Violin and Piano exams finally done!

I have been practicing towards these exams since last June and it all came down Thursday! It's just funny how you work hard for months but it's all over after 15 minutes. Anyway, it was my last time performing at school which I was really sad about :( I hope that I've done well even though it didn't go as well as I had expected it too...Just have to wait for the results now!

So the other day I played in a string quartet for the second time at the Park hotel and I had a great time! It feels very different playing background music because you can choose what to play and when to play. We took several breaks in between pieces and didn't expect any applauses so it was more like playing for fun rather than to impress people which was cool :)

I have another one on June the 4th which i'm looking forward too!

String players left fingers are longer than their right. Fact!

My favourite composers? It depends on the instrument really I love playing Mozart or Vivaldi on Violin but never on the piano. I prefer Chopin and Beethoven pieces for the piano for example Chopin Nocturne in C sharp minor and Fantasie impromptu.

In general my top 10 favourite composers are:

1- Mozart
2- Chopin
3- Vivaldi
4- Beethoven
5-Tchaikovsky
6- Bach
7- Saint Saens
8- Elgar
9- Mendelssohn
10- Karl Jenkins

Here are my favorite type of strings:

The Pirastro Oliv and Olympia strings. Personally I prefer the Pirastro E string and the rest are usually Olympia. One problem I have with my Pirastro E string is that one slight touch of the string and it becomes mute! This is really annoying especially when performing or during exam as I always have to be careful.

I bought the Pirastro string for £14 (ordered online) and the Olypia for £7 at my local music shop :)

Hidersine and Szigeti Rosin

I have two rosins. As you can see one is dark and the other is light. The main reason for this is that I feel each rosin gives a different touch to my playing, I usually use the black rosin because of the deeper tone it gives however due to humid weather it tends to go sticky and this makes it hard to clean my violin! The lighter one is the opposite it does not go sticky at all so if you prefer something that will clean off easily then go for the lighter rosin!

Both are a cheap price and can be found in most music shops.

I though I would show you my old Viola and my first ever violin!