Mastery? Psh. Good Luck With That [Week 6]

Where do I even begin with week 6? Let’s just say it was the most hectic crazy, yet fun of all the weeks. I created, practiced, fooled around, and gained a crap(because swearing is inappropriate)ton of confidence.

Let’s begin with my practice! Since I was busy also preparing for the TED Talk, I decided to shrink my practice time down to one hour a day. During those hours, I continuously played through Swan Lake again, and again, and again. It wasn’t the most boring thing I ever did, but let’s just say playing a piece the same exact way over twenty times a day was not a fun activity for me.  However, the end result was worth it. It’s not perfect (or anywhere close to that, that is), but it definitely shows the amount of progress I made:

Now. Here’s the fun/crazy/difficult part of this week. Planning the TED Talk. Before doing anything with the presentation, visuals, or even the script, I needed to come up with a theme. This resulted in Sunday night being spent on youtube, listening to a bunch of TED Talks. While listening, I looked for something that a lot of the good TED Talks had in common. I found one: a catchphrase or quote. Through the catchphras or quote, the speakers would make a theme. This set me into thinking, what quote would be good for my TED Talk? After thinking (and procrastinating) for a solid two hours, something my tennis coach said all the time came into my mind: competence makes confidence. However, this quote went against my experience in gaining confidence throughout this project. So how do I make a theme from this? Simple. ((not really.)) Make my theme opposing this quote. This is how I came up with my theme of “competence is not the only way to confidence.”

From there, I went on to making my script on Monday. Making the script was...simply put...a struggle. I was lost as to how to set up my TED Talk. Even though I watched countless videos, I just couldn’t get how they put it all together. So I began with just writing. I just wrote out whatever I thought would be good for snippets of the script. From there, I gathered the good/important ideas and expand upon them. Finally, I found a way to connect the ideas and being my original idea (which is the theme) back to the end of the script to bring my TED Talk full circle.

After completing the script on Monday, I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday practicing the script. I completely memorized the script by Wednesday...when I realized that my process was nowhere found in my script. I had to go back and fix my script...which was already memorized. It was very difficult memorizing the script again, for I had the original script ingrained in my mind. After putting around four hours in it on Wednesday and another four on Thursday, my script was completely memorized and ready-to-go. The last thing needed was my presentation.

This was probably the simplest part of preparing for my TED Talk. For the presentation, I had a slide per main idea, in which I ended up having approximately seven slides. They contained of mostly pictures, but words did come along with it. After saving it on a flashdrive, I was finished and ready!

Now that the TED Talk planning was finished, all that there was left to do was to present. With a hopeful heart and a confident mind, I began my presentation.

((reflections on my TED Talk here: CLICK))

The Typical High School Presentation? [TED Talk Reflection]

This project has officially come to an end! *cries* Throughout the past six weeks, I have been so deeply focused and involved in the project that since it is now finished, there is a somewhat empty feeling rumbling inside of my stomach.

On March 20, 2015, I presented my TED Talk for this whole project! If you want to see the process of making and planning my TED Talk, click here: CLICK

My brain was a pile of goo when I first stepped onto the stage. Sure, my TED Talk was about confidence, but the at-that-moment-oh-you-could-mess-up-your-script-so-bad feeling still did linger despite my Talk's theme.  However, as soon as I was given the sign to begin, the fear and anxiety all washed away. I was soley focused on portraying my message to the audience.

One thing that I felt that was particularly successful about my TED Talk was that I did not hesitate or stutter. This was one of my greatest fears when on stage. I was afraid that my tongue would get tied, resulting in messing up what I planned to say or an awkward silence.  Which is why I am so glad that this was not the case. I also felt that my voice was relatively loud when presenting as well. I tend to come off as a reserved, quieter person at first, and I used to never be able to speak up...much less speak loudly. Right before going up on stage, I told myself that being louder gets rid of nervousness. Of anxiety. Of the fear of messing up. That speaking loudly rather gains confidence. And, interestingly enough, it worked! I am so glad to see such a wonderful end result.

However, with good things, there are always the bad. One of the most skeptical things that I felt about my presentation was that it was just...a presentation. Not a TED Talk, but a good old fashioned, typical high school presentation. Was my speech to mechanical? Was I adding too much information about my process to get my underlying message across? Did I look anywhere close to a person that does TED Talks? I was confused and worried about all of these things. In fact, I am still confused and worried about this. I did divide the types of content in my script into the proportions I wanted them to be in, but even so, I still was slightly worried that maybe, just maybe, I added 10 seconds too much of my process.

But in the end, I learned that even though I may have presented this TED Talk like a typical high school presentation, thie project is definitely not “typical.” I genuinely enjoyed practicing what I love to do during this project and I hope that I will be able to continue on to an even better violin player (I’ll aim for the intermediate level in two years).

Objects In Mirror May Seem Bigger Than They Appear [Week 5]

Well....darn it.
How, how, how?! How could I have possibly forgotten to hit the publish button?! Apologies to all, but here is what I did during the duration of the fifth week of learning the violin!

This was the week where I needed to practice as much as I can. I upped my practice time to three hours a week, continuously working on the piece "Swan Lake." However, I also needed to work on my TED Talk so I decided to shorten the last few practice times to one hour and spend the majority of my time working on the TED Talk. Here is a specific breakdown of what I focused on each day of the week:

Sunday: Intonation of the notes (making sure that my violin playing is in tune)
Monday: Vibrato practice (using simpler pieces from Suzuki Book 2)
Tuesday: Fluid bow movement practice

Hold.
Up.
Because the greatest news has arrived!
Our TED Talk presentation dates have been moved!
And that means one thing....more time to practice and prepare!
Hearing this news on Tuesday definitely got me excited.  I changed my "game plan" and decided to have the rest of the week as three hour practices and begin my TED Talk planning next week. So, here's for the rest of the week:

Wednesday: Even tone throughout (done by playing with staccato and playing slowly)
Thursday: Vibrato practice (with Swan Lake)
Friday: Fixing posture (little details like a slight wrist adjustment and position of the violin on the shoulder)
Saturday: Dynamics and expression

Now, throughout this week, I was thinking about what I should do to make my piece bigger, better, and sound like a professional.  But thinking about it more and more made me realize that playing the violin like a professional won't do any benefit for my project.  Doing gestures and things that professionals do during performances is something that I should not be doing until I reach that level. It may seem like a big deal to look good, but in the end, the progress is what will shine through. Whether it be perfection or a tree, some things definitely may seem bigger than they appear.

A Vlog?! No Way. [Week 4]

Hey guys!  This week I will present everyone with a video blog, also known as a blog. I apologize that it is not on vimeo, for the past four attempts had something with the connection going wrong, so I gave up and went to upload this to youtube.  I shall try vimeo again and if it begins working again, I will re-update this post with the vimeo. The link below is a link to one of my favorite violin pieces of all time:

Bach - Concerto for Two Violins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4LFjuWvwzw

Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle [Week 3]

What's the first thing you think of when you think of the three words above? Most probably run their imaginations towards Jason Derulo, but after this week, "wiggle" was given a totally different definition. Why, might you ask? All because of a concept when playing the violin called "vibrato." 


Vibrato is the vibrating sound created by wiggling one's finger on a string on the violin. It is used in musical pieces on longer notes. This concept is used by all intermediate to advanced playing violinists and is said to be one of the more difficult techniques to master. 


I invested thirty minutes out of the two hours that I practiced each day to work on vibrato.  Youtube was my go-to website once again when looking for a guide to teach me how to do so.  I ended up referencing to "Howcast," the youtube channel.  The video I used is shown below:

Using this video, I practiced, and practiced, and practiced.  Vibrato was a lot more difficult than I thought it was.  However, due to consistent practicing, I came up with somewhat decent results (because let's be real here, it's only been a week since I practiced vibrato).

I immediately realized a problem on the last day of the week (Saturday).  I only learned how to do vibrato; there was never an application to vibrato towards music.  Having realized this the last day of the week, I spent the whole of two hours practicing a piece (Swan Lake) with vibrato.  The results were not my favorite, however, it made myself recognize how different and hard it is to take vibrato and apply it to a piece.

The end result was not a result that I particularly expected, for vibrato was a much difficult technique to accomplish than I thought it was. Taking from what I learned this third week, I am going to keep the original schedule as is, except I will add 30 minutes to each practice (lengthening practice time to 2 hours 30 minutes), and will use those thirty extra minutes to continue learning vibrato. The third week was a difficult one; I'm curious as to what the fourth week will bring me!

Squeaks to Success...Kinda [Week 2]

I would start off this post with a hello but that seemed a bit boring so...yeah.  I guess this is now my introduction.

Looking back at the week before, I noticed that there was not much "in-depth" violin language that I researched, so I took a section of week two to do so.  The two websites I used were violinist.com and violinonline.  Using these two websites, I divided violin vocabulary words into three sections: parts of the violin, parts of the bow, and accessories/necessities for the violin.

1. Parts of the Violin

2. Parts of the Bow

3. Accessories/Necessities for the Violin

Bridge: The ornate, raised wood that hold up the strings in the middle of the violin.  It is not glued down; it stays in place only because of the pressure of the strings.

Shoulder rest: A contraption with a cushioned bottom and plastic support that is placed on one's shoulder to help support the violin.

Mute: A small device that fits over the bridge to mute the sound of the violin.

Chin rest: A wooden device attached to the bottom-front of the violin that separates the chin from direct contact with the violin surface.

Once I knew for sure that my research was complete, I began to actually learn how to play the violin by starting some pieces! I used the same Suzuki book that was used in order to obtain the "research" I did last week.  The results were...um...interesting.

I'm not sure if I can express in words as to how disgustingly squeaky I sounded the first time I attempted to play a note on the violin.  I thought that now knowing the correct posture, bow hold and fingerings, the actual playing of the violin would be easy to do. Uh...let's just say that I was wrong.  Wrong to the point that there were times during my first few days of violin practice where I questioned as to why I decided to choose this topic for my project.  I thought that most of you would not be able to understand how bad I was at first, so here is me playing one of the first of the Suzuki Book 1 songs, "Lightly Row."

Not the best thing you ever heard, was it?

Listening to the recording taken of my violin playing, I came to the realization that I needed a lot of practice.  So, unlike my original plan of slowly increasing five minutes a day, I went straight to practicing two hours daily.  Through this, I was able to progress significantly quicker and was able to (kinda) get the squeaks away.  This was the result of continuous practice for seven days:

It's clearly not the best playing that you will ever hear, but I think that I got right where I wanted to by the end of this week.  I hope that I will have the same motivation on week three as I had on week two and will be able to continue progressing at the rate I currently am!  Wish me luck! (Really though, I need it.)

Between the Margins [Week 1]

Finally, finally, finally! Week 1 is published! Throughout the first week, I have obtained an incredible amount of information.  Week 1, as mentioned in the previous blog post, required no violin playing at all.  Although there was a strong temptation to pick up the wooden instrument and start playing, I had no choice but to stick with the books. Well, more like music books.


Suzuki was my main resource for obtaining information as to how to play the instrument.  But wait! most asked.  Isn't Suzuki a music book filled with beginner level music?!?! Yes, it is.  However, the first seven pages are filled with how to hold the bow, how to tune, the fingerings for the violin, and much more (I honestly learned a lot more just by that book than I thought I would).  Here are some examples of what was exactly in the book:

Another method of learning the fundamentals of the violin was watching videos of famous violinists.  I watched several musicians play several different pieces, but I enjoyed watching Roman Totenberg the most and ended up only watching videos of him playing.  Through the videos, I was able to grasp the sense of how to hold the violin when playing and what the proper posture looks like. 

The final (and, might I say, most effective) method of learning the fundamentals was my father. As mentioned before, he played the violin ever since he was a child and is currently playing at an advanced level (not enough for him to be going around saying he is a professional like he is doing, but who am I to judge. It’s America).  I asked him to show me how I should hold the violin, the bow, the different strings, and the fingerings.  So, he took out a violin and gave me a hands-on lesson.  Immediately, I was able to have a better sense as to how the violin was played.


Now, you all must be wondering (at least I hope you guys were…), how was this ‘research’ spread out through the course of week 1?  Well, I am here to talk about my experience, right?  So here’s the breakdown of how everything went exactly:



Monday, February 9^th – Look at the Suzuki book; the tonalization and bowing pages.


Tuesday, February 10^th – Continued “research” via Suzuki book; tuning and playing posture.


Wednesday, February 11^th – Searching on youtube for violinists and examining their posture


Thursday, February 12^th – Imitating the posture of the violinist on youtube with a real violin


Friday, February 13^th – Helped by my father to correct the little mistakes I made with the posture I learned by myself


Saturday, February 14^th – This day was an unproductive one :( But it was my birthday...if that's a valid excuse


Week 1 was an overall productive week.  I learned many things about the violin such as how to hold the violin on your chin, how the bow is supposed to be held, how to tune a violin, and the fingerings for each note on the violin. With this information, I am now able to apply this knowledge to week 2, where the playing actually begins.  Wish me luck and see ya'll soon!