It’s officially been one year and 3 months since I picked up my first violin and started this journey of learning. It’s time to reveal everything I have learned so far, my new violin, and what I plan to accomplish for my second year of learning. I do this in a three part video, in this Blog entry I’m talking about Part 1 – My first year lesson folder.
Since I’m self teaching, I put together a lesson folder where I’ve been collecting resources that help me keep track of what I’m learning. I started out by learning notes from another YouTube channel known as “The Online Piano & Violin Tutor” by Alison Sparrow. Then I have a few scale lessons, Etudes, Lessons from Suzuki Book 1, and other songs I obtained from many other resources.
In my scales for example, I’ve learned and am constantly refining the A major (2octave), D major, G major (2 octave), C major, and E natural scales and arpeggios. I use scales and arpeggios as exercises to improve my posture, intonation and as a warm up before playing any song.
I’m still going through the first Suzuki book and currently practicing and refining Minuet 3. As you can see through my notes, I take plenty of time to try to work out my trouble spots. There’s no rush for me to finish the Book 1, I’m more focused on learning the songs correctly. Sometime I feel that i over-obsess about playing them in tune and as beautifully as I could. Sometimes i just need to learn when to let go and move on.
I also use an Essential Elements book as a drill book. I typically do a couple of pages here and there in order to practice my fingering, intonation, and most o all, my note reading. Currently I’m on pages 32 through 35 which covers different pieces within the c major scale. I’ve been on these pages for several months because it helps me practice my 2nd finger half step notes. I’ve had a challenge getting those notes right and the exercises within these pages have helped me develop my 2nd finger to hit the natural notes a little easier.
Along with my lesson plan, I’ve also put some time into learning songs that interest me. For some, I created my own arrangements using MuseScore. For example, I did an arrangement for “Ode To Joy” that covers the melody on low f as well as the melody on high F – all of which can be played in first position. I will be posting a video of this during the year. I’ve also arranged a song known as “Las Mañanitas”. It’s a beautiful Mexican tune that is traditionally played for birthdays and Mother’s day. I could not find an arrangement for this tune so I made my own using MuseScore. I will eventually post a video of this song as well in the near future.
Overall, As you can see in my self made lesson folder, I have about 16 solid songs in my violin repertoire. Which is not bad for a year’s worth of learning.
