Week of October 25, 2009

F Minor Scale
Kreutzer No. 11
Bach B-Minor Partita: Bourrée

This is a great week for the violin. My instrument is in tune. The Kreutzer exercise is my favorite, and the Bach is beautiful and full of chords, which are starting to feel familiar to me.

As for things to work on: That three-octave scale puts the fingers on the E string very close to the bow! It's hard to sound beautiful up there.

I'm trying to relax my fingering hand more. I tried playing Schradieck No. 1 with my fourth finger down, either on the A string or on the D string, in order to practice keeping it still while the other fingers are playing... I'm also trying to get more comfortable playing near the frog by playing Kreutzer No. 2 with the bowing reversed: up bows going to the frog on every downbeat.

I still remember the big shifts from the last time I played the Kreutzer exercise. The very first measure still gives me a bit of trouble, though. It will take practice to play the exercise fast.

Unfortunately, I haven't felt very well today. I thought my cold was better, but it's not.