I’m slowly changing over my Jargars to Larsens, one a month. Not out of any special plan, aside from the fact that I can’t afford to buy a full set of Larsens all at once.
Christopher changed my D last night, but I haven’t had the chance to give it a good play. I always feel some pressure with new strings – if I don’t love it right away I feel disappointed and slightly stressed I made the wrong decision. And even if my Jargar drove me crazy, I at least knew why it drove me crazy and how to avoid the issues.
My lesson yesterday was hampered slightly by being hungover (enthusiastic drinking session after our cello ensemble on Saturday), but still managed a bit of a breakthrough.
We were discussing playing lyrically, and although I’m quite a lyrical player by nature, I’m still learning how to get the feeling out through my instrument. My teacher described it as, and I have the words slightly wrong here, but, using my lower arm for grand gestures and my fingers for details (right side of my body we’re talking about here). When I went back to the phrase I was playing, I barely kept it under control. Suddenly there was so much more to work with – my bow practically bounced off the string. My fingers loosened up as well, somehow.
I couldn’t quite get the whole thing under control during my lesson time, but I’m looking forward to experimenting with this new power… it was a bit like driving a car after pedaling a bicycle.
