Day 4 of navel-gazing recording stuff

Another post...every post is closer to that pro recorder. Though my friend and colleague Bob thinks that there is another recorder that is better. Is this true?
Discuss...

Okay enough of that-on to the business of the day (a little dry and technical today).

Taped various passages of the Campagnoli Caprice in f# minor. It's an example of what I call the "noodles"-continuous sixteenths and fairly chromatic. The main thing I wanted to work on was the evenness of the notes.

Recorded three relatively random passages of 4-8 measures to see what the baseline was. (Been influenced by ABA-DTL therapy for my kids-they always determine and document the base level before introducing a new skill.) Not bad except that sometimes the middle or the last notes would get lost. And it wasn't consistent even in the same passage.

So now to work. First did what I call the "rhythms". If you are familiar with I. Galamian's teaching this will not be new. I use a simplified pattern sequence with my students and I do use it a lot in my own practice. Basically it goes like this in a four note grouping with separate bows:

fast-slow-fast-slow
slow-fast-slow-fast
fast-fast-slow-slow
slow-fast-fast-slow (my favorite and my most difficult...everyone has one)
slow-slow-fast-fast
fast-fast-fast-slow
slow-fast-fast-fast

and then play again as written to see how much improvement there was.

Then the "metronome games". Whoo yoo! Just start at the quarter (in this case the sixteenths are the beat)of the final tempo with the evil Dr. Beat on sixteenth subdivisions. Then crank it up 10-15 notches until beat is 160 (after that the Dr. peeves me greatly). Then go back to the eighth being the beat at 80 and notch up again gradually to 160. Then quarter is 80 and notch up to the final tempo. And this will solidify the passage. And it did...

Now thinking about what I should concentrate on this week. It should be the Janecek "Nursery Rhymes". It is originally written for woodwinds and choir and was arranged for a very difficult arrangement for viola, piano, and choir. To me as a violist, I would term it a "semi-concerto" compared to the Vaughan-Williams "Flos Campi" which is a true concerto. But it will be rewarding anyway. The choir is top notch. And it will be an honour to work for the conductor, a great musician. But I tell you more on that concert later...maybe in March.

'Til tomorrow!