Practising whole night.....

I have been up all night again. I couldn't sleep, searched n surfed whole night searching for infomation about violin playing techniques. I wasn't sastified with the way Im playing now. It's so lame n amatuer. Imagine you could only play songs, but not FEEL the song. I hated this situation. There must be some way, some method, some info on the web that could help me, there must be!

Ahh! After a long search, I believe I have found some answers.....


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"The old way of playing the fiddle" and the "New Way".... that may be how the cartoonist saw it, but for violinists today who wish to play German baroque violin pieces as they were written and intended to be heard, it is not quite so simple! The German baroque violin bow was quite different from the Italian bow in design, construction and method of use. Bach, himself an accomplished violinist, was familiar with both types of bow, choosing to use - and to compose for - one or the other as best suited the music and circumstances in performance. The two types of bow in current use during baroque times reflected the German, and the Italian musical traditions and the music which these traditions produced.

Italian music was light and airy, requiring agility and rapidity. German music was more introspective; tempi were slower, and the music frequently required individual string players to produce true chords.

These two musical styles were reflected in the violin bows. The Italian bow was slim and light, the bow strings fixed in relatively high tension, while the German bow was highly arched, and the string tension was fairly loose. In contrast to the Italian technique of holding the bow lightly from above with curved wrist, the German bow was held with the thumb placed under the bow strings. In this way the player could tighten or relax the bowstring tension at will. A tighter tension in the bow was used for single string, single melodic line playing, while a relaxing of the bowstrings’ tension permitted playing on two or more strings simultaneously, and thus of course, the playing of true chords.

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The German/French firm BACH BOGENare Designers and Manufacturers of Curved Bows for Violin, Viola and Cello. Their site (English and German) offers photos, literature, CDs etc on the curved bow. Rostropovitch cooperated extensively on the design and testing of their bows, and several contemporary composers, such as John Cage, Walter Zimmermann, and Dieter Schnebel have written new works exploiting their potential.

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The most sastified breakthrough I ever attempt tonite (or morning) , is the VIBRATO technique. I have been wondering how to do that......Suddenly, I thought *Maybe just like a Guitar?*

Bingo, I use the same technique, well nearly same..... Constanly apllies n un-apllies pressure on the strings which I am pressing, and VIOLA! It works! Yipee! VIBRATOOOOOOO!

I also realized by adding certain tension n movement on the bow, it produce Vibrato effects too. How glad am I to discover this ( Dun comment too much, this is a DIY violin lesson after all) in one night. But I understand there are much to learn, much much much MORE.....

And from 2am-820am (now) I'm still awake since yesterday. GOSH! Later I'm the pianist for Worhip.....I hope I wont doze off!

I love my violin...There more I look at it, I can virtually forgets everything (almost everything) that existed around me, all the problems or anything!

I guess Piano and Violin really turns me on! None other instruments ever turn me on so much, none ever !

*Mom, I changed my mind, I wanna be a top violinist!*