Vivi's Blog

 

Image by Pachelbel via Violin Online

Since I had a little more time on my hands this week and last week, I decided to spend some time practicing “Canon in D”. I’ve decided to skip the optional part that was suggested at the bottom of the piece to make it easier to learn the piece. I am a bit worried that I will not be able to play measures 21 – 28 quickly without messing up the video. I think that I might have to just play that part a little slower than what is written and try to play the notes with correct intonation. As a result, I spent most of this week repeatedly playing measures 21 – 28 and increasing the tempo each time I play. I also need to be careful about the C naturals in measures 40 and 42 because it can be hard to play those notes in tune when every other C note in the piece is sharp.

This week, I am learning that although the notes in measures 21 – 28 are easy to play, combined with the fast tempo, they prove to actually be quite difficult to play. Usually when I practice that section, I will play each note as a quarter note and then slowly transition into eighth notes. Since that section is the most recognizable part of the song, I need to make sure that I can play it to the best of my ability. For myself, I am learning that I tend to make my bow strokes too long, which makes it difficult to transition between notes at a faster tempo. I think I use longer bow strokes to try to increase the loudness of my playing, so I need to somehow learn to play louder using smaller bow strokes.

Next week, my goal is to be able to play measures 21 – 28 at the suggested tempo. I will also play through the piece with a tuner to see which parts are still lacking appropriate intonation.

Image by Tina Seelig via CreativityRulz

This week, I was given more information about the final presentation, so I decided to spend most of this week drawing up additional plans. I will divide my presentation into three parts: motivation/past experience, learning process, and plans for the future.

During the first part of my presentation, I will talk about the motivation behind my topic selection. I will talk about my early childhood interest in music and how I use music to deal with stress. I will also talk about my previous music experience with different instruments and the differences and similarities between the processes I used to learn each instrument. I will also mention if my ability to play the viola, a similar instrument, has helped me learn the violin or if it has had no effect on helping me learn the violin.

During the middle section, I plan on diving into the general process that I used to help me learn the violin. I will mention the apps I used to help me read the treble clef as well as apps that allowed me to play along with recorded music. I will also cover my methods of practicing.

During the last part of my presentation, I will mention my intentions about playing in the future. I will also talk about factors that may hinder the likelihood of practicing the violin such as lack of resources. Since I am currently using my friend’s violin for the project, it is unlikely that I will play after I return the violin since violins are expensive. I will also mention some songs that I hope to learn as well as if the project has inspired me to learn how to play other instruments. I will also briefly mention my biggest struggles during the process.

This week, I learned some presentation techniques to help enhance my presentation. I think that it is best to make the presentation as relatable to the audience as possible to make it easier for the audience to understand the importance of my topic. I plan on opening with a personal story when I talk about my early childhood interest in music to hopefully take the audience back to a time when they wanted to learn how to do something, but was not able to at the time due to a possible lack of resources. For myself, I learned that I am finding it difficult to briefly talk about important points in 15-second intervals since I tend to over elaborate on everything and spend too much time describing unimportant details. Therefore, next week, I will work on storytelling techniques that will keep the audience engaged during my presentation. I plan on drafting the first section of my presentation since I believe that a proper introduction to a presentation is extremely important.

 

Image by Jordan Mixson via Unsplash

This week, I practiced “Canon in D” by Pachelbel in preparation for the final presentation. I have played “Canon in D” before on the viola and the piano on multiple occasions, so I have an idea of the style and mood of the song. However, I have only played it a couple of times on the violin, so I needed to practice it more this week. I have the most trouble on measures 21 – 28 because the rhythm is much faster, and I am expected to quickly transition between strings. On a positive note, the notes in those measures resemble a scale for the most part, which makes it easier to get the hand positions down. Other than those measures, I do not really have a problem with the rest of the song because the rhythm is much slower and familiar. However, I may have trouble with intonation when I play the higher strings because I have a tendency to underestimate how far I need to stretch my hand to reach those higher notes. The song is also written in D major, which is a common key signature, so learning the notes will not be as hard as I think it will be. I do have to be cautious about the occasional accidentals because notes that are written to be different from the main key signature tend to stand out when they are out of tune. This happens in measures 32, 35, 40, and 42.

This week, I learned how to enhance my playing by incorporating dynamics. For example, when the notes are descending in measures 21 – 28, I will play them softly for a more dramatic effect. When the notes start to ascend and get higher in pitch, I will raise my dynamics. However, this does not work all the time, so I will have to experiment with the dynamics to effectively incorporate emotion in my playing. For myself, I learned and noticed that I am still having trouble with intonation despite repeatedly practicing the troubling notes over and over. I am planning on playing the song with another violinist because it helps me detect the notes that are out of tune.

Next week, my primary goal is to learn measures 21 – 28. I learn best by listening to recordings of my playing, so I plan on making several recordings of the portions that I have trouble with. I also want to work on my vibrato so I can enhance the sections that are mainly comprised of half notes.

Image by Ginnyburges via rhap.so.dy in words

This week, I decided to work on the plans for my final presentation. Unfortunately, I was unable to practice because I suffered a small injury on my finger. On a positive note, I was able to get a general idea of how I want my presentation to be structured.

First, I will open with a crash course on the structure of the violin. In this crash course, I will list the names of the strings as well as some of the different parts of the violin. I will also play each of the strings individually as I introduce them. Next, I will talk about the name of the clef for violin music. I will reveal some of the easy tricks that I used to help me read violin music as well as the resources that helped me learn the clef. I will also list any troubles I had as well as how long it took for me to read the sheet music. I will also explain the issues I still have today, such as occasionally misreading the sheet music. I will then explain that it is important to learn how to play the scales before playing sheet music because it helps with intonation. I will then show my usual tuning process before playing 2 versions of the D major scale to show differences in bow technique. I will also talk about my bad posture and technique habits as I play. I may need to borrow a chair and a music stand from the orchestra room to use while I play because that is the standard playing position for violinists. Afterwards, I will give a brief overview about my progress and mention my struggles in intonation and rhythm. I will also mention what I wish I could have done to improve my playing such as scheduling more meetings with other violinists for feedback. I may also play a short excerpt from “Canon in D”. In the end, I will talk about my current level of playing and what I hope to accomplish in the future.

So for now, my plans for the final presentation will be somewhat similar to what I stated above. This week, I also did some more research on the mechanics of the violin to use for my presentation. These mechanics include tuning by ear, which I do not know how to do because I often tune with a tuning app. I want to talk about tuning with an app and tuning by ear because not everyone is able to have the resources to tune with an app. Through my research, I learned that turning the peg or fine tuner to the right makes the pitch higher while turning the peg or fine tuner to the left makes the pitch lower. I plan on using this information when I briefly go over my usual tuning process before playing the 2 scales.

For myself, I am discovering that I am becoming more comfortable with the presentation because I have a clear idea of what I want to present. I feel more comfortable with talking rather than playing because I know that my playing tends to worsen in front of an audience due to nerves. However, I still want to play a small excerpt of a well known song because it is important to show my ability rather than just explaining what I can do.

Next week, I need to definitely practice the excerpt I want to play for the final presentation as well as gather more information on the points I want to make. For my final product, I am leaning towards playing the full version of “Canon in D”. If I am not allowed to use the same song in both the presentation and the product, even if they are different excerpts, I think I might play “Kiss the Rain” by Yiruma.

Image by oksmith via openclipart

Although I have had a lot of fun playing the violin, since I had more time this week, I decided to start planning out my final presentation. I think to be safe, I will play something on the simple side because I do not want my nervousness to hide my true playing skills. I will probably play a scale to begin with as a warm-up, and afterwards, discuss the difficulties that I had playing the scale on the violin in comparison to playing the same scale on the viola. If we have access to a large screen, I could connect my phone to the screen to show my intonation via a tuning app. However, it seems likely that there will be technical difficulties, so I will probably not do this to avoid wasting time. I could also play some notes individually to inform the audience on some note names. I will probably give a quick overview about the mechanics of the violin after I introduce myself and before I play the scale. In this quick overview, I will mention the names of the different strings and describe the violin’s role in the orchestra. I will also address the confusion between a viola and a violin since I need to explain my experience in order to give the audience a sense of my playing skills before I started this project. After playing the scale, I will transition into a piece that is around 1 – 1.5 minutes. I will introduce this piece by stating around how long it took me to play a piece with similar difficulty and length. After playing the slightly longer piece, I will also discuss difficulties of learning how to read the treble clef and other experiences I had with playing the violin with other orchestra students.

This week, I learned that this 5 minute presentation may seem shorter than I think it will be. Before planning, I thought that I would have too little to say because my topic is self-explanatory, but I realized that I need to talk about the parts I had trouble with such as intonation and reading sheet music. I also need to consider the amount of time it takes to transition from playing to talking. I may need to tune before I start playing because the temperature may make the strings go out of tune. I could incorporate my tuning process into my presentation because it is an integral part of the playing process, but it needs to be quick. I am glad that I have a lot of ideas, but I need to narrow them down because I only have 5 minutes, and I need to play live during a portion of it.

For myself, I noticed that I tend to take a long time setting up, so I will have to rosin my bow and thoroughly tune during the morning before school starts. I also need to talk to my orchestra teacher about borrowing a music stand to hold my music while I play. Since this presentation depends on how quickly I transition between playing and talking, I need to make sure that my set up is organized and strategical. Next week, I will decide on what scale to play, and I will practice it with a tuner in case I want to display my intonation on a screen for everyone to see. I will also dwindle down my list of ideas to have a clearer vision of what I need to talk about so I can prepare.

Wow! It has been one crazy week! Unfortunately, I spent most of this week in Savannah for the AP Biology field trip, so I did not have much time to practice. Instead, I spent my practice time browsing potential final product music. I really liked “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas:

Image by Joël Simard via musescore

Although this piece is mainly written in the key of D major, the rhythm seems challenging. There are a ton of eighth notes throughout the piece, but the eighth notes are relatively close to one another, which hopefully means that they will not be as challenging to play. I also noticed that the song is riddled with many scales. Scales better suit eighth note rhythms because the player does not have to keep track of numerous different finger positions while playing at such a fast pace. I really cannot wrap my head around why the first couple of measures are in the key of F major. I believe that major key changes are better suited for the highlights of songs. Major key changes bring focus and intensity to the melody, and the placement of the major key change at the beginning of this song detracts from the allure and anticipation of the song’s highlight. I guess the song does not really have a highlight because there is so much going on in the song. Since the same basic melody is repeated, it does not make sense for the repeated portion of the melody to be rewritten in a different key.

Since I am familiar with this song, I decided to take some time to run through it. I definitely struggled with the sudden key change because it was a very drastic change. The key starts off with 1 flat and suddenly changes to 2 sharps. I kept playing in the wrong key throughout the rest of the song, so I decided to just skip the beginning to make it easier to practice. Additionally, the rhythm in measures 66 – 68 was very difficult to play because it was the first time throughout the song that the rhythm appeared. It was crucial to play this rhythm correctly because it signaled the ending of the song.

This week, I gained more insight on the highlights of songs. I think the best way to describe the highlight of a song is through an example. For me, a highlight of a song is that moment during a rap song when the rapper suddenly sings instead of raps. During classical songs, it may be the part towards the end when the tempo suddenly increases and the melody has the same rhythm but different notes from the rest of the song. In “Colors of the Wind,” I thought that the highlight would appear in measure 42 because that was the last time that the main melody repeated itself, and the highlight usually appears in the last repetition of the main melody. However, there was no key change during the portion, so I was genuinely confused.

For myself, I learned that I am bad at slowing down the rhythm when necessary. For example, the change in rhythm in measures 66 – 68 is supposed to get slower, but I still played that portion with the same tempo as the rest of the song. I think it is more thrilling when the tempo is faster, so that could probably explain why it is hard for me to slow down. Next week, I plan to spend some more time on “Colors of the Wind,” specifically the rhythm, because I did not get much time to practice it this week. I also want to play with the original recording of the song to further improve my rhythm.

I have always loved the lovely melodies of classic Disney songs, so this week, I looked into some more Disney songs for potential final product pieces. One of the songs that I stumbled upon was “When You Wish Upon A Star” from Disney’s Pinocchio.

Image by Benny Chu strings via musescore

I have always wanted to play this song, but I was too afraid to play it because it is a very difficult piece. However, I am glad to have found a much simpler version to play. This version is written in the key of C major, which means that there are no sharps or flats! However, there are some accidentals, which means that some notes will be flat or sharp as indicated by the sign next to the individual note. Additionally, the tempo is only “quarter note = 80,” which means that this song is played very slowly. Although I am glad that this version is very slow, the actual music composition for this piece is extremely fast, so constantly practicing a much slower version of the piece will not prepare me for the real music score if I ever wanted to actually perform this song. The rhythm is also fairly easy to play, except for measure 22 because there is an eighth note rest right before three eighth notes. As a result, it was difficult to play the measure without playing beat “three-and” too early.

This week, I learned that accidentals tend to be out of tune because those notes are written in and are not part of the intended key. For example, this song is written in the key of C major, which means that there are no sharps or flats, but some of the notes have a sharp sign in front of them, which means that when you get to those notes, you will have to play a note that is outside the key of the piece. As a result, the accidentals tend to be out of tune because sometimes in the song, you play the natural version of the note, and other times, you play the sharp version of the note.

For myself, I learned that I tend to play notes too early because I do not wait and count all the way through the rests. For example, in measure 22, I would play beat “three-and” too early because I would underestimate the length of the rest right before the beat. Additionally, when there was a dotted half note, I would end them too early because I would not count all the way through. This happened in measures 8, 16, 24, and 32. Next week, I will give slower pop songs a chance because those tend to be easier to play due to the fact that those pieces are more well known. However, it also means that the audience will be more likely to detect mistakes in my playing. I also want to start playing with a metronome to make sure that my rhythm is improving since the rhythm is the most important part of the song.

This week, I found myself having less time to practice than usual. I usually try to devote at least 3 hours of practice per week, but I had trouble setting time aside due to another week of endless assignments and tests. However, I stumbled upon some sheet music for one of my favorite classic Disney songs and could not wait to practice.

 

Image by E.Tsuchiya5126 via musescore

“A Whole New World” is written in the key of G major, which is also one of my favorite scales since the single sharp note makes it easier to play in tune. However, in measure 29, the piece switches to the key of B major. Additionally, the song starts off slow but speeds up when the key changes.

Although the original song does vocally change key during its highlight, I do not believe that the composer who transcribed this particular sheet music used the correct key for the highlight (when the voices show more emotion and intensity and the song is sung in different notes). As a result, I had trouble playing the second portion of the piece because the key choice made my playing sound weird and out of tune since it sounded so different from the original. However, the key choice for the first half perfectly matches with the original, so I was at least content with that decision because I was able to play those notes with better intonation. It was also really difficult for me to play the note in measure 19 in tune because the previous notes were lower, so I had to quickly adjust to the higher pitch of the particular note. Also, I had to be careful because it was really noticeable if I played the note out of tune since it was the highest pitched note of the song and stood alone for a little over a measure.

Overall, I learned how to recognize if a transcribed song is written in the right key. Although an incorrectly transcribed song is still a song, it is extremely difficult to play especially if the song is well known because the notes may seem unnatural in comparison to the original song. For myself, I learned that my intonation for the higher pitched notes is not as strong as I thought it would be. I think I tend to overlook these notes because they do not take up the majority of the song, so in my mind, it is okay if I am out of tune for a couple of measures. This is a huge problem since it is more noticeable when I play those notes out of tune because of the unpleasant sound. Next week, I plan on practicing my intonation on the upper strings using a variety of exercises and scales. I also want to finally start looking for music for the final product because the deadline is coming up soon. So far, I am leaning towards a Disney song or a slower pop song because classical songs are often too complex to learn in such a short amount of time. Since I am not the best violin player, I want to find a song that is not too difficult and fun to play.

It is taking a bit longer to get used to playing than I thought. This makes me regret leaving my violin in the corner of my room during winter break. It is probably because I did not get enough practice this week due to the immense amount of assignments and assessments that I had to prepare for. That being said, I can already tell that it will be much more difficult to get in enough practice time this semester since second semester is usually more difficult than first and AP exams are just around the corner. However, I must push on and try my best to practice as much as possible.

This week, I decided to hold off on looking for a piece to play for my final product and find some easier songs to practice. I have always had my eye on “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley.

Image by GabeWray via musescore

If I have to be honest, although I love listening to this song, I usually try to stay away from pop pieces because they sound much different (and in my opinion, worse) on string instruments because of their fast and upbeat rhythms. However, the beat of “Can’t Help Falling In Love” is particularly slow, as noted by the quarter note = 100, so I decided to play this piece. Plus, the slow rhythm and easy scale made it a great song to practice.

“Can’t Help Falling In Love” is written in the key of D major, which is my favorite key because it is the easiest key to play in. The majority of the notes consist of quarter notes, half notes, dotted half notes, and dotted quarter notes, with the addition of a couple of slurs here and there. The only downside to the piece was the note hovering above one of the last few measures (“Rit. a la Elvis”). I still have no idea what that means, but I am assuming that it is telling me to slow down as I approach the end of the piece since “rit” stands for “ritardando”.

While practicing this piece, I learned a new time signature, “6/4”. I usually play pieces written in “3/4” or “4/4,” so I was definitely puzzled when I saw this time signature. I decided to look into it and discovered that it simply meant that there each measure had 6 beats, hence some measures containing 3 half notes. In other words, instead of each measure having the usual 4 beats, in this piece, each measure had 6 beats. For myself, I learned that I am progressing at a slower pace than I thought I would because of the anticipated number of schoolwork I have to complete. That being said, I am extremely worried that I will not be prepared when the final product due date comes around since April and May tend to be my most busiest months of the school year due to the large increase in the number of tests in those months. As a result, my goal for next week is to practice for as much as possible and to hopefully start looking for a piece to play for the final product. I also intend to play some more slower pop songs since they have nice melodies.

Wow! The first blog post of 2019! I can’t believe that there is only one semester left of school! Now, enough on the fact that it is a new school semester. Let’s dive right into this post!

If I have to be honest, I barely touched my violin over the break because I was too busy with a family wedding to practice. However, once the wedding ended during the last week of December, I started to practice again.

I have to admit, it was hard finding motivation to play after leaving my violin in the corner of my closet during most of the break. Luckily, my cousin constantly forced me to bring my violin over to her house to refresh my playing. I spent the rest of the break playing simple, fun songs as a warm-up to help strengthen core skills such as intonation and vibrato. For example, I played the all-American classic, “The Star Spangled Banner”.

Image by CMarino via musescore

Before I started playing, I would listen to a recording of the piece to make note of the changes in the dynamics in order to make my playing sound more lively and interactive. Additionally, I liked to play along with a piano app to help improve my intonation. The app allowed me to adjust the tempo of the piano piece to my liking, and it was extremely easy to go back to parts I had trouble on.

Although I did not progress much since my last blog post, it was important that I started off by playing easier songs to freshen up my skills. I discovered that it is better to play along with a recording of a piece being played by an instrument other than your own because it is easier to detect intonation through harmonization. I also learned that in order to build a skill, you need to practice on a weekly basis, as demonstrated in my difficulty to start playing complex pieces after not practicing for a long time. For myself, I learned that it is hard for me to become motivated to perform a task unless I see someone else performing the same task because it shows me that there is a purpose in working on that task and that my hard work will pay off.

Next week, I plan on focusing more on picking a piece to play for the final product since I will need a couple of weeks to learn the piece and perfect it for an audience. I have to say, I am extremely nervous to play in front of an audience since I rarely play full length pieces in front of people who I do not know that well. That being said, I have a feeling that my practice may not pay off in the end because the fact that I will be playing in front of an audience itself will probably result in a shaky tone coming from the violin. I guess we will see in a couple of months. Until next time!