Magic?

Mahler said, "All the magic in music comes in the last 2-3% of preparation."

So I have 2 weeks left until my recital. I've done all the dirty work like shifts, vibrato, intonation, metronome, memorization, etc. LeeAnn asked me in my lesson today: "How are you going to practice these next 2 weeks?" I told her I would do more careful practice and perform a few more times. She told me that I needed to have a new mindset, a new way of practicing for the last 10% of my preparation. She directed me to violinmasterclass.com where I went to a video where Sassmannshauss compares preparing a piece to building a house. "Building a house may have taken a year, but painting it takes 2 weeks." He says that detailed, analytical, and technical work takes 90% of your practice time, and inspired musical realization of your dreams gets the final 10%. Well, I have 2 weeks left, so I am going to work out the magic that I want to be able to convey, working on one aspect of the music at a time. I'll probably have a few practice sessions on each piece checking vibrato, phrasing, shifting, and bow control.

Another way I'm going to practice is with the One Note At a Time method, you can also find at ViolinMasterClass:

I'll play the first and second notes and ask myself what is going on? Like a bow change, change in sounding point, a string crossing, whether the note is a finger drop, lift, or shift, how I coordinate it with my bow or if my vibrato is continuous.

This'll take a while, so I hope it works!

And the verdict is....

....I passed my pre-recital hearing!

The hours of practice have paid off. This feels good. Now I just need to polish up a few things, but the worst is over. I got Jamba and took the rest of the day off from practice just to reward myself. I also bought some cool magnets, and got a voucher for a free ticket to the Turtle Island Quartet next week. I'll get one for Houston tomorrow.

Mahler 5 this weekend!

... uh... what was that again?

So on Saturday me and my friend Sharlee, who also has an upcoming recital, went and performed at Jamestown. It was nice to go a play in a low-key setting for some older people, practice performing, and hopefully brighten their day with some music. One lady loudly asked me questions about why and what we were doing there while Sharlee was playing Beethoven's "Spring" Sonata. It is safe to say they brightened my day too.

My De Falla suite was the best I've performed it so far. But Mendelssohn on the other hand. I've already performed it a lot and still had a few memory slips, even in the 2nd movement, in places I have never had trouble with before. In the 3rd, I forgot what came after the double-stops on the very last line! Come on, Denise, you've only practiced this line 10,000 times. It normally takes me a dozen performances or so before I start feeling good about how I sounded. I can play this concerto without hesitation in the practice room, but once I'm in front of an audience it's a different story. So I am doing some things to correct this problem. Hopefully it will work.

I have a cold run of the entire movement with or without warming up.

I play the piece with my metronome at half-tempo every day, thinking about every shift and string crossing before I get there. If I stall, I stop and work on it a few times until I can understand what exactly had been bothering me and fix it.

Every day I play the concerto a few clicks faster than I normally do, pushing the tempo just out of my comfort zone. This will help me when adrenaline kicks in.

Whenever I am just sitting around (not very often but I can I do) I play parts of my concerto through mentally. Highly nerdy, but effective.

I'll probably start knocking on neighbor's doors next and bashfully inquire as to whether or not they have a few minutes to listen.

i really should be practicing.

I have lots going on right now. My routine is roughly as follows and tends to go in a circle: practice, make dinner, rejoice that Houston is home, dishes, practice, homework, watch Lost, shower, sleep, dream about Mahler excerpts, slam off alarm, hum Mahler, brush teeth, straighten hair, tie converse, run to the bus stop, descend into the bowels of the HFAC, practice, go to class, practice, class, rehearse with my pianist, practice, (eating...maybe), perform, practice, rehearse, play Bejeweled, homework, make dinner, etc. It seems as though I eat, sleep, and drink music. I am in love, I love music, and life is good.

I decided a blog would help me to keep track of my thoughts and give me a place to collect ideas that I come across during the day. I also may or may not philosophize about how awesome music is. Before you raise your eyebrows in boredom, and "X" out of my blog, I make a promise to you. I will try to keep it interesting.