[The Lesson]

[Overview]

I was late to the lesson today, because I ended up going to a restaurant too far away. But I eventually made it. There’s something that always makes me aggravated when I go to music lessons. To be the most efficient, I’ve always tried to focus on playing certain parts of the pieces that I find to be difficult. But, I usually don’t go over the entire piece. However, when I go to my lesson, they always want me to play from the beginning. Since I didn’t practice from the beginning to the end linearly, there are gaps between the parts that I play well and the parts that I play messily. In the case of my guzheng playing, I only give myself about 30 minutes a day to practice. So I almost never play through the song in its entirety. I just focus on the parts that I found particularly difficult. So, when it comes time for the lesson, I can’t play the parts I didn’t practice fluently. Then my teacher feels like I didn’t practice, which is annoying. But, this week we actually finished the level 3 piece we were working on. So I’m content with that.

[Technique]

This was the first time I played a piece that requires using my left hand to pluck strings. In the lesson I didn’t wear the fake nails, but I’ll practice with them on at home. Other than that, there was nothing really new. However, she did point out something about my technical problems.  My teacher told me that my intonation was off  when I did the slides so I’m going to work on this. Personally I feel like I need to work on my vibrato. I feel like this is becoming more natural to me, but, it’s still hard for me to incorporate it directly into my playing. I want to get the most bang for my buck in my practice so I will probably just focus on practicing that in the pieces versus practicing it separately.

[Repertoire]

挤牛奶，西厢词

[The Practice]

[Practice Breakdown]

Warm Up 

Practice the hand shape exercise: Last lesson my teacher told me my hand shape wasn’t really correct. She told me it was much better this lesson, but, I want to make sure that I keep it that way. It’s such a fundamental aspect of playing that I think I should always keep this as a part of my routine.

挤牛奶

Measure 49-53: This is the first time I’ve needed to use my left hand to actually pluck the strings, so I just want to get used to it. I have to wear the fake nails for this apparently as well.

Measure 55- 56: This practices using 抹(Mo) on both hands.

Measure 57-58: This practices using 小撮 (Xiao Cuo) on the right hand and 抹 (mo) on the left hand.

Measure 59-60: This practices 大撮 (Da Cuo) on the right hand and 抹 on the left.

Measure 61-63: This practices 花指 (Huazhi) as well as practicing the coordination between the left and right hand.

Measure 33-35: This practices 勾托抹托 (Gou Tuo Mo Tuo).

Measure 8, Measure 24: My teacher told me to make these two passages more 从容 (cong rong: Calm). She says that I rush the sixteenth notes in these measure. So I’ll spend some time to go over it I guess.

西厢词

Phrase 1: Focus on the 上滑音(Shang Huayin) and 下滑音 (Xia Huayin) as well as 颤音(Chanyin).

Phrase 2: Focus on the 上滑音(Shang Huayin) and 下滑音 (Xia Huayin) as well as 颤音(Chanyin).