Day 45 - War of the Worlds on Viola

So, I watched the first, somewhat disappointing episode of War of The Worlds, new TV series. It lacked the soundtrack of Jeff Wayne's musical re-telling from 1978, much to everyone's chagrin, so I've spent the last 24 hours enjoying the epic drama and came home with the determination to jam it out on viola.

It's been 1.5 months since I started learning the viola. I've not really been doing it daily lately since it's getting increasingly arduous taking it on the 1.5-hour commute each way to work, only to find I have too many other things to do during the day to practice. So much for my super-free schedule...

But, I do feel I've improved a lot (Except for the corpse bowing hand which stubbornly refuses to flex). My vibrato looks pretty lame but the fact is, I can do it now. It's far more difficult on the lower two strings, however.

Another observation, doing these fast runs you see in the video, I got repeatedly frustrated at my fingers habitually playing patterns from the guitar. Frets are wider spread and strings are a fourth interval apart, rather than the fifth interval on viola/violin, etc. But I got over it after some grinding.

Well, I'm pretty pleased with myself even if y'all aren't.

I've discussed with a colleague and student if they both want to attempt a string trio performance at Christmas and, well, they very quickly said yes, so now I'm under a lot of pressure to perform viola merely 4 months after beginning!

Will post any video of my collapsing humiliation if/when it happens.