Archives for the Month of December 2006 on Jesse Brown's Online Journal
Lesson 12/01/06
As the semester draws to an end, it seems that today's lesson acted as a reminder of old practice habits and what is required if improvement is to be made. We discussed how the only way to ensure improvement is to be methodical during practice--slowly play passages, concentrate on each aspect individually (whether it is rhythm, intonation, tempo, or articulations). Nothing can or will be achieved if I rush through my practice time.
The sevcik exercises, for example, will only help me if i play them intelligently and work to emphasize what each section is trying to utilize. For example, much of what this particular exercise has been used for up to now is building impulse in the left hand, but today this was expanded into new areas. Each passage in the Sevcik builds in cromaticism and has a coinciding hand/finger pattern in order to play each passage. The point of this is to be able to utilize the shape of the hand regardless of where one must play on the instrument and begin to recognize note patterns that can correspond with particular hand shapes.
Also, we discussed how there are areas of weakness in intonation, but that this can be remedied by looking for notes that will resonate with particular open strings. This is another technique that will only become stronger through slow, deliberate practice.
Finally, we spent the remaining time on the Clarke Passacaglia. While I have made improvement on the piece there is still much that must be done to improve the musicality of it and truly bring it to life. For starters, it is necessary to increase the tempo, as too slowly and the passages will drag and the second half will become sloppy where particular slurred sections have been marked.
I am still having difficulty with the triple stops and to remedy this the lowest notes in a few of them have been marked out. I will concentrate on working on these parts as they are now notated, but I still want to work towards being able to play them clearly, completely, and competently.
The piece itself does not have very many dramatic changes in dynamic and its softest part happens to be on the lowest string, which for a viola is difficult in itself to really do (like playing softly in the upper register for flute). it's not impossible, but to maintain the quality of the tenutos I think I'm going to keep the pianississimos at more of a piano range. To make up for the fact that dynamics are going to be changed slightly texture becomes extremely important: what can I do in certain areas to create a dynamic feeling from section to section? This is the question I will be trying to work out in the Clarke over the next few days.
Just over a week to prepare for my goal--no time to lose.
That's all for now.