Yakima Fernandez Violin

[yakimafernandez]

Coffee with this beautiful man 😍 I was so captivated I totally spaced an entire rehearsal x.x Always good times and good vibes with Nic @nicolasarmer hehehe. Love you man. #prismaticcoffee #cafelatte #violins (hier: Prismatic Coffee)

[yakimafernandez]

When I was a teenager, this brand made me blush. #kissmyface #soap #oliveandlavender (hier: The University of New Mexico - UNM)

[yakimafernandez]

Every once in a while, I'll take a break from plain and simple black coffee. When I do, beautiful things can happen, such as this stellar caffè latte crafted by @sadgurl4lyfe at the Satellite across the street from UNM. It was delicious 🌻 #caffèlatte #satellitecoffee

[yakimafernandez]

Pirazzi crane enjoys hanging out at coffee shops, reading and humming along with musical scores, and and of course making new paper friends. #pirazzi #crane #downtownsubscription

[yakimafernandez]

Hazy! That's Santa Fe way down there. Normally this view is so clear, but not today. This is one of my favorite lookout places, especially if I want to be up in the mountains, but don't have time for a hike. Took this photo through my new favorite sunglasses! #hazy #santafe #elevated

[yakimafernandez]

Black and white filter for the late night practice! In my phone, this is time stamped from yesterday, at 1:32am. There is something that I absolutely love about practicing late at night. I'm not sure if it's the solitude, the ghostly aura of the practice rooms at this hour, or the thrill of drinking coffee at 10pm, but I seem to get my most productive and inspirational practice done at this hour. Here I'm messing around with the Sibelius cadenza. Or uh...'practicing'...I love this cadenza so much; sometimes when I'm playing through it, trying to memorize every detail, I get so excited and worked up that I can't keep playing and have to put my instrument down and jump up and down like a pet happy to see its owner. #cadenza #sibelius #latenights #unm

[yakimafernandez]

At first, I didn't want to post this video. It's C#minor 3rds, from the Flesch scale book. My reluctance came from listening to it, and being very unsatisfied with the final product. Is it in tune? Hahaha! Not even close. However, I tried my hardest to play slow, and piano. I had to remind myself that even though I want to always sound good on social media, this, right here, is how I sound right now. It's a work in progress - double stops are hard as hell! I suppose that is the lesson for me in this post: the point of these instagram videos is to share my violining journey with others. If something isn't sounding great, it's still ok to share it, with the understanding that next time, it will sound better. Speaking of journeys, I've been trying to incorporate more double stops into my practice. I've been playing them slow and piano because I think that is much harder, and requires more control and focus than fast and forte. #fleschscales #100daysofpractice #doublestops

[yakimafernandez]

Origuhmee. Hehe while I don't really fold so much these days, every now and then I do, and it calms me down. It feels good on the fingers, to take a break from the repetitive motions that they are used to. #origami #origuhmee #bowtie

[yakimafernandez]

Yikes! My 100 days of practice kinda crashed and burned. For many reasons, from a shift in a living situation at home to being back and forth between Santa Fe and Albuquerque nearly every day, my practice has suffered. I wish it weren't the case, but the time that I was able to practice, not great practice, and I felt underprepared and naked during rehearsals. That being said, I'm now in Wisconsin with the contemporary music ensemble and I have plenty of time to practice and work on basics - like this Schradieck exercise! I think the hundred days of practice is an awesome idea, and I want to keep going and posting stuff that I'm working on, but I'm not going to keep track of the days anymore, and I might post only a few times a week. Getting in the good practice today felt so refreshing, and only an hour in, I was already in such a good mood. #100daysofpractice #schradieck #galesville

[yakimafernandez]

What a good practice day. I got started pretty late in the evening, 9pm-ish, but got some solid hours in, and feel like I covered a lot of material. On the table there is some magic flute that I've been looking at. Day 13! #100daysofpractice #magicflute #practicesession

[yakimafernandez]

Some more late night Sibelius! This is a short little doodad from the 3rd movement. Aligning it with the piano is very difficult because my triplets are against the piano's sixteenths. I'm always trying to get my octaves better, but sometimes they just slip away from you. I enjoy practicing the Carl Flesch octave exercises; I think they have helped a lot. Day 12! #100daysofpractice #octaves #intonation #sibeliusviolinconcerto #bathroompractice

[yakimafernandez]

Yesterday I practiced, but didn't post anything! This here is from the 3rd movement of the Mendelssohn trio which I did some very good and slow practice on. I've listened to a few recordings, and the professionals just fly through this movement. So fast!! Day 11, #100daysofpractice #mendelssohntrio #slowpractice

[yakimafernandez]

Another day of practice, now behind me. Little bit of the late night Sibelius again. I'm trying to truly commit this 3rd movement to memory. I've been working with the metronome and keeping those triplets steady. Lining this up with the piano is quite the headache for me. Day 10! #100daysofpractice #sibelius #latenightpractice

[yakimafernandez]

Sometimes I can get very good late practice done. I'm not sure if last night was one of those nights...I was in the university practice rooms, and definitely felt inspired, but something about my practice was missing. Even the slow Sibelius practice I'm doing here, doesn't feel quite right. Little 'moon' filter, to go with the time of day hehe. Day 9, #100daysofpractice #kopakabana

[yakimafernandez]

Ok, definitely dropped the ball on the whole practice thing for the last two days. (I know I'm supposed to keep going, so do I just pick up with day 8? Hahaha, feels like cheating somehow.) I'm sure I'll discuss it more later on, but for me, being in the right headspace is essential for my practice. Otherwise I feel I'm just wasting time, not really getting anything done. But, back at it today felt great. I got some great work done on this second movement of the Mendelssohn trio, in D minor. I went through the movement, listened to a recording, read along with the score, put some notes in, and am feeling good about having a rehearsal with this movement. That being said the 3rd and 4th movements kinda scare me right now hehe. #100daysofpractice #mendelssohntrio

[yakimafernandez]

Today was somewhat unproductive as far as practicing goes. Due to poor planning and time management, I only did an hour of Flesch and a half hour or so of Sibelius. Was definitely nice waking my fingers up with g# minor hehe. Also it looks like I have a solid start on memorizing that scale passage from the second movement! So that's good, but not nearly enough practicing today. Tomorrow will be better, I'm sure. Looks like this is day 5! #100daysofpractice #violin #fleschscales

[yakimafernandez]

Sibelius, second movement! Day 3!! Memorizing music is such a nightmare for me. Even if I have something memorized, if I panic during a performance, I might as well throw in the towel; my memory will blank. Sooo, today's practice has been focused on trying to memorize these four lines of scales, and be able to play through with confidence, even slowly. At the end of my practice, still no such luck. For some reason, even though they are 'just scales,' I can't seem to get the progression correct. Hopefully something of today's practice stuck with me, and I'll be able to play it correctly tomorrow! #100daysofpractice #sibelius #consistencyiskey