beandelphiki

In other me-related news (beandelphiki - all me, all the time!), I'm trying right now to learn how to play the violin.

EVERYBODY keeps asking me, "Why the violin? Why now?" etc. when I tell them.

And I just...don't have any real answers to that. (Other than, I suppose, "Why NOT?") Piano was the instrument I first fell for (probably for no better reason than it was the first instrument I heard and saw performed live); violin was the second. I've been listening to a lot of violin music these days, and I guess I just fell for it all over again.

And this seems to be a decent time of my life to try to learn; in a few years I may be so caught up with the start of some career that I simply won't have time.

( A brief contextual history of my limited musical background )

Since I dropped out of school in 11th grade though, I haven't really played anything at all. When I went back to school I couldn't fit Band into my schedule again, and I didn't own any instrument of my own, so keeping up with the clarinet was a no-go.

So here I am, attempting this music-playing business all over again. That was actually the plan when I bought the keyboard, but one of my parent's oldest excuses actually still applies to that one: we have no convenient place in our house to PUT it right now, no handy spot to plug it in. We're massively re-organizing our house right now, too. Maybe when we're done moving the entire contents of whole rooms around, we'll find a spot.

In the meantime, the violin fits much better!

( Not that I've gotten very far )


But really, I haven't been discouraged in the least, and I've actually been motivated thus far to practice every day (even if I could only start out bowing on the open strings). I can't quite describe the sense of banked excitement playing this thing gives me.

Playing practically ANY musical instrument gives me this sense of...something waiting for me. Past the period of technical mastery, there's something sitting there inside the instrument waiting for me to bring it out. But I've NEVER felt it as strongly as I do with this violin.

When I first pulled it out of the case and tightened the bow, I fully expected the first sound I made on it to sound like a cat in heat. That's what happened to my sister the time she tried her friend's viola. That's what everything I've ever heard about orchestral string instruments had taught me to expect. So I put the violin up (probably not in the greatest position, I figured, but for the moment it seemed passable), put the bow carefully on the G string, braced myself - and drew the bow across.

And...the sound it made was BEAUTIFUL. Absolutely beautiful. I loved it, and that sense of the music waiting inside the instrument for me was so strong it was almost tangible.

Obviously, I'm lightyears from technical competence, but that doesn't frustrate me an iota. Actually, this feeling is driving, for once.

I hope I can hold on to that, because honestly, I don't ever want this excitement to go away again. So the longer it lasts, the better.