Adventures in vibrato (and time and space)

I spent some time last week attempting to make a satisfactory recording of the violin part of "My Antonia." I was planning to combine it with a recording of the computer-generated piano part, so that I could give some sense of "my" Antonia's violin voice for people, like Lisa, who have shown interest. Antonia is a remarkable violin, but I haven't yet been able to make a recording that did her (it) or the piece justice.

One thing I learned from my experience trying to record the piece is that my arm-powered viola vibrato is just not fast enough for this violin. 

This morning I began my quest to bring it up to speed. 

Practicing scales using regular rhythms tends not to be stimulating enough for me, but my eye caught a copy of "Weights and Measures" that I keep by my music stand. And "Spacial Scale," one of the lyrical pieces, ended up being exactly what the doctor ordered.

I practiced "Spacial Scale" in each of the minor keys, allowing myself time and room to find and enhance resonance in different areas of the fingerboard (the feeling of vibrato is different in different positions because the angle of the arm is different), making my way stepwise from one pitch to the next using as fast and as continuous a vibrato I could produce. Transposing these scale pieces is surprisingly not difficult. The pitches travel up a step or down a step. They also jump the octave or repeat at the unision. It is easy for the inner ear to hear where the next pitch will be, and you don't even need to know the name of the pitch you happen to be playing. This gives you (and me) a chance to focus on the physical aspects of playing, in both the left hand and the bow arm, as well as the sound.

After a trip around the circle of fifths, I jumped into a few Rode etudes (hit the Rode), and was pleased to find that my vibrato had gained a little speed. I sounded a little bit more like a violinist.

What more could anyone ask for in an instrument than having it compel us to become better players?