What I'm Relearning (or Not)

Until mid-October, my violin had sat in its case at the foot of my bed for 15+ years. I spent twelve years playing the violin, and fifteen years neglecting it. Since picking it up again, I’ve been relearning some things. These include:

• Key signatures. Commonly occurring keys—with up to, say, two sharps or flats—are lodged firmly enough in my subconscious that I can process them automatically. However, in re-doing Kreutzer’s 5^th etude, I had to remind myself what the hell the third flat is. (It’s A flat, for the record, but I would still have to rack my brain to figure out what key that adds up to.)
• Violin-friendly clothing and accessories. I’m fond of dangling earrings and scarves, but those definitely do not always work well for playing. I’m gradually recognizing which earrings dangle too far and which scarves are too bulky to accommodate the violin. Even light scarves and blazer-type jackets often end up thrown over a chair in my practice area. Freedom of movement is a fine thing. 
• Recognizing pitches on a stringed instrument. On Saturday evening I attended a student variety show at the university where I work. One act featured an ensemble with a guy playing an electric violin. The A jumped out at me, and from there I could recognize the other pitches. That key I could identify—good old G major. This used to happen to me all the time when I heard a violin; it sometimes happened when I heard a string section or ensemble as a whole, a piano, or an acoustic guitar. It will be cool to have that sensitivity back. 
• Planning errands based on when the violin will not be with me. In winter weather, I want to minimize my violin’s time spent in cold conditions. Until this past October, I never had to factor this into my plans when I had errands to run. But now, side trips to the grocery store, etc. get shunted to days when the violin is at home. It's becoming second nature again. 

Of course, none of this addresses what’s been one of the biggest challenges of picking up the violin again: getting back into physical shape to play. That’s a story for another time.

Practice Performance vs. Lesson Performance

I need to figure out how practicing can go so well and a lesson can go so…blah sometimes. One of the things I worked on a lot this week (and before my previous lesson) was the opening four notes of the Bach A minor violin concerto.

I thought of them as an inhale and an exhale, inhale and exhale. I thought about how the first note in each pair should be crisp; the bow should lift off the string. The note shouldn’t be cut short, but it should be crisp. The second note in each pair should be accented more, sustained, but not overwrought. Not too much vibrato. “On the one hand, on the other hand.” I thought about this a lot. I practiced it a lot. Not disproportionately so, but I paid attention to it.

And in my lesson yesterday, those four notes dribbled out like overcooked spaghetti. Ms. L. actually stopped me right after them to order a do-over. Luckily I redeemed myself a bit on other lift-plus-accent passages in the first few lines, so I know I have that bow motion/gesture in me. The practice paid off there, I guess.

But in the larger scheme of things, how can I improve my “performance” at lessons? I would say that at lessons, I typically play 70-80% as well as I do when practicing. But wait a second…I bet that I am selectively remembering the best parts of my practice sessions, not the woodshedding. Maybe I played those opening four notes twelve or fifteen times in the last two days alone, and because they came out the way I wanted them to three or four of the last times, I thought I had them. I just didn’t have them secure enough.

I don't buy that practicing more is the answer--it's probably a matter of practicing more mindfully. Or maybe I shouldn't get too cute about the inhale/exhale business, and should just pay attention to what my bow is  actually doing (how close to the frog? how much does it really come off the string?) when I play those notes right.