments as I want more comments, pretty please?!  With a cherry on top?)

Practicing

Violin playing shouldn’t hurt, right?

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I’ve suffered from playing problems since I was a teenager.  I tend to overdo things, and I tend to practice until I can’t anymore.  I don’t do things halfway, and violin is no different.  But…I am incredibly prone to injury.  Sometimes I deal with it.  Sometimes I take time off.  About a year ago I think I gave up. 

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I’m not ready to give up for good though.  I needed my year without really practicing (to MISS it) but at Suzuki Institute I started thinking about it again, and how I love playing, and I want to play for a long time, and I need to figure out what I’m doing wrong.  Other than playing out of tune 😉

This morning I woke up with severe shoulder pain.  Hmm.  First problem:  don’t go from NOT practicing to practicing 2 or 3 hours a day for a couple days in a row.  It seems I am truly an idiot.

Maybe it was from the gym.  Maybe not.  Who knows.

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What I do know is that I’m ready to do something about it.  Mike stretched my shoulder at the beginning and end of the workout.  He gave me some advice on stretches to do at home (which I actually have done several times today, so this is so far promising.)  I want to get more advice from him, since a) I actually do listen to him and take his advice which I am really bad at doing from doctors/physical therapists in the past and b) I’m paying him for something anyway.  He thinks for sure I need to strengthen the muscles opposite my shoulder, that the problem is my shoulder is weak.

My thinking is that overall I’m not using my back/arms/shoulders properly.  I might be all out of whack.  My teachers in the past have never really helped me with this, for whatever reason.  I’m not blaming anyone here, just myself.  I also know I have awful tension issues. 

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I’ve improved my health immensely over the past two years.  I’ve improved my mental health too.  My confidence is through the roof.  I’ve worked hard on becoming a better violin teacher.

But I need to play well, and I want to attempt to play without pain.  I have never REALLY worked on this.  I’ve always just skated from one injury to the next and relied on high pain tolerance and talent to make it through.  But there are things I want here, and I need to be injury free to practice.  I am tired of making excuses.  I don’t let myself have excuses at the gym—I sure as hell shouldn’t allow excuses in violin.

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I’ve got a couple days of traveling ahead, but when I return I am going to do this properly.  I want to figure out what in my posture is screwing me up and go from there. 

How many of you suffer from playing problems or other overuse issues?  Any good advice for me? 

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Practicing, Running, Weight

Summer Retreat Day 5: Body Image

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Before I start today’s post, a few things to keep in mind for the upcoming week:

Tuesday, June 7:  My birthday!  I have some plans with friends, and naturally will tell you all about it later!  It involves a delicious dinner.

Thursday, June 9:  Concert starting at 7:30 pm with Chamber Project St Louis at “The Chapel” (location here).  (This is the group that I was ON TV with in January.)

Recent posts (from the weekend) you should read if you haven’t:

A Night at the Circus

Feeling Good

Okay!  Business concluded.  Now for the fun.

Happy Monday, loyal blog readers.  Today I have a few students and a meeting with a woman who makes invitations.  I am also thinking of either going for a run or hitting the gym for some cardio (if it ends up being just way too hot to run in the afternoon, since I didn’t get up early).  Should be a really great day, though hot.

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I am not entirely up to date on the virtual summer retreat, but I think that’s about par for the course and perfectly acceptable.  I’m doing what I can.  It’s been an odd week—I feel like I’m on summer vacation, yet I still have work and stuff to do.  Plus that constant feeling that I am forgetting something but not being able to recall what it is.

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Anyway, I decided to look over Day 5: Body Image for today.  As a woman, obviously I have body image issues.  On the one hand, I’m in better shape today than I have been since I started dating Chris.  On the other hand, it’s not as if I was happy with my body THEN either.  So it’s a double edged sword.  I’m strong, I’m capable, I can run for miles, I can lift heavy objects, I’m in great health.  I can wear SHORTS in public without worrying too much about it, and I can run wearing only those shorts and a sports bra and feel confident.  But it only takes a look, or a thought, or a pair of jeans that are too tight out of the dryer, for those ugly fat thoughts to reenter my head.  I definitely still think of myself as overweight (even though my BMI is not overweight, it’s still on the top end of the scale) but I want OTHER people to think of me as thin.  (and the most beautiful girl in the room…isn’t that what everybody wants?)

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(yes, I always dress in those colors, why do you ask?)

So, what does the VSR recommend?

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write a letter to yourself filled with self-compassion. in part 1, you will forgive yourself on any perceived ‘flaws’, and in part 2, detail the many gorgeous and delicious features you have that you LOVE [both inside and out].

Forgive myself for my flaws?  Is she crazy?  How will I improve them if I forgive myself for them?

Oh, I get it.  I’m supposed to be happy in my skin right now.  Rather than consider myself a work in progress…  I am not sure I’m ready to do that.  I am fine with being positive about some of my “gorgeous and delicious” features, but how can I forgive myself for my flaws?  Do I stop with teeth bleaching and hair removal then?   Start eating cheesecake every day?  Quit the gym?  I’m certainly not ready to do any of those things (though the cheesecake is tempting).

Inside and out?  I can embrace my inside—my sense of humor, my quick wit, my patience with children, my kindness, and my guilt.  Yes, I shall embrace my guilt!  (Guilt over what, you ask?  Why, you name it, anything that I could have done that I haven’t!  Constant sense of guilt!)

Outside…I do love my hair, I love that my teeth whitening is working, I love my smile, I love my eyes, I love my height, and yes, I do love that I can wear shorts this summer.  Do you know the last time I wore shorts comfortably all summer?  Without too many worries of people staring at my fat thighs?

But that doesn’t mean I’m ready to settle yet, do you hear?  I want more defined muscles and a smaller waist.  I will get there.  I hope for smaller thighs and butt too, though we’ll see how genetics serve me there.

And I need to quit biting my fingers.  Less mutilated hands would go a long way.  Chris generally thinks I am beautiful all over…except my fingers.  And you know, negative self-hating thoughts.  Meh.

meditation
5 minutes focused on loving yourself — and forgiving yourself for any perceived ‘imperfections’. [emphasis on the word perceived]

I haven’t really embraced the whole meditation aspect of this retreat…yet.  But maybe practicing the violin is sort of like meditating?  You are alone with your music, focusing on the HERE and NOW and concentrating on yourself.  When I watch myself in the mirror playing, sometimes I notice my strong arms, my nimble and able fingers, and I love the profile of myself playing the violin…I think that is when I am most beautiful.  I also know it’s something I do well, better than most everybody else (statistically speaking, there are really so few excellent violinists in the world, that with a margin of error, I could be considered the best.  You know, with a plus or minus 2 percent or something.)  I feel a great sense of confidence when playing, backed up with years of experience and tens of thousands of hours of practice.

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Haven’t changed that much either!

Practicing

Job interview

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Today’s “dailypost” is to share a story about a memorable job interview.  I am not really a job interview type of person.  As a musician, I am more accustomed to either getting the job by word of mouth, or by auditioning.

There’s nothing worse than auditions.  To get an orchestral job, unless you are very well-connected (i.e. related or married…) or lucky, you have to “win” an audition.  For most full time jobs, people come from miles around, and possibly nearby planets, to audition. 

The way it works (please skip to the following paragraph if you are already familiar) is that the job is posted and a “list” is given out of the excerpts to learn.  These are excerpts (parts) of orchestra pieces that you must learn and perform on your own in front of the committee, generally behind a screen for anonymity.  Usually you are asked to play a Major Concerto (for violinists, think Brahms, Tchiakovsky, or Sibelius—and look them up if you don’t know them, awesome pieces), a movement of a Bach Sonata or Partita, possibly a movement of a Mozart Concerto, and perhaps 10 to 20 excerpts.  The excerpts are somewhat standard throughout the industry, and for any given audition you would likely only be preparing one or two new pieces, the rest you would be relearning for the audition.  The entire list could take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 or 3 hours to perform.  You would spend many hours every day preparing the list, for perhaps two or more months.  You would record yourself, you would play for friends and colleagues, you would memorize it, you would make sure every note is perfectly in time and perfectly in tune, with a beautiful sound, nice phrasing, no obvious shifts, and you would hope that they love the style you play in.  Then you would buy your plane ticket to the audition, perhaps a hotel room, meals, taxis, etc.  You would get to the audition and you would play, behind a screen, perhaps for three to five minutes, and the committee of 8 to 10 people would decide whether or not you were good enough to advance to the next round.  Out of 30 to 50 people in a day of auditions, probably 4 to 10 are advanced to the next round.  And from that, one is chosen…maybe.  If you miss a few notes, or if the committee doesn’t like your style, or perhaps the sound of your violin (perhaps you don’t play on a multi-million dollar instrument like someone else might) you are out.  Out of luck, out of time, out perhaps a thousand dollars. 

Once you have that orchestra job though, then you can look down on the other musicians who don’t have one.  You can act surprised that they play an instrument, or make comments like “oh, you wouldn’t know what good playing sounds like because you only teach beginners.”  You can ignore them at restaurants, or talk about how “hard” your life is, or how money is tight with three kids in private school…the possibilities are endless!  And you can forget that someday you started to learn the violin from somebody perhaps just like them…and would never have gotten to where you are if there weren’t like-minded people. 

(I am not even really upset today…just thinking of job interviews made me think of auditions, which brings us here…I actually had a really good day, 9 hours of teaching, and many of my students were great delights!)

Practicing, Teaching

Practicing…again

Another Thursday done…perhaps you are tired of hearing me talk about my busy Thursdays?

Today, as usual, my students ran the gamut from “didn’t practice at all…again” to “Wow, I can’t believe how well they are doing.”  Some of them are just doing GREAT, and making me feel like I really know what I’m doing, others…well…we just do the best we can with what we have.  I am annoyed by the non-practicing though…not practicing equals not trying.  And I do try to educate the parents about it.  Some times the parents are first in line for excuses.   I get tired of excuses.   Not to be negative, but if a child doesn’t have time to practice violin, then they aren’t getting much out of the lessons, and might as well not be taking…or need to prioritize which extracurriculars are most important.  I find there is always time in the day for things that are most important, just not for everything.

But I will continue to teach each child the best I can, of course, because that is my job 🙂  I teach the child who shows up that day, wherever they are.