How not to make your neighbor go insane.

I often hear from my students how difficult to practice without annoying some people around them, their families, roommates or their neighbors. Even if the student didn't get the actual complaints, he/she is still dealing with the fear of disturbing some people, makes him/her less want to practice.

A simple solution, use a practice mute.

Here is what I use.

The metal one is heavier, so it reduces the sound quite more than the rubber one. Just be careful when you use the metal one. If the violin is tilted when you're holding the violin (when not playing), it could come off and damage the top plate of your violin. I had a similar situation and it almost made a scratch mark on my violin.

I use the rubber one for my 5-string violin (I cut one more slit by myself). It reduces the volume, but not too much, if you prefer to hear more sound.

They also sell the one that combines the metal and rubber which seems quite nice, having the good features from both.

Both are pretty inexpensive to get and will certainly let you practice anytime you want without disturbing anyone.

Enjoy your practice!

Five rules

Here are "FIVE RULES" that Dounis says in "The Violin Players' Daily Dozen Op.20".

FIVE GENERAL RULES

TO BE STRICTLY ADHERED TO

1. Cultivate at all times a feeling of absolute comfort while practicing.
2.  In practicing finger-exercises, watch your bow; in practicing bow-exercises observe a good position of the left hand.
3. Accent the weaker notes; make every note sound with a clear, full and round tone.
4. Remember always that in technic evenness is that which counts most.
5. Form the habit of listening to your playing with the utmost attention sharpen your hearing so as to detect the slightest disturbance in the flow of tone. 

FIVE LEFT HAND RULES

TO BE STRICTLY ADHERED TO

1. Keep the elbow well under the violin and the fingertips parallel to the strings.
2. Try to forget the existence of the thumb; never press it against the neck of the violin.
3. Do not strike the fingers upon the strings with too much force. It is wasting one's physical energy. Cultivate a very sudden and elastic spring-like finger action and keep every preceding finger on the string.
4. In shifting, pay due attention to the guiding finger which is the finger stopping the last note before shifting.
5. In a downward shift, remember that the thumb acts as a forerunner to the other fingers.

FIVE BOW RULES

TO BE STRICTLY ADHERED TO

1.  At all times cultivate freedom of movement.
2.  Bear in mind that the elasticity and flexibility of all joints of the arm and the fingers are as important as those of the wrist.
3.  Have and retain always a balanced hold of the bow; try to feel every stroke with your fingertips.
4.  Accent the up bow to equalize it with the down bow.
5.  Never forget to round off the crossing of strings and the change of bow.

 

Hit a plateau in progress? Read this!

It's very common that we expect constant progress, but in reality, there are lots of plateau that we have to go through to get to the next level.

Recently, I've read a book called, "Mastery" by George Leonard and it explains so well about the way we learn things and master it, including our tendency and failure models. I recommend this book to anyone who is learning something, or about to start a new thing, or already on the path of mastering something.

It was so well described that I want to share some of the things he says in the book.

He starts with:
"What is Mastery?
It resists definition yet can be instantly recognized. It comes in many varieties, yet follows certain unchanging laws. It brings rich rewards, yet is not really a goal or a destination but rather a progress, a journey. We call this journey mastery, and tend to assume that it requires a special ticket available only to those born with exceptional abilities. But mastery isn't reserved for the supertalented or even for those who are fortunate enough to have gotten an early start. It's available to anyone who is willing to get on the path and stay on it-regardless of age, sex, or previous experience."



He explains what the journey of mastery looks like: "There's no way around it. Learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher in most cases than that which preceded it."


Here is what it looks like:

He continues, "To take the master's journey, you have to practice diligently, competence. But while doing so-and this is the inexorable fact of the journey-you also have to be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing even when you seem to be getting nowhere."


In our world, we tend to expect things with constant growth like this. The endless climax.

 But it doesn't match up with our own day-to-day  existence. And here is what happens.

 The sudden drop. If in violin playing, it means quitting, giving up.


 He also mentioned about 3 tendencies we have depending on our personalities when it comes to mastery. He says:

"We all aspire to mastery, but the path is always long and sometimes rocky, and it promises no quick and easy payoffs. So we look for other paths, each of which attracts a certain type of person. Can you recognize yourself in any of the following three graphs?"

The Dabbler is who approaches each new sport, career opportunity, or relationship with enormous enthusiasm, loves the shine of newness, but the plateau that follows is unacceptable if not incomprehensible and lose enthusiasm, starts thinking, this really isn't the right thing for me. It's too competitive, noncompetitive, aggressive, non-aggressive, boring, dagerous, whatever.. Starts telling everyone that it just doesn't fulfill his/her unique needs and move onto something else.

The Obsessive is a bottom-line type of person, not one to settle for second best. He/She stays after class talking to the instructor, asks what books and tapes he can buy to help him/her make progress faster. Makes a robust progress at the beginning, but when he/she finds him/herself on a plateau, he/she simply won't accept it. Doubling his/her effort, pushes him/herself mercilessly. The Obsessive manages for a while to keep making brief spurts of upward progress, followed by sharp declines-a jagged ride toward a sure fall. When the fall occurs, the Obsessive is likely to get hurt. And so are friends, colleagues, stockholders, and lovers.

The Hacker is willing to stay on the plateau indefinitely, after sort of getting the hang of a thing. He/she is the physician or teacher who doesn't bother going to professional meetings. At work, he/she does only enough to get by, leaves on time or early, takes every break, talks instead of doing his job, and wonders why he/she doesn't get promoted.

He states, "These characters, then, have proven useful in helping us see why we're not on the path of mastery. But the real point is to get on that path and start moving."



He writes many more interesting facts and tips to the journey of mastery. I highly recommend to read this book if you're having a plateau and wondering why.

So, give up on escaping from the plateau and let's rather enjoy each moment. The plateau is inevitable. Stay on your path to mastery!

Season is changing. Take a good care of your violin!

Hope you're feeling good and not catching a cold. I am just getting over from a cold..

Yes, it's getting chilly outside. Your heater is on. The air is getting drier. 
Your body is adjusting to the season change and so is your violin.

It's the time of a year to watch carefully how your violin is doing. Especially, the proper humidity is important to your instrument. Dryness can make damage to your violin and the result would be cracking or the seams of your violin to open. When this happen, you have to go to a professional luthier to fix it and it can be expensive.

So, let's try to avoid that to happen!

What you can do:

1. Use a room humidifier.  Keep the humidity in between 40 to 60%. It doesn't have to be fancy. I have this one. If you don't have one, just hang a wet towel or place a pot filled with water on your radiator.
   
   
2. Use "dampit". The green tube has yellow sponge inside that can hold the water, and you insert it into your violin's f hole. Make sure that the outside of the dampit is dry when you insert it.
   
   
3.  Use case humidifier. Some violin case comes with this. Or you can put one inside your case.
   
4.  If the pegs are slipping, use this.  It's a peg compound. You can put it onto your pegs.
   
   
5.  Keep your violin in your case when not playing. With a dampit or case humidifier would be better.
6.  Keep your violin away from your heater! This is a must.

And the good news is that it doesn't cost much to do these things. Let's keep your violin happy!

Enjoy the colorful autumn,

A new twitter account!

I just started a new Twitter account and there I am sharing some inspiring quotes from the masters, the violin practice tips, interesting articles, etc for your everyday inspiration.

Follow @bkviolinlessons
https://twitter.com/bkviolinlessons

Happy playing,

Great practice tips from D. C. Dounis

There was a great violinist and a teacher whose name was Demetrius Constantine Dounis (1886-1954).  He studied violin privately in Vienna with Frantisek Ondricek and also was a medical student at the University of Vienna. He was a touring violinist after the graduation in Europe and Russia, then after World War I, he became a professor of violin at the Salonika Conservatory in Greece. It was then he devoted all his energy to violin pedagogy and the publication of his famous violin studies.

His books are pretty challenging for beginners and it can be overwhelming even for the advanced students. But if you're a serious learner (and not an absolute beginner), I would recommend to pick a few exercise from this book everyday and spend about 15~30 minutes the most.

On his book, "The Artist's Technique of Violin Playing" op. 12, he states his philosophy about practicing as Foreword and I would like to share it here:

 ***

"TO KNOW HOW TO PRACTICE IS AN ART."

This is a well-known fact.

Most violinists believe that the 

solution of the problem of "HOW TO PRACTICE"

lies in repeating, everyday, various finger exercises,

scales, arpeggios, bow exercises, etc.

But this supposition is a fallacy.

No one will ever learn how to practice by

repeating day in, day out, finger exercises, scales, or,

in fact, 

the whole compendium of daily exercises for the violin.

The result of such monotonous and arid study

is usually worthless.

This procedure explains why after years of intensive study, 

there are few violinists, very few indeed,

who acquire an infallible technique.

The oblect of this work is to indicate a method of

solving all the problems of higher technique of both hands,

with the least possible expenditure of time and energy,

and to provide definite suggestions for

mastering all technical difficulties.

In other words,

this book aim to teach

THE TRUE METHOD OF

PRACTICING.

-D. C. Dounis

*If you would like to download his book, "The Artist's Technique of Violin Playing" op. 12, you can download from the link. You can purchase the whole book (like the photo above) online, too.

It is very inspiring to just read his words in between these exercises. I highly recommend it!

Have fun,

How to properly choose the right size violin for kids

This is one of the most frequent questions that I get.

 Which size should I get for my child?

Here is a chart that helps you to find right size violin for your child.
When you measure the arm length, follow these steps.

1. Spread the left arm parallel to the floor with palm facing up to the ceiling

2. Bring the arm very slightly to the front (About or less than 45 degrees, 
    just like the pose of playing violin with arm extended.

3. Measure from the bottom of the neck to the middle of the palm. 

4. Write down the length.

Hope this helps finding the right size for your child. Kids grow so fast, so it's good to check the size once in a while.

Happy playing,