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Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me!

Well, the time has finally come where I must showcase all of my surmounting skills in one video. It has been such an enjoyable journey learning to read music by learning how to play the violin, and I intend to continue practicing and improving my playing so that I may use it in my teaching practice and add to my musical repertoire. I’d like to use this post to summarize the skills I have learned in my path up to this point, what I’ve taken away from my musical growth experience, and my thoughts surrounding my goal. Before September, I had never picked up a violin in my life. I had played guitar and drums recreationally when growing up, but a classical and technical approach was never my forte (just ask my friends). Learning to play music from the ground up on a technical instrument such as the violin hasn’t been easy for me, but it has given me new skills that I am very proud of. The journey itself came with lessons too, not just pertaining to reading and playing music but to how I respond to new challenges and cope with failure. As I reflect, I notice my idealistic goals, and how they may have been slightly lofty. I didn’t actually know everything it would take to learn such a complex piece as a novice violinist, but I couldn’t have really known this until I began the process of learning how to play. I had to learn how to properly hold the violin on my shoulder to keep a healthy posture, and how to hold the bow correctly. I had to understand the complex technique of staying relaxed through the limbs, and where and how to place my fingers on the neck to play certain notes. The amount of knowledge I have gained is quite substantial, and my playing has improved impressively. Now don’t get me wrong, I am still, by all means, a beginner, but a competent beginner. An amateur if you will. The video I post will reflect my beginner status in a few ways: I still find it difficult to accurately finger notes on the neck, and I am not yet able to switch bowing from string to string flawlessly. Despite these important constructive points, I believe that I have, for the most part, reached my goal of learning how to play and interpret the music to “He’s a Pirate” on the violin. My goal was not to play this song at its exact tempo, or without flaws, but to gain the skills to be able to learn it through reading the music and playing it smoothly and recognizably.

In my video, I play my rendition of “He’s a Pirate”, originally by Hans Zimmer.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn a new instrument and to bring more joy into the lives of myself and others.

Dynamics and the high 2nd finger

Overall, my experience of learning how to play the violin has been a pleasure. The immediate gratification that I’ve received from playing my first few tunes has been strong and has kept me motivated to learn more. In chapter 10 and 11 of “Violinworks” by Ros Stephen, I have learned how to read and integrate dynamics into my violin playing. Such things as crescendos and diminuendos are more complex to execute on a bowed instrument compared to a drum or guitar. For example to play quietly on a drum, one simply uses less force when striking the skin of the drum, whereas to play loudly one uses more force. This relationship between force and volume is present when playing the violin as well; the more pressure that is placed on the strings by the bow produces a louder sound, and less pressure makes a quieter sound. However, it is not as simple as that, because the speed with which the bow slides across the strings also controls the volume level. This is just one example of how to articulate dynamics on a violin, but it works to show how complex it is to play this instrument.

Chapter 11 introduces using the “high 2nd finger” which eludes to there also being a “low 2nd finger”. This was BIG NEWS to me, as I had been working ahead of the book and using all of my fingers to play by just sounding things out on my own such as “come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. I thought that instead of frets, there were 4 consecutive notes that corresponded to where the fingers naturally fell on the violin’ neck. What I’d forgotten about were sharps and flats! I can’t say I still completely understand it all yet, but I do know that on the top ‘G’ string on the violin, when the second finger presses down in low position (closer to the scroll), it produces a Bm note, whereas when it presses down in the high position it produces a B. In the book it only teaches to use the high position with the second finger. I may have to research another source to understand all of this better and figure out how to read these notes on a staff.

*I’ve realized that there is not much time left until I am supposed to have reached my learning goal of reading and playing the song “He’s a pirate”. Therefore, I have found the sheet music and begun to learn how to read it. Nervously, I decided to make my goal slightly easier by choosing not to learn “He’s a Pirate” and to learn to read and play two simpler songs, but I am having a hard time taking the easy way out. Let’s see if I can make it happen! If anyone knows where I can get 5 extra hours to add to my day, please let me know. Thanks!

 

Photo by Kenny Luo on Unsplash

Video Editing!

We’ve reached the part in the course where I’ve learned how to edit video and audio! I have never learned how to do this before, so I’m very pleased to add this skill to my repertoire, not just for teaching but also for personal interest. Learning this skill included multiple steps, such as how to locate and upload an existing video/audio file, and how to trim, split, transition crop and export digital media. Learning how to use a green screen was also really fun! I now know how to overlay one video onto another, and add separate audio files onto videos. I am looking forward to structuring lessons that incorporate my skills and creating personal projects that I never could before.

A big thank you to Rich Mccue for visiting our class and sharing his valuable expertise! If you would like to learn from Rich, you can visit his website by clicking the link below.

www.Richmccue.com

 

 

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