#practice sesh

[b-robinson]

Practice Sesh #44

Moved homes. Same city. Well needed vacations. Birthday. Learning how to live alone...

A lot's happened in the last couple months but we're still going at! Hope all of y'all are vaxxed and/or planning to get vaxxed soon.

Why am I posting this so damn late at night lol. Whatevs:

This was the second page of Kreutzer #28 which was fun to play. I think I mentioned last time that I enjoyed that this had a bit more versatility in the passages compared to the other etudes. Let's me stretch my fingers around a lot more. Important takes from this one was basically good bow control. Sliding up and down the fingerboard takes a lot of miles both on the strings and on the hair. Every millisecond you spend on a shift adds up on your bowstrokes.

Kreutzer 29 was a test of how far I could take my full bow technique. I learned the answer was not very far. Jesus at times I feel like there just isn't enough bow. But I can already hear the sighs of thousands of teachers just saying, no you have enough, just get good at bow control. I know know. But sometimes you gotta stop and just look at how outrageous some of these passages are...

The current Etude I'm going through right now is:

Finally hit the big 3-0 on Kreutzer. This one actually isn't difficult (since I'm pretty sure I've played this before in my past 😜), but it's nice to have some familiarity. Me 6 years ago playing this was a different person to now. I can feel a type of control over these notes that I didn't have before and that's very reassuring. It's like there are no surprises here and my ears have gotten better at knowing what I need to improve throughout these measures.

Oh yes and I started playing piano at the beginning of the pandemic. Or at least formally learning it instead of messing around with it when making beats and stuff. I'll post more about it as soon as I'm done with this adult piano learning lessons book. I'm close!

[ayyyez]

It was those eyes. That’s what had given her away. Her deep, beautiful, troubled eyes. Reflecting beneath the sapphire, which hadn’t quite sparkled the way they used to, something dark—something he had never seen reflected in them before. [x]

Attempted to draw my OC’s eyes? *shrugs*

[b-robinson]

Practice Sesh #43

I know I'm gonna be preaching to the choir here (considering this is a fairly progressive/respectful platform), but this past year filled with discrimination against POC/LGBTQIA+ has been pretty shit. It's been going on for a lot longer but due to the fact that we've just been chilling at home more frequently, we're soaking up more news and we see a LOT more. The racist rhetoric behind COVID-19 is just adding fuel to it too. As much as I can yell at my social media feed to stop being racist assholes, that won't do much since many in my bubble already know not be racist...so instead I'll urge you to be braver. I'm still working on trying to be more courageous in these type of situations too. Stand up for people out in public. Don't be a bystander. Yes, it's scary, but if you are physically able to do something about it, or galvanize others around you to help when you see somebody being physically abused/discriminated against/bullied and so on, DO IT. I've seen one too many videos of someone getting their shit kicked in by an idiot and NO ONE DOING ANYTHING BUT WATCHING. We see it on insta the next day then get mad. I know we tend to mind our own business when something isn't our problem, which is understandable in certain situations. However, it's not understandable when someone is on the ground pleading not to be hit.

Lemme say, Kreuzter 28 aint that bad. Sure there are 32nd notes but the tempo is grave so it's not the worst. It is pretty much the slowest. I have to work on getting those slurs clean. I can hit those arpeggios but it definitely gets a bit sloshy when I'm changing positions on the slurs on the way down. I feel like this one will be a fun Etude since it provides quite a bit of variation instead of the usual drilling of the same patterns.

Also. welcome to the family, Sonia:

After ten years on my previous violin (Martin), I've saved up a bit and with stimmy help I was able to move onto a newer violin. I hope to spend another decade and more with this one. The quality of sound is night and day when compared to my previous instrument. I'm loving it so far, it's just so clear and the sound spreads like butter. Can't wait to show y'all what it sounds like soon.

[b-robinson]

Practice Sesh #36

Another week on the etude, another page of exercise repetition. All of a sudden the second page increased in difficulty with its accidentals, key changes and finger placements. Luckily the pattern stays the same and the fingerings are pretty much the same even when its modulated. Apparently it’s also supposed to be moderato which to me sounds extremely fast for this but I’ll tr to get the pace up there. If I can clear the second page, the third page will be fine since its just a small variation on the first page that doesn’t shift much from the key. 

Also I got a piano! I’ve been saving up for this since like last year around this time, so it’s nice that I finally got to buy it. I’ve been meaning to learn for real for a while now in hopes that I’ll gain a better understanding of more advanced theory concepts. That and being able to accompany myself properly on tracks would be nice. It’s definitely gonna take some time getting adjusted to the heavier keys and honestly everything about it... So if any of y’all could hook me up on beginner resources/must do exercises that would be awesome. I’m gonna do some research on what I should be doing to start.

In other news:

I went skiing/snowboarding with friends this past weekend! I also was a clown and did not know we didn’t get off on Presidents day for work...Doesn’t matter though, I took the day off to hang with my awesome buddies. Since they were sleeping over too, we watched Parasite. I liked the movie and I definitely want to see it again since I feel like I missed quite a bit from the film. 

[b-robinson]

Practice Sesh #39

Hope everybody is chilling alright during this whole ass mess. DMs open if anybody wants to chat about anything during this qtine. Stuff I ordered from amazon (violin strings, workout gear) just arrived so that was nice. And I was fortunate I got to do a violin bow drop off for re-hairing (social distancing style ofc). 

I finally got over the last etude, which I believe was the most technically challenging of the etude’s I’ve played so far in this book. Scales definitely went a long way in helping me run through it well. Fortunately, the patterns were clear and predictable, so it wasn’t extreme in that sense. The fact that it also was a cadenza style etude gave me liberty to add expression.

Now, moving on to Etude 24a. This one is gonna be a fun exercise for getting those octaves in tune. I’m not worried about this one. The one I will be is 24b. That etude is the same as this etude except for one thing. All the octaves they make you hit use the first and third fingers rather than the stand first and fourth. So it’ll be a stretch for sure. It’ll be a wild one for sure. 

[b-robinson]

Practice Sesh #38

Hang in there y’all. It’ll be a difficult few months ahead, but it will get better soon for sure. Also if anybody is bored out of their minds during this or just wants to chill and chat, feel free to hit me up. 

Finally got a hold of the last etude and feel pretty good about how I played those difficult half position/ extended position passages. I’ve realized the more weird etudes I play with awkward fingerings and tricky runs, the more I’m able to apply that to my improv. The last project I just finished working on featured a lot of those skills I’ve acquired over the years of practicing etudes and other music. It’s remarkable looking back on my first improv to the ones I do now. Insane growth. And I know it only goes up from here.

Now for etude #23. JEsus Christ. That’s all I had to say on the first look. I think this one will be fine once I get the patterns down in my fingers. This is not straight forward as of now. Scales will be important to practice too, which is why I’m reintroducing the Carl Flesch scale studies book. I almost felt sick writing that lol... I’ll be taking this etude chunk by chunk for sure. Aiming for discrete and clean notes. None of that sloppy stuff.

[b-robinson]

Practice Sesh #34

I guess this etude makes it the half way point for this book! I’m still in the “trill arc” of this book. The last 4 or 5 etudes have all had trills as the highlight of the exercise. I think the etude after this is the last one that does this, so I’d have really strengthened my fourth finger trills by now. This etude isn’t difficult until you try and fit more than one turn in each trill. My goal is to get two clean sounding turns in each trill without sacrificing the rhythm, cause just about every note in this etude is an equivalent eight note. I can easily see myself extending certain notes to try and get a clean sounding trill. So I’ll focus on starting it out slow before I go ham.

Other than that, some life update stuff:

Winter break was awesome. I took two weeks off of work basically to come home and spend time with my family and friends. Went to New York again with my close group of friends for our annual hangout. Ate a lot of good food as always and crushed the escape room! After that trip I went to Magfest for the 4th time! It’s my favorite (and only) convention I’ve been to lmao. I always enjoy going with my buddy to the jam clinic and just wilding out on our instruments. Can’t forget all the fun video games there too. 

This weekend my buddy from W&M came over to hang out and yesterday we spent 7-8 hours making a song (from 3-12). It was such a rewarding process, and I gotta keep doing stuff like that in the future with peeps and maybe myself. Just dedicating a whole day to something can get tiring, but when you set a goal for finishing something that day, it’s awesome. 

Also here are some fun stickers I got at the convention. I love em.

[b-robinson]

Practice Sesh #35

Hello there 🗡️🗡️🤖🔪🔪   🤺

Onward to the last half of the this book! I believe this Etude is the last trill focused one. It’s three pages long (I’ll post the other pages when I get to em). I only worked on the first page just to get the pattern down and it looks like this one will be straightforward. I’ll either go for upping the speed to the fast pace they want it at, or try the different rhythms they have above. I’m leaning towards trying the different rhythms just to get a new take on the fairly monotonous 16th slurs all over.

Other than that stuff I am preparing to buy an electric piano! I’ve been saving money for is since last year and I’m looking forward to learning and accompanying myself for the future projects. One of which is an arrangement I’m working on recording/mixing and hopefully videotaping right now. It’s all new to me so I’m doing my best to stay humble and not have unreasonable expectations from myself...but at the same time push myself to rise up to the challenge.