Sometimes, while I practice the repetitive, mind-numbing tunes I have to practice, I get bored and I’ll begin bowing random strings, fast-fast, slow, fast, etc.
Basically, I kind of go nuts on my instrument and make a whole lot of racket, while still trying keep proper posture/hold and everything.
Is this beneficial in anyway? I enjoy it, but besides that, am I strengthening any skills needed to play better, or is this messing around on the fiddle just a waste of time?
The one thing I can think of is that it remindes me of starting out as a teenager. There came a time when I started being agressive just in holding and handling the instrument. Suddenly it dawned on me that my instrument wasn’t going to break. I have been handling it with kidd gloves until then; polishing, barely gripping it, etc., but when I realized it wouldn’t break I coud start really playing. It made me more confident and less fearful.
That’s me right now, haha. Me taking the violin out of its case is like handling the Holy Grail. I’m so paranoid I’m gonna bang it on something, or snap all of my strings simultaniously.
My teacher handles his violin like its anything else you’d touch. I guess it is just getting to know your violins tolerance.
I’m reminded that before a child starts to talk, they spend a lot of time babbling.
I don’t think there is such a thing. Every noise you make on any instrument can
teach you something if you’re listening. You might say “Hey, I like that sound,
I need to remember that for later,” or “Eww, that was scratchy and horrible,
maybe I shouldn’t hold my wrist that way,” or some such. Make sure to keep
playing around a teacher for awhile, though, in case you are getting too fond of
something that will turn into a bad habit…
I think the more you handle the instrument, the more it becomes a part of you, so nothing you do is wasted. I always have a mandolin lying around nearby and I pick it up and noodle while I watch the news on TV etc. I’ll play any little ditty that comes into my head-- commercials, folk songs, classical sonatas, parts of symphonies, rock tunes,Christmas carols, Jewish liturgical music, whaddevah…I really believe that this has improved my playing tremendously by forcing me to play in different keys and modalities and making the reaches for different intervals truly automatic.