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(2 votes) 
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No, almost never. I don't like metronomes...
But I have bow control issues, especially on nocturne n°2, I have trouble playing the notes in time (or when I do get it, it's mostly luck).
Even just the first 5 notes are actually hard for me. I'm playing notes 2-3-4-5 on an up-bow (not much choice, right ?), and the string crossings make it hard for me :
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wtw said
No, almost never. I don't like metronomes...But I have bow control issues, especially on nocturne n°2, I have trouble playing the notes in time (or when I do get it, it's mostly luck).
Even just the first 5 notes are actually hard for me. I'm playing notes 2-3-4-5 on an up-bow (not much choice, right ?), and the string crossings make it hard for me :
Have you tried playing without slurs first, then adding the slurs afterwards?
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Without slurs it's definitely easier. It's more of a bow control problem when I get close to the frog. Guess I need to practice in the lower part of the bow.
It's been some time, I've been playing less and less, and not visiting much either here or on FM.com… shame on me.
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I had a nice playing session today. Tried some new tunes, and then some of the old ones that I want to impove.
Got my carbon fiber bow out, I'd forgotten how effortless it is to play with it. Wooden bow is getting a rehair, which is about the only time I use the carbon fiber one. I'm thinking, maybe I should use it more often. It's more suited to quicker joyous tunes, though (irish, tango, etc).
Anyway, I'm glad that for once I had the impression of playing not that badly, or well enough to my ears. As nobody else is listening to me, that's sufficient.
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I wish I could do my viola. My wrist has been getting sore when I play it. I hope it is temporary, and not old age, which will not get younger, ?.
Isn't it funny when you use something you hadn't used for a while it is like, "Why did I stop?" When you get your other bow back, you will have to split up the time.
The Bumble Bee Flies
Learn Viola on Violaman and Fiddlerman's Fiddle Talk
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wtw said
Opening this as a sort of blog, I'm not sure whether I'll use it much or not.
Funnily enough, I was thinking exactly the same thing just as I was logging on and wondering whether to create a viola blog. Problem is, it's more important to stick with the violin. In the long run I can see myself perhaps as a private violinist and an orchestral violist, but I don't know if the long term is going to be long enough for that. I have heart disease, arthritis, glaucoma and cataracts developing all the time. Why did I give up music at the age of 20? Oh yeah, ADD. Oh, I've made it about me. Sorry.
If you don't like metronomes, my teacher suggests using an electronic one with the light on and the sound off to help you internalise the beat. I forget if she had an explanation of how that works.
I'm using my viola bow with the violin, but I don't know if there's any reason I shouldn't.
It could be a good thing. It's a bit like playing in the middle of the bow, so that the weight of the bow can play into the string and enhance tone.
On youtube I stumbled upon this guy who says Primrose advocated, as a practice technique (among others), to play the same passage 60 times. Obviously, not 60 repetitions of a whole piece, but of a section that presents a difficulty, be it shifting or whatever. I thought, why not give it a try? and, armed with a counter, went on to apply it on just 3 bars.
One sure thing : never before had I played anything 60 times in a row (maybe 10, at most, and rarely). Took me some time. There was a nice improvement (the contrary would have been depressing), for one thing I became much less tense ; but I'll have to see if it really helps (or if the next day I'm back to where I was), and if I can stick to this exercise.
How repetitively do you practice?
60 is excessive and almost certainly apocryphal. There are many variations on this theme. First thing to say is, mindless repetitions, however many, are pointless.
If you are searching for a solution to a problem, you will tend to repeat, but normally when practising a passage one selects the first couple of notes and repeats them a few times, then one adds a note and repeats that a few more times, then one adds another note and so on.
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Gordon Shumway said
60 is excessive and almost certainly apocryphal. There are many variations on this theme. First thing to say is, mindless repetitions, however many, are pointless.
I happen to have a copy of ISBN 1871082196.
Primrose only contributes a few pages, and I've only glanced at them, but it's pretty obvious from his old-fashionedly condescending (Scottish) English that he'd regard repeating something 60 times as the height of stupidity.
P. 182: "I do not hold that it is impossible for a smaller instrument to be lacking in quality or volume on the C string". How to we disentangle this triple-negative contortion?*
The logical meaning is that most people say small violas are loud and beautiful on the C string, but he denies this has to be the case. This is nonsense - people don't say that. He prefers smaller violas, and I guess his sentence should read either "I do not hold that it is impossible for a smaller instrument to be great in quality and volume on the C string" or "I do not hold that it is essential for a smaller instrument to be lacking in quality or volume on the C string"
*I've got a bee in my bonnet about multiple negatives. Catullus #44 is a puzzle I worked on very hard before finding a solution.
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Gordon Shumway said
60 is excessive and almost certainly apocryphal.
Having watched the video and seen the tome in question, I'd suggest that you should observe that Primrose then suggests isolating the difficult bits for slow practice.
So my question then becomes, why play the easy bits 60 times?
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@Gordon Shumway I had to re-read several times the triple negative sentence (!), but I agree with your conclusion. Better to keep it simple whenever possible : "Smaller instruments may be great in quality and volume in the C string" is even clearer.
I'd forgotten this thing about repeating 60 times. I never did it again.
Playing the easy bits is pleasant (so I do it much more than necessary, because I like to play a piece, or couple of phrases, from beginning to end) ; but is not very efficient in order to improve.
Feel free to open a viola blog if you ever feel like it. I understand about limited time, though.
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Satisfied with my practice time these last few days. I've been working on my vibrato, and I think I understand better how it works. Feels like I'm improving but I can't be sure yet. It would be about time too! Sometimes you just need to be optimistic (well, not defeatist at least).
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Changed my strings today. Or rather, tried to: I broke the A. That's the first time it happens to me, usually I have no problems. The peg just kep turning backwards, I'm not sure why. Maybe I was a bit heavy-handed soaping it (my pegs get stuck otherwise).
So, trip to the luthier this afternoon: I'll let him change it for me, better not risk breaking another one.
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wtw said
Changed my strings today. Or rather, tried to: I broke the A. That's the first time it happens to me, usually I have no problems. The peg just kep turning backwards, I'm not sure why.
Was it a Dominant?
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