Tuning... From A Rusty Approach

Oh... tuning.  Something so simple and basic... but is it really?

Uh, I don't think so.

To tune correctly, you have to be able to hear... in tune.  And having not played for 12 years or so, well, easier said than done!

For whatever reason, I could not hear correctly.  I consistently managed to tune flat when using a drone.  At the time, flat seemed correct to me.  But I would always double check with a digital tuner that used a digital needle on an LCD screen.  This is how I learned that everything was flat.   So to rehabilitate my ear I would adjust the strings so the meter read correctly. 

Eventually, I started to recognize that when the pitch is correct, it has a certain "brightness" that I now listen for.  I am consistent now in hearing the pitch correctly.  But it took some time to make this happen.

And interestingly enough, I still had a few things to learn regarding tuning that my teacher, Wes Dyring (www.DyringMusic.com), has taught me.  I am so grateful to my teacher as he has taught me so much!  Using moderate pressure that is even, with the bow close to the bridge, and using a long and single bow stroke (preferably an up bow) will produce the best sound when tuning.  I've also learned how to properly listen to the two notes being played when tuning, and what exactly "out of tune" and "in tune" sounds like. 

Yes, you can indeed master tuning... though I didn't know it was possible.  If you ask me today, I do think I still have yet to master it, but I am working on it and am getting "there"!

Improvement & Progress! Yeah!

So, it's been way, way too long since I last wrote. The journey of getting back into things has been a hard one. So many "mini-skills" that I took for granted when I was last playing diligently (and for such a long period of time at that) were completely lost! I discovered that every facet of playing, whether it's during your own practice session in the comfort of your living room, or you're playing in an orchestra, or even in the middle of a lesson, takes different skill sets all of their own. Sure there's a little bit of overlap. After all, you are playing the same intstrument and most likely playing the same music (for the most part)... but boy, there's a big difference in what is required of you in each circumstance!

Often times, I just had to be happy with medioctrity... if you can call it that. Why? Because your fingers, or your brain or some thing else, just won't do what you tell it to do!!!!! Often, I have found it beneficial to take a break and do something different when I hit these walls. And by, has this been a frequent occurance... especially in the very beginning!

But after 9 months of diligent practice, I am finally beginning to see significant progress and am finally just starting to feel comfortable playing my instrument.   I can remember back in "the day" when I was playing diligently, I used to think of my viola as an appendage... that's how comfortable I was with it.  It seemed like just another part of my body.  But starting up again, my viola often felt like it wanted to jump out of my hands, or like it could easily fall from them even with it clasped under my chin.  But lately, I've had glimpses of that feeling of familiarity.

It feels really good to reach this milestone.  Exciting!

The Pain of Rebuilding Again

I thought about seriously playing the viola again for at least 2 years before I actually did it. Why? Because I knew just how painful it was going to be. I envisioned horrible scenes in my head of picking up my instrument with bow in hand, creating the most horrible sounds of screeching and squealing... and the squealing was coming from my stomach. Okay, yes, that is a bit of an exaggeration... but you get the idea. I kept in mind that I do have a tendency to make problems worse in my head, so it can't be that big of a deal, can it?

Truly, the idea intimidated me to no end. I really had no idea how to start. Ideas swirled through my head... Do I take lessons? If yes, from whom? Do I really need lessons, after all I did play seriously for 10-12 years and achieve some level of proficiency.... I think... uhhh... hmmmm... just then I started to remember playing 3 octave scales and just how hard they were when I was playing seriously.

But eventually the hunger for that beautiful viola sound started to grumble louder and louder, until I just couldn't not listen any longer... I had to start, and where ever I was, I was there. In the end, it just doesn't matter how bad it's going to be, because I can't change that until I start. After all, playing the viola is an art where you actually have to PLAY.

And on a personal note, I was beginning to run out of solutions in how to rehabilitate myself. For quite a few reasons, I had reached the burn-out point to the extreme. I haven't just hit the wall in my personal life once, or twice, but likely 20 or 30 times. Really, I'm not counting. And I keep going because there is no other option. When you take a beating, you keep going... there are no other alternatives in my mind. The largest beating and most recent was a violent death of a dear and loved one to me, which broke me into a million little pieces. So, what do you do? Pick up the pieces, one at a time. Eventually, things get better... to a degree. You're changed, hopefully stronger, but not without a sacrifice and a scar or two.

I was realizing that no amount of rest and time and talking it out was going to give me my vitality back. All I was doing all day long was output, output, output, output, output. And finally it occurred to me that I need INPUT. And the first thing that came to my mind was music.

More later...