A Tune A Day

I have seen this book in my search for good violin books but I had never bought it because I thought it just had a tune for every day of the year. Right? A Tune A DAY! I only finally got it because it turned up on my paperbackswap list. It is now the book I have decided to use and I wish I had bought it before this.
I have to say that I don't think I could teach myself with this book if I hadn't already had a good bit of knowledge on what fingerings to use for the keys it uses because it doesn't focus on finger placement very much but it does focus on technique a lot and since my violin teacher never taught me any technique, it is a wonderful book for me.
I have stopped going to my violin teacher. I am sad because I miss seeing her but I am not unhappy that I don't spend all that money every month for someone who really wasn't actually "teaching" me.
Anyway, this book is great. I have learned what so many things mean that I didn't know before. It starts with "piano" and "forte" and moved you through mezzo piano, mezzo forte, pianissimo, crescendo and diminuendo. I had no idea what these meant or what the signs for crescendo and diminuendo were. It goes through ties, slurs (these I knew) and now I am trying to do spiccato. It gives you several good example tunes for each lesson it teaches you.
The next lesson has hooked bowing, eighth note rests, pause signs, and ritenuto (no idea) and still a few more lessons after that. Each lesson has a little quiz after it so you can tell if you missed something and need to go back.
In the back of the book are some extra tunes for you to play plus a fold out fingering chart (I really don't understand the chart but it is nice) and the book comes with a CD which is great for those of us, like me, who need to hear and tune we don't know before we play it.
Anyway, I am in love with the book. I have only had it a few weeks and feel like I have learned more from it than I have in the last year of lessons! I am definitely getting the next Tune a Day book.

Artist Works

So I decided since I can't afford my violin lessons this month and she really isn't worth what I am paying her anyway, that I would look for an alternative and I came upon artistworks.com  It sounded pretty good. For $35 a month you get: access to hundreds of video lessons, you get to send in a video of your playing (any time you want!) and your instructor will reply with suggestions and advice, you get access to a forum, chat and blog etc. etc. and so I did it.

It was disappointing. I signed up for Darol Angers fiddle lesson which go from beginning to advanced.

I now feel sorry for the people who are real beginners because there is no way you can learn to play the violin from this man. My violin teacher is not the worst, this man is. The videos are horrid. You sit there just hoping Darol will actually come up with his next word before the video ends. It is OBVIOUS that he put no thought into any of these videos. He is just making it up as he goes along  and sometimes his videos don't even look like he can do the exercises himself (and the exercises, when there are some are really not all that helpful). The way he talks on the videos is just really terrible. I can't even explain it but he just doesn't teach you anything. He apparently does not know what a beginner is and does not know that someone learning needs lessons that progress in an orderly fashions. It looks  like he just picked a song and said, "We'll do this one today" whether you are ready for it or not.  I actually watched him do a horrible interview with Casey Driessen (I have no idea who this actually is, a good bluegrass player apparently---oh yeah, to Darol apparently bluegrass is the only fiddle playing too as he doesn't get into any other fiddle playing in his lessons). It was just plain hard to watch. I felt bad for this Casey. It wasn't really an interview because Darol never asked any questions. It was stupid, really. They played a tune then Darol told about what Casey was doing (he did not have all the information and Casey filled him in where needed) and that was it.
There are 23 videos before he even gets to the key of G, then he has one song for the key of G and then move on to the key of D and then one song, and the key of A and then one song but in those 23 videos there are several songs in these keys. It is like someone mentioned to him that people couldn't do the songs without having a basis in what the keys were so then he made some videos on each key.

Anyway, other than the video lessons, students make videos of themselves playing and then we get to see their video and Darol's response. He ALWAYS tells them they are doing great (even when they are so bad that I have to shut off the video) and he almost always tells them to do long bow exercises to get better...yeah. Plus a lot of the video exchanges are not matched up with the right video lesson.

The study materials sometimes don't match (according to key) with what Darol is playing. The forum is a joke. Very, very few entries and the administrators don't even answer.  The chat...I have never seen anyone on it and I have tried several times.

There is something  called Shout Outs which is like a chat but right on the board. It hasn't changed for two days now so that gives you an idea of how many people use it.

It is 9:30 at night and right now only 3 students are online. Not exactly a popular place.

So for my $35 what am I getting...well, I printed up some of the music in case I need it later...that's about it.

However, there are sample videos to every teacher and the classical violin player looks really good, speaks well and seems like he has a plan to his teachings although it looks too hard for a beginner but the mandolin player looks even better on his sample video and I actually learned  a lot from it so maybe when I get to playing my mandolin he will be a good teacher.

In other words, it might not be all bad, just don't go there trying to learn to play from the fiddle player Darol Anger.  :(

Don't Say I'm Good If I'm Not

I guess I can write what I want since no one has joined. I am surprised that all those members of my other blog Simply Self Sufficiency who said they were so interested in how I was doing with my playing violin, didn't want to see what I would have  to say on this new blog. They weren't as interested as they pretended to be apparently or they just don't have time for it. Doesn't matter, same thing.
Anyway, there was a post on facebook where a violin teacher who's videos I watched for a while but found a bit too...well too useless, posted a very young girl playing a Christmas carol on the violin. She was playing three different positions which was pretty impressive for a girl who was so young (I can't remember how old--6 or 8 maybe)...however, the bowing was so bad you could barely tell the tune she was playing. But, of course, there were all these replies about how wonderful she was. I really hate it when people do that....make someone think what they are doing is good, when it isn't. Yes, it was impressive that she could do fingerings in those positions but there was no way we could tell if she even did those right because her bowing was so terrible.
It made me think he must be a fairly bad teacher because even though my teacher isn't great, she does not like me to move on until I have become fairly good at whatever we have been working on.
I understand what encouragement is. Really I do but I think you have to encourage people when they do well and not just say they did well if they didn't.
I think this is part of what is wrong with kids today. Everyone tells them they are good even if they have put only a minimum of effort into what they are doing, everyone is so afraid to hurt a child's feelings, then when they grow into adults, they don't know how to deal with disappointment.
We were disappointed a lot when we were kids. I feel like I learned from that. If I want something I really try hard at it. My violin teacher says I practice more than any student she has ever had and here I was feeling like a couple hours practice a day wasn't great but it was all I could fit in.
She often tells me I am doing well. She often encourages me but they are always during times when even I know I have played well. She does not tell me I am "prefect" because we both know I am not.
I wouldn't want her to tell me I am good if I wasn't.
If you are always told you are good...where is the incentive to work harder to be better?