MAIN THREAD: Movement and Music - The Poetry of the Right hand (Week 1)
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the composition challenge! This is the place to discuss the Week 1 livestream.
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
- Get the Exercises HERE
If you want to describe your process (optional), feel free to use the following template.
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ Reply below with your assignments and questions! ↓
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Here are the exercises 4 and 5 as play alongs for you to enjoy!
Once in 60bpm for practicing and and then in 100bpm 
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Hello! Here is my try at Exercise #1. I tried it with both rest and free strokes at 60 bpm. Both are hard for me. I had trouble not hitting other strings with the free stroke. I've been trying to initiate the movement from the big knuckle, but I feels a little unfamiliar. Would love to hear any advice from the more experience players. Thanks!
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Elizabeth Uyehara wonderful, thank you so much for your submission!
The Rest Stroke execution is very much on point, though I feel that your middle finger has a great impact on the balance of your hand! Try to improve the the flexibility of your last joint by actively relaxing that finger, so that it slides easier through the string! It doesn't need to be loud, it doesn't need to be accurate, it needs to be a relaxed motion!
For the free stroke, try to imagine that you are scratching yourself! You wouldn't initiate the movement from the last joints of your fingers but rather from the big knuckle! It's even more important to have a relaxed hand as the angle of attack is much steeper. We intuitively think that we need to stiffen our finger in order to create a strong and full tone, but actually the opposite is the case! By stiffening our fingers, we don't allow the finger to find the perfect point of touch where we can create a brilliant, yet warm sound!I'll make sure to adress this topic in the next live stream and go into further detail about the execution of the inward motion
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martin Thank you for your reply. I'm working through the other exercises and will try to relax more. I did notice that my tone was a little harsh at times. I will give you an update after practicing a little more. Thanks!
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Thank you for your reply. I'm working through the other exercises and will try to relax more. I did notice that my tone was a little harsh at times. I will give you an update after practicing a little more. Thanks!
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Here's Exercise #4c. I really enjoy playing with a practice track. It makes it seem more like music!
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Elizabeth Uyehara Wonderful, I really like that you took the time to record both rest stroke and free stroke! If you want your sound to be a little bit more warm and soft, I'd recommend straighten your wrist a little bit, that way the angle of attack is more preferable to create a more sonorous sound! I wll show that in today's live stream!
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Hi there! I haven't been able to practice much this week, but when I did it was fun.
- Positive: I have been able to read and play all of the notes.
- Negative: Having trouble playing only one string at a time. Also having difficulty letting the note ring as long as necessary while trying to ready my finger for the next note. I also noticed that my playing sounds a little tinny.
I will try to post some videos later today.
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Desi Husband I'm having the same problem with playing only one string at a time. I've never done right hand muting, so that is way hard for me. So for now, I'm just trying to play the right strings at the right time.
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Elizabeth Uyehara LOL! Me too!
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Desi Husband Thank you for that update! I am glad that you could work through the notes, because today will add a bunch more when we implement the left hand!
It is absolutely fine if you happen to play another string, as I mentioned in the live stream these exercises are not about accuracy (yet), first we need to establish a relaxed motion and the sense of touch!About the tinny sound, that mostly depends on the point and angle of attack! But as far as I can see that from your videos, I wouldn't be concerned to much about that yet. You have a nice posture and you're working to get that inward motion going, good job, the warm and full sound will develop over time, especially once you are starting to implement finger nails (we have some nice workshop and live streams about that)!
Try to be very aware of the tension in your pinky, our body tends to send motion in those regions which we are not aware of at the moment, that's mostly the pinky, the shoulders and legs and toes
Breath in, Breath out, Relax and let the music do it's job 
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martin I really liked what you showed us on the livestream today about point and angle of attack. And about tension in my body, that has ALWAYS been a problem for me. LOL! My husband laughed when I told him you said for me to breath in and breath out and relax!!! I forget to breathe!!! Thanks for the reminder!!!
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Desi Husband Wonderful, glad you liked it!
I've played pieces that were so hard that I needed to write in the score where I should breathe because I had exactly the same problem! I got this idea when I had masterclasses with Marco Tamayo!
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Here are my attempts at 4A, B, C, and 5A, B, C. (Next time I will use a different room. Please ignore the air conditioner noise and the clock ticking in the background. It was not my metronome.)
When I play strings 1, 2, and 3, I seem to be plucking them. Is there a way I can overcome that?
Also, I noticed that I seem to accent the last note of a measure (unintentionally).
In one of the other classes, will you go over how to stop the string from ringing as you go to another note?
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I'm not sure why my videos showed up instead of the link. Sorry.
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Desi Husband I like that your videos showed up. It makes it easy to see. When I uploaded before, it just put the file up. Next time I will post to YouTube first and add the link.
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Desi Husband Hi Desi! If you only add the file to your Forum Post, there shouldn't be a preview of the video, that gets added when you attach a YouTube-Link (which can be unlisted as well if you prefer that!)
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Here's Exercise #5a.https://youtu.be/i5otcLI6FXY
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Exercise #5b.https://youtu.be/EsSN2ENgVeM
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Exercise #5c.https://youtu.be/fSJN6ZvuY5o
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Exercises 4a-4c.https://youtu.be/JV-bUEMjzJ0
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
