What's on my music stand these days... + Son Filé

I started looking at the music for the symphony orchestra next season. It's a great season actually with one of my favorites, Schubert's Unfinished! Some other pieces by Tchaikovsky, Elgar, etc. Still working on a good fingering in high positions.

I've been doing quiet few Son Filé on open strings trying to reach 30 seconds in one bow. It's quiet challenging to keep a good tone in 30 seconds so I start gradually with 2 seconds in a bow and gradually increasing the number. I can sustain an acceptable tone in 24 seconds per bow stroke.

I'm also revisiting some of Wohlfart's studies to work slowly on intonation and most importantly, make something melodic out of a study. Luckily his Etudes are somehow melodic and offer some ground for interpretation.

There's also Kreutzer's 2nd study that comes back like a loop in my practice. I play it in a very slow pace to watch the intonation, control the bow movement and breath.

In concertos, I'm actually working on nothing at this time. I've played some Rieding lately; it's always fun!

I did randomly some 3 octaves scales. It's still very tricky with a fast tempo.

Oh! Before I forget, I took 2 bows to re-hair today. Will have them back on Monday. I also changed the E string and the D. The first one started breaking and the D was just too old. Now the new E sounds Cristal clear and the D is still in the adjustment phase.

Practice Calendar is up! I feel squeezed...

Today I decided to start a practice calendar. Let me make it clear: I won't be scheduling my practices (at least I don't believe I will). However, I'm planning to keep a practice log just to be able to monitor a bit my progress and most importantly to keep track of the pieces I practice or play especially when it comes to scale or studies; this calendar may help me diversify the keys. I seem to have this obsession with the G and A Major; maybe because they're the easiest in 3 octaves. Going-up in the scale and as of the 4th position the intonation is a bit shaky. I really hope to be able to improve the shifting by September. Now I have no choice but to maintain this calendar ;)

Wohlfahrt - The 60 Studies

Wohlfahrt etudes are still my favorite studies mainly in the first position. They're very contrasty and offer a variety of rythms and techniques. Going back to basicsn is all what these pieces are about to my opinion.
Lately I've discovered a recording of the studies sold by CD Baby. You can also download it from the iTUNES store.
Despite that this recording could be an inspiration to most of the violin players, I was a bit disappointed to find out that only the first 30 studies are covered. Looking forward for the recording of the next 30 for the full 60 studies.

Kreutzer No.2

I'm not too sure how many times I came back to this study. I still like it because it has some kind of progression to it. Lately I've discovered a good fingering for it where you can avoid skipping a string and doing those unecessary jumps. You actually play the octaves with the 1st and 4th finger when applicable (except theopen strings where 0 and 3 would apply). This helps working those octaves and most importantly you can check if you're in tone or not. I'm not too sure I'll be able to play it as fast as it is in this clip. What matters for me today is the correct intonation. I like the way this study is approached in the following clip.