Ysaye Ballade

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:)

Building Repertoire

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.

First Lesson of 2009

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

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!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Backward

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

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

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.

A Lesson with His New Teacher

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.

Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3

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

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.

Mendelssohn Revisited

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

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!

Wieniawski Legende

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.

Frustration with G Scales 4 octaves

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.....

Scales

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 :)

Bach Sonata & Partita

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 :)

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor

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)