Sunday, May 20, 2012
First violin lesson!
Before I blog about my violin lesson today, I'll like to spend a paragraph on yesterday. Went to help out at the LSS booth at Science open house. Most memorable thing was that I was talking to ppl to call them join the camp, then I approached this group of 2 adults and a young girl. I couldn't figure out who was the one entering uni, so I asked and it was the girl. I rmbed thinking she seemed too young to be entering uni. Turned out she was only O lvl!! Haha, I excused myself and went away.
Back to topic, my long awaited violin lesson!! Haha, went in too early and ended up waiting. The lady at the counter led us up to the floor above and then led us to rooms at the 2 different ends of the block! Lol thought we will be tgt :( Anw, waited for 15 min before the previous student came out. My teacher was a filipina lady. Quite nice. The classroom was much larger than I expected. After I went in I got out my violin, then she told me abt parts of the violin and the bow.... then she taught me how to tune the violin on piano, tightening the bow (she didn't really tell me how much to tighten, just told me to maintain the natural curve of the bow, but the tightened bow doesn't really look naturally curved lol), and then how to hold the violin and the bow properly. Haha, the bow holding position is a bit awkward for me, as is the violin holding position. And then the part I was looking forward to! The bowing!! Haha. She told me to try bowing on the 4 different strings, A, D, G then E. Sound from the E string sounds weird to me haha. I think I like the A string best! :D
I was looking at the position of the bow on the string while the teacher was trying to maintain my elbow in that position, cos we're not supposed to move our elbow a lot, like gotta maintain it at the same level when bowing, like just the upper arm moves. I rmbed I couldn't see the D string properly cos from the angle that I was looking at the string, it just happened to fall outside of my glasses, or near the edge of my glasses, so I couldn't really see it properly and I was straining my eyes, felt a bit dizzy. The G string was quite low that I got a shock lol. Anyway I hit my violin when bowing the G string lol. And then my left arm hurt a lot cos it was doing nothing but supporting the violin (haven start on notes yet) so after a while it was aching. And I could feel my neck and back starting to ache too. Not forgetting the teacher keep correcting my grip on the bow cos my fingers, esp thumb and lil finger keeps tensing up haha and deviate from their correct positions (actually I'm not very sure, I should google it, as advised by my teacher).
The sound that I produced was generally ok, but after the teacher let go of guiding my bowing hand and left me to bow on my own, there were a few occasional screeches and scratchy sounds, she just told me to pull faster, and it worked! Haha, I guess I got tired after a while cos my eyes started to lose focus and I accidentally bowed 2 strings a few time :x Time flies, and cos I was the last student so she hastily packed up. I got her to teach me how to apply rosin to the bow before we started packing haha. After that went to meet WH, who was, to my surprise, already done and waiting for me downstairs. I bought a "A Tune A Day" as recommended by my teacher from the lady at the counter, who was also rushing to close for the day. $13! Haha I'm gng to see if I can use the book to prac my guitar.
Anyway, I was surprised she didn't put rosin on the bow before we began and what surprised me more was there was actually sound from the violin when we bowed it! Haha maybe I didn't tighten enough at home, so no nice sound. I was expecting a lot more from the teacher though, like the rosin thing, and she didn't told me to wipe my strings after playing (maybe cos it's time to close the place). Haha maybe I'm too worried about forming bad habits at the beginner's phase. But overall she's not bad la, and after hearing what WH said about her teacher (who also happened to be an FT), I think my teacher's not bad. Haha, furthermore it's only the first lesson, too early to judge also. So I'm looking forward to the next lesson and I'm gonna start practising (or trying out) on my violin tmr! ^^
So far only the travelling part is bothering me.
Labels: holidays2012, violin
Sunday, May 20, 2012
First violin lesson!
Before I blog about my violin lesson today, I'll like to spend a paragraph on yesterday. Went to help out at the LSS booth at Science open house. Most memorable thing was that I was talking to ppl to call them join the camp, then I approached this group of 2 adults and a young girl. I couldn't figure out who was the one entering uni, so I asked and it was the girl. I rmbed thinking she seemed too young to be entering uni. Turned out she was only O lvl!! Haha, I excused myself and went away.
Back to topic, my long awaited violin lesson!! Haha, went in too early and ended up waiting. The lady at the counter led us up to the floor above and then led us to rooms at the 2 different ends of the block! Lol thought we will be tgt :( Anw, waited for 15 min before the previous student came out. My teacher was a filipina lady. Quite nice. The classroom was much larger than I expected. After I went in I got out my violin, then she told me abt parts of the violin and the bow.... then she taught me how to tune the violin on piano, tightening the bow (she didn't really tell me how much to tighten, just told me to maintain the natural curve of the bow, but the tightened bow doesn't really look naturally curved lol), and then how to hold the violin and the bow properly. Haha, the bow holding position is a bit awkward for me, as is the violin holding position. And then the part I was looking forward to! The bowing!! Haha. She told me to try bowing on the 4 different strings, A, D, G then E. Sound from the E string sounds weird to me haha. I think I like the A string best! :D
I was looking at the position of the bow on the string while the teacher was trying to maintain my elbow in that position, cos we're not supposed to move our elbow a lot, like gotta maintain it at the same level when bowing, like just the upper arm moves. I rmbed I couldn't see the D string properly cos from the angle that I was looking at the string, it just happened to fall outside of my glasses, or near the edge of my glasses, so I couldn't really see it properly and I was straining my eyes, felt a bit dizzy. The G string was quite low that I got a shock lol. Anyway I hit my violin when bowing the G string lol. And then my left arm hurt a lot cos it was doing nothing but supporting the violin (haven start on notes yet) so after a while it was aching. And I could feel my neck and back starting to ache too. Not forgetting the teacher keep correcting my grip on the bow cos my fingers, esp thumb and lil finger keeps tensing up haha and deviate from their correct positions (actually I'm not very sure, I should google it, as advised by my teacher).
The sound that I produced was generally ok, but after the teacher let go of guiding my bowing hand and left me to bow on my own, there were a few occasional screeches and scratchy sounds, she just told me to pull faster, and it worked! Haha, I guess I got tired after a while cos my eyes started to lose focus and I accidentally bowed 2 strings a few time :x Time flies, and cos I was the last student so she hastily packed up. I got her to teach me how to apply rosin to the bow before we started packing haha. After that went to meet WH, who was, to my surprise, already done and waiting for me downstairs. I bought a "A Tune A Day" as recommended by my teacher from the lady at the counter, who was also rushing to close for the day. $13! Haha I'm gng to see if I can use the book to prac my guitar.
Anyway, I was surprised she didn't put rosin on the bow before we began and what surprised me more was there was actually sound from the violin when we bowed it! Haha maybe I didn't tighten enough at home, so no nice sound. I was expecting a lot more from the teacher though, like the rosin thing, and she didn't told me to wipe my strings after playing (maybe cos it's time to close the place). Haha maybe I'm too worried about forming bad habits at the beginner's phase. But overall she's not bad la, and after hearing what WH said about her teacher (who also happened to be an FT), I think my teacher's not bad. Haha, furthermore it's only the first lesson, too early to judge also. So I'm looking forward to the next lesson and I'm gonna start practising (or trying out) on my violin tmr! ^^
So far only the travelling part is bothering me.
Labels: holidays2012, violin
Site Mistress
About me
Hey! I'm 19 this year and currently in an important stage of my life. After thinking I decided to start this blog, to record down the ongoings of this stage in my life. For memory purpose, haha, when I'm old I'll be looking back at the posts here and laugh at how childish/ cry at how foolish I was. Yea, that's life.
To contact me you can leave a message at the tagboard >>>
Information correct as at 28/11/2011.
MyWishes
Santa's Job!
Why, good grades at exams of course!
Play in an orchestra <:D
Work in Cadbury! Haha!
Snow chocolates!!!
A more realistic one, to be able to keep in touch with all my friends.
And also, get better with the guitar ♥
Loves & Hates
What I Love X What I Hate
♥ Chocolates, of course! CBF!
X Cockroach lol
About This Site
The Site's History
I started blogging on
28/11/11, 12 midnight. I blog because I want to record this stage in life, and share my life with whoever's interested (aka
you who is reading this now ;D).
Since we're talking about history, we gotta have some dates:
28/11/11, 12+am : Birth of this blog!!
Credits
ThankYouSooMuch!
Layout done by, -xCherrie
Others: I HEART YOU
Coming up
Upcoming events/ activities!
Jul 2012
15: An engagement*
16: A case competition
20: Photocopy day
23: Decorating for MF
24 - 27: Matric Fair 2012*
Aug 2012
* Look forward to updates!
As the calendar fades
Past events
Aug 2011
09: NDP 2011
11: Start of school (A new chapter!)
Oct 2011
09: Guitarras Expresivas
Nov 2011
19 - 28: Sem 1 Finals
30: SSB Outing to Punggol #
Dec 2011
02: NDP11 YPC BBQ
05 - 10: Guitar camp #
11: 19 and unaccomplished night outing #
20: Release of Sem 1 Results
Jan 2012
04: Guitar chalet
05: Ikea trip
06: YPC lunch
07: Guitar prac
09: Start of school Sem 2
14: LPG2012 (Which I can't go)
23 - 24: CNY
Mar 2012
11: NAF12: Asian Waves #
13: Guitar Recording
24: Guitar AGM and Annual Dinner
28: Hall Application Results
Apr 2012
02: LSM1104 CA2
21 - 27: Sem 2 Finals
May 2012
07: Orientation meeting, going to see music school
08: Arts Leaders Retreat #
20: First violin lesson!! #
26: Sungha Jung and Preston Reed's concert #
28: Release of Sem 2 Results #
Jun 2012
12: Practising cowbell
21: Do matric fair publicity at partner's house
23: Start of sectionals #
24: Elva's birthday lunch #
30: Sectionals #
Jul 2012
02 - 03: LS Prep Camp #
10: Prac for cp #
12 - 14: LS Camp #
# Blog updated
