Lesson 181 - Thrills

We started the lesson with a round up of previous week's progress. I'm usually just managing about 5 hours of practice time a week - a good week, that is. If I'm brutally honest, I'm happy if I do 2 hours.

I try to do an hour each day but it's the focus that gets me. Being, or rather, reaching the right frame of mind when I start a practice session.

I usually have a fairly robust plan for each session; 2-3 octave scales of the pieces I'm tackling, then the same scales on one string focused on getting a good tone and vibrato on the higher registers. This is then followed by double stops and then the pieces themselves.

I need to include some Feuillard and Bunting more regularly, especially exercises on dynamics and position changes as they seem to be the current culprits of unsatisfactory playing.

We looked at thrills today, specifically for the second movement of Vivaldi's double concerto. To get consistent, clean and clear sounding thrills, we used the metronome for best effect starting from crotchets to hemidemisemiquavers much like the vibrato exercises that are so effective.