Focusing on the Details

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.