Dounis, Intonation, Frustration, and Pilsner

We had our second Dounis masterlass this morning, all on left hand stuff. Mr. Straus explained how unless you have ridiculously small hands you have no excuse not to make any stretch on the violin as long as you are set up properly. He then demonstrated all these really intense stretching exercises. At the end he gave us a preview of what Dounis bow technique is like. He was showing how to bounce the bow on the string using only the pinky and kept his hand so still he was able to balance a film canister on it while he did it. Then he proceeded to play the string crossy part of the Mendelssohn concerto cadenza (violinists, you know what I'm talking about) with the bow backwards. Then he did it just holding on to the screw of the bow. "See? I'm not doing anything and the bow is bouncing!" I'm pretty sure my jaw spent most of the masterclass on the floor and my eyes would have popped out if they opened any wider. This guy is 70 and has this incredible technique. It's just amazing. Everything is so easy for him. I've started practicing the Dounis Daily Dozen and I think I understand the left hand stuff much easier than the right hand. I might need more lessons on right hand before I can really understand it. It's a really great way to get your body and your mind warmed up, since all these Dounis exercises require quite a bit of thought to accomplish correctly.

Let's talk about intonation. Non-musicians, you'll probably find this really boring and I won't be offended at all if you skip to the next paragraph. I'll give a mini-explanation though, in case you want to read. Okay. Playing in tune on a stringed instrument is one of the hardest things in the world to do. There are no frets on our fingerboard and there is exactly ONE spot on the fingerboard about half a millimeter wide to play each note. If the same note comes back often in a passage, you have to hit exactly the same spot every time. I sort of generally play in tune. Which is to say, my fingers mostly go in the right places and the notes I play are recognizable as being "in tune." However, real, professional intonation is a whole different ballgame and that's what one of my teachers is working on with me. After that lesson on Monday I thought "Okay, so I'll play it slow a few times and it'll get better. No problem." I've been working on it, and it's getting better. A different teacher yesterday pointed out some stuff too and mentioned that in order for me to really truly change my bad habits I have to learn to hear them for myself and they need to annoy me. And the masterclasses have been talking about the angle at which the finger makes contact with the string. Generally speaking, the angles of all your fingers should match in order for the intonation to be consistent. Well. A combination of all those things made its way into my practice room today and I am exceedingly annoyed with the inconsistent angles my fingers make on the fingerboard - not only that, but I'm listening differently and really can't believe I let myself get away with such sloppy intonation for so long.

I'm pretty frustrated with myself for letting my habits persist this long. It's nice because no one here knows my past so they don't let me get off easy or make excuses. It's simply "I'm sorry. It's wrong. Play it like this." And I fix it. And it sounds better. I know I'm not a bad student but sometimes I wonder if I have just been messing up for so many years since all these habits should really have been broken years ago. I just don't understand.

Anyway, back to the happy travel writing which is what all of you read this for instead of musician-angst. Last night we had a faculty recital in an art gallery in downtown Plzen. Plzen is a city of 167,000 people. The suburbs are apartment buildings with very Soviet/communist architecture and houses, but the city center has architecture dating earlier than the United States. From the downtown tram stop it's a 2 minute walk to the Konzervatory where classes are. A central park runs several blocks through the city with fountains, flowers, benches, and statues of famous people such as the composer Bedrich Smetana. There are gelato places everywhere (curse my dairy allergies!) and lots of cafes, restaurants, and bars. The bar/music club seems to be a popular venue here. Last night five of us ate at the oldest pub in Plzen which I unfortunately do not remember the name of (and couldn't even spell if I did). We were in luck since Ondrej, the cellist in my quartet, was with us and is a native Czech speaker. It made things go much smoother at the restaurant. I ordered my second Pilsner of the trip and made it through about half of it. I don't think I'll ever grow to enjoy the taste of beer, but ordering one seems like the most natural thing to do here. It's cheaper than water, anyway. There are a lot of differences between Czech restaurants and American restaurants - the first one being the water. In the USA you practically are drowned with water, which is free, and you have constant refills. Here water is expensive and you just get one bottle of it. The second big difference is the timing. Good service here is never rushed, which means you need to take extra time for your meal. Luckily, we've discovered good sandwich places that are super fast when we're in a hurry. The very center of Plzen (by the way, forgive me if I'm repeating myself from earlier posts...this is all stream-of-consciousness and I don't remember what I've written and what I haven't) is a massive town square and in the middle of the square is St. Bartholomew's Cathedral. I still haven't climbed the tower but I plan to very soon.

I think this is a good place to stop for now. I'll wait a few days to write again so I have something more significant (like a trip to Prague, maybe :-) ) to write about.

Bye!