Two years of my undergraduate performance degree have flown by. Halfway through my third you, I find myself forced to take a hard look at what I have accomplished and what I have yet to do. The hard fact is that if I opt to go to graduate school, my focus will be in pedagogy and not performance. Though I know I will always continue to learn about the violin, I am aware that the last to years of this degree will be my last two exploring the frontier of violin playing with a teacher guide. In the future I must independently guide and discover simultaneously.
In order to take advantage of the few lessons I have left with my guide I have pieced out exactly what expectations I have for myself when I enter the lesson. Because we have invested considerable time and changed my capacity for perfect intonation, resonance, and sound quality, it is essential that I apply this knowledge to my work before Professor Yamamoto ever sees me play it. My ears must be attuned in every instance I pick up my violin to discerning the quality of the sound I am producing.
If I enter a lesson without preparing these elements and she issues a standard reminder to fix this for our second lesson, I have wasted a week of practice and sacrificed our 60 minute lesson. If I enter this lesson prepared to play increasingly difficult pieces with perfect intonation, resonance, and sound quality, then we can spend our valuable 60 minutes discussing, probing, and confronting the techniques that will make my playing more mature.
This is what I expect myself to prepare for every lesson.
- Perfect intonation (logical fingerings, all ring tones, stable hand frame, care in shifting)
- Resonant tone (logical bowings, proper contact point, appropriate weight, conscious sound)
- Vibrato (energetic fingers for resonance, varied vibrato for style)
- Singing quality (consider phrasing, breath, and musical intention divorced of technical demands)
In this list one can see my journey from freshman year to present. It is remarkable list to have accomplished, but now it is my responsibility to implement what I have learned. My guide is a great one; she is not expendable and will not be with me much longer. As I begin the transition to teaching and guiding myself, it is essential I prepare what I can so that we can discover and explore what I can’t.