Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Sal Goes To a Violin Lesson

Faithful readers of Travels With Sal may remember the following from the post titled Sal Spends a Perfect Summer Evening at Blossom Music Center  (August 26th):  "I've also been inspired to get my violin out of the closet.  I haven't really played it since high school -- which was a looooong time ago -- but seeing other people playing violins always makes me want to try it again.  Perhaps I should take a few lessons and see what happens.  I have discovered that there is a fiddling class nearby...  I would have to take refresher lessons first, but maybe next time fiddling is offered..."

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the phenomenon of getting a great idea -- and promptly forgetting about it.  I experience it often!  But this time, for some reason, I followed through.  I got the violin out of the closet, took it to Royalton Music to be checked out and get new strings, and e-mailed the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music

I am happy to report that BW connected me with an extremely patient violin teacher, who encourages and challenges me!  Her name is Jessica Filing, and she plays her violin beautifully!  I can't say the same about myself, but with her encouragement I am improving a bit (I think).  There is no way that relearning this instrument is going to be a quick and easy process, but I hope I have the gumption to stick it out -- and eventually be able to do some rudimentary fiddling.  (At this point I'm working on a shorter-term goal -- to be able to competently play a song from the first Suzuki book!)

Sal come to my lesson with me today.  There were about 30 minutes of excruciating attempts to make a pleasing sound come out of my violin.   ("Excruciating" is, I must confess, a very slight exaggeration for humorous effect.)  Then I took three shots of Jessica posing with her lovely instrument -- and Sal.  Normally I would choose just one picture to post, but I have to use all three this time, because they are all so much fun.  For some reason, I felt that using the matte effect on iPhoto added something to these pictures.  I hope you agree.


The first picture.  I think this one captures the sense of humor necessary to be my violin teacher.

This picture shows a very nice person who has the patience to be my violin teacher.

I'm not sure what this one says about Jessica, but I think it's a fun picture, so here it is.


After we said goodbye, Sal and I stopped to get some shots of the beautiful reflective glass front of the building.  I wonder who has to clean all those windows...



1 comment:

  1. I love the picture of Sal in front of the building! I'm sure all your practice will pay off in the long run, and you are enjoying yourself, which is the most important thing of all!

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