Counting for Dummies

Getting started with the Haydn G-major violin concerto (first movement) tells me that I need to relearn how to count. Ms. L tells me to count it in eight, which makes sense, but the triplets and sextuplets trip me up. For now, I will probably just have to learn the rhythms by ear. Eventually, listening while following along (which you can do with the video above, which shows the solo and tutti parts) might help reteach me to count.

I ran into the same problem when I came back to my college orchestra after my junior year abroad.* The first piece we started working on at the start of my senior year was Bartók’s Dance Suite. Sightreading that? When you’ve forgotten how to count? Riiiight. I can’t get my hands on a part or score to confirm it, but I remember this piece as having all kinds of wacky time signatures. You might be counting in seven for a short bit, then four, then six, and on and on.** In every practice session, rehearsal and performance, my big toe tapped furiously inside my shoe as I did my best to stay on course. I came to love that piece, though (and just about anything by Bartók).

* I joined a student orchestra briefly in my study abroad city, but did not stick with it. Long story…anyway, when I returned to my home college for my senior year, I had not done much playing for the previous ten months beyond going through some scales a few times per month.   

** I did some searching online to try to verify this memory. I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for. But I did find a blog post (Nov. 3, 2011) by bassoonist Amy Harman of the Philharmonia Orchestra in which she recounted some very specific instructions from the Philharmonia’s Principal Conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, on the Dance Suite’s opening bassoon solo: “Esa-Pekka told me I should try and sound like 'the drunkest person at the bus stop.'”

Case of the Conjoined Fingers

I worked a solid ten-hour day today, which is not horrible. But toward the end of it, I was not feeling like Someone Who Plays the Violin and Practices Regularly. I was feeling like Someone Who Just Had a Long Day and Wants to Eat Dinner and Then Veg on the Couch. However, when I did wrap up the work day, it actually felt great to set up my stand, open up the case, attach the shoulder rest, and move on to something completely different. 

I've been working on a double-stop exercise that includes several measures like this:

Looks fairly tame, eh? But when I play it, my first and second fingers end up conjoined at the second knuckle. I blithely practiced two or three lines of this stuff before my last lesson without really being aware of this. At my lesson, Ms. L pointed it out and was trying to get me to bring my hand further under the neck to unstick my fingers. That still didn't seem to do it. I felt like my hand was just at the wrong angle to the neck or something. I just could not figure out how to move my second finger up and down without it ending up crunched up against the first. It was as though I had never moved those fingers independently of each other before.

In my practicing so far this week, it hasn't gotten much better. Today I just started reaching my hand under the neck at what feels like a ridiculous angle. I think it worked a little bit better despite the feeling of ridiculousness. Maybe it's just one of those weird adjustments I have to get used to. I have my next lesson on Saturday instead of Friday, so I have two more days to experiment with it.