Me, Myself and Violin

Finally he came back!!

2011-08-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

After six long weeks, my son finally came back home! Well, to be precise, we brought him home. His hair was over grown, bushy and nappy, but he had a nice tan. All the other kids are outside waiting to be either picked up by their parents or seeing others off until the vans take them to the city. Some are already crying:( We could tell they had so much fun and formed strong friendship with one another.

In the car, he was very quiet and not taking to us at all. We asked him what was wrong and his reply was "I miss the camp!!!!!" As soon as he said that he started receiving text messages right and left.

I knew deep down he loves music, but in a small town like ours, he had no one to really share his passion. Most of the kids at his school are more into sports than music. It was really a lonely thing for him, but now he had founds new friends who can totally relate to each other and joke about the things only they'll "get it".

This is a new chapter in his life. We'll have a new teacher upon encouragement from his current teacher. His teacher's busy touring schedule and the distance between us just won't allow them to work in most efficient way. I knew it was coming, but I am grateful that his teacher really genuinely think of my son's future and this is the best thing for him. Weekly lessons will really get him to the next level, hopefully. With his newly found motivation and enthusiasm, I am optimistic.

Where is my son??

2011-07-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

My son left for the 6-week summer camp up north in mid June. This was the first time he participated in a camp by himself. I've been always with him till last year. A couple of mini vans were to pick up the students at the assigned location in the city and drive them to the camp sight. We decided to get to the pick-up location bit early just in case we got lost, but about 10 students were already there chatting away. It seemed like everyone knew each other. One boy whom my son met at a competition was there and he greeted my son with a big smile, then went right back into the conversation with others. My son on the other hand, usually a social guy, but shy in the beginning, can't seem to get into the conversation. I tried to nudge him into the group, but he wouldn't go for it. Then a older boy approached me and introduced himself who turned out to be one of the teaching assistants. (He wasn't a boy, he was a grown man with a baby face:)) He assured me that he was going to take good care of my son. I was somewhat relieved knowing that even if he doesn't make friends, at least he has his counselor by him. Soon everyone started boarding. Of course my son was the last one to get in and all the way in the back by himself.....

My heart was aching worrying if he's gonna be ok without me......

I was completely wrong. That night, he called me to let me know he safely made it to the camp talking to his roommates in between like they've known each other for ages.

Then..... he stopped calling us. I tried to text him - no response. I left him a message - no response. Finally, guilt trip texting paid off. "I don't hear from you any more. I don't know if you are alive or dead. r u ok?" He responded "fine". That's it!?!?

After a few days of that very detailed:) text response, I finally got to talk to him. I could hear his roommates in the back ground laughing, talking loud, etc. My son said "Mom, I am having so much fun, I don't wanna go home." He said they've been watching a lot of Youtube videos by many different classical artists at night, talking about chamber music pieces they were working on. He sounded tired, but happy. No wonder I don't hear from him. He is having a life of his time sharing the love of music with his new friends who can relate to one another:)

It's gonna be so hard to track him down, but at least I know what he is doing when I don't hear from him.

Slump...................

2011-03-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

It is not entirely my son's fault. He hasn't been able to see his teacher for nearly two months due to his (teacher's) busy schedule. Meanwhile, he has been working on a couple of new pieces and a few of the ongoing ones, but he needs someone to kick his butt time to time (who is not me...:))

There are limits to what I can do for him. First of all, I don't play the violin! My ears are pretty good for spotting intonation issues, but not perfect. I have two other children who need my assistance. Therefore I cannot keep an eye on him all the time. When I am at work I am not sure how many real hours he put in for practicing. All I can do is to believe what he says.

I am getting a little tired of having arguing matches with him. He is probably hitting a full blown teenage mode. He has excuses to do just the opposite for everything I tell him to do or not to do.

Well, he created the system of practicing 50 minutes and take 10 minute break in between practices, but the thing is yeah, say he does 50 minutes of practicing, but it is never a 10 minute break. It will be more like 50 minute break in between. I don't mind it if we had 48 hours in a day, but he has homework to do, he needs to eat. It is just simply impossible to take that long of breaks.

I just can't wait for him to have a lesson next month (finally!!!!). Hopefully his teacher will give him a loud wake-up call:)

Cello Lesson

2010-12-27T20:43:00.000-08:00

My younger son has been taking cello lessons for about two years now. He tried violin when he was three or so, but realizing that he can never outdo his older brother, he just lost interest in it. I suggested to him to consider other instruments like cello. He liked the idea of having a bigger instrument than his brother:) We found a local teacher upon recommendation from one of the staff at a youth orchestra. She is very gentle, kind and patient. My little boy just zipped through the Suzuki books, but the more difficult the pieces gets, more puzzled he got. I mean, to me, he had no directions. He was basically leading the lesson. He would start playing whatever he wanted to start the lesson with. Sometimes it could be a scale, another time, it could be a piece he is working on at the moment. I just started feeling he was not getting the most out of the lesson. He didn't know most of the scales. In two years, he only knew two major scales by heart. I even asked her if there were any scale book she could recommend he could use. She said she would show me, but never happened. He never had an etude book. He can't read music. I started to supplement note reading at home. I like her as a person, but I didn't feel she was really passionate about teaching my son cello.
I went back and forth thinking, if I should stick with her or not. Deep in my heart, I knew it was time for me to look someone else. Last month, I finally did. I knew about this teacher who is very respected, but I also knew he wouldn't teach young beginners because when I first met him at a social gathering a few years ago, he told me so. But now my son's been playing for two years, he is not a complete beginner. So I contacted him and he agreed to see him. I took my son to his first lesson with a new teacher. Let's call him Mr. S since I don't know if he wants his name published on the Internet.
First, he had my son play what he was working on and some scales. Then he went on to the basics of left hand (my son's fingers collapsed when he pressed on the strings and he told him to keep it round) Aha! Then the bow grip. Even I knew his bow hold wasn't right. He told my son to watch the thumb and pay attention not to let it slip) This was night and day! Now I know what to look for to ensure the correct posture and arms, etc.
Then he explained to him that he will divide one hour lesson into four segments. First, scale, second, exercise (bowing, finger strengthening, etc.), third, etude and fourth, piece of music. This was exactly what he needed!!!! STRUCTURE! I am so glad that I made a choice.
I emailed the old teacher and politely told her that I was switching the teacher and thanked her for the past two years. I just wished I acted sooner...

Ysaye Ballade

2010-04-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

My son started working on this piece last month. It is a monster to say the least. A lot of double stops... A lot of dynamics. It is so dramatic and creepy at times and beautiful at the same time. His teacher recommended Gidon Kremer's recording for my son to listen to. I also like David Oistrakh's version. His teacher told him that there weren't many places you can change your bowing or fingering from Urtext. Right now, he is working on the first two pages to bring them up to a decent shape. This will probably take a long time to learn till the end. I don't want him to rush just to get it done, but take it slow and cleanly learn section by section. He is working on controlling the bow pressure so that he can create more dynamic range. He tends to play soft most of the time, but he needs more of fierceness in this piece. Let's see what he accomplishes this month:)

Violin Position

2010-04-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

My son's been struggling with keeping his violin up. Every time he tries to correct intonation or play fortessimo, his violin goes down.... His teacher repeatedly remind us that he needs to keep his violin up, but so far we are getting nowhere. I keep reminding him during his practice whenever I am present, but he seems to be very irritated. I understand why. I bud in every second. Then it escalate to an argument. I am so tired.... I told him he needs to come up with something so I don't have to keep telling him. Usually he sits down to practice. That doesn't help either, but his legs get tired standing up for a long time, so he alternate standing and sitting. I thought of something last night and suggested him this morning that he can sit right by our upholstered chair so the scroll of the violin will be just above the highest part of the back of the chair. That way every time his violin droops down it will touch the chair and instantly remind him and since it is not hard object, it doesn't scratch the violin. It seems to be working, thank goodness!!! Hopefully, if he continues with this for awhile, it might correct the problem. We shall see.

Building Repertoire

2010-02-23T14:43:00.000-08:00

One down side about preparing for any competition is that you are stuck with same pieces of music for a long time. That's what happened to my son. Usually, competitions require some Bach Sonata & Partita pieces with contrasting movements and either one movement of a concerto or all three movements. You study Bach anyway, even if you are not preparing for a competition. So, that's that... My son's been practicing the same concerto for nearly one year. Although, he was assigned some Paganini pieces, but in order to make a piece decent, it takes time. Even now, I think he can work on the piece he's been working on for that long if he wanted to. But maybe it is time to take a break from that and building some repertoire. That's what he is going to do this year. No competition, period. Hoorayyyyy!!!! for me:) Now, I don't have to nag and remind him to practice for the same piece. That doesn't mean he can take it easy, of course.
I can see some maturity kicking in for him (just a little bit). Plus, it is like taking a kid to a candy store that he gets to learn brand new pieces. Some are going to be short pieces and of course Mozart Violin Concerto which I think he'll learn No. 3 first. He'll also will learn his first Bach Sonata, probably No.1 to start with. I am just as excited as he is!

He is going to practice those pieces very slowly focusing on getting the intonation right first.
He will continue to work on his bow arm which he tends to elbow when he plays forte:)
And finally and hopefully, he'll learn Paganini caprice no. 24. This, I don't let him practice more than 30 minutes at a time for fingers being forced to stretch like there's no tomorrow.

Blount-Slawson Competition 2010

2010-02-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

This past weekend from 1/30-1/31, the Blount-Slawson competition was held at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, AL. My son participated for the first time. This was a really tough competition. Knowing that, he just wanted to try.

We drove there leaving the snow storm behind. It was raining the whole time and continued on the next day.

Friday, all participants had a chance to rehearse with their assigned pianists or their own pianists. You get one forty-minute session with them. Because of limited room availability, you have to practice at a hotel room for the rest of the evening unless you are a pianist.

The next morning is the preliminary audition. It starts as early as 8:00am, I heard. My son's audition time was a little past 10:00am. He got to warm up with the pianist again for another forty minutes before his actual audition.

They divide the participants into three groups. One all pianists and remaining two groups for other instrumentalists and the top three from each group advance to the finals.

Three groups audition in the separate halls. I'm not quite sure, but I think each participant is assigned to a particular room according to their instrument for the judges are staying in one room the whole time. So most likely the judges who are specialized in string instruments would judge string players. This is my own speculation, though.

Anyway, the level of the participants were very high. Many traveled from far. Some drove from Chicago, some flew in and many from local areas.

The results were written on the black board in the hospitality room around 5:00pm. This year there were four pianists chosen as finalists instead of three. It must have been very tight competition.

We didn't stay for the finals due to other commitment awaiting us next week, but you can read the article to find out who won the competition this year.

It was intimidating at first for we've never entered competition this big, but the people who volunteered there were all nice and friendly. They even had complimentary lunch for all of us at the preliminary round. We really enjoyed the experience there. If anyone is considering for the next year, don't be scared!:) Have fun!!!

Teacher who can't play violin?

2010-01-13T17:08:00.000-08:00

I don't play violin, but I love it. I have been to all of my children's music lessons taking notes and asking questions to the teachers. I've learned a lot from each of them. When I was a child I played piano for about five years, so I can read music if it's not too difficult, but that's about it.
I tell my son all the things that his teacher told him to do. A lot of time, he can't remember the details of the lessons because he is so caught up in a moment. That's why I take notes and videotape the lessons and listen to the music he's working on. Fortunately, I have a very good memory, so I can remember how his teacher demonstrated certain parts of the piece even without the video (of course I watch the videotape to make sure if everything I remember is correct). After 6 years of violin lessons for my son, I think I finally got what the right posture is and what needs to be watched for tone, phrasing and so on. Mr. K even jokingly told me if anyone in my area wants to take a violin lesson, he would recommend me:) knowing that I can't play violin. I took my son's violin and try to play simple G scale. I couldn't do it. It is sooo hard!!! I can tell my left hand is tensed and my bow not straight, but my body won't listen to me. I even tried to play "Twinkle" with a lot of out-of-tune notes. I didn't tell my son, but it is way easier to tell him what to do than doing it myself:)
I may try to learn it again when my confidence comes back:) But till then, I think I'll remain my son's at-home teacher who can't play violin:)

New Year 2010

2010-01-10T08:13:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!
2009 just came and went. However, I feel my son accomplished a lot in spite of the not-so-ideal circumstances. Due to geographical problem, he can only take a lesson once a month. The violin issue was some how worked out. Then again we don't know how long he can keep the current one with him. He managed to win a small competition with that cheap Chinese violin. He made a semi-final for another competition that is coming up soon. He will enter another one in the late January, and he is going to take a break from this competition thing. To be honest, I am exhausted. He is a 13-year-old boy who has a lot of interests. I understand that, but I also understand that you need to put extra effort in order to produce some result in the competitions. He is not there yet mentally. I have to tell him to practice most of the time. I have to tell him where needs to be fixed. Well, he knows most of the time, but let it slide sometimes.
So in a way, I am relieved that I don't have to be in that situation anymore 'cause it's not fun to argue with a 13-year-old at all. I really didn't want him to enter the competition because we had a similar thing last year, but my husband and my son rallied around me and told me that he really wanted to try it. I told them over and over that I didn't want to go through the same thing again. It is not fair that I become a "Bad Guy". They assured me it wouldn't happen again. But, nooooooo....... it did!

After the competition is over early this year, we are going to focus on developing my son's repertoire. I am so excited!!!! Mr. K gave me the list of the pieces he has in mind which includes Ysaye No 3, Bach Sonata No.1 and Tzigane (of course this will be a year to a year & 1/2 away) among others.

And my new year's resolutions is..... to write my blog more often:)

New Violin

2009-12-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

This summer, my son finally moved up to a full size violin. After listening to my son play on ebay-Chinese violin, my son's teacher probably felt really bad for him. He arranged to let my son borrow his friend's violin for awhile since he had a performance scheduled. It was one hundred steps up from what he was playing. While I was wracking my brain what to do with his violin in case he cannot keep this one for long, Mr. K (my son's teacher) called. As I expected, the owner of the violin wanted it back. I was ready to give my son his Chinese violin back, but Mr. K proceeded to tell me he found the organization that will let him use one of their violins. It was already in a violin shop not far from Mr. K's apartment. Since he was on tour, he said he was going to pick it up as soon as he's back in town. He tried to calm me down by saying "We don't know if this violin is good or not yet. We'll have to see when I get back. " and I replied "But I'm sure it is better than his Chinese violin, don't you think?" He giggled and said "I assume so:)"
A few weeks later at the lesson, Mr. K pulled out the violin saying "It is gooooood." Indeed it was! It was even better than Mr. K's friend's. Projection was better, sound was warmer and deeper. My son instantly fell in love with it. It is an old British violin from late 1800's. It seems easier to play than the violin he had or borrowed. Especially the G string's depth is outstanding. I decided to put on Vision Solo since Mr. K recommended on this violin. When we received the violin, it had Dominant on it. Since we switched to Vision Solo, the sound is even deeper and more complex. Only downside is they unravel fairly quickly. It may be due to my son's playing, but I'm not sure. I might try other strings in the future just to see if the sound gets even better than now.

Sphinx Competition

2009-12-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

This is not for everyone, but certainly for black and Latino string players residing in the U. S. 2010 marks their thirteenth year since its' inaugural competition. Unfortunately, I am posting a little too late since their preliminary CD was due by Nov. 11th, 2009, but you can always try next year and just refer to this year's requirement since their rule pretty much stay the same.
This year, the preliminary required pieces for violin were; Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4, 1st movement, two contrasting pieces from Bach Sonata & Partita (Ciaconna will be counted as two contrasting piece for one movement) and piece of your choice for the Junior division. If you would like the list of repertoire for other instruments and for senior division, you can check the repertoire page on Sphinx website. The Sphinx will choose 18 semi-finalists from the preliminary CD submission, 9 semi-finalists for each division. The semi-finalists compete in Ann Arbor & Detroit, MI. First place receives $10,000, 2nd $5,000 and 3rd $3,500 for Senior division. On top of it, the first place laureate will have an opportunity to perform with a major orchestra and CD production from Naxos Label. For Junior division, 1st place $5,000, 2nd place $3,500 and 3rd place $2,000. All three prize winners will perform on the national radio program "From the Top" hosted by Christopher O'reiley. The first place laureate will also have an opportunity to perform with a major orchestra. They also provide all semi-finalists scholarship to various summer institutes and offer one-year instrument loan on need basis. If you are interested in the competition here's the link to their website.

Moving on Up

2009-06-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

Time just flew like crazy. I've been very busy with three kids and their music lessons. They all play different instrument now. The oldest one, violin, the middle one, flute and the youngest, cello. I feel like I am living in my car.
Anyway, my oldest's teacher told us that it was about time for him to move up to the full size violin at last lesson. Unfortunately, we just can't afford thousands of dollars to purchase a good quality violin right now. His teacher kindly offered one of his old violin he used to use when he was a teenager which he warned me it was a poor quality violin, but sounds pretty good to me. It hasn't been played for nearly twenty years and missing some strings, so after receiving it, I took it to a local luthier for fixing it up. At instant glance, turning all the way around to examine, he, too, said that it was of poor quality, but he changed the tail piece, adjusted the sound post and it is playable now. However, I just wanted to investigate the option of purchasing less expensive violin. One is to rent. But most of the rental violins are of entry level violin. Second is a loan from one of the foundations. This, I am still thinking about it, but will take some time to even be considered for a loan. I don't even know if my son is good enough violinist to qualify for it. The third...... Ebay. I took a chance and looked into several Ebay merchants. There are several Chinese handmade violins up for auctions. After reading reviews and profiles, I purchased one from a Beijing maker. The violin, bow and case plus shipping costed me around $280.00. I said if this is a crap, I'll just use it for me to start learning how to play violin. It arrived within one week without a scratch. I am going to take it to the luthier and have it check it to see it is a decent quality and make any necessary adjustments if it needs them. I will write the outcome of this violin when I come back from the luthier.

Bruch Violin Concerto Continued

2009-03-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

My son's been working on the 1st movement of Bruch Concerto for a couple of months now. It is progressing slowly but surely. The last lesson was spend on the first note for about good thirty minutes. It is forte, but still needs to be clean and has to have a room for building up the dynamics. It is advised that smaller notes (8th and 16th notes) need smaller bow and use of the wrist for smoother sound. Oh, so many things to pay attention to!!! My son tends to have dynamics up and down like a roller coaster, but this has to be one big crescendo.
Also, his weakness is his bow hand. He lifts his pinkie off the bow and that makes his sound weak. His assignment for this month is to keep his pinkie on the bow at all time. It took good two weeks for him to fix this problem. I had to tell him every time his pinkie was off. I know he is so tired of me butting in, but now I don't have to remind him that often any more:) It makes a big difference in sound especially with his small hand, he needs all the weight he can get from his fingers and elbow. He was busted at his last lesson that he was not using the metronome during his practice. I guess it was very obvious to his teacher since his rhythm was all over the place. Now he is using it all the time. Hopefully it will show at his next lesson.

First Lesson of 2009

2009-02-17T18:44:00.000-08:00

I have been away for awhile due to my mother's illness, but my son's lesson still goes on:) At the end of January, we had a lesson. New Year, new start! He was given Bruch Violin Concerto, 1st movement. Paganini No. 16 which is his first Paganini Caprice! (That was given at the lesson before last.) He also was given one of the variations from No. 24 (The one you pizz all over the place.), and No. 9. What else? hm mm.... Oh, some Kreutzer etudes and B flat 4 octave scales, arpeggios, 3rd, 6th, octaves, fingered octaves and 10th. Out of all this, the scale needs to be put on most emphasis. This year, I think he needs to really buckle down and gain good bow control. He's been given a lot of good exercises for it. For example, detache bowing at the frog and at the tip for wrist flexibility, wind shield wiper exercise ( you swing your bow right and left like a wind shield wiper) and so forth.
One thing I discovered during the last lesson was that all this time I thought my son's 3/4 size violin was lacking projection although it has a very warm sound, but that was just my son's lack of bow control. When his teacher played on it, it had a beautiful huge sound! He really liked my son's violin. My son's elbow was too low when he played on G & D strings and he didn't apply enough pressure with his index finger when it was called for. He is working on those areas and I can hear the improvement day by day.
I will post detailed lesson story for each piece they went through next time.
Happy practicing till then!

Paganini Caprice 16

2008-12-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays! I managed to avoid the Holiday shopping by purchasing most of the presents through Internet. It is almost impossible to find a parking space these days at the shopping malls. Anyway, we had very good lessons this past weekend. My son finally started his first Paganini Caprice. It is No. 16. His assignment was to work on the first three lines very slowly. Thankfully, his intonation was pretty good, so they started to work on phrasing and attacking of the bow, etc. Especially, when you play this, you need to watch the dynamics very carefully. Paganini put fortes in particular notes and you need to really bring out those and you will hear a melody. Of course, my son is not allowed to play this piece in tempo yet. It require a slow, precise practice before he can even attempt to do so. Also, in some bars, you need to stretch your fingers very wide which is really one of the challenges in playing Paganini. His teacher told him to shake and loose his hands whenever his fingers get tired or sore. It is not a good idea to push yourself too far in these passages when practicing. This will lead you to an injury. By next month, he is required to memorize the entire piece with perfect intonation and good sound. My son is getting back on track so to speak. He started to focus more and pay attention to his intonation. We'll see how this will go. His teacher's recommended recordings are by
Midori, Shlomo Mintz, James Ehnes. I also have a DVD of Alexander Markov performing entire 24 caprices which is very intense and iteresting. He supposedly learned all 24 caprices in one summer. That is incredible!

Christmas Music

2008-12-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

Last night, my son was invited to play violin at our neighbor's church Holiday party. He had a week to prepare a few songs including "Silent Night". I searched the web for free download for sheet music. At Virtual Sheet Music, you can Download Christmas sheet music instantly, too. They have some free music to download. He played "Jingle Bell" and "First Noel" and ended with "Silent Night". It was beautiful even though he didn't have a pianist to accompany. He enjoyed playing them. It was more of a joy of just playing without the pressure of competition or recital where you worry so much about making mistakes:) Everyone there was to enjoy the moment together and share laughter. This morning, of course, he started his day with practicing scale and getting ready for his next lesson:) Happy Holidays to you all!

Elgar Cello Concerto

2008-12-06T15:51:00.000-08:00

My younger son has been taking Cello lessons since September. After trying the violin, he was frustrated that he couldn't "out-do" his big brother:) So, he took a looong break from it and kept asking me if he could start Cello lesson. I put it off for the longest to see if he was just saying it to try and quit in a very short time. After all, cellos are not the most economical instrument. But, when he said "Mommy, you don't have to have a Birthday party for me this year, but can I please take a cello lesson?" When a 8 year-old-to-be said that, I couldn't turn him down. So I contacted a local teacher to set the lesson up. Meanwhile, I searched Youtube to listen to some of the cello concerto. Then,,,,,, I heard Yo Yo Ma performing Elgar Cello Concerto. What an intense beginning! I love it!!!! I did a little more research on the concerto and found that young Jacqueline du Pré championed this. Now, I play her Elgar Cello Concerto in my car whenever I drive (which is most of the time transporting three kids from one place to the other!).
Now, my Cellist son wants to play this so badly, he even tries to find a melody and gets frustrated. I had to tell him this is for someone who's been playing Cello for a long long time. His answer? "I'm going to play in three years!" Go for it, man!

Emergency!

2008-12-03T07:19:00.000-08:00

Well, it happened a week ago. My son was trying to eat one of those noodle soup in a cup. after pouring the boiling water, he tried to take it to a table and spilled it on his hands! He immediately ran the cold water and cooled it, but I can see the right wrist and the left palm are red. I put the Vaseline and bandaged him up. The next day, the palm looked OK, but the right wrist developed a huge water blister, so I broke it and took some of the dead skin off of it. He still has some pain and can practice but 15 minutes. I just beat myself up for letting him carry that darn cup:(
It should heal up soon though. Meanwhile, he is taking it easy and enjoy a little bit of lazy week:) Hopefully, by the time he is good to go, he miss his beloved violin (he named her Melody Rhythm) and pay extra attention to her:)

Zoom H2 Recording Device

2008-11-24T10:43:00.001-08:00

I purchased Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder a couple of months ago to record my son's required pieces for the competition he's entering. After searching the web for quite some time, I decided on this based on the customer reviews. When it comes to computer and electronic gadgets, I am an average novice person. When it arrived, my first impression was "very compact and light!" It could operate on two AA batteries or AC adopter that came with it. It has options of 4 channels or 2 channels which you can easily change with the push of a button. Recording quality was surprisingly clear for a small device like this. When I finished recording, all I had to do was connect it to the computer with USB cable and listen on Windows Media Player. I could hear every little noise he made even the sound of the pedal the pianist made. It uses SD card and the device shows how much it is left to record. Only down side I had is that the display window is small, so for a person with reading glasses like me would have a hard time reading the letters. But all in all, I am very satisfied with this recorder. I need to explore more since it has a function like changing the recording to MP3 and when you use 4 channels it splits the recording into two (front and rear mic.). I want to learn how to combine those two files on my computer. I'm sure I'll figure it out after I finish reading the owner's manual:)

Perfect Pitch?

2008-11-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

At the last lesson, my son's teacher, Mr. K and my son worked on A minor 4 octave scale. He's been working on it for awhile. However, at shifts his intonation has been unstable. Then Mr. K asked him "Do you have a perfect pitch?" My son replied "I don't know." Mr. K asked again, "Can you name a note when someone plays it?" My son said "Yeah, I think I can." I wasn't sure if he was really able to do that. Anyway, Mr. K said "If you can, why do you let it get away with out-of-tune notes when you play scales?" My son didn't say anything about that:) While they were working on the scale, I was battling with my camcorder. It is not working. I tried to pop the tape in and out. Every time I did so, it made a sound "Pe, po, pa, pe." Mr. K asked my son, "What were those notes?" My son was like "That sound from the camera? They are e#, b flat, c# and e#?" Then Mr. K exclaimed. "See, you do have a perfect pitch! Use it!!! Don't be lazy. Use it when you play! By the way, your mom has a perfect pitch, too." I was confused. "Me?" He explained to me, "Yes, see, every time your son plays out of tune, you make that face. That is because you have a perfect pitch." I said to him, "Oh, so that's what it was. I just get really uncomfortable feeling every time I hear a note out-of-tune. So, I just don't know the names of the notes." Mr. K said "That's correct." Now, it is true my son's been neglecting to fix those out of tune notes. It was an eye opener for him. Now, he needs to open his ears and listen to the notes he plays and correct one note at a time. Mr. K suggested to work on just two notes at a time to fix it. For example, if he has a hard time shifting from one note to the other, he needs to work on those two notes only until he gets it. Then put them in to the rest of the phrase. If he messes it up, he needs to repeat the process again. In matter of five minutes, he was able to fix one area he had been struggling with. By next lesson, he should be able to play A minor scale in tune, I hope:)

Two Steps Forward, One Step Backward

2008-10-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend's lesson was good and not so good at the same time. Since we can only see his teacher once a month, we try to get two hours Saturday and two hours Sunday. First day, we focused on Bach Partita No. 2, Allemanda and Corrente. Last month, my son was told to use a metronome at all time. So he's been following that instruction (or I made him:)). His teacher, Mr. K said, "First time in your lesson, I hear the metronome!" meaning his rhythm was getting consistent. That made his day! My son tends to use his bow more than it needs to be, so Mr. K reminded him to hold back a little bit. Corrente was coming along better than Allemanda. Since his intonation got better on both pieces, they started working on interpretation and accents. It is finally becoming some sort of music.
Next was Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. At last lesson, it was just slashed by his teacher. He's been playing mindlessly over and over and some of the intonation was getting sloppy and accents were ignored, etc, etc..... So he assigned his section by section a timed practice regime and told him not to play in tempo for at least a week until all the intonation is cleaned up. This month, it got better and they started working on the detail like phrasing.
After the lesson, we are supposed to go back to the hotel and practice like crazy, but we have a family friends we haven't seen in two years and I promised them we'd have a dinner together. So, we met up and had some Asian food, had a good time. We got to the hotel around 7:30pm and after a short break, my son practiced for about two hours. I don't know how focused he was but he tried.
The next day, we had another lesson around noon. We started off with Bach. Allemanda, so-so, but Mr. K was very pleased with Corrente. He told my son he almost didn't have anything to add which is a big compliment for a teacher who was very disappointed last month by my son's progress. Now, there was one more piece he needed to play for him.
That was Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4. Mr. K worked with him a few months back intensely, so he waited until now to listen. While he was playing, I could tell his face started getting tense. After my son finished, he said "We worked so much on this and I don't know what happened. I was expecting it was even getting better than before. Now, your intonation is too sharp in so many places and all the dynamics are missing." Oh, no! I don't know what to do. I feel sorry for my son for going through this emotional roller coaster, but I understand Mr. K's frustration, too. I constantly remind my son not to play through over and over, but to take time and slowly practice with the score in front of him. This pre-teenage mind doesn't want to listen lately. Mr. K told him, he can't afford having inconsistency in his progress. One gets better and the other one gets worse. He needs to slow down and take time to look at each note carefully. I can only hope all the pieces he is working on are upward progress.......

The Night of the Concert

2008-10-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

So, this past Saturday night, October 18th, my son performed with the local community orchestra. We had two rehearsals weeks prior and the dress rehearsal in the morning of the concert. As I mentioned in the last post, he played Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, 1st movement. At the rehearsal, I was a little concerned with the tempo change toward the end where "presto" comes in. My son sped so fast, he left everyone behind:) So the conductor and he had a chat and agreed on the tempo. Although he wanted to go a little faster than the tempo they played, I told him it is very important that everyone stays together.
It is amazing though, when he was practicing alone, he had a hard time playing "tranquillo", but the moment he started rehearsing with the orchestra, his "tranquillo" started to shape up. Amen to the orchestra!
All in all, his performance that night went well. Now, he needs to record this piece for an audition, he needs to clean up a few places such as intonation and bow changes. Since he now knows where exactly those areas are, he should be able to practice efficiently (I hope).
Well, he'll have a lesson this coming weekend. Hope his teacher will be happy with his improvement. We'll see.

Revisiting Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

2008-10-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

My son has learned Mendelssohn Violin Concerto 1st mvnt from his previous teacher about a year ago. Since he's entered in a local competition with this piece, he's been working on it all this time, so he can be prepared to perform with the orchestra as a part of his prize. Since his last teacher moved out of state, he's been working on it by himself for several months until his new teacher, Mr. K gave him a new bowing, fingering. Now, at his last lesson with him, he asked my son to play it. The first page went quite well. He fixed his intonation, articulation and dynamics, so he asked him to play the rest. This was quite different from the first page. I know his tempo was unstable in some places. He tends to rash at times where he needs to keep his tempo. His sixteenth notes were not clean. All these areas, I was aware, but he doesn't want to listen to me. This time, his teacher confirmed it. He thought he was doing well, but now he is in shock. Until next lesson, he was ordered to play it by sections and absorb the dynamics, clean up the sixteenth notes and study phrases with a metronome, of course. For a twelve-year old boy who wants to play everything fast, this is a pain-in-the-neck practice regime, but I know he needs to. At the same time, I am realizing how difficult it is to master such a big concerto. Although he doesn't realize the benefit of slow practice yet, I am certain that when he's done, he will see it himself how much he'd improve.

It Is So Hard!!!!

2008-10-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well, again, I haven't posted in awhile. A lot had been going on in violin study and our daily life. Anyway, my son unexpectedly found a new teacher after the summer. It is fortunate for us to encounter such a great teacher for him. He demands preciseness and articulation in every area of violin playing which my son desperately needed. Since last year was somewhat unstable in terms of lessons because of his teacher's schedule and so on, his intonation suffered tremendously. His practice was pretty much playing through the pieces he was working on and never really took time to go deeper into details. Now his teacher, Mr. K, makes him think on his own and gives him a feed back on it. I think my son is intimidated a little since he's never really thought about why this phrase needs to be like this or that, etc., but I think he'll get the hang of it soon. I'm sure he will grow into a musician:)
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, 1st mvnt he played before needed to be looked at since he's playing with a local orchestra in about two weeks. The first page was OK, but Mr. K was somewhat disappointed the rest of the movement wasn't the same. My son took it hard cause he thought he was getting there. Now, he is going to have to practice section by section very slowly and fix intonation, articulation, sound and dynamics. I know he needs to do this, but he has hard time understanding that slow practice makes it better faster. Typical pre-teen doesn't want to listen to Mommy!!!! I'm pulling my hair out and wondering when he is going to grow up. I think I am going to save his lesson detail until next time cause I need some sleep:)

Summer Violin Study Update

2008-08-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted for awhile. My mother was diagnosed with Cervical cancer, so I had to fly home to take care of her for a couple of weeks from late June. After that, I took my son to Colorado to participate in Musin the Mountains. It was very productive two weeks. He had an opportunity to take lessons from Philippe Quint. Although he only had five thirty-minute lessons, the improvement was obvious. They worked mostly on Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4, 1st movement. Not only Mr. Quint gave him some pointers for the piece, he also gave my son a lot of basic skill builder like how to exercise bow pressure control using less pressure at the frog and gradually increase in index finger pressure toward the tip, finger flexibility exercise at the frog and the tip, ect., and explained to him how important it is to use metronome regularly. On top of all these things, we had a chance to listen to him perform Corigliano: The Red Violin Caprices from his new CD. It was fierce! My son also picked up his CD Rózsa: Sonata for Solo Violin; Variations on a Hungarian Peasant Song. He especially liked the track no. 9 (North Hungarian Peasant Songs and Dances, Op 5; Allegro giocoso). In the car, he kept pressing repeat over and over like he couldn't get enough of it:) This encounter with Mr. Quint made my son really motivated about violin. Seeing a young charismatic virtuoso right in front of his eyes and being taught by him made him want to put extra effort into his practicing. Thank you, Mr. Quint!

A Lesson with His New Teacher

2008-05-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we finally had a lesson with my son's new teacher, Mrs. W. Her house almost looked like Mozart will definitely visit her. We started with Mozart No. 4, 1st movement. His teacher who moved back to Florida put some fingerings and bowing on the music last time my son had a lesson with him, but we couldn't really going to depth with the piece. I didn't know, but Mrs. W actually studied with Nathan Milstein when she was younger. She pulled out the score from her library with his fingering and bowing on it. She was concerned with changing fingerings and bowing that his teacher in Florida (I will refer to him as Mr. A from this point on.), but I told her he is very flexible regarding changing those as long as they help convey the piece. So she started to listen to my son play and stop when needed to make some changes. My son play very energetically, but with Mozart, some elegance is required in many places. She pointed out. She was very thoughtful and pleasant. At times she would ask my son his preference in certain phrases which is, I think, he needed to think on his own more musically. This will make him be more mature as a musician. This weekend we will fly to Florida for a lesson with Mr. A. After that, we won't see him until August. Meanwhile, we will continue lessons with Mrs. W through the summer except when he will be in the summer camp. I am somewhat relieved that he won't have to spend the summer without a teacher and take steps back.

Practicing With a Pianist

2008-05-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Well, my son hadn't had a lesson for over a month. His teacher moved back to Florida and his new teacher can't teach him until her students' recital is over this weekend. So he's been practicing by himself. This gets old if you know what I mean. Especially when he is eleven, he doesn't know what needs to be done a lot of times. This week we arranged with the pianist who he worked with before to go through Mozart No. 4 he's been practicing. It is just refreshing to practice with an accompanist. You can't be selfish and speed up or down according to your agenda. You have to collaborate. And reality check..... Why is Mozart so difficult? Well, first of all, not that I am making excuse for my son, but the last time he had a lesson was the first time he was given this piece and they pretty much spent the whole lesson adjusting fingering and bowing. Tonight, the pianist gave him some pointers which he always welcomes. This concerto (1st movement), I realized that it is almost a conversation (chatting) between the violin and the orchestra (in this case, the piano). If you get into it, you get the hang of it. I was going to tape this and use it as a submission for his summer music camp. (They require a CD or tape to determining the placement of suitable orchestra) But I said at the end, "Let's not use No. 4. He is not ready. We'll do Mendelssohn and tape it next week." That's OK. We'll take time and make it better. On the fun side, my son's been practicing "Meditation from Thais" by Massenet. We asked the pianist to play along with him. Well, we worked on a few times. Around the fifth time we decided to tape it. It wasn't too bad for the first time playing with piano after practicing for a week. Of course at some point, we'll need to ask his teacher to teach him this piece. But it is a beautiful piece. I love it. My son enjoyed playing with the pianist today. We'll probably do it again maybe a couple times a month or so. I am so tired... from keeping our younger children quiet during taping. I think I am going to fall asleep in one, two, three......seconds:)

Power of Violin Strings

2008-05-15T11:17:00.000-07:00

I am not talking about the projection here. (Maybe in some way?) Last night when my son was practicing, he came to me and told me his strings didn't sound good. They were sort of scratchy, so he said. I was just thinking about changing strings a few days ago, but I decided to wait until the strings were noticeably getting bad. It's been a few months since I put the Warchal Amethyst strings on his violin. I liked them, but I've been trying all kinds of different strings on his violin for some time to find the "IT" strings. I bought Pirastro Evah Pirazzi and never put them on. They've been in his case for a few months. Last time I tried it when he was still in 1/2 size violin, it didn't work very well. So I was hesitant, but I read so many positive feed back on them, I decided to give them a try one more time. OMG!!!! What a difference! After tuning the strings, my son played a few tunes and when he played one of Bach Partitas, the church echo sound came out of his violin when he hit the chords perfectly in tune. Both of us looked at each other in disbelieve. The projection was almost as twice better than before. After playing for an hour or so, he put the violin down and said to me. "This is really good, Mom. The strings makes me conscious of good intonation cause when you here that ringing sound, it makes you wanna here it all the time. In order to do that, I have to play in tune all the time." Hallelujah!
This is a reassurance of how important the strings are to one's violin study. Now, he is excited about playing again and he found what kind of sound he wants to produce. I think this will be the strings for my son's violin.

Blount-Slawson Young Artists Competition

2008-05-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

In my competition blog section, I decided to post competitions information that might be of interest for those who are in middle - high school age. That said, here's one that I found that might fit into my son's age category for the next year. (He will be in the 7th grade next school year.) Blount-Slawson Young Artists Competition. This competition is a two-day event and this time, it will be held on Saturday, January 31-Sunday, February 1, 2009 at Huntingdon College, Montgomery, Alabama. This competition is open to musicians in the seventh through the twelfth grades residing in and attending school in the United States. Students of strings, winds, brass, percussion and piano are eligible to enter in one category only. Previous first place winners are not eligible to compete. The winner must be available for rehearsals and publicity as required.
Acceptable literature for the competition includes any one movement from any work in the standard concerto repertoire. Works associated with the student repertoire may be selected if they are original works. Transcriptions or arrangements are not acceptable unless transcribed by the original composer. Memorization is preferred but not required. All works must have orchestral parts available. Special permission is needed for complete concertos in a single movement. Please call the Symphony office (334-240-4004) to request permission.

Saturday, January 31 is the preliminary round. They will divide the musicians into three groups and choose the finalists from each group for the final round the following day which is open to public.

The First Prize winner will perform with the Montgomery Symphony at the Davis Theater on April 27, 2009 and receive $10,000 consisting of a Cash Award of $2,500 and an Educational Award of $7,500; An appearance on the nationally broadcasted From The Top Radio Show hosted by Christopher O’Riley.

If you or your child is interested in entering, here's their application form. Application deadline is Decermber 15, 2008 (It has to be postmarked by this date). If you have a question, the contact person is Helen Steineker and you can email her at mailto:msymphony@bellsouth.net?subject=Blount

Summer Violin Study Plan

2008-05-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

In a short period of time, a lot of things happened. Although we knew about it, it is still nerve wrecking. My son's teacher is moving back to Florida. (He already did.) So we started looking for a local teacher for my son. As of now, we are planning to send his once or twice a month to Florida to continue lessons with his current teacher, but we can't guarantee that we can afford doing so on a regular basis. Due to the rise of gas price, the flights are getting expensive. After asking around the people we knew, we decided that Ms. W was a good fit. She is over seventy years old, but still actively performing. My son's current teacher and she talked on the phone and seemed to be comfortable with working with my son together. Actual lessons with her won't start until toward the end of this month due to her recital schedule. At least he won't be left alone and stepping backward during this summer. That has been the case with past summer when he couldn't participate in any intense camp or continue weekly lesson while his teacher participated in a month long festivals across the continents.
This summer, since my son received a tuition assistance by winning a local competition, we decided to send him to Music in the Mountains in Durango, CO. for two weeks. One of the reasons we decided on this camp is the faculty. Vadim Gluzman and Philippe Quint (Yes, the gentleman who left 4 million dollar strad in a cab in NY.) are among them. Just to listen to them perform will be benefit in itself. My entire family went to Vadim Gluzman's concert a couple of years ago. We were very impressed with his intensity and sound. Even my then young children were totally in it. The other reason is you get private lessons every other day which he desperately needs.
Forgot to mention, my son will travel to Europe before the camp with his youth orchestra members for ten days. He can't wait to be independent. When he found out that I wasn't gonna accompany him, he jumped for joy! My feelings are hurt:( hehe.... But I will go to Colorado with him. Unfortunate for him, lucky for me:)

Have You Left Your Violin?

2008-04-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is a story written by Jeffery C. Mays/The Star-Ledger.

It took 18 months for Philippe Quint to persuade a wealthy philanthropist to lend him a 1723 Antonio Stradivari "Ex-Keisewetter" violin valued at upward of $4 million.
Early Monday, it took less than a minute for the valuable instrument to disappear after Quint left it in a Newark cab.
The centuries-old stringed instrument sat in the third-row seat of the minivan cab as it was parked overnight on a Newark street. The next morning, it went along with a fare to Kearny, then to Queens and even through a motor vehicle inspection.
All the while, cab owner Mohamed Khalil was unaware that the violin was in his cab and that Quint was frantically searching for it.
When Quint was finally reunited with the prized instrument at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday afternoon, the violinist dropped to his knees and shed tears of joy.
Quint, 34, is a Russian-born, Grammy-nominated violinist. He defected from what was then the Soviet Union in 1991 and is now a U.S. citizen. He declined to be interviewed, but in a statement issued through his publicist, said he was "incredibly grateful" to Khalil.
Quint said he put his luggage in back of the minivan after arriving from Dallas, where he performed at a private fundraiser, and kept the violin inside the cab with him when Khalil picked him up at Terminal C at about 12:30 a.m. Monday. He was dropped off at Battery Park City in Manhattan. After collecting the $52 fare, tolls, an $8 tip and a handshake, Khalil drove off.
"Instantly, I realized my violin was still in the car," Quint said in the statement.
Quint, frantic to find the violin, called the Port Authority and Newark's Taxi Commission. At 9 a.m., he was in the commission office looking at photos of drivers. By then, the word had gone out to drivers to look for the case, said Hector Corchado, head of Newark's taxi division.
Khalil was at Newark Airport about to put the taxi out on another shift when another driver asked whether anything had been left in his taxi. Khalil checked and saw the case. Minutes later, Quint arrived.

I am so happy for Mr. Quint that he recovered his Strad unharmed.
Similar thing happened to us in the past, too. My oldest and the middle one had their youth orchestra performance that day. We've been out all day and after the concert, we decided to treat the kids to Sushi. (My oldest one is a big sushi fan.) It was Sunday and it is almost restaurant's closing time. There were no customers but us. So we asked the waitress if it was OK to put kids violins on the chairs behind our table. We ate and ate and chatted away. Finally everyone finished, paid the bill and off we go. After a mile or two into driving, I just thought about the violins and asked my husband "Did you get the violins?" His already big eyes almost doubled in size! "Oh Sh*$#!" Of course I reminded him to watch his mouth:) We called the restaurant to make sure they were still open and they had them. We made a rapid U-turn and retrieved their violins. From then on, I haven't been delegating violin loading to my husband. I make sure my child put it in the car and take it out of the car BEFORE we take off:)

Competition Result In!

2008-04-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, I received a call asking for my son. I thought it was from his school. I told her he hasn't bee home from school yet. The lady introduced her as a coordinator of the competition he entered the previous week. Since he wasn't home she told me that she had a good news for him. He was selected as one of the winners for this year! I was literally shaking with joy and excitement. I was so happy for him. He worked hard for this and it paid off. So he will get a scholarship for a music camp this summer and performance opportunity with the orchestra who sponsored this competition. He will have to keep up with his Mendelssohn since that's the piece he is going to play in October. They selected four winners this year. There were piano, french horn, harp and violin as winners. It is a nice mix of instruments. He will be able to play the piece with an orchestra for the first time. It will be awesome!

Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4

2008-04-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Just when my son started to work on Mozart No. 3, we found out that the competition he wants to enter next year requires No. 4 instead. So, last night's lesson was solely dedicated to learn this new piece. When you listen to it, it sounds so light and easy, but there are a lot of tricky parts he needs to tackle. His teacher helped him with some fingerings and bowing changes to make it better for him. He played very very slow to absorb melody and focus on cleanliness. For the first time to learn this, he did well. My husband recorded the lesson with our camcorder since I had to stay home with other two children. In the video, his teacher explained that in classical era, they didn't use glissando. Therefore, he needed to careful not to make any portamento and glissando, etc. We always learn something new at the lesson. They didn't get to Cadenza last night. The most popular one seems to be Joachim. However, his teacher might look into some other cadenzas to give him. They will probably start working on it at the next lesson.

Menuhin Competition

2008-04-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

One of the most recognized violin competition in the world, Menuhin Competition started on April 11 this year. Thanks to the Internet, you don't have to be in Cardiff to watch it. They have live broadcast of the compeitition.

They have two categories, senior and junior. Senior must not reach 22 years of age and Junior is for under 16 years old. I watched some of the competitors on the live broadcast yesterday. My favorite is Jiafeng Chen from China. Remember, I am not a expert, but his playing was very clean and to me he seemed very comfortable. If you missed the first round. Don't worry, you can still watch by clicking Watch Again tab. Today, April 13th, the competitors for Junior Division will perform. I already missed half of them because of time differences, but will watch the clip from earlier when I get a chance later today.

Next competition is scheduled for 2010. The application is due in October of 2009. If you are thinking of entering, you may want to check back their website often for update.

A Week of an Eleven Year-Old Violinist

2008-04-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

My son's been very busy with his violin lately. Sometimes, I feel overwhelming driving from one place to the other, but he wants to do it all. After the day of competition, he was asked to play at a wedding that afternoon. He gets points towards his youth orchestra tour. He really enjoyed playing there. The next day was his regular orchestra rehearsal from 2-5pm, then off to another rehearsal from 6:30-8:00pm for the musical at the local high school. They've been practicing for several weeks. He really loves being among the older teenagers. I guess it makes him feel like one of them:) I don't know how he does it. One must really loves what he's doing. So this week, he hasn't been practicing his own stuff much. He's been putting about an hour for that. Last night was the first performance of the musical. We got there at 6:30pm and got home around 10:00pm. Today, they'll have two performances. This Saturday, he has his flag football game in the morning and in the afternoon, he will play for the high school musical production. Sunday is the last performance. Then he can take a breath and get back to his usual routine and I can spend less time in the car:) Sigh....

Competition... Finally Over!!!!

2008-04-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, my son's long waited competition day came. It was originally scheduled for March 8. However, due to a bad weather, it was postponed to April 5. He played Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, 1st movement.
This change of schedule threw him off quite a bit. The night before, he had to play with his youth orchestra for Martin Luther King, Jr's 40th anniversary of his assassination, so he didn't get to practice much that day. Then the morning came. I let him sleep a little longer and had some breakfast and he did some scales and ran through the piece. I read somewhere this girl practiced too much right before the competition and by the time she had to play, her fingers were too tired. So I let him take it easy. Around 12:30pm, we headed to the location and met up with the pianist and ran through once more, but slowly:) in the practice room. They were called at 1:40pm. I just stood outside the door and listened to him play. Some high notes sounded a hair line flat time to time. Other than that, he did well. He didn't forget the dynamics! My husband was watching him through the other door which had a glass window. He told me that after he finished playing he didn't even bow to the judges and walked out of the room. Oh, well, this is where the 11 year old comes out... All of a sudden, I felt so tired. I guess my anticipation for this was greater than I thought. Everything is over now. My son loves Sushi, so we decided to take him to a Sushi bar. Unfortunately, it was closed. We missed their lunch hours. Guess we ended up having late lunch....Tacobell!!:)

Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3

2008-03-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

Finally, my son was given his first Mozart Violin Concerto yesterday. At last lesson, his teacher told him to listen to No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 and select the one he wants to learn. He picked No. 3. The first movement was familiar to him since he's listened to it before and the 2nd movement is just gorgeous! I've seen some children playing Mozart on Youtube and a lot of people say the notes are easy, but I think they are very difficult to play musically. That is why his teacher held it for the longest for my son to learn Mozart. Now, I see why. Even the first few bars of the first movement, if you don't pay attention to detail, it would sound boring. You definitely have to play with dynamics and articulation of intonation. Personally, I think Mozart has to sound like crystal shining. It is so beautiful that you don't want to make it dull. He is going to play Franko cadenza. My goodness, my son just fell in love with it the moment his teacher demonstrated it. It is virtuosic. His teacher said there are Oistrakh cadenza, Kreisler cadenza and many more and he plays those three cadenzas at different concerts, but Franko cadenza seems to be most popular one. Again, he won't see his teacher for a couple of weeks due to the teacher's recitals. Meanwhile, he will practice reading Mozart. I took a detailed note on particular areas he needs to watch out. Hopefully, he will refer to it often:)

Short Pieces

2008-03-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

Now, the competition we were anticipating was postponed due to a bad weather we had. So it is rescheduled for April 5th. My son was getting a little bored with polishing up his Mendelssohn. (Although I think he can make is a little better, you can't get it into a eleven year-old's head.) We spoke with his teacher and he gave him a couple of short pieces to work on as encore performances. They are Wieniawski's Obertass and Carl Bohm's Perpetuo Mobile. (You can sample listen from the links.) Both are very energetic and fun pieces. My son seems to love them. Perpetuo Mobile needs Sautille the whole time. His teacher told him that he needs to relax totally otherwise he will be in a mess. Obertass sounds a lot like something that Paganini would compose with finger plucking and harmonics incorporated though out. After this, he will probably start on one of the Morzart's violin concertos. We've been putting off until he was a little older. We think he is ready to learn them now.

Two Days Till Competition

2008-03-06T06:56:00.000-08:00

Well, we finally received the time allotted for my son's competition. Mar. 8th Sat. at 1:30 pm. I was very nervous because we were supposed to hear from the competition coordinator by Monday, but didn't received the confirmation email until Tuesday. I thought he didn't make it. Now, I know he is supposed to be practicing, but how much? His pianist said to him he probably shouldn't over play it and become so automatic. So for the last week or so, he's been playing through once or twice a day. (Of course, he's been practicing scales and etudes on top of it.) I think it is coming along. The audition should not exceed 15 minutes, so the first movement of Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64 will barely fit in, I assume. Last time he played at the recital, it was a little over 13 minutes cutting the pianist's part at the end a little. It might fit even if he played the whole ending.
I know a lot of people who enter into competition really focus and put other things aside a few weeks before competition, but my son had a gig at the NBA basketball game last night. Being the basketball fan, he couldn't pass this one. He and his peers at the youth orchestra he belongs to played a couple of pieces. He was just excited to see all these professional players passing by and even saying "Hi" to him. So he didn't get to practice much yesterday. He did some scales in the morning before he went to school and that's pretty much it. By the time we came home, he was too tired to do anything and fell right in to bed. Now it is a crunch time. He will have to focus and just keep the momentum going and play the heck out of Mendelssohn on Saturday!

Scottish Fantasia

2008-02-29T16:53:00.000-08:00

I know people say this is Heifetz' piece. Yes, I understand. But, the first movement of this, I found Oistrakh's version very emotionally appealing. I have Oistrakh's recording from Decca and Heifetz' recording with Sir Malcom Sergent. Some says Oistrakh's tempo is way too slow, but I like it. I like Heifetz' last movement. It is energetic. However, in terms of the first movement, I like Oistrakh better. It is overwhelmingly sad and beautiful which I don't feel with Heifetz. The first phrase, when I first heard, drew me into it. Regarding the tempo, I don't know if it was his intention or the conductor, Jascha Horenstein's. Nonetheless, I think it is worth listening to.

Two Weeks Till the Competition

2008-02-25T06:28:00.000-08:00

Now, a little less than two Weeks left till the local competition. This is a county wide, so I don't know how many will audition for it. In the requirement and explanation of the competition, it states they will choose three or less winners. For the last three weeks, my son's been polishing up on his Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, 1st movement. It is almost like a magic every time he comes back from his lesson. Something is improving for sure. His teacher worked on phrasing, vibrato, bow control and sound production, etc., just to name a few. Unfortunately, his teacher will be out of town next week. He won't see my son until after the competition. I hope he will keep this momentum going. He seems very comfortable now with the piece, but I don't want him to just play automatically. Yesterday, he had a rehearsal with a pianist. He noticed the improvement, too. My son is the type of person who thrive on compliment. I think the comment from the pianist gave him an extra boost he needs right now. All I can do is hope and pray he soaked in everything his teacher told him at the last lesson and keep going. We will see how it turns out on March 8.

Finally, the Performance Day!

2008-02-18T05:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon, on February 17 was the day. My son's solo performance took place. When we got to the hall, many of his orchestra members were unpacking their instruments. They looked so good in their tuxedos and black dresses. I just dropped him off in the back stage and got myself situated in one of the seats in the back of the hall. They just ran through the pieces they were to perform including, Kabalevsky Violin Concerto 3rd movement (my son's piece), Lalo Cello Concerto 3rd movement, Hydn Oboe Concerto 3rd movement and Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto 3rd Movement, plus Franck Symphony No.2, 3rd movement. They sounded good. 3 o'clock, the show began. My son is the first up. He only practiced about an hour this morning. At this point, I didn't want to think about the unthinkable (blacking out in the middle of playing or anything like that), but I guess it's the parent's saga. You can't help it, but to get nervous. I'm sure he could be careless. Being young he has advantage of just having fun with it. He doesn't know what it is to be nervous yet. Although, I thought he started out quieter than I want it to be, he pulled it off fine. He looked thoroughly enjoying up there. His cadenza came out very nice and the orchestra did a fantastic job! I am very happy with tonight's performance and I'm sure my son's happy now that he gets to give Kabalevsky a little break until he decides to revisit when he's older:)

Art of Violin DVD

2008-02-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

I bought Art of Violin DVD about 4 years ago. I just love this one and keep coming back to it. It is of course, directed by Bruno Monsaingeon. It has loads of clips of the violinists from the 19th -20th centuries, including Ysaye, Kreisler, Elman, Milstein, Oistrakh, Enescu, Menuhin, Heifetz and Kogan, Francescatti, Grumiaux, Neeu, Stern, Szeryng, Szigeti, Thibaud, and etc. For each violinist, one of the present violinists comments. Among those are Perlman, Hahn, Gitlis and Haendel. It has two parts. First one is titled "The Devil's Instrument". This covers Paganini, Szigeti, Elman, Heifetz, Milstein, Francescatti and child prodigies including Ruggiero Ricci, Boris Goldstein, Michael Rabin and Joseph Hassid which three out of four had unfortunate fate. Rabin and Hassid died young and Goldstein's career didn't take off because of political climate. As a mom, let me tell you, Ricci was a very cute boy!
Part 2 is called "Transcending the Violin". This segment covers earlier violinists such as Ysaye, Enescu, Kreisler, Thibaut and the later generation of Stern, Szeryng, Oistrakh and Menuhin comparing playing styles. Here, Menuhin is commenting on Enescu, Oistrakh and Kreisler. They also briefly talked about the instruments those violinists had.
All in all, this DVD should be one of the top three you must have on your shelf. I'm sure you'll enjoy it for a long long time.

Mendelssohn Revisited

2008-02-08T14:01:00.001-08:00

My son just had a lesson last night for the first time in three weeks. It was frustrating a little. My husband took him to the lesson, so I watched the video of it this afternoon. I think it is the problem for so many children, but they want to play everything fast! I constantly remind him to slow down and clean up, but does he listen? No!!! Since he is planning to perform Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, 1st movement, his teacher told him to play for him. Intonation is not bad, but the cleanliness is a big problem. Especially the fast passages get really messy. His teacher saw rigtht through him. "You are always playing fast when you practice, aren't you?" My husband chimed in. "Yes." He suggested that he should play at least twice a day slowly and then play in tempo. He also pointed out that the first part and the preceding tranquiro part have to be in the different colors. He told him, "You don't want to be predictable. Then it will be boring when the audience know what's coming next. Just like a movie, if you know how it's gonna end, you get bored." So for the next four weeks until the competition, he will have a lot of cleaning up to do. There is a wisdom in Japanese. "When in hurry, take the long way."

Preparing for a Competition

2008-02-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

Well, my son won the Youth Orchestra competition where he belongs awhile ago. The performance is coming up in a couple of weeks. This was nonetheless small competition since only the members of this youth orchestra can enter. He was one of the four winner this time and they get to play solo with the youth orchestra. Next month, there will be another competition which is county wide, still in a small scale. You only play one movement of the concerto of your choice. This time the winners will be playing with the local orchestra. My son will play Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor op. 64, first movement. He played it at the student recital a few months ago. Now, it is more of polishing up dynamics and intonation. It is hard for a 11 year-old to play same piece over and over although he is studying other pieces along with it. I showed him the DVD of Maxim Vengerov Masterclass which I wrote a review in the previous post. "The details, details, details." That's what I say. Next week, we'll start practicing with the pianist who will accompany him on the day of the competition. It is different when you play with a piano because you have a partner you need to listen to. It is good for him so he won't run off by himself:) It is only just a shy of month away. Hope he will continue being motivated and play his heart out!

Maxim Vengerov Masterclass DVD Review

2008-02-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

Maxim Vengerov Masterclass DVD arrived from England the other day. I purchased Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64 DVD from the Masterclass Media Foundation, a non-profit organization which offers several masterclass DVDs for purchase. The DVD is approximately 50 minutes long and taped at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The student who plays in the video is Aya Sanada from Japan. She plays from the beginning to just the end of G major section. (it is a bit disappointing he didn't get to instruct till the end of the piece.) As Vengerov pointed out in the video, her posture seemed to be tensed (at least to my eyes). Her bow arm, especially shoulder went up time to time. He emphasized relaxation number of times, but seems very hard to change instantaneously for her. He also talked about the phrasing. First E minor part and the second G major part have to have different color which he pointed out that she played in the same color pallet, so he encouraged to come up with the different approach to each section. He demonstrated himself here and there. It is obvious why he is where he is! It is just simply beautiful even just the 30 seconds of playing although there were times he was not perfectly in tune. (He explained that he hadn't practiced for 10 days since it was during his vacation at the time of filiming this.) I hope they will produce the Part 2 of Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in the future to make it complete. They also have his masterclass of Beethoven Sonata, Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3, Bach Adagio and Fugue from Sonata No. 1. I am planning to order one of them in the future.

Valeriy Sokolov

2008-01-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

I've never heard of him until now and I was stunned to watch him on Youtube performing Ysaye "Ballade". He had a DVD just released called Valeriy Sokolov, Natural Born Fiddler directed by Bruno Monsaingeon. (You could watch his clip below from youtube.) When he met Valeriy for the first time, he was only 16 years old at Yehudi Menuhin School and offered to play Ysaye Sonata. He was very impressed that he had to capture him in his youth. I am also in awe by the way he plays. It is not matter of age, but the pure music he produces. His hands and fingers are so relaxed. Everything seems so smooth and easy that I don't even think about how his techniques are, but just to listen to him play. In my humble opinion, he is one of the rare talents and musicians to be watched for a long long time. He was born in 1986. He is just turning 21 this year. I can't imagine what will come of him in the future. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch him performing live here in the U.S. very soon.

Violin Tune-up

2008-01-29T08:14:00.000-08:00

This morning, I took my son's violin to have it adjusted. According to the person who will adjust his violin, it is recommended to have it adjusted once a year. If you play a lot, it might be necessary to have it adjusted 2-3 times a year. I got this violin for my son about two years ago. Since then, I haven't had anything done to it aside from the fingerboard blued back in when my son dropped the violin and the fingerboard came off which happened in a small town of Italy shortly after he received it. The guy took a look at the violin this morning and told me that the fingerboard was not fitted properly. The neck of the violin and the fingerboard are supposed to be smooth to the touch. You shouldn't feel any gap or roughness where they are glued. He will adjust the sound post. It seems to be a little bit too far from the bridge. Then he will touch up on the varnish where there are few scratch marks. I can't wait to get it back to see if the adjustment will make a significant improvement in the sound. His violin has mellow sweet sound, yet the projection is not the greatest. I wonder if it will change?

Humidifier for Violin

2008-01-28T06:35:00.000-08:00

The other day, I took my son's 3/4 size bow for rehair to the local repair person/teacher. He trained in Moenning & Son years ago, so he must be good. He took a look at the bow and told me I have to make sure that the room has at least 50% humidity around this time of the year. We moved from humid Florida a little while ago, so I never thought of humidity. I don't even have a humidifier. I said may be I should boil some water in a kettle. He said it should work. When I got home, I thought of what to do with his violin. I didn't want to wait too long and see a cracked violin, so I came up with quick and easy solution. I wet the paper towel and squeezed the excess water to make sure it doesn't drip. Then put it in the ziplock sandwich bag and left the bag about an inch unzipped and placed in the case. It is cheap and keeps the violin safe from getting wet. I would love to hear some other alternatives other people are using!

Maxim Vengerov Masterclass DVD

2008-01-22T10:20:00.000-08:00

When I was browsing through the web, I came across this website called The Masterclass Media Foundation. It is a charity that is creating unique archive. They released recently seriese of masterclass DVDs by Maxim Vengerov including Mendelsson Violin Concerto 1st movement, Bach Adagio and Fugue from Sonata No. 1, and Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K216. You can preview his Mendelssohn masterclass when you click RELEASES-Maxim Vengerov on Masterclass. I ordered a copy today, so when I receive it I'll make sure I'll write a review on it. Can't wait!

Do You Have To Be Smart To Play Violin?

2008-01-17T06:33:00.000-08:00

I came a cross this article by chance. A sixteen year-old boy who attends Julliard Precollege studying the violin. I can see he loves what he is doing. Otherwise, one will break down having so many things to do in one day. But, aside from it, I can tell he is very intelligent. He is working on developing device to silence the lawnmower! On top of that he won the bronze medal for his science project and an honorable mention in Dupont essay contests, worked in the Biology and Human Genetics Laboratory at North Shore Hospital in the summer. My Goodness. He is a Super Boy. And when I listen to the children's interviews on From The Top, I am amazed at how well they speak for their ages. They don't even stutter! If my son was to be on that show, I will have a nervous break down worrying about what will come out of his mouth! Everyone who is featured on that show seems like they love practicing, but what will he say if Mr. O'Riley asked him about practicing? I bet he will say "I hate practicing!":) My boy is really an average kid who loves to play sports (although he loves football, that is something we, the parents refuse to let him participate, except flag football. He plays basket ball now.) and video games and TV shows and reading books. He is THE otherwise TYPICAL boy, no?

Trying New Violins

2008-01-15T05:42:00.000-08:00

As I stated in the previous post, I brought two violins home from a local luthier, one 3/4 size and one 7/8 size. Next day, my husband took my son and the violins to the lesson. I have to note that the luthier told me that the 3/4 violin wasn't quite ready (set-up and things), but I thought my son wasn't quite ready for a 7/8 yet, so I told him I really needed a 3/4. Anyway, my son's teacher took a look at it. As I suspected, although it had a beautiful tone compared to the 3/4 size, the 7/8 was too big for my son to handle. The 3/4 size was just a struggle to play like his usual 3/4 size. It needs some getting used to. Maybe because it wasn't ready, the sound was not like my son's own violin which is warm and had lot more color. He had to rehearse with his youth orchestra the next day for his solo performance, so his teacher urged my husband to get his violin back in time. We got the violin back that afternoon. We have to agree, my son plays better with it and sounds better although those new violins had more projection. I think we will stick with his current violin for now until he's ready to move up. Next time, we will try as many violins as my son can until he finds a perfect match for himself. He was cleaning his violin extra carefully that night:) I guess he missed it very much.

I Didn't Mean to Buy It.......

2008-01-11T22:28:00.000-08:00

I called a local luthier last week to see if he had a time to adjust my son's violin. I haven't done really anything to it since we bought it. I asked him if he had a spare violin my son could borrow while he worked on the violin. Unfortunately, he didn't have it that week, 3/4 size that is.... He told me he could arrange to bring one to his shop the following week. We agreed to call each other. Then he called me this morning and told me he has a couple of violins with him that my son can use, one 3/4 and the other is 7/8 which he just finished. When I got to his shop, he showed me his 7/8 size violin. It is golden yellow varnish and definitely bigger compared to my son's 3/4 size. I asked him to show me the 3/4 size, but seemed like he left it at home by accident. There are bunch of violins hanging on the wall. He is looking. He grabbed one, but warned me that it was not ready. Well, it sounds decent enough for practice, but he wasn't totally happy with it yet for sale. I asked him if I could take both with me and show them to my son's teacher at the next lesson. He kindly let me....
As soon as my son got home, I asked him to try them. First, he tried 3/4 size. Now, I understood why he said it wasn't ready yet. While it had a robust sound for a 3/4 size, it is lacking in depth like my son's current violin (which I wish it has more of a bigger sound). I kind of discounted the 7/8 size, thinking he would be too small for it. Oh, boy....He is liking it and it doesn't look too big for him to play either. There are nice enough bending on the elbow. Sound is noticeably different from the 3/4. (I think my son is more keen to the difference.) He came to my room with it and said "I like this one!" Well, I really didn't mean to buy him one...... I don't want to make a decision without talking to his teacher. Even though it looks fine to me, I am a novice. What do I know? We'll see, tomorrow what his teacher says.

Can You See the Music?

2008-01-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

My son's teacher told me this story during his lesson the other day. There are three different way of memorizing a piece. One is to memorize melody and play through. Two, memorising the notes and the last is to memorize what's written on the score. Only then, you can see the music in your head as you are playing it. He told us the instance when he was studying with Galina Barinova at Moscow Conservatory. She asked him "Are you looking at your music?" He replied "Of course, I am." Then she asked him "When you walked in to this building how many windows did you see?" He was totally confused thinking 'Where is this lady going with this?' Reluctantly he said, "No." Then she explained. "See, I know you watching where you going. Otherwise you'll bump into a wall. What I'm saying is you come here everyday and you don't know how many windows there are in front of the building. You are seeing it, but you are not looking at it! You become so automatic and missing all these things in detail. Same with music. When you start seeing all these details, then you'll see the music in your heart." He said that was the light bulb moment for him. You think you know a piece upside down, but is it becoming automatic that you don't see what's right in front of you all these time. I know my son doesn't get it yet. Hopefully, there will be a light bulb moment for him some day.

Image Training

2008-01-07T10:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, image training. Do you ever make up a story when you play a piece of music? I watched Maxim Vengerov giving a master class on TV. He comes up with all sorts of stories according to the pieces the students are playing. I think it is very useful and effective especially for young violinists (or older students as well). For example, for Kreisler's Tambourin Chinois, he tell a student to imagine a fat Chinese chef cooking in a busy kitchen, then off to bicycle in the streets of china and the falling from the great wall of china with an umbrella. What a story! I've been telling my son to create his own story when he plays a piece ever since he started playing violin. Part of it is because it is hard for a grown-up to explain to a small child a subtle nuance in melody, but if you tell him in a story, it's easier to relate. There are so many different kinds of sad feelings. Sometimes, it is frustrating sad, almost mad sad, regretting sad, etc. When you have a story in mind according to the piece you are playing, it create a totally different sound. All of the sudden, the melody comes alive. Like Maxim Vengerov, it doesn't always have to be the same story... I wonder what kind of story my son will have for his new piece, Wieniawski's Legende?

A Happy New Year From Violinomama

2008-01-01T14:35:00.001-08:00

A Happy New Year!!!! I can't believe we entered into 2008. Usually, I make a New Year's resolution, such as losing 20 lb., or something like that, but this year, I decided not to put myself on the spot and make myself feel guilty when I can't accomplish it. One thing I decided is fairly easy one, "Smile more". It's not that I don't smile, but I think I can let some small stuff slide in my life rather than getting all concerned.
Well, my son seemed to have made some kind of resolution for the new year. I was still in bed and suddently I heard him practice scale even before he grabbed his breakfast. I couldn't believe my ears. What's got into him??? Nonetheless, I chuckled with joy. When he came to the kitchen, he had smile on his face. He didn't say anything, but I know he felt good, too. Hope he keeps at it. I want to be useless soon when it comes to his practice. I want him to be able to make his own practice routine without being told. I think and hope he is on his way soon......

Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Florida

2007-12-30T16:38:00.000-08:00

Jacksonville Orchestra has a special place in our family's hearts. They have youth orchestras and that's where my children joined their first orchestras. Every year at Major Minor Concert at Jacoby Symphony Hall in May, kids perform side by side with Jacksonville Symphony Musicians. Our kids really enjoyed talking with the professionals before performances. Now, they are in big trouble. In November, their contract negotiation reached an impasse and the musicians are locked out. They detail on their initial stage of negotiation can be found on Playbill arts. According to its article, "Jim Van Vleck, chairman of the Symphony Association's board of directors, told the Times-Union that the orchestra has accumulated a debt of $3 million and run deficits in eight of the past ten years. In addition, this year the city of Jacksonville reduced its annual support for the orchestra by almost one-quarter, and other government funding is thought to be at risk as well........Management had presented what it said was its final offer to the musicians on Monday (Nov. 12). The five-year contract proposal included no pay raises for the first two years (with annual increases of 2.04%, 2.42% and 3.07% thereafter), a cut in management's pension contributions from the current 7% of salary to 3%, a reduction by half in paid personal leave (eight days to four, increasing to six in the final two years), elimination of extra pay for playing and maintaining a second instrument (e.g., flute and piccolo or bassoon and contrabassoon), and a sharp reduction in guaranteed days for part-time musicians.
The musicians' union — which had proposed a three-year contract to allow the Symphony administration and board time to stabilize the organization's finances — rejected management's offer, objecting in particular to the cuts in pension contributions and guaranteed work for part-timers. Union spokesperson Kevin Casseday told the Times-Union that the management proposal could reduce the annual compensation of some part-time players from $30,000 to less than $9,000.
The Jacksonville Symphony has 52 full-time musicians and roughly 15 part-timers. Base salary for the full-timers is $38,036, with the average being $43,660. Their season is 37 weeks annually, with 20 hours of rehearsals and performances per week."
Now, the musicians are threatened to be out of health insurance at the end of the year if the issue is not resolved. I found this article by Drew Mcmanus on his website which is really sad what the board members are talking, especially the comment (excerpt) made by Vice Chair Beames via his blackberry to Sally Pettegrew, JSO director of administration stating "I think we may start to see some crack in the dyke on this "only $x" issue, and the heartstrings of kids at Christmas with no presents certainly will have an impact."
I certainly hope they could reach an agreement soon for the sake of keeping the orchestra in Jacksonville community. I would hate to see it go extinct.

Manga & Classical Music

2007-12-29T20:22:00.000-08:00

I grew up in Japan and if you've lived there you should know people there read comic books which is called "Manga" like there's no tomorrow, young and old. It is amazing to see long shelves dedicated to Manga here in the U.S. now.
Last year when I was watching AZN television (network for Asian American), I came across a Japanese Comedy drama series called "Nodame Cantabile". It is about a young aspiring pianist in conservatory who is surrounded by her funny but music loving friends. This is based on a comic book Nodame Cantabile. TV director must've been a classical music fan because he wanted to expose young gengeration to the world of classical music, and he succeeded. After the drama aired, there were more people joinining community orchestras and attending classical concerts. The main characters in the drama was very attractive to the audience (the guy was very handsome! and the girl was cute and talked like a little girl). The fact it was a comedy helped, I think. It is not all square like a lot of people who are not familiar with classical music would imagine. I wish there were a subtitle with that drama. I have no problem comprehending what they were saying, but other viewers who doesn't understand Japanese will have a hard time following the story. They may be better off reading the comic book version which is published in English. I hope something like this will be created here in the U.S., too. Maybe some TV producer can come up with American version of Nodame Cantabile?

Violin Strings

2007-12-28T21:10:00.000-08:00

It is true that the type of strings you use on your violin changes the tone & sound of your violin tremendously. The very first set of strings I put on my son's violin (1/4 size) was Thomastik Dominant. It is said that Dominant is versatile strings that could work with most of the violins. Plus it is one of the few that comes in fractional sizes. Its sound is warm and fairly quick to settle in. But I got a little ambitious and wanted to try other strings and see if they would make significant differences in sound on my son's violin. He has now moved on to a 3/4 size violin since then. With his current violin, we started with Dominant which was already put on by the luthier. After a few months when the string started to show signs of deterioration, I put on Infeld Red which was a full size set. I'm not sure if I should've done this, but we liked it. It has more depth to the sound, but I haven't kept them on his violin. I may be in a quest to impossible, but I wanted to find the perfect matching strings for his violin. I have sound in my head. That deep cello like G string and soprano like E string. So, after the Infeld Red lost its projection, I tried Larsen Tzigane. My son's teacher (Current teacher's wife) noticed immediately and asked me "Did you change strings?" I said "Yes." Well, she didn't like it. Maybe it wasn't matching with my son's violin. My son liked them though. They didn't last long. After a month or so, the sound changed quite a bit. Now, I put on Obligato. My son loved it. It had more color and warmth. Only thing was this, too, didn't last long. The sound just died after awhile. At this point, I started to wonder if the strings make such a big difference for my son's violin. Maybe this is as good as it gets? But I am naturally a curious person, so I tried Warchal Ametyst. Their website explains that Ametyst was developed especially for fractional violins in mind to provide quality sound. My son and I both loved it. It really made my son's violin sound like a full size violin with lots of color, warm tone and the good projection. Although it didn't make cello like G string sound it was really mature sound. Maybe I am asking too much to want cello like sound for a 3/4 size violin.....A few weeks before my son's solo recital, I wanted to put on a new set of Warchal, but the 3/4 size was out of stock. A guy suggested Thomastick Vision was equivalent to Warchal. Since I didn't have much time, I went along with his suggestion although I didn't find a whole lot of difference from Dominant when I tried on my son's 1/2 size long time ago. I thought maybe his 3/4 size may respond differently. It was OK. I still liked the Warchal better, but now I have new set of Thomastick Vision on his violin and a spare set just in case. I put them on at the end of October. It's been almost two months. I don't know what happned, but the sound started to change for the better for the last few days. It is really robust and deepened sound. I don't understand. I didn't think it would take this long to break in. But my son noticed it and told me that his violin sounded better. He seems to enjoy his practice time much better which is a wonderful surprise for both of us.

Wieniawski Legende

2007-12-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

While we were visiting Orlando, Florida, we arranged for our son to take a lesson from his teacher who is back in Florida for his winter vacation. It's been almost three weeks since he had a lesson. He was supposed to be given a new piece to work on, and Wieniawski's Legende is one of the pieces his teacher gave him this time. When he played it for my son, we both immediately noticed the melody. I said to him, "I've heard this before!" and he replied, "Of course, it is very famous piece. Oistrakh, Heifetz, Vengerov, they recorded it." Among a few CDs I have, I didn't own a CD that contains this piece. So, I ordered The Devil's Trill by Oistrakh. My son's teacher also suggested Vengerov's, so I think I'll order that next. Today, I happened to find a CD store when we were out and about and found Anne-Sophie Mutter's Legende in her CD titled Romance. From the recording year, I'm assuming it was recording about 30 years ago. Oistrakh's recording was with piano, but hers was with orchestra. It is interesting to listen to both. Accompaniment changes the piece entirely. I listened to her CD in the car on the way home. It is very passionate, I thought where Oistrakh's playing was more mysterious in a sense that takes me into my inner self. My son's been humming this piece the entire day. That is a good sign. Seems like he likes it a lot. I like it, too. It is a show piece, yet is not overplayed by many. Hope he can conquer the mind blowing descending chromatic scale part.

Disney World Vacation

2007-12-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

We are finally back from Orlando vacation. One of the main reasons, of course, was to enjoy Florida weather and Disney World & Universal Studio, but the other reason was (for myself) to listen to Disney Orchestra's Christmas performance at Epcot Center. My son's teacher and his wife play in this orchestra every year. They told us we didn't have to stay and listen, but I wanted to! I tried to take a picture of the orchestra to share with you guys, but this is how it came out. That's why my husband never let me be in charge of taking pictures:) The orchestra performed three times a day. The line was long to be seated, so we just listened from the back of the rope. It was comforting to see people took time to listen to the orchestra inspite of long waiting. We definitely would like to come back next year. I will line up so I can have a better seat and maybe, just maybe able to take a better picture than this! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Simply Sarah by Sarah Chang

2007-12-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

My husband had a chance to go to NY for his business trip the other day. As soon as he got there, he called me from his cell asking me what I wanted from NY. I asked him if he had a time to go to Carnegie Hall, I wanted him to buy me something from their gift shop. Off he went right after he hang up in the snow. He called me back when he got there. I definitely wanted to get a mug cup from there. (I collect coffee mugs;)) I asked him if there was any DVD of any violinists, but no luck. So he picked a couple of CDs for me and one of them was Simply Sarah by Sarah Chang. According to the discography, this was recorded when she was only 15 years old. The CD is a collection of short pieces such as Bazzini's The Dance of the Goblins, Paganini's Cantabile, Sarasate's Zapateado just to name a few. My impression of her playing was very clean and energetic, her high notes just soar to the sky! It is amazing she played like that at such a young age although I didn't find enough depth in more slow and romantic pieces in this CD. I may be just me. Nonetheless, she is amazingly talented and I enjoyed her "Hora staccato", "Zapateado" and "The Dance of the Goblins"
What did my son get? The infamous "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" T-shirt!

Seattle Symphony is in trouble!

2007-12-19T10:08:00.000-08:00

I just read an article on NY times yesterday about the terrifying situation inside Seattle Symphony. According to the artcle, its music director/conductor, Gerard Schwarz and the several musicians have been having problems after problems for some time. I have no experience or involvement with any professional orchestra, but I can tell this is not a place where you can concentrate on making great music. The fact musicians' majority votes are totally ignored by the board members, it certainly seems like a dictatorship is present. It is almost sad that it got to a point where everyone in public knows what's been going on. All we can hope is this eruption of volcano will be over soon and calmness sets in place.

Establishing Practice Routine

2007-12-18T05:28:00.000-08:00

My son's practicing time seemed to be somewhat disorganized. He's been practicing between three to four hours for the last year or so. The more he gets older, the more things were added to his routine. Even the scale seemed to be getting longer since he had to learn new bowing in addition to legato, such as martale, staccato, spicatto, etc. Then his piece, Bach Partita and etude books. He would practice in one hour increment, practices for one hour and take a break, eat or whatever. But within that hour he would do bits and pieces of everything. I thought it would be more productive if he dedicate each hour for one exercise. But seems like he gets bored doing one hour of scale, one hour of etude and so on. I consulted his teacher and he wrote down my son the written practice schedule he's been using for over forty years, and it was like this.

1. Scales (25-40 minutes)

a) single notes - by one, slurs, by two - nine, spicatto, staccatto, etc.

b) double notes - same (slurs until 4 notes)

c) arpegios

Rest

2. Capriccios or etudes - (40-60 minutes)

Kreutzer, Mazas, etc.

Rest

3. Solo Concertos - Sonatas - Bach (S & P) - (1-1&1/2 hours)

So far it seems to be working great. (He tends to listen to teacher more than mom) He also suggested that working on the small area at a time instead of playing through a piece which my son was doing. Now, organization in place, hopefully his practice will be more time efficient.

Frustration with G Scales 4 octaves

2007-12-17T06:58:00.000-08:00

My son's been working on G scale 4 octaves for several months. He is struggling with the last shifting. My observation is

1. His hands are small (as of now)

2. His thumb position is not stable

3. His pinkie is short

All of the above combined he is having hard time placing his fingers in time for the high register notes. I watched his teacher demonstrate the scale. At the last shifting, his thumb is placed right where the neck and the body of the violin meet. But if my son does it he can't reach his pinkie where it supposed to be. His teacher wants him to find most comfortable and natural placing of this thumb for himself. Everyone's fingers are made differently and so as violin. So he didn't want to impose one set position that might not be right for my son. Now, he hasn't found yet. He gets really frustrated. He places his thumb about an inch below from the neck of the violin on the side (rib), but his thumb moves while he tries to hit the notes. I think that is causing his unstable intonation. This morning, I pointed it out. I told him if he feels comfortable placing his thumb where it is, it is OK, but he needs to make sure his thumb is secure so the sound will be secure. Ahhh, he got it. It was a light bulb moment which happens to him ever so often after numerous frustrating attempts. I left him alone for him to figure this out on his own. I'm sure he'll find the answer soon.....

It's not as easy as it seems!

2007-12-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

Well, this is somewhat violin related, but mostly may not be...., but it's is good for the sake of classical music. My son was asked to participate in the production of a public broadcast announcement to promote classical music/instrument study among local children and youth. He was one of the five who agreed to be a part of this. We took him to the location yesterday. After everyone checked in, the producers explained what they had in mind and showed the illustration of scenario. Each kid starts by listening to ipod and enjoying whatever they are listening. He/she tries to find another song to listen to, but it is getting boring, then they pick up their own instrument and start playing music themselves. Easy enough, I thought. Boy or boy, was I wrong. You can't move too much because that will make him/her out of the screen. You can't be too little in motion then people won't know what you are thinking. Acting part is no easy job, I'm telling you. I peeked into a few kids' takes before my son's turn came. Everyone was struggling with ipod listening part. The performance part seemed most comfortable to them of course, although each kid only played their instrument for mere 10-15seconds at the most.
In a way, I think instrument playing is like acting without words. You have to try to understand the composer's intention which probably will be the author's message in the actual acting. You have to convey the story just as the composer/author wanted, but you still have to maintain yourself in it. I know the kids (at least my son) are not thinking that deep yet, but every little experience like this, I hope, will make them realise what they are studying is a wonderful form of art and everything is intertwined. After all, acting and playing instrument have more things in common than differences.

Hilary Hahn - A Portrait

2007-12-14T06:29:00.000-08:00

As an early Christmas gift for myself, I purchased Hilary Hahn: A Portrait DVD. It was filmed between 2003-2004. The camera follows Hilary's busy concertizing life. She is so cute. She doesn't look like a 25 years old. She could get away with saying she's a teenager! There is a segment she gives a tour of her Alma ma tar; Curtis Institute where she spent 7 years of her life. The entrance lounge looks like a hotel lobby! It was very beautiful. The DVD shows her performance of Korngold Violin Concerto and Mozart Sonata with the pianist, Natalie Zhu whom she met at Curtis when she was still a little girl. Also she travels to Germany, London and Hong Kong with the camera following her signing autographs after the concerts, recording at Abbey Road Studio. While her life is hectic with tours and recordings, she seems very much grounded and relaxed. She loves to learn foreign language for instance during the summer when she takes a break from touring. It was very interesting to take a peek of her busy life and learn how a violinist spend everyday while on tour.

Back to Bach by Gidon Kremer

2007-12-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

The Back to Bach by Gidon Kremer DVD I ordered arrived last night along with Arthur Grumiaux's Bach Sonata and Partita CD. So this morning, I watched the DVD. This only contains the Partita part. It was definitely Kremer's phrasing, very distinctive. I understand some may love his and some may hate it. It is different. I can't say I love it or I hate it yet, but nonetheless, it is very interesting interpretation. The DVD also has 60 minute documentary of the DVD production and some clips of his first S & P recording from the 70's. In his interview, he mentioned about the tempi of some movements in Partita and this is where everyone's opinion differs, I think. His attempt was to find the most appropriate tempi for him without losing the composer's intention. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, I need to spend some time listening to Arthur Grumiaux's CD this afternoon.

Wieniawski Polonaise

2007-12-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

My son just happened to listen to Vengerov's Polonaise by Wieniawski in his dad's car. Now, he wants to play it so badly. I don't know if he is capable at this stage with his skill level. He just finished 1st movement of Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. But Polonaise seems to have a lot of chops. Unfortunately, his teacher is on his vacation now. We won't be able to see him for several weeks. Meanwhile, he is trying to play it. The score just happened to be in one of his violin textbook he used to use. I told him it may be better off leaving it alone until his teacher gives him OK, but he can't keep hands off of it. Maybe I should call his teacher and ask what he thinks. We were just discussing which piece he should tackle next before he left for vacation. He wasn't sure if he wanted my son to finish 2nd and 3rd movement of Mendelssohn or choose something else.
On another note, Vengerov is one of my son's violin heroes. As some of you may know, he injured his right shoulder and all the concerts were cancelled for the rest of the year. There is a brief update on him at his fan's website. It sounds like he is doing better. I really wish his quick recovery.

Body Movement

2007-12-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

I always wonder..... Those violinists who are famous for their body movments during performance (aside from their extraordinary talent), when did they start doing that? When I watched clips of young Midori, or Sarah Chang, their movements are minimal. When I saw Joshua Bell on TV for the first time, I thought he was going to fall backward.
When my son participated in a music festival one year, there was a very talented violinist. She was about 10 years old, but boy, she moved a lot. I really don't remember how her playing was in spite all the advanced pieces she played. His teacher mentioned something like this. Little kids don't naturally move around like that. Only thing he could think of was that it was encouraged or taught. But a lot of grown-up violinists move a lot. Do they help in any way? As a concert goer, it is interesting to see them or their facial expression, but some people are annoyed by it.
When my son was about 8 years old, his first teacher told him to feel the music with body and swing his body side to side like Joshua Bell (She was a big fan of Joshua Bell). Usually, my son is very cooperative, but this time, he refused and stood still. After the lesson, I asked him "Why didn't you swing your body?" He told me "I don't like to move like that! I want to play like Heifetz!" This, I was very surprised. This little boy actually had an idea of how he wanted to play. This was OK by me and I'm glad I didn't force him to move around. Maybe when he is older he may get some habitual movement. Only time will tell....

Scales

2007-12-10T06:23:00.000-08:00

My son's been working on the G scale 4 octaves for awhile. The purpose of this is to find most comfortable shifting on the higher register. His teacher wants him to find it for himself since everyone's hands are made differently. My observation is that his thumb is not the longest. I would say it's probably average in length for his age. His pinkie is whole another story. It is very short and the finger tip is curving toward his ring finger. (took after his dad)
He usually works on scales and arpeggios in the morning before he leaves for school for about 30 minutes to an hour. This morning was very frustrating for him. He even started to cry a little. I asked him, "What's wrong?" His reply was "I can't do it!!" I thought it sounded good. So I asked him "What part of sclaes you didn't like about?" He said it wasn't clean. I kinda chuckled inside. 'OK, he is noticing without being told. This is a good sign.' I assured him he would get it. It just takes time.
I think when he trys to shif to the highest position, his thumb position is not stable yet. Usually, people place their thumbs right under the fingerboard by where the body and the neck meets, but if he places his thumb there, he can't reach his pinkie to the note he is aiming, so he places his thumb on the side of the body about an inch below from the neck of violin. It takes longer to get there. I believe that's why the higher register notes get unstable. I don't play violin so I need to let him figure out himself. Even if I could play, my fingers are different from his, so what would work for me probably won't work for him. I am hoping he will come out of this tunnel soon. It just made me feel proud that he is becoming more independent in his journey with his violin study :)

1/2 size Neuner Violin

2007-12-07T11:51:00.000-08:00

When my son was moving on up from his 1/4 size off-the-internet violin from a half size, we tried about 4 different violins. Three were from David Michie Violins. Just that we were in town for the violin camp in Philadelphia, we decided to pay a visit to his shop after local mom we met at the camp recommended his shop. His shop is located seconds from Curtis, so when we visited his shop, there were a few students bringing in their instruments. David was very helpful in the process. After trying nearly a dozen of violin, we narrowed down to three. One was probably made in the 20's and the other one was brand new Doetsch and the last one I can't recall. We asked him to show us something under $1500, so these were our top three from his shop. We arranged to have first two ship to our home in Florida. When we finally received it, we took them to his teacher and asked her opinion. She played both of them. One of them was very robust, but had nasal sound to it. I believe it was the new one. The other one had mellower tone. Then she asked us how much these would cost. So I told her. She looked at me and said. "He will probably outgrow this one in very short time. You don't have to spend that much yet. Instead, when he needs a full size, I want you to invest a good amount of money on a very good violin."

And she made a phone call to one of the luthiers she uses and asked him if he had any good 1/2 size violin in his shop. This is it. He didn't know anything about this violin, but a few years prior, a gentleman walked into his shop with four violins and wanted to sell them. This was one of them. He told us it was probably a German at least 70 - 100 years old. The bridge had a "Reuning and Sons" stamp on it. I contacted them, but they couldn't help me unless I had a documentation that this violin was sold by them. The reply was it could've just been brought in for some minor adjustment. Some months passed and his G string started to buzz, we took it to a gentleman who sold it to us. He scraped some fingerboard, but no resolution. So we decided to take it to Gainesville Violins. The owner, Jan van Rooyen immediately recognized my son's violin and told us it was made by Neuner & Hornsteiner. "I can tell you the precise year this violin was made." He said. "It was made in 1880 in Mittenwald, Germany." According to him, this violin has plum color which they used in their earlier production and has single lower rib with bee-sting at the bottom center. This method was only used until 1880. That makes this violin 127 years old! And the price? $750.00 :)

Bach Sonata & Partita

2007-12-06T17:11:00.000-08:00

My son will be starting Bach Partita No. 3, Preludio soon. He did learn this piece a year ago when he was 10. The notes were there, but I felt he really didn't capture the essense of Bach. Well, I am novice, so I can't say for sure what was lacking, maybe clarity, coolness? I don't know....His then-teacher told us every violinist keep on studying Bach S & P for the rest of his/her violin career. So this is no easy task for a 11 year-old. Now, I am in search of good recording of S & P with the help of the members at Maestronet. They are so helpful and gave me a lot of names that I should look into. After many suggestions, I just ordered Arthur Grumiaux's CD and a Gidon Kremer's S & P DVD. Hopefully, it won't take too long to get here because of the holiday seasons. I am thinking of listening to others's recordings suggested by the Maestronet members such as Rachel Podger, Hilary Hahn, James Ehnes just to name a few. And if I can afford it, Richard Tognetti . What I learned from everyone in the forum was that each person has his/her favorite violinist for S & P. There's no absolute answer to who's Bach S & P is best. So my journey to discovery of Bach S & P is about to start just about in a week :)

I almost forgot! I did have Milstein's S & P. However, I shouldn't have never let my husband borrow my CD. Now, he can't find it! I am going to make him buy me another copy :)

David Oistrakh

2007-12-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

As a novice violin lover, David Oistrakh is one of my most favorite violinists. I like his phrasing and beautiful tone, color just to name a few.
I first heard about him when my husband and I took my son to a Suzuki Camp in Atlanta. While my son was practicing in the lounge of the building between his classes, a gentleman approached my husband and asked if the boy was his son. That was Reginald Williams from Williams Gengakki. I wasn't there because I had to watch our other children at the hotel, but he told my husband my son's playing reminded him of Oistrakh. I believe he was just trying to be nice. My son, at that point, has only been playing for a little over one year. He couldn't have sounded any way near decent to be resembling such a great violinist :) He jotted down Oistrakh's name on a piece of paper for my husband to keep. When he came back to the hotel and told me, we went to the CD store and started searching for his CD/DVD. That is when I first heard him in recording. Since then I have been building up my library of his (among others) recordings little by little, yet there are so many that I haven't got a hold of.
Here are some of my collection of Oistrakh.

My Violin Experience

2007-12-04T06:27:00.000-08:00

Zero. This is to say, until my son picked up the violin4 1/2 years ago, I've never seen a real violin in my life. His teacher gave us a list of things to purchase. A violin, a bow and Suzuki Book 1, Nurtured By Love by Dr. Suzuki, Kun shoulder rest and a pitch pipe (G,D,E,A). My ignorance told me "Which pitch pipe should I get? E? A? D? or G?" You fool! It comes all in one! But, I managed to learn a little bit at a time, except how to play it :)
I used to play piano for five years, so I can read music unless it is really difficult. So I was able to help him with intonation and note reading for awhile. (Now, he is almost better in note reading than I am.)
I am originally from Japan, but I've never heard of Suzuki method when I was growing up. Well, I've never seen anyone who played violin in my neighborhood, so it is probably where I grew up. I think the violin was for more financially affluent people's instrument back then. So, just by reading Dr. Suzuki's book was an eye-opener. I don't remember every detail in the book, but one thing I decided after reading the book was to let my son play violin whenever he wants to. I wouldn't complain that it is too noisy or bothering. There was a time when I was sick laying in bed, and my son came to me asking, "Mommy, can I play violin now?" I told him he can play whenever he wanted that it actually made me feel better. (It really did :)) I thought it was very cute of him to ask me.
After several years, that has changed a bit. Now, he has so many other interests. Sometimes, it is hard to focus on practice. But still his love for violin remains. Although he complains about practicing, he never thought of quitting. A lot of people says that especially when a boy enters into his teenage years, he tends to quit instrument because of peer pressure. I have a few years to go to deal with that, but I need to make sure he doesn't lose the love of music.

Barber Violin Concerto

2007-12-01T05:24:00.000-08:00

My current favorite is Barber Violin Concerto. When I heard that Cho-Liang Lin is coming to town and perform this piece, I immediately got a CD and started listening. The moment I listened to the beginning of the 1st movement, I just fell in love with this Concerto. It is beautifully sentimental and sweet, yet dramatic. It brought me back to my teenage years of bitter sweet first heart broken love. There must be a girl still inside me. We still want to believe in the fairly tale somewhere in our heart, you know:)
The one I am listening to now is by Gil Shaham. He is a superb violinist. He makes it look so easy whatever he's playing, doesn't make a face or move around. He simply plays and you can't help but to listen. I hope I can go see him in a concert one day.
Unfortunately, I couldn't go to Cho-Liang Lin's performance that night due to my schedule conflict, but I was able to attend the open rehearsal earlier on the day of the concert. CD is nice, but there's nothing better than listening live. Tears were falling down on my face, it is so beautiful! But the funny thing happened in the middle of the piece. Mr. Lin abruptly stopped playing. Everybody wondered what was going on. Then he said "I am sorry but the bug was trying to get into my nose." We just laughed so hard while an annoying little bug was still trying his hardest to get to Mr. Lin. Finally he chased it away and continued on. The third movement was just like a bullet train. How is it possible for him to move his fingers so fast without skipping notes? Here is a clip of young Cho-Liang Lin in a master class with Itzhak Perlman on youtube.

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor

2007-11-30T20:31:00.000-08:00

My son just performed Mendelssohn Violin Concertoat a student recital the other day. He worked on it for a little shy of two months. I was a nervous mom because I felt he was still a little shaky on the high notes in some areas. Although he practiced hard, he was hitting those notes at about 80% accuracy which means 8 times out of 10, he would hit it right on. Well, the day came and we just had to hope everything would be OK. At this point, I was fine as long as he didn't have a memory slip. I would just feel so bad for him if that happned. He was the 6th performer that night. This piece is a very difficult piece in terms of phrasing and keeping it from being boring because of some repetitive melody parts. You can't just play the same way, then it will be blahhh. A couple of days before the recital, we had rehearsed with the pianist, but something wasn't clicking right with my son. May be he was just tired? I kind a left him alone to deal with it. At this point, there's no use in telling him anything, I thought. We'll just wait and see. The moment he stood on stage, he seemed like a person who woke up from long coma. He was actually feeling it. (I hope...) Although there were a few intonation problems, he did well. People loved it, and he smiled!

My son's performance (part 1)

My son't performance (part 2)