Violin piece of the day: Accolaÿ

I've got a student who wants to learn the Accolaÿ concerto in a minor, and I'm more than happy to learn new pieces that my students want to learn. My repertoire growing up, after all, was kind of limited, and it may be a little cruel just to keep them caged inside the pieces I played at their age.

But how did my teachers miss this one??

This is a beautiful segue from the Suzuki book six or so into more complicated concertos and sonatas (Haydn D Major, Beethoven Spring sonata, etc.) While the shifts aren't too complicated and the fast passages fall pretty neatly under the fingers, there are some real musical challenges in this that I would have loved to learn and take on to know how to play concertos better. It's also not a full three-movement-er, just one big movement that takes you pretty logically from fast to slow to fast again, as well as from minor to major. (I can usually live without ending in a major key, but I suppose I'm not totally against it.)

I remember getting lots of little pieces after I got out of the Suzuki books: the first movement of a Bach concerto, the first movement of the Haydn D major, Thaïs Meditation, and Paganini's Moto Perpetuo. All good at gaining a few mega-important skills, but I then found myself thrown into Mozart D Major and Praeludium and Allegro shortly after. I think a few more steps in between would have helped me a little.

Violinists - any more important pieces that can bridge the gap between La Folia and ANYTHING Mozart?

WOW, I am so glad I'm finally on the upswing.

I had one of those weeks where I felt like I was coming down with something flu-like, but had no symptoms except a weakness of muscles, achy shoulders, and a limited appetite. Sleeping in until 1:00pm yesterday and going to bed at 10:00 seemed to help. A LOT. Today was not nearly the blur that yesterday was. I may even have the strength to practice tomorrow.

I KNOW I was sick because I spent all my free time at home asleep - not dinking around on Facebook for hours, not even just laying down on the couch in front of the TV. I didn't leave the bed until I absolutely HAD TO. That's super sick.

The silver lining, if you *really* want to see it, is that since I've gone gluten-free, I don't get sick that often. I've heard that a big chunk of your immune system lies in your gut, and anecdotal evidence now agrees with it. I got something similar to what I'm recovering from about a year ago, right before my Seattle Symphony audition. (My timing really sucked.) I was pretty cloudy during the summer, but from what I can tell, it was all allergies. I also had a sore throat a few months ago, but it turned out that it was a small amount of mold that had collected on my water bottle. And that's about it... even when I spend six days out of the week among kids, many who soak up germs like sponges.

I plan on taking it easy tomorrow, and sleeping in a lot once again. Hopefully by Monday I'll be in tip top shape. Which is good, because I am going to give this NaBloPoMo one more go!! (Well, almost.)

Yes, February is the shortest month of the year, but I want to make up for the DREADFUL attempt I had in December. Besides, with my birthday in February, I often find myself a little more introspective.

I will have to double up a few days, as there will be four days where Hubby and I are taking our honeymoon in Canada. It promises to be memorable, though, and I imagine I will have plenty of fodder.

I've also been digging through my old, old blog posts on Diaryland and downloading them to my hard drive, just in case I can't access the web version someday. Every once in a while I find something that inspires me to write again - something funny, musing, or sad, but most certainly written in a pathetic, selfish tone that I hope one day to find endearing. Once I'm far enough away from the date to pretend someone else wrote it, I think I may.

There's some great and wonderful thoughts in my head. If I give myself a little while, I'm sure I'll find them.

It was one of those normal viola lessons, although my student seemed more impatient than usual. More grumblings, more frustrations, and definitely less focus than normal. He was doing a good job as he normally does, but didn't really seem to think so. We kept on going, and I tried to maintain as positive of an attitude as possible to keep him motivated. At the end we played a very difficult duet that he's been working on for weeks.

After the lesson ended, I patted him on the back and told him good job. I was surprised when he let out a sigh of relief and a huge smile came over his face. "Thank you, I needed that." I waited a moment until he elaborated: "I have been really negative this whole week."

I smiled, saying things could get that way, and encouraged him to keep looking at the positive aspects of his music making. He nodded, thanked me again, packed up his stuff, and left quickly, as he normally does.

I just about teared up. I had no idea my pushing him was making his week better, and not more miserable. We, as teachers, never quite know what effect we're having on our students. It's pretty amazing when they tell us.