Learning to slur

At violin lessons I'm learning new bowing techniques and I've been looking forward to this, after playing the major and minor scales.  The first of these is slurring, which makes you think differently and change what you already know about using the bow.  It's not easy and for a while my brain just refused like an unruly horse.  A bit like  being asked to rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time.

Some things are done best without too much thinking, when instinct takes over rather than thought.  This is one of them.  Like steering a car and changing gear and lots of other things that seem over-complicated when you do them for the first time 'cos you're thinking about the mechanics too much.

Slurring is playing two or more notes with the same bow direction.  An important technique I have to be able to grasp.  I can do it more easily at home when I'm not being watched, but I think this is true of most things.  If I'm writing and someone is looking over my shoulder suddenly I can't type or spell.

Any road, my slurs are getting better so we've progressed to Spiccato, which makes a whole new sound.  For this you have to find the balance of your bow (they're all different)and that's the part you use.  You then have to make a small smile, curve the bow onto the strings and lift it off to make a detached, staccato note.  But not too bouncy, and don't just hit it, it has to vibrate.
I am liking this a lot.

I am becoming increasingly attached to my violin.  Whenever I go into town carrying it I am less self-conscious and wary.  I like that the more I play it the longer it stays tuned.  When I pick it up now I no longer think I'll break it, it's less fragile and delicate somehow, and has become stronger and more responsive.

A violin is a wonderful thing.

"A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?"

Albert Einstein

Einstein playing his violin

Einstein's mother was a pianist and determined that her boy should learn to play an instrument and develop a love of music.  He learned to play violin at the age of six and described it as one of his great delights.

New Notes From The Garden...

Well so far July looks much the same as June - grey skies and rain mostly, but there is plenty of colour in the garden to more than make up for this.  As well as sunflowers one of the dahlias, Roxy, is flowering and the Bishop of Oxford looks like he'll be next. I couldn't resist putting an actress and a bishop in a pot together.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles has waited til July to show herself, a beautiful deep crimson shrub rose I planted close to the path to catch the old-rose fragrance.

For me, July is roses and birthdays.  We had a bed of them in the garden at home when I was growing up and they seemed spectacularly huge, so many colours and luxurious scents.

Back in the here and now, the foxgloves are still going strong and in the dry sunny spells are humming with bees.

The corncockles, wild flowers which used to grow on the edges of cornfields in abundance, grow tall and have purple flowers that unfurl like flags.

I pulled up the garlic and it's now drying out in the shed,(the scent in there is so strong I think the whole neighbourhood is safe from the undead).  I'm very proud of these babies since it's the first time I've grown garlic.

Corncockles

 

garlic - yay!

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Roxy the dahlia