FORUM

Since I just putthe string on my viola, I am just tuning periodically. I was going to play it tonight, but I would have to stop to tune too often. It was pretty much off a bit when I finished Memory. 

For a while, the area that I sit and play was being used as we turned a room just used for machine knitting into a spare bedroom/machine knitting room, It used to be a spare bedroom, but was rarely used so we took the bed down and put a table and shelves in for a machine knitting room. 

I did some measuring and there was room for that bed and the machine knitting, just some rearranging. While doing that, my area for playing became one of the storing places. The mattress and box spring came yesterday and everything is back in place. That means that I have my playing area.

I am going to get my cello out later and see if my arm will hold up a little better. I feel so free with that area opened up. I don't know why. I notice when I am not in a familiar area to play, and it does affect me, I think. Plus, I did not have my comfortable chair for a long while. I tried to put it where I was playing but there was just too much shuffling around to remove a chair to put that one in. By the time I did that, my back was sore. There was a lot of machine knitting items just waiting to be put back in its place, so room was limited.

I am hoping my arm holds up when I give my cello another go. I hope that I have not forgotten much,

Does where you play affect other people? 

@Violaman Have you ever noticed anything like that? @wtw? For some reason I really noticed. I did manage to do a couple of fairly decent pieces, but in between those successes, it just did not feel right. 

Maybe that is behind it. I am very in-tune (no pun intended) with sound produced.

Interesting.

I am thinking my playing is just so unstructured and I really need to get the process of learning it organized. Sure, I have a couple of songs that I can play, but I knew those songs, they were familiar to me, so I knew what the timing should be, mood, etc. This does not carry over, at least for me, to trying to learn to play, all the way to the basics. 

I have decided that I going to have to add structure. I will still do those couple of pieces that I can do, and work on improving them, but the bulk has got to be learning the mechanics, for lack of a better word. How do I take that sheet music and combine it with my viola or cello, or violin for that matter. This is VIOLAMAN, so even if I say or type something that is violin too, I am not going to keep mentioning violin. Here I talk viola or cell. If I could use the emoji's from my keyboard, or smileys from the options below on Violaman, K would be winking here, ???(test of three laughing keyboard emojis is here).

I pulled out book one from one of the viola series of books I have. I selected the one that I like best and find most beneficial, MÜLLER RUSCH. I can add from the others if I need more information, like going to the library for more information for a school paper. I am starting with lesson 8 because the first 7 go too gar back to basics. Thins that I have not forgotten and/or have down pretty good.

I will also have a period of time to run through my known pieces. This gives me fun time and time to improve those. 

I think that most of what I learn with this can be used with the violin, so after I get more comfortable with my lovely viola, I can then get out my violin and use this knowledge with the violin, although, I will get violin out, I do love it and it us a lot of fun.

I just have to stop being intimidated and I think part of the intimidation is from I have always thought that unless I am taught or learn in an organized fashion, it won't work, Kind of late, at my age, for that train of thought to change. That ol' track changer lever is rusted and won't budge. 3 laughing emojis here, LOL.

@Violaman and @wtw, does any of this make sense to you? You are both way beyond me with this. I just need to get some foundation and confidence, and playing a song here and there, does not seem to help me progress. In the back of my mind I keep hearing, "What am I doing? Why can't I pick any piece and figure it out and/or not be intimidated, even easy looking pieces?"

I mentioned this in less detail in my Fiddlerman blog, but since I am going to use my viola, it is much easier for me to finger accurately, I decided that this is where I need to concentrate on keeping what I am doing recorded to refer back to. Hopefully, this will help me be able to get more accuracy and feel more comfortable with my violin, too. 

I just think I am completely missing something by just playing songs.

Thanks for your thoughts.