New things to think about

The holidays are over, practising has settled back into a routine and I had my first lesson of 2013 last night.   I have some new pieces to look at and some new things to think about imrpoving.

This week I have a new Ferling study to look at - no 42.  The keys get worse as the book progresses and this one has lots of flats to get my head around.  I am also starting the Derek Bourgeouis Fantasy Pieces.  I don't know if these are technically studies or just unaccompanied pieces but I don't suppose it really matters.  I haven't had chance to try the first one out yet but the performance notes indicate that a very smooth legato is required and carefully graded dynamics so I think it could be quite tricky.

We spent most of last night's lesson on the Arnold Sonatina. I  need to make the first movement more quirky and spirited.  Make sure that I don't slow down through the cantabile sections - or at least make sure that I pick the speed up again when required.  We also looked at the beginning of the second movment which will challenge my tone and stamina.  This is a great piece for working on vibrato and thinking about how to vary the speed of vibrato to add interest and colour.

I still need to work on the Vivaldi though we didn't look at that last night.

Key points to think about over the next few weeks -
  - keeping the quality of the tone consistent throughout register.  This was picked up in my previous Ferling slow study where my top A's tended to be more pronounced than the notes around them and disrupted the line of the phrase.
 - I need to breath more quietly and also make sure I don't nod my head forward when I breath in.  I wasn't aware that I was doing this so need to do more work in front of the mirror (or maybe get round to filming myself again) to train myself out of this. 

Orchestra practice starts up again tonight and I have an all day Shostokovich 4 rehearsal on Sunday so it is shaping up to be a busy week!